Osterland

Edgeward Osterland, The Realm of Dragons, The Eryie.

The third faction to join the coup d'etat that overthrew the royal family that had ruled of the old empire.

* Dragons Dragons and more dragons.
	+ Ruled over by a small number of 'true dragons' (name pending)
	+ There are 7 True Dragons. 6 of those rule Osterland, the 7th rules the Republic in lieu of the royal family.
	+ The 6 True Dragons agreed to an ancient concord that outlined the rules of their game. What actions that can take, one actions they cannot take. They are largely limited in overt actions to emphasis politics and the like. A dragon who loses all their mortal followers has lost. They encourage political shenanigans instead of war.
	+ True Dragons are titantic and powerful and rose to power after the titans.
		- Dragons heavily favored the Vayans due to their help in tricking the titans but this relationship has spoiled due to the Vayans saving the royal family and turning a coup into a civil war.
		- The dragons often take the form of mortals because they enjoy life on their level.
			* Dragons are subject to conservation of mass and energy only when they are not paying attention or purposefully utilizing it.
				+ A dragon in human form can pick up and drink a cup of tea easily without crushing it.
				+ A man who punches a dragon will break his wrist without the dragon moving in the slightest. (He basically punched the relative mass of a dragon)
				+ A man who is punched by a dragon is turned into a fine red mist. He is basically punched by the mass of a dragon over a significantly smaller surface area (fist instead of a titanic claw)
				+ A dragon who trips and falls will leave looneytoon esq human shaped holes in the ground.
				+ Functionally true dragons are impossible to damage in human form. But they are accident prone. They can be harmed in dragon form though. Basically, in human form, no matter how hard you swing a blade it will never overcome the difference in mass and inertia to pierce their skin.
		- Dragons are not immortal but live on a significantly different scale. The ones that watched the titans fall are the same ones around now. Though they have taken numerous different mortal guises.
	+ Due to the long years and capaciousness of dragons there are lot of dragonkin on the island.
		- Dragonkin covers: Traditional D&D dragons, drakes and dragonkin the PC race.
		- Old noble families all allegedly trace their family back to one of the the True dragons
	+ Dragon Breeds:
		- There are a multitude of draconic forms. Commonly bloodlines follow colors be they metalic or chromatic. However, the traditional lore regarding good and evil tied to such scale colors is not present. Dragons are induviduals, but each bloodline tends to favor a particular type of ideology. Red dragons utilize their firebreath in industry and are commonly more artisans and inventive. (Although in actually, the mortals serving them tend to be the crafters and any innovations they create are owned by the dragons)
* Dragons and Magic
	+ Dragons are inherently magical beings. They are more 'real' than other mortals in that when they move through the blood of creation they create more of a wake. This is also why they can fly with ease despite being massive.
	+ Dragons can affect reality on a fundamental level.
		- Adamantine is iron that has been forged by red dragons and is more real than normal iron. It is iron that has been told to become stronger, and then did.
		- Courtiers who spend long periods of time around dragons gain bonuses to charisma as their personalities become more intense and realized.
		- Functionally this is like a constant but small feedback loop as caused by druidic magic. Food eaten near a dragon is more flavorful. Everything gets turned up a small degree. (both good and bad). It's not like being on drugs, it's far more subtle and most people do not notice it. They only know that dragon fire creates adamantine, all those of the dragon courts are intense and driven people etc.
* Hoards
	+ Dragons collect things, they hoard items. They do not just collect riches and gold (though some might collect golden items), each dragon has something that it hoards. Dragons within the same bloodline ensure they do not have the same hoard to avoid causing conflict.
	+ Some interhouse wars have been caused by squabbling over hoards.
	+ The only dragons allowed to hoard mortals are the True Dragons. Who basically have declared that all mortals in Osterland are in their hoard and have allowed their children to play in it.
		- This is why dragons do not kill mortals, lest they upset their True Dragon.
		- It is customary that anyone visiting or being visited by a dragon present a gift.
			* Akin to how samurai would present daimyo with a traditional gift when presenting themselves to court.
			* The expense of the gift is less important than its rarity. A dragon who hoards literature would value an original manuscript more than a book many times copies (the quality of the manuscript matters little).
				+ Those in Osterland celebrate a gift giving seasonal holiday where they present a gift to one of the dragons. Like Christmas if Santa was a giant reptile and the presents were given to him... so... the opposite.
* Dragons and Humans
	+ Dragons view the mortal races more as pets and pawns than fellow sentient beings.
	+ A dragon wantonly killing mortals will be treated like a person who murders pets.
	+ Factory towns are common, the towns are built around a singular industry and all the mortals working there work towards that industry. They are paid in a currency only usable in that town which limits mobility and ties the mortals to the town. The Dragons are benevolent tyrants (like humans feeding and controlling their pets).
		- "robber barons meets the de medicis"
		- The dragons have no need for money other than it is useful for training mortals to do what they want.
* Origins:
	+ Dragons were all part of the Great Machine before the cataclysm. They functioned as caretakers, an autoimmune repair system of the machine. The cataclysm caused them to be sucked out into the void as well.
	+ The source of their hoarding drive is because subconsciously they know something is missing. In truth they are missing the Great Machine and being suffused in the divine energy that flowed through it. True Dragons remember the time before the cataclysm as an ageless dream and the trauma of being ripped away from it clouds their memories. They were forced to think in dimensions they were not used to and forgot what they once were.
	+ The 7th True Dragon began the inquisition as during his travels be came into contact with magic and got the faintest glimmer of recognition upon looking at the Machine in the Shadows
		- However, upon ascending to the Throne the 7th is no longer fully in control of the inquisition.