#dragon’s dissertations

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hi! I really like your other takes on Underdark races, and wanted to ask if you had any thoughts on improving grimlocks? Beyond the permanent blindness they have and the whole being humans who adapted to the underdark, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot else done with them.

Monsters Reimagined: Grimlocks

Would it surprise anyone to learn that a d-list d&d monster has It's roots in 1800s ideas about eugenics and bad adaptations of genre fiction? No? Then you've been paying attention, top marks.

Asker is absolutely right in their assessment that there's not really much to grimlocks. They're one of many "hostile tribal primitives" that have filled out the monster roster ever since the original developers lifted them en mass from the pulp adventure stories they grew up reading.

A common theme among these pulp works and the early scifi that inspired it was devolution, the idea that a people could degrade from greatness back into an animistic nature. The most well known pop culture example would be HP lovecraft's deep ones, where the author's fears of race mixing manifest as monsters that literally push humanity back down the evolutionary ladder to the stage of fish.

There's plenty of different ways to explain the origin of this writing trend, but I like to chalk it up to an anxiety resulting from the widespread acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution by a society that believed wholeheartedly in scientific racism. If intelligence (read: whiteness) wasn't just a god given right but was infact inheritable, then it could also be disinherited, bred out of a population whether by on purpose or by accident. This made it so important to practice good breeding (read: eugenics), to preserve the pure stock from falling to degeneracy (read: miscegenation) and introducing undesirable traits into the genepool.

We can see fear this with grimlocks, humanoids who were inherently lessened by their "adaptation" to life underground, losing their intelligence and eyesight and descending into a state of barbarism. Given that this is one of the few d&d monsters that mention evolution at all, we can trace this feature to their likely inspiration: The morlocks in H.G. Wells' Time machine, published a scant 36 years after Darwin published The Origin of Species.

I'm not well read enough to know whether Wells pioneered the idea of subhuman descendants, but I can say that most of his imitators missed the point of his writing: Wells saw in his day an increasingly indolent upper class inflicting brutal and dehumanizing labour conditions on the poor to support their own carefree lifestyle. He satirized this in his book by showing that while the descendants of the rich had devolved into beautiful, useless, idiots, the descendants of the workers devolved into subterranean ape-things who maintained the machinery that allowed the eden like existence of the rich while farming them for meat. Say what you will about Wells' race politics (Neither degenerate fop or inbred ape can withstand the smarts and strength of the enlightened colonial Englishman) but his writing was specifically class continuous, and the brutality of the morlocks was a direct result of the exploitation of working people in his own day and age.

When the morlocks were adapted into the grimlocks , the d&d writers kept their canibalistic streak but specifically removed their class based origins as well as their mechanical knowhow. This is a near identical process to what happened with a creature the worlocks helped inspire: Tolkien's orcs, which were likewise turned from a commentary on the brutality of the industrial age into warlike primitives. It's a bit of a trend.

If you wanted to "fix" the grimlocks I'd go one of two ways:

If you want to engage with themes of primality, make them legit underdark dwelling primates/australopithecus type of creatures, just figuring out tool use and language. Make the rumours of them being descended from cave-exploring humanoids a common myth made up by surface dwellers.

If you want to get spicy about it though, give them back their mechanical aptitude and maybe mix in a few more dashes of pulp "lost civilization" ancient aliens nonsense. Have them dwell in great mechanical complexes beneath the earth, worker drones who've long outlived the creatures that enslaved them and scribed mechanical knowledge into their very being. Originally denied understanding of the machines they toiled to build, work, and maintain, the grimlocks jealously guard the science they've spent generations reverse engineering, giving them the reputation of being violently territorial for those underdark travelers who venture too close to the megastructures they inhabit.

