Dragon King Spirits

[Obsidian Soul]

When the Contagion hit, the Dragon Kings nearly went extinct.  They went from a population of several million to a population of several tens of thousands and have not recovered their population since.  The Dragon Kings spirit are, however, a Primordial creation and are therefore only the Primordials or forces capable of destroying the Primordials could destroy them.  My question is what are the 99% of the Dragon King spirits doing?  That would be between five to nine million Dragon King spirits just standing around, metaphorically speaking of course.  Are they just hanging out in a drawer in Yu-Shan until needed?  Are some of them being used to make up shortfalls in the number of mortal human spirits caused by the existence of the Underworld and the occasionally destruction/transmutation of mortal human spirits?  Or, if they are just hanging around, are some of them mistakingly entering human mortal babies?  If so, what sort of effect would it have on the mortal human who had been given the spirit of a Dragon King.


I think that they would be more than human.  I also think that as the generations pass, more Dragon King spirits would become used to being reborn in mortal human babies, making them more and more common with each passing generation since the Contagion.  At the beginning of the Second Age, they would have numbered merely one in a million mortal human children born.  At the end of the Second Age, they would number over one in ten thousand mortal children born.  They would be Dragon-Spirited or Dragon-Souled.  They would be the Children of the Dragon Kings, in a purely spiritual sense.  I have submitted an article based around this premise, but I will present the idea to you all while I wait for approval and/or feedback.


The Dragon-Spirited would effectively be God-Blooded with an Inheritence 5 because of the potence of the Dragon King spirit within them.  Because of they have human instincts instead of the dinosaurian instincts of the predatory Dragon Kings, they would not suffer the bestial intelligence that Essence 1 Dragon Kings suffer from.  Their heritage power would be Dragon King Spirit.  Their spirits cannot be tormented like mortal spirits, they do not become Ghosts, they do not form Hungry Ghosts, they are recognized as Dragon Kings by Dragon King magical artifacts and technology and they are recognized as Dragon Kings by spiritual entities, though the last can be inconvienent at times.  It is a useful heritage power but subtle enough that most Dragon-Spirited are not aware of it until it is pointed out to them.  They would have an Essence Pool equal to (Essence*2)+(Willpower*2)+(Conviction)+(Valor) when they buy Awakened Essence, slightly less than a Dragon King of the same statistics but slightly more than a mortal of the same statistics.  They would be able to learn Dragon King Paths up to the limit allowed by their Essence, if they find a teacher, Terrestrial Martial Arts, Terrestrial Sorcery and Mortal Thaumaturgy.  They would buy Dragon King Paths as if they Dragon Kings buying a non-breed Path.  If they get Magical Attunement, they must also get Material Resonance, which gives them the same bonuses as Dragon Kings when attuned to Dragon King artifacts or using Dragon King technology.  They may not buy License of Celestial Entry (they have a superior form through their heritage power).  If they buy Dynasty of Inheritence, it simply gives their children a 25% (50% if two Dragon-Spirited successfully mate) chance of attracting a Dragon King spirit.  If they child does not attract a Dragon King spirit, its nature will be determined by the other parent, or it will be mortal human if both parents were Dragon-Spirited.  All other Dragon-Spirited are created when a Dragon King spirit 'accidentally' enters a mortal human baby.  The Dragon-Spirited may have Terrestial Bloodline, but no more than a few dozen out of the thirty to forty thousand do.


Until recently, there simply were not enough Dragon-Spirited in the human population to catch the notice of Yu-Shan's Dragon King population.  The Gods and Elementals knew about them, but they did not think it was in their interest to tell the Dragon Kings.  This changed five years ago when one of the Dragon-Spirited won an invitation to the Carnival of the Meeting from Plentimon's casino and literally ran into a Yu-Shan Dragon King, who saw the nature of his spirit.  He was convinced to stay in Yu-Shan and was adopted by the Dragon King as his child.  Since then, the Dragon Kings of Yu-Shan have been making trips into Creation to find their human breathen.  While they do not like it that Dragon King spirits are being born into human bodies, they can see the potential benefits of having a population of several tens of thousand of humans who will be willing to help them regain their former glory in return for teaching them the Dragon King Paths.  They also figure that if they can rebuild the number of the Dragon Kings to its First Age zenith, the number of Dragon King spirits born in humans will be very rare.

