Swynfaredian Dragonbloods

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

"Lords and ladies throughout Scarterra can be condescending and arrogant about their heritage, but in Swynfaredia they have mystical power to back up their pretentions of greatness which only makes them worse."
-Garan, Swynfaredian baker

The Dragonbloods makes up the upper class of the Kingdom of Swynfaredia. So named, because the upper class is descended from dragons and half-dragons. It is not enough to be descended from dragons, to qualify as a Dragonblood, a person must be a sorcerer or sorceress.

The Four Founding Dragons, Numaness the Mystic, Gorisonad the Wise, Kovenoth the Builder, and Fremiss the Vibrant had dozens of half-dragon children between the four of them and interlinked their children with arranged marriages, setting up their children and grand children as the ruling class of the new nation of Swynfaredia via the Magna Frenhinol.

Swynfaredian Coat of Arms by Me with Worldspinner's Heraldry program

The social status is that sorcerers and sorceresses are superior to everyone else. Draconic sorcerers are superior to non-draconic sorcerers. Sorcerers with direct blood ties to the Founding Dragons are superior to other draconic sorcerers.
Socially, raw magical power is not especially important. As long as a sorcerer or sorceress can reliably cast any spell, he or she can be full Dragonblood. The current Queen of Swynfaredia, Gwendolyn ap Numaness is a prodigy Transmuter capable of casting fifth circle magic but this is exception not the rule. Most of Swynfaredia's kings and queens have been relatively unimpressive casters who nevertheless command the loyalty of much more powerful sorcerers and sorceresses.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

by me with Midjourney

-Jemmurth the Swamp King, dragon

"Swynfaredia's so called 'dragonbloods' grow up bilingual. They speak Common for day-to-day to conversations and for addressing their subjects, but they exclusively speak Draconic in formal court settings and write all official documents in Draconic.
The four 'Founding Dragons' must have been too busy to properly educate their broods of half-breeds. Swynfaredians have picked up a lot of bad linguistic habits that became passed down from father to son and mother to daughter. The Swynfaredian Draconic dialect is painful to my ears, even compared to other human Draconic speakers.

I will begrudgingly give credit where credit is due, the Swynfaredian's penmanship with written Draconic exceeds other human-made Draconic writing and a few dragonbloods are capable of making rather beautiful caligraphy and illuminated manuscripts."

Shared customary codes and values

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

-Danuta, leader of the Fumayan Masks

"Dragonbloods are less than 1% as powerful as full dragons but they are at least 90% as arrogant.
There is always someone stronger and smarter you are. Even the wisest sages and the mightiest kings have to bow to the Nine. Dragons only bow to the Nine slightly because they believe they are almost as powerful as gods and goddesses. Swynfaredian Dragonbloods aren't much better. Full dragons are famously impious and the apple did not fall from the tree for the Dragonbloods.

Compared to the ruling class of any other nation in Scarterra, the Dragonbloods donate a smaller portion of their wealth to the Nonagon than all of them.
Because Greymoria is the goddess of magic (among other things), Greymoria worship is more common and more socially acceptable in Swynfaredia, but the Dragonbloods cannot even worship Greymoria right much less the rest of @Nine.
I've read all of the Children's major canonical texts. They are very clear that Greymoria values all arcanists, not just sorcerers. The Children have a pro-sorcerer faction called the Custodians of Kismet Heritage which is of course popular in Swynfaredia. Also, Greymoria doesn't particularly like dragons and the Custodians of Kismet Heritage teach that the manifestation of sorcery has more to do with Greymoria's will than an accident of geneology. The so-called Swynfaredian Children are a breakaway faction of the Custodians that lick the boots of Dragonblood and parrot their heretical ideology but the rest of Greymoria's Children rightfully shun them.
The Dragonbloods state sorcerers are the most powerful and important humans, but any educated person knows that are sorcerers wield essentiallly the same sort of arcane magic that warlocks and wizards cast. That means that Dragonblood laws and social norms have to denigrate all non-sorcerer mages in order to prop up their heretical social dogma.
Amusingly, wizards are generally much more proficient at making potions and scrolls than sorcerers are. Thus, Dragonbloods need wizards even if they don't like them. Wizards in Swynfaredia face a lot of scrutiny and oversight, but if they can navigate the labyrinth of fees and bureaucracy set forth by the Arcane Registry they can make a small fortune. Witches and warlocks had best keep their heads down.
Theurgists wield the power of the Nine and they cast magic that arcane mages cannot, and they are living representatives of the Nine in the mortal plane. Dragonbloods treat theurgists better than wizards but not by much. Again, showing their lack of piety."

