Chair
Over the past few years I got it lodged into my tiny head that I needed to do a visual redesign on the classic lineup of chromatic dragons for the worlds most popular roleplaying game. This is of course a terrible idea if you are me because it’s definitely an exercise in biting off more than any person should be chewing.
But every once in a while I sit down and try to like Monster Hunter again and inevitably it leads to something like this.
Followers of my work know that I enjoy LORE more than I enjoy stats or numbers and that was a big driving force behind this and basically all of my “redesign” projects. One of the strengths of OD&D over most of the other early iterations of the game is that it has a sort of “template” feel. A general fantasy framework that you could reupholster with your own ideas much like a sturdy old chair with ugly fabric.
I like old things. I like the archeology of trying to understand them and I like that they’ve existed for a while. I think it’s easy to get too attached to them as is though, to believe that there is some righteousness in their ancient form. But sometimes there’s a spot of long ago spilled blood on their cushion, or they’ve acquired a smell. It would be silly to throw away the whole chair, but it’s a worthwhile labor to tear away the old cloth and start over with something fresh.
Is this metaphor working?
I think Dragons are cool and I like that they come in different flavors and I think it’s fun to make those flavors more distinct. I have some notes from when I started this project.
A Myth
Long ago, when the world was younger and proud gods roamed the free land there was a battle between the rainbow knight and the king of the giants.
Though the rainbow knight fought with clever movement and the knowledge of many battles, the king of the giants managed to land a crushing blow with his magic hammer and sunder the rainbow knights soul into 6 pieces, each a powerful being in its own right, but divided- and in the division the rainbow knight became an enemy unto herself. Each aspect of herself at war with the others, fighting for long ages, gaining momentary ground in fragile peace and stumbling backwards in bitter conflict.
Eventually the 6 souls of the rainbow knight grew weary of the constant battle and parted ways, each establishing kingdoms in lands far from one another and their rivalry. The children of these 6 beings became known as dragons, and each of them holds within them a small piece of the rainbow knights soul.
Something about world building I dislike is when things are overly consistent. If everyone in the world is working off of the same creation myth their would be very little conflict. Instead it’s more fun to fracture things.
In my current worldbuilding dragons are a big piece of the central mythology, and are the driving force of both the lawful and chaotic clerics religious worship. I’m trying to utilize the fact that over the years I’ve had different, conflicting ideas for creation myths and just kind of use all of them where they feel appropriate. Was the world created by a lost, mediocre alien terraforming an asteroid in a last ditch effort at being as important as he always thought he was? IS the planet we live on a giant onion that fell from the picnic basket of a witch as she made the long trip across the sky on her bicycle, naming all of the stars and knitting together the cosmos before bedtime every night?
More on all of this later.
Here are a bunch of old sketches I did for the dragons. And then a newer one of some baby dragons that are different from each other, but like, less different?
love and bones,
Skullboy
