Shadowrun General > The Secret History
Why do dragons have this fearsome reputation?
SpellBinder:
As of early 2079, Ghostwalker kicked the other nations out of Denver and declared it his own domain. Harlequin's involved, but not likely the way you might think.
And don't forget what Aden did in Tehran in 2020: leveling 200km^2 of the city by himself. Kinda helps establish that fearsome reputation.
Marcus:
Dragons don't play according to rules human understand, their goals maybe understandable, but the scope of the plan to achieve them is not.
We don't really know what happened to Big D. Maybe he lost, Maybe he won? With their magic Death itself maybe temporary. Any defeat of one dragon very likely represents the victory of another. So each item on the list is also most probably the success of some other dragon's scheme.
Next Dragons are magic beyond the scope of human understanding. Their magic is legendary, including the ability to literally alter-reality by shear force of will.
Even fair minor dragons or dragon minions can alter the balance of power in a city.
Michael Chandra:
Two of your examples are of conflicts between Dragons, so I fail to see why those matter here.
Anyway: Sure, the Great Dragons might still make mistakes. And sure, the normal dragons can be killed at great cost, or by a secret society. But they are still scary as fuck, and we still need to make sure not to piss them off. When it takes a country to deal with a single dragon, and you never know when a dozen might unite against you...
Mirikon:
Dzitbalchen wasn't a great, just a 'normal' dragon, and they CAN be brought down by people who have enough force.
But as for why people are like "Oh shit, dragons"? Dunkelzhan was LEGENDARY for his machinations, and was still screwing with the world for DECADES after his death through his will. Ryumyo is basically one of the major behind the scenes powers in the Yakuza and MCT, and everyone knows it. Lofwyr took over Saeder-Krupp and the first anyone knew about it was when he stepped in, told everyone he was the majority shareholder, and kicked the board to the curb. Ghostwalker shows up, and proceeds to kick the asses of several national militaries for days before the Draco Foundation stepped in to convince people that it would be best if they all just accepted him as overlord of Denver. Hestaby did much the same when CalFree and Tir Tairngir were fighting and got too close to Mt. Shasta. And then there's Amazonia.
Sirrurg was only brought down after an Immortal Elf helped Aztechnology complete a magitek superweapon and lost almost 1/3 of all of Aztlan and Aztechnology's combined forces ramming it down his throat. AND HE STILL WASN'T DEAD!
Lofwyr tanked a ritual magic attack in the middle of a dragon fight and still won.
And that has nothing to do with how dragons can manipulate things behind the scenes. Dragons are schemers, never forget it. They are at their LEAST dangerous when you're trying to deal with them with direct violence. It is telling that the only times anyone manages to defeat the great dragons, it is because they were using the resources of a megacorp, or they were immortal elves or fellow dragons.
Ixal:
--- Quote from: Mirikon on ---Dzitbalchen wasn't a great, just a 'normal' dragon, and they CAN be brought down by people who have enough force.
But as for why people are like "Oh shit, dragons"? Dunkelzhan was LEGENDARY for his machinations, and was still screwing with the world for DECADES after his death through his will. Ryumyo is basically one of the major behind the scenes powers in the Yakuza and MCT, and everyone knows it. Lofwyr took over Saeder-Krupp and the first anyone knew about it was when he stepped in, told everyone he was the majority shareholder, and kicked the board to the curb. Ghostwalker shows up, and proceeds to kick the asses of several national militaries for days before the Draco Foundation stepped in to convince people that it would be best if they all just accepted him as overlord of Denver. Hestaby did much the same when CalFree and Tir Tairngir were fighting and got too close to Mt. Shasta. And then there's Amazonia.
Sirrurg was only brought down after an Immortal Elf helped Aztechnology complete a magitek superweapon and lost almost 1/3 of all of Aztlan and Aztechnology's combined forces ramming it down his throat. AND HE STILL WASN'T DEAD!
Lofwyr tanked a ritual magic attack in the middle of a dragon fight and still won.
And that has nothing to do with how dragons can manipulate things behind the scenes. Dragons are schemers, never forget it. They are at their LEAST dangerous when you're trying to deal with them with direct violence. It is telling that the only times anyone manages to defeat the great dragons, it is because they were using the resources of a megacorp, or they were immortal elves or fellow dragons.
--- End quote ---
Sure, but most of the stuff isn't known to the public or even runners.
In the public and shadow perception many things dragons did in the last few decades turned out to be failures for them. The time when dragons easily took over stuff is long gone.
I simply feel it is hard to find a justification in game for the "never deal with a dragon" rule, when it is perfectly ok to deal with the Vory and other syndicates which have a much better track record than dragons in getting things done.
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