As a Disclaimer this is a seperate canon that doesn't tie into the DragonScape comics at all and is more just vaguely touched on every now and again as an alternate canon for the Dragonscape. The DCA canon is set in our own world where influences of a draconic reality (ohndemic reality) sometimes bursts through our own and needs to be covered up by an interantional organization known as the Draconic Containment Association (DCA)
In this alternate canon, many a human is turned into a drek, an orm, or even a mavot. Be it by a dragon worshipping cult transforming people, a hiker stumbling across a patch of Ohndemic reality in a national park, or someone getting their hands on a vial of mana, or even just a random moment where ohndemic reality forced it's way into our own.
Sometimes people get turned to dragons and they need a place to go, and the DCA has a place.
The City of Dragons, sometimes referred to as Odassa, is a city that exists in a bubble between realities that is sustained by a powerful godlike dragon known as "The Rift Keeper". Despite it's supernatural location though the city is a modern, contemporary city. While it does have some major differences from a modern human city due to the ergonomic needs of the cityfolk and their jobs in the city it is comparable technologically to any modern city.
When someone is turned into a dragon and the DCA is able to apprehend them, it is typical for them to be sent to this city to live their life. Additionally, all naturally hatched dragons will be raised and will live in this city. Of course this trade isn't free and in return for this space to live away from the eyes of humanity these people turned dragons work as the economic backbone of the DCA. Everything from military hardware and computers to DCA bottles and clothing are manufactured in the city, and the dragons of the city are also the ones who file most of the paperwork that needs doing by the DCA, they even grow the food and products to feed the dragons of the DCA (though not the humans). They are the labor that keeps the DCA up and operational in exchange for this city.
Of course, when you have people working at factories or filing DCA paperwork, jobs spring up to service those people. There are all sorts of occupations in the city for the citygoers themselves, from manicure shops and clothing shops to food stores and everything inbetween. It is a city with a diverse economy that services everyone from the DCA to a drek in need of a can of Romat fruit soda.
This city is pretty massive with the population numbering over 12 million dragons and is an incredibly dense city connected through a rail network. Most of the dragons are drekir, the various drekir breeds making up over 90% of the population with ormer being the largest minority.
Hoping to do more worldbuilding in this city of dragons in my spare time as a lot of stuff needs to be fleshed out. It's the basic premise that when someone in the DCA canon get's all scaly out of nowhere they go here into this massive metropolis.
In this alternate canon, many a human is turned into a drek, an orm, or even a mavot. Be it by a dragon worshipping cult transforming people, a hiker stumbling across a patch of Ohndemic reality in a national park, or someone getting their hands on a vial of mana, or even just a random moment where ohndemic reality forced it's way into our own.
Sometimes people get turned to dragons and they need a place to go, and the DCA has a place.
The City of Dragons, sometimes referred to as Odassa, is a city that exists in a bubble between realities that is sustained by a powerful godlike dragon known as "The Rift Keeper". Despite it's supernatural location though the city is a modern, contemporary city. While it does have some major differences from a modern human city due to the ergonomic needs of the cityfolk and their jobs in the city it is comparable technologically to any modern city.
When someone is turned into a dragon and the DCA is able to apprehend them, it is typical for them to be sent to this city to live their life. Additionally, all naturally hatched dragons will be raised and will live in this city. Of course this trade isn't free and in return for this space to live away from the eyes of humanity these people turned dragons work as the economic backbone of the DCA. Everything from military hardware and computers to DCA bottles and clothing are manufactured in the city, and the dragons of the city are also the ones who file most of the paperwork that needs doing by the DCA, they even grow the food and products to feed the dragons of the DCA (though not the humans). They are the labor that keeps the DCA up and operational in exchange for this city.
Of course, when you have people working at factories or filing DCA paperwork, jobs spring up to service those people. There are all sorts of occupations in the city for the citygoers themselves, from manicure shops and clothing shops to food stores and everything inbetween. It is a city with a diverse economy that services everyone from the DCA to a drek in need of a can of Romat fruit soda.
This city is pretty massive with the population numbering over 12 million dragons and is an incredibly dense city connected through a rail network. Most of the dragons are drekir, the various drekir breeds making up over 90% of the population with ormer being the largest minority.