 

[Persell]

90% of the human populations also died in the great contagion. There is no shortage of human souls and even if there was (which is not) the gods would probably not use dragon king souls to leviate the shortfall.

 

[Jukashi]

I wonder if you've read my Half-Dragons article, which is also on the old Lore5.


You could also try reading my Tricerok and Dragon-Born Articles...


But in any case, I find the idea of Dragon King souls in humans to be interesting, if a bit odd. Canonically, I don't know if its possible - apparently the souls of a particular Breed can't even reincarnate in a different Breed, much less in humans- but if you want to develop the idea, go ahead. I'd imagine, however, that such individuals would quickly realize their own nature... if they didn't get born as ravening savages for the first 15 years of their life or so before suddenly becoming civilized and intelligent. That's the way Dragon King souls work, after all.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

You had to say those words didn't you!? You had to bring HIM back from his abode!? Why, oh why did you say Dragon Kings?!

 

[Jukashi]

YOU HAVE STATED THOSE WORDS WHICH GRANT ME MY POWER


NOW YOU ARE MINE

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

YOU HAVE STATED THOSE WORDS WHICH GRANT ME MY POWER
NOW YOU ARE MINE

WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?

 

[Lotus1]

90% of the human populations also died in the great contagion. There is no shortage of human souls and even if there was (which is not) the gods would probably not use dragon king souls to leviate the shortfall.

dude seriously calm down, lol dont take things soo seriously.

 

[Ker'ion]

90% of the human populations also died in the great contagion. There is no shortage of human souls and even if there was (which is not) the gods would probably not use dragon king souls to leviate the shortfall.

dude seriously calm down, lol dont take things soo seriously.

Everyone taking things into proper context would kill about half the post count around here.


Keep the post count up.


Post count, wishful thinking, divine intervention, morbid curiosity, and donations keep this site running.  Be glad for no ads.

 

[Persell]

90% of the human populations also died in the great contagion. There is no shortage of human souls and even if there was (which is not) the gods would probably not use dragon king souls to leviate the shortfall.

dude seriously calm down, lol dont take things soo seriously.

No idea what you are talking about. As far as I know my post was perfectly reasonable and not in the least way offensive. I was just pointing out flaws in his idea, pretty big ones at that. It was done in a very calm mood. why should I be angry over something on an internet forum? Actually something I could just ignore if I chose to. I think you mix up "being not of the same opinion" and "being aggressive".


Oh... and I will not apology for not spamming. Never.

 

[Zaramis]

Why can't people forget about the DK's once and for all ? ;p They were meant to be extinct, and should stay extinct.

 

[Jukashi]

They were meant to be extinct

 

[Obsidian Soul]

But they aren't.  They are mostly savage beasts, but some of them regain their senses.  There are still eighty thousand of them around, by my estimate, and there are eight million of their souls going around.


How many human souls are being lost to the cycle because they linger in the Underworld?  How many have been consumed?  How many have been forged into Soulsteel?  If enough mortal souls defy the Loom of Fate or are unable to fill the position assigned to them by the Loom of Fate, there will be time for something else to take its place while the Pattern Spiders are trying to find a replacement.  Thus the possibility of the Dragon-Spirited.  It may be that their is a glitch in the Pattern Spiders that would allow such a thing to occur.  After all, the design is not perfect, Autochthon improved on it to make better servants for his exile.  Perhaps Autochthon, for a purpose only understandable by a Primordial, designed the Pattern Spiders to make the Dragon-Spirited, so that Dragon King spirits would not be wasted if the Dragon Kings were close to going extinct extinct.  As they were driven close to it by the Great Contagin, the Pattern Spiders have gone into this once unknown routine.


The bestial nature of the Dragon Kings is due to their dinosaurian bodies, not to their Dragon King spirits.  It is only because of the enlightenment of their spirit that they can overcome to savgery of their bodies.  Humans have no such disadvantage.  Dragon-Spirited, as they are born with human bodies and the spirits of Dragon Kings, would have the best of both worlds and would probably seem unusually serene and wise as children, because of the subtle influence of their Dragon King spirit.  To some, they would have no clue of their nature because, until they reach a higher Essence than 1, they have no access to the memories of their past lives.


