Dragon-kin

The **Dragon-kin** are collective of closely aligned draconic races who have dedicated themselves to preserving the world through order and spirituality. They believe it to be their sacred duty and divine right to judge those who threaten to throw the world out of balance. Their ranks are primarily made out of drakes, dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds although particularly zealous individuals from another race may join their ranks as a honorary Dragon-kin.

They life together in large communities known as conclaves, each dedicated to one single religious goal, which they consider to be their divine duty until finishes. Once a goal has been achieved the conclave will be disbanded. But more often than not these goals take several lifetimes to achieve and even if those that achieve their goal will often stick together to form the next conclave.

Dragon-kin conclaves are known to use pre-existing caverns and task the kobolds and drakes of burden to turn these caves into a fortress monastery. A fortress monastery is protected by gigantic stone walls, which are decorated with masterful carvings of ancient legends and myths. A fortress monastery exists out of a central road which is wide enough for the dragons to walk through without much difficulty. From this central road several side doors spawn which lead into several side rooms for a wide collection of services, but the majority is spent to personal quarters and prayer chambers. At the end of the central road is a massive chamber in which the dragons life and the main altar lays. This altar can be anything from an underground tree to a pile of dragons skulls piled on top of each other.

## Members

The **drakes** are used as beasts of burden for the rest of the army. Some such as the guard drake are used to patrol and protect important places while others are used to carry supplies while on campaign.

The **dragons** function as the religious leaders of the conclave and rule with an iron fist and burning zeal. Smaller conclaves are ruled by a single dragon, known as a pontiff, while larger conclaves might be lorded over by a duo or even a triumvirate of dragons.

The **dragonborn** form the bulk of the army and are the boots-on-the-ground for the divine will of the gods. They are proud to be on the front line to fight against what their leaders perceive as evil or heretical but can be slow to accept that the world has changed around them.

The **kobolds** are the primary workforce and craftsman of the conclaves. They happily build, dig, and amuse their fellow Dragon-kin but aren't very smart or well educated. Despite this however they do have an eye for the finer details that make them superior craftsman.

## The great schism

Recently the Dragon-kin have come to blows with each other over how to interpret the sacred texts. They have split themselves into two opposing groups, centred around how the perceive the way of sacrifices to the soul sun function. One group, led by the cold hued dragon-kin, belief that only those who willingly sacrifice themselves will fuel the soul sun. As such they believe that mass sacrifices of unwilling captives during the Soulstice is not only needless cruelty but might actually create more evil and chaos in the world. The other group, led by the warm hued dragon-kin, hold on to the old ways and deem mass sacrifices as a painful necessity. To them the deaths are but a small price to pay for the continued protection of the sun and to avoid oblivion.

## Culture

Dragon-kin culture is dedicated to the worship of the order aligned gods of the six heavens. Most Dragon-kin live a ascetic live and do not indulge themselves with to much pleasure or luxury. Most furniture is made out of simple wood or even just logs and doesn't have much effort put into it beyond being functional. Tools and art pieces on the other hand are carefully crafted by the kobolds out of bone, metal, and gold.

### Dress

The dress of the Dragon-kin partly depends on the technology level a conclave possesses. However there are generalisation to be made about all groups.

The dragonborns will wear a full set of heavy plated armour that has been adorned with decorative pieces of cloth depicting the symbol of the enclave. Their armour is mostly recognisable by the size of the pauldrons and poleyns. Their armour also usually lacks any form of headgear or pelvic protection.

Kobolds on the other hand usually wear simply cloth robes or leather padded armour if they work in dangerous environments. Some clever kobolds (a rare breed indeed) are chosen to lead a division of other kobolds as a foreman, and receive a big puffy hat with a dragon scale on top to indicate their rank.

Drakes are decorated with steel jewellery to indicate their status as more than simple wild beasts. This jewellery can take the form of rings around their horns and tails, a spiked collar, or even intricate gemstone-inlaid plating.

The great dragons often reject clothing. They see their bodies as perfect and often don't see the point of hiding it under cloth of armour. Only a dragon who has nearly experienced death might consider enhancing their body by fussing metal plates to it. Dragons who are flawed of character however, might consider wearing small pieces of cloth and chains of gold on their body, to show their wealth and might.

### Funerary rites

When a honoured dragon-kin dies in combat or during an important quest its corpse is brought to the mortuary cult. The mortuary cult then begins the process of beautification. The honoured elder's paws gets cut off to be buried in the sacred tombs with those of the other ancestors. The rest of its body is cleaned by the morticians. Its flesh is fed to the youngling so some of the deceased dragon-kins greatness might enter their body. Their internal organs get ritually burned at noon with dragon's fire on a great pile so the soul might fuel the soul sun. Those parts that remains of the body are turned into armour, weapons, and other sacred artifact so the honoured elder might forever serve the conclave.