Hoping to do more worldbuilding in this city of dragons in my spare time as a lot of stuff needs to be fleshed out. It's the basic premise that when someone in the DCA canon get's all scaly out of nowhere they go here into this massive metropolis.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Doodle
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 1280 x 762px
What a lovely city. And presumably with indoor heating as well to make for a much more pleasant winter. I can only imagine that the city is going to get harder to hide as it grows, though.
Oh yeah very lovely city.
it is in a pocket dimension created by a bal thanks to a deal hatched between the DCA and the Rift Keeper so it can grow quite aways. The catch is mostly that the City has to fight the sivilao that interlope in from another reality every now and again
it is in a pocket dimension created by a bal thanks to a deal hatched between the DCA and the Rift Keeper so it can grow quite aways. The catch is mostly that the City has to fight the sivilao that interlope in from another reality every now and again
That kind of sounds like a prison labor camp with extra steps.
I mean there is an element of "you have to live here" But outside of that you are a free dragon as while the DCA and city are linked the City is an independent legal body and cares for it's own. The citizens of this city do have their own civil rights and liberties and generally have the freedom to do as they will.
You are free to do as you want, get a job and make some cash or even start a business. You can join into a preexisting den or found a new den and build a new social group within it, you can pick up hobbies, watch sporting events, or attend parties in the city. The city even has its own internet servers and web browser so dragons in the city can queue into their own social media and forums across the city etc.
You could even work as a service drake and trim claws, a doctor who specialized in alchemical medications, rise in the city politics, keep it humble at a local cafe i mean hell, you could arguably even work at a brothel if you really wanted to.
While the DCA trades with the city and sends dragons there, the city and it's dragons are not necessarily a part of the DCA, you can think of it more as a trade deal than anything. The manufacturing and trade with the DCA is mostly due to treaties and the situation that the DCA is their only trade partner.
You are free to do as you want, get a job and make some cash or even start a business. You can join into a preexisting den or found a new den and build a new social group within it, you can pick up hobbies, watch sporting events, or attend parties in the city. The city even has its own internet servers and web browser so dragons in the city can queue into their own social media and forums across the city etc.
You could even work as a service drake and trim claws, a doctor who specialized in alchemical medications, rise in the city politics, keep it humble at a local cafe i mean hell, you could arguably even work at a brothel if you really wanted to.
While the DCA trades with the city and sends dragons there, the city and it's dragons are not necessarily a part of the DCA, you can think of it more as a trade deal than anything. The manufacturing and trade with the DCA is mostly due to treaties and the situation that the DCA is their only trade partner.
I mean, if an organization captures them, takes them away from their homes and family, makes them live in a specific city, doesn't let them leave, and doesn't let them have contact with the outside world other than the organization, and those people form the "economic backbone" of that organization, I'd call that a labor camp. A very nice labor camp with just enough layers of abstraction, obfuscation, and inefficiency to assuage the consciences of those responsible and minimize the likelihood of a revolution, but still a labor camp. Unless the DCA provide the dragons with free housing, utilities, food, clothing, basic furnishings, and medical care with no strings attached, in which case it would just be a "normal" prison camp.
I think it might also technically be mercantilism?
I think it might also technically be mercantilism?
1) Yeah they do take you in, but that's mostly due to a lack of choice, the DCA can't just let a dragon sit around and let the wider world know that dragons exist. it isn't the perfect solution but they have to keep dragons a secret so if someone becomes a dragon there isn't really a better choice. The only other solution I see is kill the dragons and boy would that be way more depressing.
2)The City is pretty socialist in it's economic policies (Kinda has to be) which we've been discussing in the DragonScape discord. So a lot of things are given as social services including a UBI (Universal Basic Income) to allow a new drek integrating into a city den to buy what they need, along with housing, universal healthcare, all those social programs and whatnot. The city does provide for you if you are taken in by the DCA and you are given plenty of opportunities to get into your new life.
2)The City is pretty socialist in it's economic policies (Kinda has to be) which we've been discussing in the DragonScape discord. So a lot of things are given as social services including a UBI (Universal Basic Income) to allow a new drek integrating into a city den to buy what they need, along with housing, universal healthcare, all those social programs and whatnot. The city does provide for you if you are taken in by the DCA and you are given plenty of opportunities to get into your new life.
Oh. Well then I stand corrected, it's just a very nice prison camp (and maybe mercantilism?). Technically it might count as a very abnormal penal colony.
