Dragon as a dark lord?

[Katdoc]

I'm planning out my first campaign to DM for and I wanted to start out in Faerun and transition the party into Ravenloft as a result of a Shadow Dragon they would be pursuing being grabbed by the Dark Powers in his attempts to drag portions of Faerun into the Shadow Fell. I know there is at least one non-humanoid dark lord that I am aware of, being the Elder Brain. Is it all too ridiculous for a dragon to become a Dark Lord? I feel like with the evil nature of chromatic dragons it probably should have happened already if anything, so the fact it hasn't yet seems like there could be something preventing it that I'm not seeing. I have an alternate NPC planned out if a dragon wouldn't work as a new dark lord, but that would feel kind of lame to me. Also forgive me for being such a noob in general.

[ewancummins]

I like the idea of using a dragon.

Nothing prevents it. As you note, the Elder Brain isn't humanoid.

But I do think you will find that the reason why all but a handful of darklords began life as human beings is that human beings have moral choices. They don't have to be evil. They choose to be evil. This applies not only to living human darklords like Ivana Boritsi, but also to undead monsters like Strahd. Strahd chose his damnation. Or take Lord Godefroy--he was a wicked, vicious man before he became a ghost, and his current existence as an unquiet spirit stems directly from the choices he made in life.

Monsters that are by nature evil are tricky as darklords. If the monster type is still partly human, like a wolfwere, it can be made to work. I've never found the Elder Brain convincing. It's too alien. That's just IMHO.

I had kicked around the idea of a dragon darklord based loosely on Fafnir.

[ewancummins]

If I did a Shadow Dragon darklord...

Without light, no shadows exist. In one of nature’s testimonies to this fact, shadow dragon eggs cannot hatch in total darkness any more than in bright illumination; only the shadows between will do for a nesting place.

Mothwing hatched last among her clutch, the first sight was the painful blaze of the lantern carried by one the adventuring party that had moments before slain her nest-mates and mother.

The others had seen only monsters to kill but the party's thief and the bearer of the lantern looked down at Mothwing and saw something else. He saw an opportunity to gain something more than his share of the loot. He seized the tiny, squealing dragon and crammed her into a sack, thinking he might sell her to a wizard after his party returned from looting the dragon’s lair in the ruins…

....


I'm not sure where I'd go with it from there, but I think it's essential that the shadow dragon not be just like only every other shadow dragon, only more-so.

Something should stand out. There has to be some crime, some sin, a betrayal or perversion of the rightful order of things.

I'm stabbing toward a moth-to-the-flame theme.
I don't know if that will work.

The OP's idea is probably far, far better developed. I'd love to read it.

[The Lesser Evil]

Like Ewancummings, I think you could do it, you just have to be nuanced about it. A lot of the inhuman darklords have a humanlike element to their psychology or even out and out want to embrace human like mannerisms. Harkon Lukas, a wolfwere, was atypical for his kind in that he wanted to build an empire and embrace humanity's social life. Jacqueline Renier is atypical for a wererat in that she has a true capability to love, yet she chooses to squander it. Maligno wants to be recognized and loved by the children of Odiare. Other inhuman darklords (such as the God Brain) remain complete mysteries. So if you had a shadow dragon darklord, you might take either of these two strategies.

There have arguably been two dragon darklords already. A few people have taken the black, scaly dragon-like left food of the Phantom Lover as a hint to his existence as a dragon playing human. Another darklord, this one from 4th Edition, named Arantor was a definite dragon, although he was a silver dragon that became tarnished with evil after performing numerous evil acts (including the murder of his daughter) to cover up a civilian massacre he accidentally instigated.

Basically, what mostly matters with having an inhuman darklord is having distinct background, motives, and psychology to separate the individual from others of his kind. Could you elaborate a little more about your potential darklord, his motives, and his background?

[Mistmaster]

The Book of Sacrifices (IIRC) take on the Elder Brain was that it was hacked by a human psion.
If she was a metallic Dragon which became a Shadow Dragon after her sin, it would work quite nicely. The other solution is mine: every not-Outsider sentient being from Aboleth to Zombie Lords is free willed, and the race is equally divided beetwen Good and Evil.

[Manofevil]

An easy way to do it would be to have one of Elena Faithhold's dragon hating fanatics get changed into a dragon by the DPs and be consumed by self loathing.

[Katdoc]

Apologies to those who wanted to hear what I had planned. I'm still very early in the planning process and just work shopping ideas at the moment. Anything I did have planned for the dragon I'm probably going to rework now that I've seen some ideas and gotten a better idea of what exactly it means to be a dark lord.

[Green Giant]

I once tried to create a dragon darklord for Ravenloft a long time ago. He was a red dragon from the Council of Wyrms setting. His domain was supposed to be a Savage Land/Land of the Lost/Land that Time Forgot island. High polar mountains provided a barrier for the border with a lush tropical valley in the center. A volcano dominated the center with a small inland sea. There were yuan-ti ruins with degenerate descendants amongst the interiors of one of the mountain barriers.

The red dragon was a dracolich who was trapped in a T-Rex body. He was also afraid of humans since in the Council of Wyrms setting they had been taught by Io how to effectively fight and slay dragons.

...and that's as far as I got with my idea.