Common Etiquette rules

Other than using Draconic as the default language, basic etiquette and manners for Dragonbloods is very similar as the manners of most other highborn humans. They even use the same basic system of feudal ranks: Baron/Baroness, Counts/Countess, Duke/Duchess, and Kings/Queen though they call their knights "Talon Warriors" and "Fang Warriors".

Common Dress code

Dragonbloods will wear practical clothes for day-to-day use, but they frequently wear clothes with draconic features in formal settings. This includes but is not limited to hats that have fake horns, long trains on dresses that look like dragon tails, shoulder pads that vaguely look like wings, and scale patterns on fabrics and armor.
Since sorcerery is the end-all be-all of their culture, Swynfaredian dragonbloods like to flex by carrying magical items as status symbols, especially magical jewelry. Poison Detection Jewelry is both fashionable and it helps non-diviners protect themselves from drinking from poisoned cups that are all too commonly scene in dragonblood politics.

by me with Midjourney

Art & Architecture

Nuldrun Dragon by Eron12 using Hero Forge

"I have worked for a lot of different human lords and ladies, but I never worked for a dragonblood client. My ancestors are famous dragon slayers, so of course I would never be welcome in a dragonblood's hall, but Swynfaredians and dwarves don't exactly have warm friendly relations. Stahlheimer dwarves are a little bit more thick skinned against rude humans but even then a lot of Stahlheimers refuse to work with dragonbloods.

I heard from more than one Stahlheimer engineer that dragonbloods are frequently arrogant and condescending to their employees. They are stingy copper pinchers but at the same time have extravagant demands.
Most dragonbloods favor aesthetics over practicality. They want to mimic First Age architectural motiffs. They like high ceilings and oversized windows and doorways. Essentially, big enough for a dragon to hypothetically use.
Dragonbloods are not stupid. They know that large windows are a liability in fortified structures like castles. With castles, they tend to favor very tall narrow castles. They like towers and vertically oriented structures because supposed the ancient dragons of the First Age favored towers. There are exceptions, but most Swynfaredians don't bother with extensive cellars or dungeons.
Not too surprisingly, dragonblood nobles like dragon artwork. Their homes, castles, and temples are practically covered in dragon murals, dragon tapestries, dragon statues, and dragon friezes.
Swynfaredians don't have a lot great stone masons and architects in their ranks but to give credit where credit is due, a lot of dragonblood squibs train as bronze artisans and alchemists that are pretty impressive, by human standards at least. I once saw a brazier shaped like a dragon that could breathe fire. I have no idea how much it costs to keep it fueled but I will admit it looked impressive.

Foods & Cuisine

-Roodnat, gnome chef

"Dragonbloods love to pretend they are spiritually the same as actual dragons, so they like to eat like dragons. Or more accurately they like to eat what they think dragons ate.
The First Age dragons also grew maize, so dragonbloods would rather eat cornbread than wheat bread. Nevermind that the ancient dragons didn't eat maize, they made their food eat maize.