By the way, none of these "critiques" (for lack of a better word) are critiques of you as person (or even you as a writer). Just because I think you might have accidentally written a very abstract form of slavery into your setting doesn't mean I think you support any form of slavery or anything. So please don't take any of it personally.
By the way, none of these "critiques" (for lack of a better word) are critiques of you as person (or even you as a writer). Just because I think you might have accidentally written a very abstract form of slavery into your setting doesn't mean I think you support any form of slavery or anything. So please don't take any of it personally.
I would disagree with calling it a penal colony or a prison camp but we can agree to disagree on it! I just figure there isn't really any other option to take care of these draconified folks. I could cut the city as an entirely seperate entity from the DCA if that helps alleviate that feeling though and keep the City and the DCA more in a general agreement.
But at the end of the day you gotta put the dragons somewhere.
And nah I figure you aren't attacking me personally of course don't worry about that
But at the end of the day you gotta put the dragons somewhere.
And nah I figure you aren't attacking me personally of course don't worry about that
I mean, if you wanted it to definitely not be a prison of some kind, it would have to be voluntary. If you just wanted to avoid it being possibly a penal colony and/or mercantilism, then being able to have other trading partners would be enough.
But, like, it's fine as it is? I wouldn't go back in time and say "Yes, hello Mister Tolkien? I'm sorry but ummm... You're going to have to rewrite this entire Legendarium. Y'see, it's kind of problematic that you've portrayed an absolute birthright monarchy in a positive light, so uhhh... You're gonna have to cut that part out."
But, like, it's fine as it is? I wouldn't go back in time and say "Yes, hello Mister Tolkien? I'm sorry but ummm... You're going to have to rewrite this entire Legendarium. Y'see, it's kind of problematic that you've portrayed an absolute birthright monarchy in a positive light, so uhhh... You're gonna have to cut that part out."
Well it can't be voluntary just because the DCAs whole job is to contain and suppress draconic incursions into the human world. You can't really hide the existence of dragons while also letting them run around the human world. Trade would also be kinda weird since the DCA often suppresses and destroys various government programs from around the world that dabble in the draconic world.
I mean fine is fine though I would want it to be a bit better if possible
I mean fine is fine though I would want it to be a bit better if possible
I think you're running up against the basic "limitations" of your core premise. "Solving" this "problem" is like trying to make the SCP Foundation heroic. It simply doesn't work.
It's a fine setting as it is, please don't feel pressured to change anything because this one guy kept comparing it to a penal colony (an overly simplistic comparison considering it can't really be compared to anything from real life), we just haven't seen it's dark, rough edges. I can imagine a really sad story about a Draconic person who is able to financially support their sick, like in house but with machines hooked up to monitor her health, going through hell and high water to illegally call their mom to tell her their alright and give some plausible story about where the money comes from, and why she hasn't seen them in months. Like, the DCA would have a cover story for them already, and a few doctored photos to keep up the ruse, but they would never allow them to talk to relatives because most of the time their voices would sound so very different than before, new bodies, New larynx, so talking to someone on a regular basis would be super forbidden. And thats not even going into how their grappling with their changing mind and how Den's have replaced their family structure, basically doing all this because their sick mom really only has them left to financially depend on.
For the moment I probably won't really change anything as I don't think nor feel pressured to do so. This City of Dragons (The name of Odessa sounds pretty cool) I don't really think qualifies as a prison camp/penal colony, I agree there is a forced element of "you have to live here and you don't get to say no" within it and that can be morally grey though it's definitely not a forced labor filled existance.
It's more the DCA appreciates the economic support of the city, though the city does not necessarily have to solely support the DCA. Could be mercantilism as the other guy said, but it's no labor camp.
That is a bleak and sad story and yeah, the DCA will invent a cover story on what happened to a person that will be told to their family members, friends, coworkers etc. to explain their disappearance. They wouldn't be able to allow that drek to talk to their mother in this case and considering that specific situation yeah that's very niche and dark situation.
Also yeah considering how a drek's speech and voice differs from a human yeah he wouldn't sound remotely human
It's more the DCA appreciates the economic support of the city, though the city does not necessarily have to solely support the DCA. Could be mercantilism as the other guy said, but it's no labor camp.
That is a bleak and sad story and yeah, the DCA will invent a cover story on what happened to a person that will be told to their family members, friends, coworkers etc. to explain their disappearance. They wouldn't be able to allow that drek to talk to their mother in this case and considering that specific situation yeah that's very niche and dark situation.
