# Race: Dragonborn > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Rare | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Neutral, and recently so. Dragonborn were viewed poorly outside Pymandi for most of living memory, on the strength of rumour rather than contact. Reception has warmed to neutral only in recent years. | > | **Subraces** | [[#The Pureborn Blackblood\|Blackblood]], [[#The Pureborn The Golden\|The Golden]], [[#The Pureborn Redscales\|Redscales]], [[#The Prophets (Affu)\|The Prophets (Affu)]], [[#The Canaris\|The Canaris]], [[#The Ill-Bloods\|The Ill-Bloods]] | > | **Guide Section** | Rare Races | ## Overview [[Region - Pymandi|Pymandi]] lies in the far east of [[Continent - Edaria|Edaria]] and is the ancestral home of the dragonborn. Records reaching back to the First Age name the territory the land of dragons. It is a country of black sand fields, shifting dust valleys, pyroclastic flow and obsidian glass, where lava and smoke plumes vent constantly into the air. Everything that lives there has spent thousands of years specialising to do so, and to enter unprotected is to die. ## Behind the Three Gates The dragonborn are no longer known at large. A few hundred individuals scattered through the wider world represent the total of what anyone outside has seen of them. They withdrew after the Bleeding of the Scales, a war thought to have exterminated eighty per cent of their species, and in its aftermath they built a society of such rigidity that it has become effectively alien. The three grand gates of Pymandi, Gate Aryt, Gate Dezaan and Gate Qumos, were closed by decree. The rest of the border is the Terror-Spines, sharp and impassable, haunted by drakes and shadow wyrms. Their society is ordered into castes that cannot be escaped, the colour of a dragonborn’s scales signalling their draconic ancestry and that ancestry fixing their place, and they are thought to be ruled still by one who holds the title Lord of Smoke. With the gates shut, nobody outside can say.Three years ago that changed. An emissary appeared at Gate Aryt with a message for the world: the dragonborn would soon reveal themselves again. ## The Dragons Themselves Pymandi is not merely named for dragons. It holds a great many of them, wild and unbound, drinking the vapours of the mountains and spreading flame and terror wherever the mood takes them. Only the most powerful and adept Lord of Smoke has ever tamed one, and the title has been held by a great many dragonborn who could not. The relationship between the two is not a happy one. Dragons are vastly proud and entirely capricious, and they regard the dragonborn as a dilution of themselves, their blood and their magic thinned out and poured into something that walks upright. At the same time the dragonborn are the only thing in the world that carries draconic power and can deal with mortals at ground level, which is useful to a creature that cannot. Contempt and utility have been pulling against each other in Pymandi for as long as there have been records, and the tension has never resolved. ## Werteskis-jach Somewhere in that country lives the World Shadow. Werteskis-jach is a black dragon held to be the largest creature alive, and the accounts of it come chiefly from the fishermen of the Ossen Isles, who are not scholars and have no reason to lie. By their telling its wingspan is enough to put the sea into darkness in the middle of the day. Where fable ends and fact begins is not established. Nobody has gone to Pymandi to check. ## Dragonborn Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Determined by your caste. **Age.** Young dragonborn grow quickly. They walk within hours of hatching, reach the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3, and reach adulthood by 15. They live to around 80. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** Determined by your caste. **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 feet. **Draconic Ancestry.** You have draconic ancestry, fixed by the colour of your scales and therefore by your caste. Your caste entry names your ancestry. Consult the Draconic Ancestry table for the damage type and breath weapon associated with it. **Breath Weapon.** You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest. **Damage Resistance.** You have resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic ancestry. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. ### Draconic Ancestry | Dragon | Damage Type | Breath Weapon | |---|---|---| | Black | Acid | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex save) | | Blue | Lightning | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex save) | | Brass | Fire | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex save) | | Bronze | Lightning | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex save) | | Copper | Acid | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex save) | | Gold | Fire | 15 ft. cone (Dex save) | | Green | Poison | 15 ft. cone (Con save) | | Red | Fire | 15 ft. cone (Dex save) | | Silver | Cold | 15 ft. cone (Con save) | | White | Cold | 15 ft. cone (Con save) | ## Subraces ### The Pureborn: Blackblood Onyx black with scales like liquid oil, the Blackbloods are held to be the most beautiful of their kind. They are raised by the Golden as potential Lords of Smoke and fed the black lava of the Drakkenmount, which grants them considerable arcane power and does considerable damage to their minds. They tower over other dragonborn. The rituals that bolster them also make them sadistic and psychopathic, which is understood to be the intent. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral outside Pymandi, as dragonborn generally. Within it, the highest standing there is, and feared accordingly. #### Blackblood Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1. **Size.