Eating horse meat is taboo for most humans in West Colassia, but since dragons like to eat horseflesh, Swynfaredian dragonbloods like to eat horse meat on special occasions.
Bonecracker eggs don't taste that different from chicken or ducks eggs but since First Age dragons kept bonecrackers as livestock, Swynfaredian dragonbloods like to eat bonecracker eggs at every opportunity, never mnd the expense of keeping them.
A good chef knows that presentation can be as important as taste, and this is very much the case with dragonblood clients. Bonecracker eggs taste ordinary are big and gaudy. You can use this approach to fancify ordinary food. Don't serve each banquet guest their own small cake, make one giant multi-layer cake. Big food lets them indulge 'we are really dragons' fantasy.
A good Draconic word to learn is 'brayaloka' which is a fancy word for a dragon literally looking down on lesser creatures. You can get away with serving a dragonblood noble tiny-sized finger food if you tell them 'this is a brayaloka dish'.
Whatever you do, don't serve a dragonblood a medium sized portion of food, that's peasant food! Unless the food is on fire, than a medium sized portion is okay.
Speaking of fire, A lot of dragonbloods like to eat 'hot' spicy food because they think that fire breathing dragons prefered their food this way despite not having an ounce of evidence that real dragons like spicy food."

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

When arming themselves for war, most Dragonbloods favor long swords (aka bastard swords) because they have a lot of damaging power and can be held one-handed briefly to let them cast spells with the other hand. In everyday interactions, carrying a bastard sword is somewhat rude, or worse, threatening. Rapiers are commonly carried as a self-defense weapon in polite society.

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Birth & Baptismal Rites

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

"The normally elitist Dragonbloods are surprisingly egalitarian with their baptismal rites and namedays.
Dragonblood infants receive a simple annointing of ash and water and a short blessing, preferably with a priest or priestess of one of @Nine. This is near identical to the ceremony Swynfaredian peasants receive. Perhaps because they don't want to waste time on too elaborate until they know whether or not the child is a sorcerer."
-Garan, Swynfaredian baker

Coming of Age Rites

It is a very big event when a young dragonblood intially manifests sorcery and also a big deal when he or she learns how to control a few spells reliably. Technically, you cannot be a dragonblood without sorcery. Otherwise you are a Squib.
Most budding sorcerers and sorceresses manifest their sorcerery around age 13 or 14. A few early bloomers manifest their first magic at age 10 and a few late bloomers manfiest their magic as late as 17. The old adage, "girls mature faster than boys" generally applies to sorcerery too.

by me with Hero Forge

Of course there is a period of time where the son or daughter of dragonbloods might be a squib or might be a sorcerer. Children in this ambiguous gray zone are called eggs, or Oteca in Draconic.
Swynfaredian Otectum Parties are fancy parties where parents proudly show off their sorcerous adolescent children to greater Swynfaredia. At which point a young man or woman officially become a Lord or Lady.
Squib children are second class citizens in their own way, but they are not just tossed out in the snow. They are still technically above common Swynfaredian humans. They have their own Otectums at or shortly after their 18th nameday though without much fanfare.
Basically Squibs are given some money and set up with an apprenticeship somewhere. In Swynfaredia, very few squibs work as farmers or day laborers. They are overrepresented in the highly skilled trades. They even get to keep their family surname even though they cannot be a Lord or Lady.

Funerary and Memorial customs

by me with Midjourney

Most Dragonbloods choose to cremate their dead to symbolically return them to the spiritual fire of their ancestors. Dragonbloods are also a little paranoid about necromancers misusing their corpses and this is a prevention mechanism.
Urns of ashes are typically held in family crypts but less ostentatious or less financially well-off Dragonbloods will sometimes simply bury them or even scatter them at sea.

There are no universal Dragonblood standards for filial piety or ancestor worship. Many Dragonbloods don't bother with it at all. Ancestor worship is not forbidden though. Families and individuals sometimes develop their own venerations but it's normally kept private.

Common Taboos

Harming a dragon is considered taboo unless it's clearly in self-defense. Despite how hungry Dragonbloods are for various reagents, trading in dragon blood, dragon scales or any part of dragon corpses is highly illegal.

