Dragonborn

To most people, dragonborn is synonymous with dragonknight. All of the first dragonborn were members of the Dragonkight Legions, and most born since have joined. The term dragonknight is a little more complicated now, since the dragonborn have been outlawed and the legions scattered.

## Traits

As with elsewhere in this wiki, dragonborn are as described in default D&D except the changes I call out.

Dragonborn are almost exclusively lawful good (and more lawful than good), but they are fully-willed. They value duty and loyalty above all else. They usually aren't very religious, but value philosophy. They live to be about 80, but show no signs of aging.

They are hermaphroditic, and incapable of having offspring with other races. While dragon blood was used to create them, they are not actually descended from dragons. Children generally have the color of their mother.

## Playing a Dragonborn

If you play a dragonborn, the first decision you have to make is are you a member of the Dragonknight Legions? The answer is probably yes, but if so some things may be expected of you. If not, most people will call you a dragonknight anyways and assume you're with the legions.

The second decision you'll have to make is whether you hide your hands and face when in a town. Many people still admire and respect the dragonkights, but others take Kacia Vasillisa's word that you are dangerous traitors. And the bounty on dragonborn heads is hefty.

## Classes

The most common class among dragonborn is definitely fighter; they are the greatest soldiers in Dytika. The most common subclass would be Eldritch Knight, since dragonborn are imbued with some arcane magic.

That magic is highly potent in many dragonborn, making them sorcerers. Others had to be sent to hone their magical ability and became wizards, particularly among the Zinc Dragonknight Defenders.

The Copper Dragonknight Rangers, while in actuality still mostly composed of fighters, do have a number of true rangers.

A few become bards, especially in the Silver Dragonknight Diplomats, but among the five legions as well.

Rogues are uncommon, but can be found in the Tin Dragonknight Enforcers (who served as Larnaca's FBI/SWAT).

Dragonborn are not generally very religious, and could have a conflict of interest if they pledged themselves to someone other than the king, so clerics and paladins are rare.

Dragonborn monks, druids, and warlocks are entirely unheard of, but with the recent diaspora anything is possible. To be a barbarian dragonborn would have to reject their dragonknight heritage.

## History

Good King Kalos was ambitious. He wanted to unify Larnaca, make safe the roads and villages, and to create lasting, peace-making alliances with Larnaca's neighbors. To do this he needed an army, but the lords of Larnaca were reluctant to increase the total levies after abuses by previous monarchs. So Kalos turned to his chief adviser, Dimiourgos, one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and Dimiourgos created the Dragonknights. He started with 5 legions of the chromatic colors, and finished with smaller companies of the metallic colors.

The dragonkights were Kalos' elite troops, battling orcs and monsters and defending Larnaca and her allies. They were loyal only to the king, and fanatically so. With them Kalos issued in a golden age of peace and prosperity.

It was only many decades later, less than a year before his death, that Kalos discovered Dimiourgos' secret. To create the dragonkights he had purchased thousands of human slaves, wiped their memories, and performed dangerous, sometimes lethal magic on them. Despite his evil methods, Dimiourgos was in fact loyal to Kalos, and so he had made the dragonkights loyal to only Kalos and not himself, so they obeyed Kalos when ordered to execute Dimiourgos.

Kalos told the dragonkights the secret of their creation, but they remained steadfast in their loyalty, both to Kalos and to his successors. His daughter, Eiriniwas, knowing their origin refused to use the dragonborn, ordering them to instead live ordinary lives. It was a confused time for the dragonborn, who knew nothing but duty, but they did their best to obey, learning trades, establishing farms, getting married, and having children.

It was a dark time for Larnaca. For a while things continued as they had under Kalos, with the royal levies filing the dragonkights' place. But slowly things deteriorated. The roads became less safe. Challenges from within and abroad weren't unmet. Nobles fought each other, weakening Larnaca's unity. The ancient city of Paphos fell to the half-orc invader Ujax. But the dragonborn obeyed and did nothing.

When Eiriniwas' daughter, Polemas, inherited the throne, she recreated the dragonkight legions. A few dragonkights chose to keep their new lives, but the vast majority eagerly reenlisted. Then the Cymru elves attacked human settlers in the Wolf Wood, Polemas went to war, leading the royal levies alongside the dragonkight legions. Unfortunately she died in the war, leaving the throne to her young son, Kalos II.

Kalos II has since disappeared, amidst a civil war won by Kacia Vasillisa. The dragonkights refused to fight for Vasillisa, so *dragonborn* have been outlawed. The Golden Dragonkight Guard, of which there was only about a dozen, were tasked with the king's protection, and they will not rest until they find him. The other dragonborn have scattered, either going underground or fleeing the kingdom entirely, some on their own and some in organized groups. A small fraction of dragonkights have chosen to accept Vasillisa as queen and fight for her, but they are seen as traitors by the other dragonkights.