#orbis draconum

Soooo... I love dragons. They're awesome, and the things they represent in stories are interesting to think about, so one day I thought, what if I make a world where the dragons are the dominant species, while still representing the things they usually do, without being substitutes for humans. I wanted a world, where dragon biology shapes culture and technology they develop. I know Wings of Fire exist, but I never really managed to get into it, since it's style of storytelling and worldbuilding clashes with my brain too much, and it's pretty different from what I want from a dragon world.

That's how Draconia was born. A world of dragons, on the surface looking like a magical fantasy setting, but with a big twist that informs the way everything in that world works. Draconia is a working title, which I'll probably change, and I'm gonna tag this as Orbis Draconum because I googled that and nobody's using it.

So, the world's inhabited by all sort of dragons. There are many kinds, mostly based of some of the common ones in various mythologies throughout the world. The idea is to put a fun twist on each species, so we have dragons who are also knights, wyverns who are regal and frail, eastern style serpents who lost the ability to fly and awkwardly crawl around, small feathered short-living bursts of joy, desert dragons with hide for scales who are the most human-like... Honestly, the lore got too big at this point to put explain in one post. I've got a design document for this thing being written.

I've only got some old concepts for the wyverns (cause I love writing their lore) and desert dragons so far.

The wyverns are very hung on the idea of families and selective breeding, since all of the natural "magic" some dragons posess gets diluted with hybridization, so they try to keep their abilities alive by forming clans with different specializations. Each clan has an ability and a drawback, which I might detail in later posts, since this is already getting quite long.

Here's a wyvern named Coal Eyes, a leader of the Physicians clan:

And here's a concept thing I made for all the major clans I've managed to come up with (came out janky, but it works):

From left to right: Whisperers, Physicians, Virtuosos, Miners, Zeppelins, Sentinels, Harvesters, Alchemists, Scouts and Scholars. I'm pretty excited about their lore, so I'm definitely gonna share more details once I get back to this project.

Also, there are some sketches of the desert dragons, which other dragons often call "tribals", since their technology level is pretty low compared to others.

They're not less capable than other species though. They're smart, social, and have a crucial ability to throw objects relatively well, reminicent of humans. Some of them also managed to move into other societies and integrate well, even though a lot of their brethren don't approve of that, thinking that those who left were manipulated by the technologically superior dragons into being exploited. Which is partially true, actually.