Also yeah considering how a drek's speech and voice differs from a human yeah he wouldn't sound remotely human
Not even remotely like his old self, huh? He'd have to say his throat was injured in some way if she wouldn't buy that he is constantly sick with a bad cough every time he calls her. Maybe if his cover story is that he is working for Greenpiece or Doctors Without Borders he could say he was injured by medicine stealing road bandits or medicine stealing rebels. If his cover story doesn't place him in some remote country besieged by constant violence, he's kinda screwed.
On further thought and conversations about the topic couldn't the City be more defined as a special economic zone? A friend said it reminded him more of the relationship between Hong Kong and China before Hong Kong lost it's EZ status.
The DCA more or less is separate from the City of Dragons and the DCA is just as reliant on the city of dragons as the other way around. It is critical for the DCA to keep those dragons happy.
The freedom of the city benefits the DCA, if the City is allowed to govern itself (which it does through a republic) then those dragons are happy and in return the city produces the tech/weapons the DCA needs to literally keep the world from being consumed by Ohndemic reality.
At least that was the argument from a friend, the city is more like a special economic zone than a forced labor camp or penal colony outside of the aspect in which dragons are forced to live there (because they are dragons and the DCA can't risk that)
The DCA more or less is separate from the City of Dragons and the DCA is just as reliant on the city of dragons as the other way around. It is critical for the DCA to keep those dragons happy.
The freedom of the city benefits the DCA, if the City is allowed to govern itself (which it does through a republic) then those dragons are happy and in return the city produces the tech/weapons the DCA needs to literally keep the world from being consumed by Ohndemic reality.
At least that was the argument from a friend, the city is more like a special economic zone than a forced labor camp or penal colony outside of the aspect in which dragons are forced to live there (because they are dragons and the DCA can't risk that)
Oh I agree that it isn't any kind of labor camp. When you clarified that the dragons are provided with the basic necessities of a dignified existence regardless of if they work for the DCA, that possible "issue" was "solved". And if it's a penal colony, then it's only by technicality. Same for the question of whether or not it's technically mercantilism.
It's definitely still a prison, though. That's just kind of in the nature of the setting, and unavoidable given the basic premise. Which again I don't think is necessarily a "problem". In fact, I probably wouldn't consider the DCA truly Evil per se, so much as definitely morally gray. It's pretty much the same as the SCP Foundation (at least when the foundation is written by people who don't add pointless cruelty for the sake of cruelty).
It's definitely still a prison, though. That's just kind of in the nature of the setting, and unavoidable given the basic premise. Which again I don't think is necessarily a "problem". In fact, I probably wouldn't consider the DCA truly Evil per se, so much as definitely morally gray. It's pretty much the same as the SCP Foundation (at least when the foundation is written by people who don't add pointless cruelty for the sake of cruelty).
Yeah exactly they are living a decent nice, modern existence, though the DCA does want a bit of a clap back I don't imagine it to nearly be as one sided.
I won't argue that it isn't a prison as I think yeah it is, you are forced to live there whether you like it or not and the DCA's hands are kinda tied on that one as they lack a better solution (and I do too lol). Though I think some grey morality adds some spice to story potentials. What about a group of disgruntled dragons that start up a protest or movement that brings out this lack of choice? Or even an insurgent group that is trying to escape the city? I think those could be interesting
I won't argue that it isn't a prison as I think yeah it is, you are forced to live there whether you like it or not and the DCA's hands are kinda tied on that one as they lack a better solution (and I do too lol). Though I think some grey morality adds some spice to story potentials. What about a group of disgruntled dragons that start up a protest or movement that brings out this lack of choice? Or even an insurgent group that is trying to escape the city? I think those could be interesting
Very much so! Also an interesting idea: Individuals within the DCA questions if their actions are really right. Conflicts between those in the DCA who hate and/or fear the dragons, those who pity them, those who are repulsed and/or disgusted by them, those who simply do not care about the dragons (either because they're basically mercenaries who just see it as a job or because they have to avoid thinking of the dragons as people to protect their mental well-being), and those who think of the dragons as just being normal people could also be a good source of storytelling.
Exploring fun ideas like this is what alt-universes are just MADE for
yeah its always fun to think up new ideas based on the same rough premise!
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