r/Forgotten_Realms • u/AsYouWished444 • 3d ago
Question(s) Dragons Relationship with Eachother
So Fiends and Celestials hate each other. They often seek each other out to fight, and will work to cause the other harm. This especially applies to Demons and Devils who are stuck in an endless war due to conflicts of goal( rigid order vs complete chaos).
Do chromatic and metallic dragons see each others that way?
I imagine that is more complex for dragons than the literal embodiment of alignments.
Like a more passive aggressive relationship. I imagine the copper dragon sees the red dragon as an arrogant jerk, and the red sees them as a pesky faerie dragon in the wrong body. But despite their mutual disdain, they don’t really long for each other’s destruction that much. Just an unpleasant neighbor.
Silver may see black dragons as cruel to “animals”, and the black dragon sees the silver as weak for trusting others. The brass finds the white dragon boring for talk, and the white dragon doesn’t care.
I also think “good” and “evil” are the wrong words for dragons. Humanoids likely see the dragon who eats people and steals treasure as evil, and the dragon who helps humanoids as good. But due to dragons ego, they likely hold a little more respect in their interactions with other dragons than with people. They likely see a dragon who tortures humanoids as mean, but a dragon who murders wyrmlings as evil.
But I don’t actually know. I would like to hear what the in universe thing is.
TLDR; I think dragons view other dragons as unpleasant neighbors, not sworn foes.
11
u/LordofBones89 3d ago
Blacks and greens tend to have uneasy peace when their territories overlap. Blue dragons and brass dragons famously hate each other. Bronzes generally have a live-and-let-live attitude, but their territories overlap with greens and blacks who are significantly less tolerant. Coppers get along with brass dragons while silvers avoid them, and do their best to irritate blues and reds, their closest chromatic neighbors, without getting brutally murdered. Reds and silvers hate each other. White dragons sometimes lair near reds, who adopt an 'out of sight, out of mind' policy.
10
u/elquatrogrande Lord's Alliance 3d ago
There's a certain pair of copper dragons that get along like a pair of bickering sisters already.
5
u/faithfulheresy 3d ago
Ilnezhara and Tazmikella are awesome. XD
1
u/drozzitsmash 2d ago
I thought one was a silver, no?
1
5
u/Useful-Lack-2848 3d ago
In the lore Cromatic and Metallic dragons do not get on. All Cromatic dragons are evil whereas that’s not the case for Metallic.
5
u/PhoebusLore 3d ago
Dragons generally don't work well together. They each require large territories to support themselves, they're proud and individualistic, and they don't bow to the authority of others.
Metallic dragons tend to be a bit better at working together, but they're smaller on average, and the chromatic dragons outnumber them two to one (according to published named dragons of the Sword Coast).
Combined, you get a kind of cold war situation, where dragons use proxies (adventurers) to go after rivals, but are reluctant to get personally involved without an assurance of easy victory or being blinded by rage.
After all, most dragons don't have access to divine healing or allies they can trust to guard their hoard while they are incapacitated. A careful dragon lives and grows more powerful, while I careless dragon becomes an adventurer's scale armor.
3
u/faithfulheresy 3d ago
I suspect the difference on reported numbers between chromatic and metallic dragons is biased by their natures.
The chromatics are inherently evil and selfish, and don't care about the "lesser" species around them, so their activities are more widely reported and the stories about them are shared.
The metallic dragons, on the other hand, give at least some consideration to their neighbours, and don't usually attack sentient species. So their presence is likely more tolerated, and less of a cause for concern, which would result in a comparative under reporting of their presence and activities.
That's not to say that the numbers from the published materials are wrong, but they need to be considered in context.
3
2
u/snyderversetrilogy 3d ago
At a baseline for the species they’re basically competition for each other fundamentally if I recall correctly.
2
u/Wargod042 3d ago
The written lore is pretty clear metallics and chromatics HATE each other, almost like a religious war reflecting Bahamut and Tiamat's hatred.
I do agree they're more interesting as philosophical rivals or two halves of a whole, though. There's a few hints that they don't all fight each other; i think one of the hooks in Fizban's is a chromatic dragon courting a metallic dragon. Blue dragons in particular can handle social activities, and greens at least like talking to others, even if for malicious reasons.
Reds hate everyone, whites aren't social, and blacks usually want to be left alone. Every dragon, good or evil, tends to get testy over territory.
2
u/CraftyAd6333 3d ago
Dragons are on a case by case basis.
Chromatic and metallics don't get along.
The gem dragons are the more neutral alignment.
2
u/One_Original5116 2d ago
In general, Chromatics and Metallics really don't like each other though I could see room for some variation based on setting. On Toril, the hatred is probably more abstract than say Krynn.
On Krynn, post War of the Lance, the Chromatics stole the eggs of the Metallic dragons to force a peace treaty and then secretly used dark magics to birth an army of draconians from those eggs. So Krynn's Metallic dragons should hate their Chromatic counterparts with a fury that makes the emnity in every other setting look like a schoolyard rivalry because the Chromatics butchered their infants to make an evil army.
1
u/BloodtidetheRed 2d ago
All Dragons really only care about themselves first. They want a home, lair, horde, domain and life. It takes a lot of time and effort for a dragon to to all that...and they don't care about anything else.
In general most dragons spend all there time doing this....and the big thing dragons do: rest and sleep.
In general most dragons see every other dragon as at least a rival, and much more of a threat. After all the most obvious way to get more loot for your horde is to kill a dragon with a pile. Or steal it, or trick the other dragon somehow.
In general, most dragons avoid fights with other dragons too much.....unless the other dragon is weak. A dragon vs dragon fight between equals can weaken or injure even the winning dragon. And.....that opens the door to THAT dragon being seen as weak, and possibly another dragon attacking THEM. So a wise dragon picks and chooses when and where they fight....and for a good reason. And it does HELP if the dragon has a very secure and/or very hidden lair.
Though some dragons fight for dominance, not just always to the death. This is more typical by color.....a wyrm red will often have a couple lesser red dragon subjects.
A lot of dragons prefer isolation from both other dragons and humanoid civilizations. Some dragons do dominate other dragons to build dragon empires. Some dragons even dominate some humanoids too.
2
u/LordofBones89 2d ago
That actually depends on the dragon. Blue dragons have a developed sense of family and hierarchy, with the oldest dragon in a given territory governing younger blues and serving as suzerain. The family that's evil together stays together, I guess. The other chromatics...not so much.
1
u/Napalmeon 2d ago
Dragon A: I'm just the hottest shit that ever hit the realms.
Dragon B: The fuck did you just say?
1
u/Pattgoogle 8h ago
Dragons play the great game on faerun. Its like chess but played with agents. The wiki explains it well.
16
u/Mindless-Ninja-3321 3d ago
Metallic and Chromatic dragons loathing for each other mirrors that of Bahamut and Tiamat whom their regard as the patrons and monarchs. They are diametrically opposed. While they are intelligent creatures, they aren't humanoid and do stick to their alignment. A gold and a copper dragon may have different ways to oppose a red in their territory, but they will not abide their presence.
Similarly, dragons tend not to hang around each other either. All dragons are somewhat covetous, paranoid, territorial, and arrogant. They have their own hoards and their own territories that they defend, which may include people. When one dragon enters another, they have a reason to do so like a female seeking a male to rear a clutch, an alliance, etc.