I did read the Half-Dragon article.  The existence of the Dragon-Spirited do not preclude the existence of the Half-Dragons.  They would just be two sides of the same coin.  One would be the spiritual children of the Dragon Kings while the other would be the physical children.  The draon-Spirited would be much more common in the Second Age than the Half-Dragons though,  just because there are so few civilized Dragon Kings in the Second Age to breed with humans.


One possibility, when the Primoridals destroyed the Dragon Kings souls, they were not utterly annihilated.  They were shattered beyond any hope of reincarnating as Dragon Kings, but these shards still probably exist,  What if they possessed a human baby before birth?  They could also be Dragon-Spirited.  They would still be less than Dragon King but more than human.  Additionally, as there were anywhere from thirty-two million to seventy-two million such souls so shattered, there would be a lot of potential for the Dragon-Spirited to exist.

 

[Jukashi]

The bestial nature of the Dragon Kings is due to their dinosaurian bodies' date=' not to their Dragon King spirits.  It is only because of the enlightenment of their spirit that they can overcome to savgery of their bodies.  Humans have no such disadvantage.  Dragon-Spirited, as they are born with human bodies and the spirits of Dragon Kings, would have the best of both worlds and would probably seem unusually serene and wise as children, because of the subtle influence of their Dragon King spirit.  To some, they would have no clue of their nature because, until they reach a higher Essence than 1, they have no access to the memories of their past lives.[/quote']
It remains, however, that such a human would inevitably regain their Essence and, with it, the memories that they were once a Dragon King. That leads on to an interesting question of longevity... does the lifespan of Dragon Kings, longer even than Dragon-Blooded, come from their tougher bodies, their essence, or a combination of both?


Another thing to note is that Dragon Kings, unlike humans (who must be Exalted or extensively trained) or God-Blooded (who must develop Awakened Essence with the merit), Dragon Kings are hatched, or in this case, born, with the capacity to manipulate essence. Even Essence 1 Dragon Kings, mindlessly savage though they are, have an essence pool and can use 1st-dot Path Powers right from the get-go.


I can foresee a lot of trouble when glowing/wood-clawed/wall-crawling/stealthy babies start popping up.

 

[Obsidian Soul]

It is an amusing idea .


The Dragon-Spirited start with an Inheritence 5.  They must, due to the power of their Dragon King spirits, buy Awakened Essence, Magical Attunement, Material Resonance (Dragon King artifacts/technology), Longevity and Dynasty of Inheritance.  They are Essence manipulators from birth.  They do not have the natrual faculty with the Dragon King Paths, unlike even the most brutish of the Dragon Kings, due to their hybrid nature, so that must learn Dragon King Paths from Dragon Kings, their special tutorial artifacts or any allied spirit with the appropriate experience.


Before they gain such a teacher, they would have access to the Merit of Divine Resilence, which I would also allow Dragon Kings to buy just to keep everything balanced, Terrestrial Sorcery, Terrestrial MA and Mortal Thaumaturgy.  People would see them as just another God-Blooded and, until they find an appropriate teacher, not a very powerful one, as they cannot learn Spirit Charms, Exalted Charms, Arcanoi, Jadeborn Charms or the interesting Merits of the Fae-Blooded.

 

[Lotus1]

90% of the human populations also died in the great contagion. There is no shortage of human souls and even if there was (which is not) the gods would probably not use dragon king souls to leviate the shortfall.

dude seriously calm down, lol dont take things soo seriously.

No idea what you are talking about. As far as I know my post was perfectly reasonable and not in the least way offensive. I was just pointing out flaws in his idea, pretty big ones at that. It was done in a very calm mood. why should I be angry over something on an internet forum? Actually something I could just ignore if I chose to. I think you mix up "being not of the same opinion" and "being aggressive".


Oh... and I will not apology for not spamming. Never.

alright well i guess you arent trying to be rude, i will take your word for it.


i suppose its just hard to convey  emotions over the internet. i cant hear how you say it so i dont know how you mean something.


i always just assumed you were a passive-aggressive, condescending asshole. i am glad to have found out the truth, that you infact are not.