** You stand between 7 and 8 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Blackblood Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry is Black. **Profane Arcana.** You know the *thaumaturgy* cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the *hex* spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. ### The Pureborn: The Golden An all-female caste of sorceresses and priestesses with glittering gold scales. They provide the Blackbloods with children and live in the grand temple atop the Drakkenmount. Any male child born gold is sacrificed to the mountain. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral outside Pymandi, as dragonborn generally. Within it, sacred, and confined by that status as much as elevated by it. #### Golden Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. **Size.** You are elegantly built, standing roughly 6 to 7 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Golden Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry is Gold. **Priestess of the Mount.** You gain proficiency in the Religion skill. Additionally, you can cast the *command* spell once with this trait, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it. ### The Pureborn: Redscales Red-scaled dragonborn raised as elite captains and royal guards. They are the most physically imposing of the Pureborn, hefty and muscular, with stout heads set on broad shoulders. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral outside Pymandi, as dragonborn generally. Within it, respected and obeyed. #### Redscale Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1. **Size.** You stand between 6 and 7 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Redscale Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry is Red. **Elite Vanguard.** You have proficiency in the Athletics and Intimidation skills. ### The Prophets (Affu) Silver and white dragonborn. They are the scholars, spellcasters, diviners, and religious leaders of Pymandi, and they serve as teachers, architects, and the leaders of working groups. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral outside Pymandi, as dragonborn generally. Within it, deferred to on matters of learning and faith, and to nobody on matters of power. #### Prophet Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. **Size.** You stand roughly 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Prophet Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry is Silver or White, your choice. Both confer cold. **Masters of Divination.** You gain proficiency in the History or Arcana skill. You can also cast the *detect magic* spell as a ritual. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it. ### The Canaris The general workers, servants, and hard labourers, and also the majority of the population and the whole of the fighting force. Their colours are blue, green, brass, copper, and bronze. They live in slums and deep dwellings at the foot of the mountain, are forbidden to address a higher caste except at a superior’s whim, and their whelps are taken to the Drakkenmount for experimentation on a regular schedule. They are the most likely dragonborn to be met outside Pymandi, usually as exiles, banished, or traitors. **Rarity:** Rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral outside Pymandi, as dragonborn generally. Within it, the lowest caste but one. #### Canaris Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1. **Size.** You stand roughly 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Canaris Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry is Blue, Green, Brass, Copper, or Bronze, your choice. **Hardened Labourer.** You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. You also have advantage on saving throws against exhaustion. ### The Ill-Bloods The lowest caste. Experimentation and cross-breeding with beasts have left them part lizard, part goblin, part something else again. They live among the sulphurous plumes and lava beds of the Valley of the Dreadscale, hated and reviled, treated as vermin by every other caste. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Very negative. Within Pymandi they are treated as vermin. Outside it they do not read as dragonborn at all, so they inherit none of the recent warming towards their kind and are taken for something worse. > [!warning] A difficult character to play > Ill-Bloods are met with open hostility throughout Pymandi, where they are hunted rather than merely disliked. A player choosing this lineage should expect it to shape most social encounters, and should agree that with the rest of the table before session one. #### Ill-Blood Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1. **Size.** Diminished and hunched, you stand between 4 and 5 feet tall. Your size is Small or Medium, your choice. **Mutated Ancestry.** Your draconic ancestry can be any of the ten dragon types on the Draconic Ancestry table, your choice. The physical manifestation of it is twisted and ugly, and the colour rarely sits cleanly on the scales. **Bestial Traits.** You have a climbing speed of 30 feet. Your teeth or claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing or slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. **Toxic Survivalist.** You have advantage on saving throws against poison and disease. ## Connections - [[Region - Pymandi]] — Ancestral home of the dragonborn; the land of dragons - [[Continent - Edaria]] — Pymandi lies in the far east of the continent --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Dragonborn.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*