Artsource

[sylvies-chen]

though I do know most people in the fandom recognize harwin as a genuinely decent man and the relationship he had with rhaenyra as complicated, I do see a lot of takes that are like “lol rhaenyra did not care about that man she mourned him for like 5 seconds”

but I feel the need to fight against that because like. cmon! look to the sequence when daemon takes her out at night. there’s a balance there that daemon alone cannot fulfill. daemon shows rhaneyra the world and all its adventure and passion. harwin make sure that she gets home safe at the end of it. and those are two very different kinds of love, but dammit they’re both love!

[caemidraws]

If you want of course, can you summarise what's the relationship between these three DnD characters? Are they in a polyamory relationship or some broke up and went to a new one?

Correct!

it's a poly the way you need several people to clean all that blood -

and some did break up and went to new ones (+ new hopefully better selves)

yes it's more complicated than that

yes i have the first chapter of the comic about that campaign ready yes it has very little explained in it (being the first one,,,,)

I (pointing at myself in the mirror) WILL start posting it SOON

(╯▽╰ )

point is, there's plenty of drama but also much love, more characters involved and uh..ndeads

I just can't help n draw contextless art sorry,,,,

[cybershock24601]

Don’t think Rook annoys Solas enough. I think they should be popping into the fade at random like a reverse Johnny Silverhand to ask him annoying questions or critique him about his design choices in the lighthouse or grill him about his many, many fuck ups. That man will not know peace so long as Rook is around.

[atticcreationz]

As someone who is VERY fascinated with adaptation in film (who spent quuuuuuite some time back in college obsessing over it for assignments) and who adores the graphic novel, my biggest takeaway from Nimona is that it is an EXCELLENT adaptation. Especially considering how much that production went through! Like, all of the changes and things they expanded on made sense for the transition from book to movie. My second takeaway is that I love it <3 Please go watch it I beg of you 🙏

[illogicalilse]

Daemon's gender-envy and the way he covets Viserys's love being so blatant this season is just so fascinating to me. Such an obvious thought spiral to go through in his compounding grief and yet still so wild to see play out.

If he had been a daughter then he would have married Viserys and the 'what-if's' of that scenario just spiral from there, but all boil down to the idea that he's stronger than Aemma; if he had been his brother's bride he wouldn't have FAILED the way Aemma did.

And even deeper below that is the thought that even if he had, at least Viserys would have still loved him enough to let that death eat him from the inside out. At least in the worst case scenario, Viserys would toss aside all precedent and put Rhaenyra on the throne out of love for Daemon instead of as a slight against him.

Like this is the kind of insanity that has me chomping at the bit for more idk how anyone could call it boring.

[mumms-the-word]

At some point I need everyone to start asking me about my wardens, my Hawkes, my Inquisitors

I have so many

I have 5 world states (3 are completed the other two are bits and pieces lol)

I’m so ready to play Veilguard 5 times back to back

But I want to yap about my OG babies first

[arcanagoat]

do you see me

[raayllum]

Power, promises, gifts, and hurt

[kingofthewilderwest]

Does Ford have any confirmed kinks in canon?

I would say "I am the wrong person for kink conversations" but you caught me while I was mulling about "platonic kinks" for another fandom so you caught me

[dandelion-jester]

I should be writing my dissertation but instead I'm playing Dragon Age II

[panarchie]

The Circle of Hasmal in 9:31 Dragon - Immutable - Dungeons and Dragon Age

same old energy, baby history repeats same old energy, baby they'll march you through the streets same old energy, baby they fear what they don't know same old energy, baby you've burned this way before Kiki Rockwell

Before the last Circle of Thedas joined the Inquisition after the failure of the Divine Conclave - led south by Hasmal's First Enchanter Yael Amell - there was darkness, and secrets, and the one templar that got away.

[eyydragons]

Playing the new Dragon Age, and I'm dealing with a bug that sometimes loading a save makes the character model 'reset' in game to the default option, sans any hair.

Now; this is fixed easily by going to the mirror. So I'm not too bothered by this bug. But it does have me thinking.