 

[Jakk Bey]

I thought that a significant reason that the DK population never recovered was, in part, because that millions of DKs were destroyed by the Primordials.


Not just killed, to be sent onto a another cycle, but just plain destroyed.


And not just a couple of them, but huge swaths of DKs were just plain destroyed when they ran into battle, taking the brunt of the Primordials' rage.


Not that they had to "build their numbers back" but simply that millions of DKs were just erased.  Gone. Forever.  And dreams a returned DK Empire have to be based on much lowered expectations of what their numbers can ever return to.


Not just scads of altered Spirits wandering the Heavens or in a sort of Limbo, but a precious few...

 

[Obsidian Soul]

Jakk, the PG says that there were few tens of millions of DKs (thirty or forty million).  The PG says that the majority of Raptoks and vast majority of other breeds were destroyed (80% or so).  So you have six to eight million DB spirits that survive the Primordial War.  The PG says that 99% of them were killied in the Contagion War, either by the Great Contagion or by the Fair Folk, and they have never recovered their population since.  The PG says that there are several tens of thousands of DKs still living (fifty to ninety thousand).  


The DK spirits that survived the Primoridal War number six to eight million.  I personally favor eight million spirits, but six million would work just as well.  Only fifty to ninety thousand are currently embodied, once again I favor ninety thousand over fifty thousand, both either woulf work.  That means that there are still nearly six to eight million DK spirits that survived the Primordial War that could accidentally or delibrately be embodied in a human body.

 

[Zaramis]

If people like the idea of noble dinosaurs who run around building stuff outta crystal, just come up with the idea that they all emerge again, instead of forcing the poor humans to carry them up. Too much business with them humans anyway

 

[Obsidian Soul]

You can do both.  The Dragon-Spirited is a way to have humans with some of the capabilities of the Dragon Kings.  If you don't want that, either ignore the Dragon Kings, perfectly acceptable, or bring back the Dragon Kings, also acceptable.  In the later case, there are between sixty and eighty Dragon Kings in Creation, another thousand or so in Yu-Shan, so you have an effective breeding population and the mentors necessary, even without the Exalted.  If an Exalted population, like the Realm DBs or Lookshy DBs, decided to help it will be easier, but it is not necessary.  It takes five years to civilize one of the Dragon King young, so it would take a while to rebuild the Dragon King civilization, a few centuries or so, but it could be done.  The question would be whether or not the Exalted would allow them to recover if they did not help.

 

[Jakk Bey]

You're just building sort of half-assed Mokole is my problem.


It's just sort of a half-assed way to get more DKs out, when they are supporting cast, at best.

 

[Zaramis]

Word, Jakk.

 

[Ker'ion]

You're just building sort of half-assed Mokole is my problem.
It's just sort of a half-assed way to get more DKs out, when they are supporting cast, at best.

Now play nice.


Each ST may place  the list of Super Powered Beings in any order of prominence they wish.  Role-Playing-Games are for the half- and fully-crazed, ya know.


We could have some ST pop off with a full human campaign, with them never recieving the mark of Exaltation or even being allowed to be Essence users at all.


And, as for the soul thing, I believe in the whole pan-species reincarnation theory, so if you want to put old DK souls in humans, party on, mate.  But they're just human.  Maybe a faint whisper of a dream once or twice a decade, but that's it, tops.  Unless they become an Essence user.


He, he.


"As the Exalt's Essence rises, his dreams are filled with the terrible might of a great sun king looking over his people, hearing them cheer as he walks the street, and watching in the skies as wonderous ships ass overhead, knowing their pressence is a sign of the protection he offers his people in return for their loyalties, remembering with a twisted smile, the looks on the faces of those sweet women you brought to your bed last night who begged for mercy as you raped and slaughtered them, "Sending them to greet the Unconquered Sun" as you have convinced the stupid herd around you to believe.


But your dream shifts, and you are now a great scaled beast, running through the jungle toward the scent of battle ahead, your nostrils flared, you leap into the sunlight, slashing downward on unsuspecting Fair Folk guards as you dart between them, barely noricing them fall as if mere playing cards in your path towards the great Cataphract being already attacked by your Raptok brethren."

 

[Jukashi]

It's just sort of a half-assed way to get more DKs out

I can supply the other buttock.