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"But, precisely, we are not from Order nor from Chaos. These concepts you had built to explain your universe in fact prevent you from understand it in a higher and appropriate level. Children of the Serpent or the Unicorn, you think that everything ensues from them, is defined through them. But if it is true that the Origin cannot be seeked anymore beyond the Serpent and the Unicorn, it is also true that these two forces are not the only uncreated and eternal ones. You are right to call yourself true Substance, but your perception of Substance is uncompleted. We, High Dragons, are native from the highest plan of Substance, and we therefore embrace all the planes of Being, including your, the one you wrongfully call the "True Reality", and which is only the production of your limited perception. You exist as a part of Substance, yes , but you do not fully realize what you are."

Fiona and Monberakh, in "Conversations with a Dragon Around a Cup of Tea "

The most noticeable thing about the dragons in the Amber Chronicles is... their absence. Zelazny, indeed, Though drawing his inspiration from all the classical sources of fantasy mythologies, never mentions them in the Amber books.

    Still, the fact that they do not appear does not mean that they do not exist... The Unicorn of Amber and the Serpent of Chaos are Major primal forces, but there are a lot of other animals able to complete the "Zoological Pantheon" of Primal Archetypes.
    The Dragon, of course, should be one of them, and he should be rather well-ranked. But, then, if Dragons exist, why are they so discreet ? Why they do not intervene ? As their powers are probably out of common, they should be essential figures of the Amber universe.
    Of course, maybe it is simply that they are not willing to melt with Unicorn’s and Serpent’s businesses. But even so, is it the only reason explaining that such incredible powers remain silent ?
Maybe on the contrary that Dragons are extremely active ; but it is only that they never directly intervene, or at least extremely seldom. Maybe that due to their incredible age and experience, they consider the amberites and the lords of Chaos as well (including the eldest) simply as a band of noisy little brats that should be ignored, at least as long as they do not gain some maturity (a matter of several milleniums). Maybe also that they effectively intervene and follow their own plans since the beginning, yet with such a discretion that it will be almost impossible to notice for the playing characters, and maybe even for the elder amberites, mere pawns on Dragons chessboard.
     At any rate, Dragons can be a very interesting third power, if you want to introduce a new force which purpose will be to qualify the relations between Amber and Chaos.
Dragon Races

    You have several possibilities when it comes to that matter. The TSR universes, for instance, use systems based on colors and metals to classify the dragons, which are good if they belong to the metal category (Golden, silver, copper Dragons) and evil if they are chromatic. (Red, black, blue, etc.) It is of course possible to keep it with some changes (Anne Mc Caffrey uses a similar system in her Chronicles of Pern, except that there are no evil dragons in Pern, of course !) but you can also imagine something completely different. Elemental dragons are an obvious but nevertheless good possibility. " Conceptual " dragons too, as long as the concept they represent are relevant and significant (Strength, Wisdom, Madness, Understanding, Beauty). In this case, each race would behave according to this main concept, which will be the base of his philosophy ; some dragons will live only for war, some to increase their knowledge, some others to collect all that match their esthetical tastes (try to picture a playing character captured and locked in a cage for this reason only). You can also introduce couple of ideas (stability/mutability, creation/destruction) to involve Dragons into struggles between those tendencies. The classification produced here is an example of combination between all these elements ;

The High Dragons

    They consider themselves as the true descendants of the First Dragon, and they are transcendent beings, spending most of their time dwelling in other spheres of existence. Their interest for Shadow is non-existent, but they keep an eye on Amber and the Courts of Chaos, as they think that one day the children of the Unicorn and the Serpent can reach a mature status similar to their own. That is why they will intervene if they see that a major threat is menacing the existence of one of the pole of the universe. They will therefore act as watchful but very discreet guardians, an if they decide to appear directly, it will always be using another form than their true one. The sight of a High Dragon is indeed almost impossible to stand even for an amberite and that is why they prefer to use a human or a daemon shape, depending on the place they are, in Amber or in the Courts.

The Shadow Dragons

    This category include all the dragons dwelling in shadow. They can have all varieties of shapes and colors of skin, but they all are substantial creatures, and can therefore travel in shadow and affect its texture. Some of them have solitary and bitter personalities, some other will on the contrary seek the company of the humans. They can breath fire, lightning, whatever inspires you, but it is likely that some of them have additional powers, such as a form of draconian sorcery or a high control over shadow allowing them to destroy shadows or to cast shadow storms.

The Dragons of Darkness

    These dragons are quite mysterious ; they skin irradiates a kind of black light and they seems to have the control of a formidable power : they can cast a kind of dark fog capable to disturb the Pattern and the Logrus as well, as if it was powered itself by a primal source of energy. They otherwise use it to transport them in Shadow, as a gateway from a point to another.

The Limbo Dragons

(To get more information about Limbo, check out the Limbo page of the campaign section) When Limbo was created, it also became a shelter for all the creatures willing to flee the outer world for a reason or another. Among them, some dragons decided to stay and to became a part of this world, just as the Limbo Lords. These dragons change slowly and eventually turn into terrible dreamlike creatures, feared by the Lords themselves. Nobody has ever seen one of them, but there are many tales accounting the disappearance of entire realms of Limbo, swallowed by dragons bigger than a whole world. It is also said that they have built a giant city, somewhere in Limbo. But no one have never seen it, until now.

Scenario sketches

You can imagine many plots involving dragons. For instance ;

    What if the Amber Castle awakes one day discovering a huge trail of knocked down trees crossing the Arden forest, and at its end, the huge corpse of a dragon ? As he crashed right in front of the castle, it is more than likely that this dragon relatives will not seek the responsible of his death for long, and it can very well turn to a bloody conclusion if the amberites do not find what really happened. It is quite possible that the true responsible is an amberite or a lord of Chaos, but it can also turn to be a dragon, who wanted to create a war between Amber an a rival faction. The PC will then have to investigate among the dragons in order to find a solution. You can rise the pressure even more by setting up an ultimatum, at the end of which the dragons will call upon a vendetta against Amber.

    Now, you can also consider the idea of a Dragon Flight. Dragons, especially old ones, need to sleep during awfully long periods. Centuries, and even milleniums for some of them. During such periods, no one hears of them, and many people even come to forget that they exist. But when they awake and enter in an cycle of activity, the destruction they bring with them make the whole universe remember that they are much more than a mere legend. Maybe that there is no dragons because they sleep now, but the next Dragon Flight can very well fill the universe with them so that they will be everywhere. It will then be a major issue for Amber as well as for the Courts to deal with a army of unleashed dragons.

    Maybe also that some elder amberite knows the existence of dragons since a long time. Considering their twisted mind, it is not impossible that one of them decided to take control of this power, by stealing some dragons eggs for instance. The reaction of the parents, probably not interested by the inner conflicts of the family will be to consider that Amber is responsible of this crime, and they will therefore ask Random himself to settle his debts. Once again, it will fall to the Playing characters to do the dirty job and to investigate.

    As there are rivalries inside the Draconian society, it is possible that Amber gets involved in a war between dragons, reviving the family own rivalries. Maybe that some Lords of Chaos bent on revenge passed a pact with some dragons against Amber, in which case the only solution would be to find allies among other dragon races.