This mirror is in the infirmary with varric. The obvious in world explanation is Rook keeps saving their head in the middle of the night every few days/weeks and INSTANTLY regretting it. They have yet to learn. Varric's not about to question this.

[heartsdefine]

why yes i DO think the vuvalini would be a group positively festering with t.erfs and r.adfems in the modern day, why do u ask???

[fuckusolas]

i want to replay all of dragon age now………

[marv3l-drag0ns]

Paladin writing! This is part 1/3 probably, and part 4 will be the Paladin presenting the item to the Host at the @the-bone-shop

The Paladin bounced as it left the bone shop. Host was definitely an abrasive character, but gifts were important, especially for small businesses. The Paladin was determined to find one of Host’s enemies, or at least some entity that irritated them.

The goat skull on its back thumped heavily against their scales, reminding them of what they were planning on preparing for. The raccoon speaker was clearly a failure- the Paladin lacked the knowledge needed for runes, and this amateurish item was on its last legs.

The Paladin ran off to try and find its campsite. It didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep, but recuperation and a base of operations was helpful, especially for magic item construction. It was, however, a long journey, which is why it tried to only visit the Bone Shop if it was necessary. Deer-Wings- or Cryptkeeper, if Host was to be believed- was lovely, but it did not merit the travel. Diving into its cloak, the Paladin withdrew a set of greaves, specially modified for its legs. It did not wear the greaves much, as it would often leave whatever passed for muscles under its scales aching and in need of attention, but it was a good way to race back and forth. It cut the travel time from half a week to half of a day. Equipping them hurt, as the thorns that adorned their maybe-calves were difficult to work around, but the Paladin did not need pain, so it ignored it. They resumed running. The Paladin had chosen a grotto right at the foot of a cliff, which was clear and had many of the basic ingredients for mending or magework. The Paladin had set up many more permanent utilities, such as a workbench, water refinery, and storage system, but it was not used to staying in one place and therefore was unable to think of this as a headquarters, much less a home.

The Paladin kneeled by its storage, which was more of a glorified shelf. It was wrapped in leather strips, with various bags the Paladin had made hanging from knots in the wood it hadn’t broken off. There was a large basket on the ground half-full of stones, many of which were black, more than half representing Condensed Voidsea. The Paladin had assembled on a beach full of marble-sized spheres of Voidsea, and harbored a deep connection to the small stones. It had tried to use them as a focus and ground one up to make a sealant for its first experiment, but it had ended up sealing the dog skull shut. The Paladin reached into its cloak and drew out the new rocks it had purchased, placing the black ones into the basket and setting the aquamarine on the shelf. Hopefully, a more diluted Voidsea sealant would work to provide the self, and the aquamarine would be a better conduct for speech.

Not letting itself get distracted, the Paladin swung off the goat skull and let it rest in the grass. Goats were held sacred in a few cities near the Voidsea, both for their value as sustenance but also for the horns that grew from their heads. Voidsea Goats often had traces of crystalized Voidsea in their horns, which manifested itself in odd ways that depended on the goat. Hopefully the Paladin’s own horns, which it had ground down in order to blend in better (it shuddered to remember that time), would be mirrored in the skull and further help the item.

However, that quest would have to wait. The more time the Paladin waited to give Host its gift, the more likely was Host to think it was rude. Rudeness was heavily frowned upon and would result in less songquartz to mend itself. Rudeness was not tolerated.

The Paladin sorted its purchases, then stood and shuffled over to its workbench. There, it shook out it’s cloak, seeing the various items it kept on itself land on the heavy wood. Various pieces of enchanted armor, the Paladin’s axe, sword, and knife, and various enchanted jewels, rings, and bracelets. The Paladin would not adventure without them, knowing that any item that it could carry would be useful. It kept the greaves on, but slipped a chilled hand in between the metal and scales to try and soothe the irritation. It stared at the seeking bracelet, before tying it around their ankle. Equipping a combination of attack and location items, the Paladin finally retied their bags that lay against their cloak. It was time to hunt.