Whether they admit it or not, many Dragonbloods secretly fear necromancers. Dragonbloods do not normally tolerate liches amongst their ranks, at least not in public. The creation of undead minions is heavily restricted (though not banned entirely). Even though necromancy can do a lot more than just animate corpses, many Dragonblood necromancers find themselves mysteriously left off guest list for banquets and parties. A lot of Dragonblood necromancer keep their necromancy magic under wraps and only publically showcase their other magical abilities.

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Skin changer witches are not tolerated, at least not in public. More than a few Dragonbloods have become skin changer witches, but if they are ever publicly exposed, Dragonbloods will rapidly come together to sweep the incident under the rug and/or blame any damage as being inflicted by non-sorcerer skin changers mages, or at the very least, non-Dragonblood sorcerers.

Common Myths and Legends

The Dragonbloods have practically deified the four founding dragons and monuments to them abound in Swynfaredia. All of them have penned at least one tome and these tomes are required reading for all Oteca.
Every house has at least a few famous or infamous sorcerers and sorceresses of yesteryear and Dragonblood love to tell their stories.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Because of the so-called "Leaky Bucket" metaphysics of draconic geneology, if two half-dragons have children together, the children will usually end up with fewer overt draconic traits than their parents.
Originally, dragonbloods only included descendants of the Four Founding Dragons but over the centuries, pragmatism has won out. The children and grand children of foreign dragons are periodically married into the various Swynfaredian noble houses to avoid inbreeding issues and shore up the Leaky Bucket.

Between generations of the Leaky Bucket effect and the fact that a lot of dragon bloods slept with ordinary humans, modern dragon bloods do not often look physically different from ordinary Swynfaredian humans. Less than one-in-five modern dragons bloods have overtly visible draconic traits such as tiny horns, above average size, scaly textured skin, or draconic eyes. Draconic eyes are the most common trait manifested among dragonbloods are generally considered attractive, at least among other dragonbloods.

by me with Hero Forge

When Swynfaredia was a young nation, dragonbloods were often self conscious about their inhuman appearances which led them to take efforts to minimize their draconic cosmetic features. Nearly nine centuries later, the trend has reversed. Dragonbloods with draconic physical features generally flaunt them at every opportunity. Some will fake draconic traits with Illusion magic or makeup.

Gender Ideals

Dragons are egalitarian towards the sexes, though they aren't egalitarian in any other sense of the word. Gender is mostly irrelevent to dragons. Power is all that matters.
Swynfaredian dragonbloods are one of the few human societies in Scarterra to have gender neutal succession laws not that they are egalitarian either. Titles and inheritances pass to the eldest direct heir with sorcery, regardless of sex though Swynfaredia didn't start out this way. They had to fight a a civil war to establish this.

by me with Hero Forge

Gender roles still exist among dragonbloods to an extent. Sorcerers are more likely than sorceresses to take on martial roles and sorceresses are more likely to take on diplomatic roles than sorcerers. All that said, a dragonblood is more likely to be typecast by their innate magical aptitudes than their gender. Abjurers and Transmuters are encouraged to become warriors and Enchanters and Diviners are encouraged to become diplomats.

