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By Root 378 0

court and sing his praise. The dragons he made later, at the start of the Dawn War, to serve as engines of destruction.

This version of the tale was popular during the height of the Empire of Arkhosia, though it was subversive at the time—it proclaimed that dragonborn should be the masters of dragons and not the other way around. It also highlighted the superiority of dragonborn to other races, which was a common theme in the rhetoric of ancient Arkhosia.

One common theme binds all these legends together, though—the dragonborn owe their existence, in some fundamental way, to Io, the great dragon-god who created all of dragonkind. The dragonborn, all legends agree, are not the creation of Bahamut or Tiamat—their origin does not naturally place them on one side or the other of the ancient conflict between those gods. Therefore, it’s up to every individual dragonborn to choose sides in the eternal struggle between the chromatic and metallic dragons—or to ignore this conflict completely and find their own way in the world.

CHOOSING SIDES

The common people of most races are unaligned, with few making a conscious effort to choose a good life or an evil one. Dragonborn, however, are much more likely to choose sides in the cosmic war between good and evil. Dragonborn often tell the story of Io’s death and the birth of Bahamut and Tiamat as a moral tale intended to emphasize the importance of standing on one side or the other.

“Io didn’t die so we could stand in the middle,” they say. “We’re not called to ambivalence. The choices stand before you—Bahamut’s way or Tiamat’s. The only wrong decision is refusing to choose.”

Of course, more dragonborn choose Bahamut’s path than Tiamat’s. The pathways of justice, honor, nobility, and protection are more conducive to society’s smooth functioning than those of greed, envy, and vengeance. Those who follow Tiamat’s ways usually keep their choice quiet, worshiping the Chromatic Dragon in secret shrines while going through the motions of fulfilling social expectations.

Choosing sides isn’t just a matter of a one-time choice of alignment, however. Every moment of crisis calls for a decision, and dragonborn are inclined to see those decisions as a matter of stark extremes. When wronged, a dragonborn can choose the path of Bahamut and seek to bring the wrongdoer to justice. Or the victim might choose the path of Tiamat and swear vengeance. Even good-aligned dragonborn who are devoted to Bahamut sometimes choose the latter path—not out of impulsive rage, but because it’s the best course to take in that particular situation.

A few dragonborn reject the idea of choosing between Bahamut’s way and Tiamat’s, notably the followers of the Temple of Io’s Children. These dragonborn are often unaligned, but their position is a decision not to choose sides, rather than a sign of ambivalence. They view the distinction between the gods as a false dichotomy, a choice between two sides of the same coin, not really different from each other.

This disdain for ambivalence extends beyond choosing alignment. While dragonborn appreciate the virtue of listening to both sides of an argument, they don’t respect anyone who hears both sides and can’t choose between them. Decisiveness is a mark of strong character.

This attitude makes compromise more difficult for dragonborn to reach or accept than it is for other races, but not impossible. In fact, sometimes dragonborn reach compromise all the more quickly because they realize that each side is committed to its own position and won’t be persuaded to alter its perspective, making some kind of compromise the only possible solution.

Reprinted from:

Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn

James Wyatt

ISBN:978-0-7869-5386-8