Courtship Ideals

Frieze of a Medieval Wedding by Thomas Stothard

Arranged marriages are the norm. Swynfaredian matchmakers are even less likely to factor in such trivialities like "love" and "compatibility" than in other feudal societies.
Swynfaredian Matriarchs and Patriarchs usually have the final say for approving or denying any would-be marriage.
Arranged marriages in Swynfaredia are very complicated. Only sorcerers and sorceresses can inherit land and titles, not squibs, but squibs can and sometimes do have sorcerous offspring and these children can inherit.
Because sorcerers and sorceresses can both inherit titles and pass on titles, it is possible that a sorcerer born of a union of say House Gorisonad and House Numaness could inherit titles from both Gorisonad and Numaness.
Complicating matters further are the fact that most houses are locked in Byzantine intrigues with the other houses. Swynfaredian matchmakers generally want to use marriages to scoop up other houses' titles but avoid giving away titles themselves.
The end result is usually that dragonbloods with strong claims to titles are married to dragonbloods with weak claims to titles. For instance, a sorceress that is first in line to inherit a county from House Numaness is likely to be married to be married to a sorcerer that is fifth in line to inherit a ducal title from House Gorisonad.
You will probably not see a sorceress first in line to inherit a title marrying a sorcerer second in line to inherit a separate title unless the titles in question are very far apart like a barony versus a duchy.
Statistically speaking, 50% of the children conceived between a sorcerer and a sorceress manifest sorcerery and the other half are squibs. But this doesn't mean sorcerous offspring are evenly distributed. Some families are lucky or unlucky. There are dozens of superstitions about what sort of pairings are more likely or less likely to create sorcerous babies. These superstitions are all factored into matchmaking decisions too.
Raw power in magic is more affected experience and struggle than raw natural talent, but raw magical power is still appreciated. Officially, inheritance and status doesn't differentiate between comparably powerful sorcerers and sorcresses and comparably weak ones, but Unofficially, powerful mages are preferred over weak ones. Some match makers will marry in sorcerers and sorceresses of dubious bloodlines if they are powerful enough, particularly if these powerful mages seem willing to obey orders and undertake dangerous assignments.

A lot of adventuring sorcerers and sorceresses make it a point to travel to Swynfaredia so they can marry into noble families this way. That said, a majority of foreign-born sorcerers prefer to avoid being shackled to Swynfaredian house politics.. More than a few Swynfaredian dragonbloods foreswear their birthrights and emigrate out of Swynfaredia so they can avoid unwanted arranged marriages.

Brigid's second portrait by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Relationship Ideals

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Dragonbloods put a lot of stock in lineage and succession and they put a lot of stock in family loyaly and national loyalty. That's the ideal, but that is seldom the reality.
Sorcerers and sorcresses are all fairly strong-willed and they are often prideful and selfish individuals.
Fueled by their egos and desires, dragonbloods are hardly paragons of chastity and fidelity. Bastard children and cuckoldry are all too common dragonbloods.

Since a child can inherit titles from more than one house, this can lead to house factions within a single nuclear family to say nothing of tensions in extended families. Despite attempts to rein it in, parricide is all too common and more than a few dragonbloods every generation die from suspicious accidents or poisoned cups.

How many sorcerers are there in Swynfaredia?

The land of Swynfaredia easily has more sorcerers than anywhere else in Swynfaredia but they are still less than one-percent of the population.
Every Dragonblood is a sorcerer or sorcress but not every Dragonblood is especially powerful or trained in combat.
The Swynfaredian Armed Forces cannot field whole platoons of sorcerers or anything like that. They have to make due with sorcerer commanders and small elite squads of magical trouble shooters. The Kingdom of Swynfaredia cannot even field enough combat sorcerers to make sure every knight is a sorcerer.
Talon Warriors refer to knights without sorcery and Fang Warriors refer to knights with sorcery. Talon Warriors outnumber Fang Warriors roughly two-to-one. Of course the Queen of Swynfaredia has a great many Fang Warriors in her retinue, most Counts and Countesses are lucky if they have more than two Fang Warriors pledging fealty to them.

Parent ethnicities

• Swynfaredian humans

Related Organizations

• Dauli Bloodline
• House Cefnor
• House Fremiss-Angharad
• House Fremiss-Bryallan
• House Fremiss-Caedwin
• House Gareth
• House Gorisonad
• House Gruffyl
• House Kovenoth
• House Manasch
• House Numaness
• House Selwyth
• Kingdom of Swynfaredia
• Llafin Bloodline
• original House Fremiss
• Swynfaredian Armed Forces

Related Items

• Ceron's Cloak
• Poison Detection Jewelry
• Smearing Scroll Cases

Languages spoken

• Common
• Draconic
• Swynfaredian Vulgar Argot

Related Locations

• land of Swynfaredia
• Old Swynfaredia Region
• Old Talama Region
• Southeast region of Swynfaredia
• Southwest Region of Swynfaredia
• Swynfaredian Grey Forest