Worldbuilding Dragon-Culture | How monsters affect societies | 

We definitely need a short story of someone venturing above ground and getting scared shitless by the dragon equivalent of a raccoon

Visually this is one of the most striking fantasy worlds I've ever seen

Would be a joy to see more creatures who’s evolution was shaped by draconic presence. Makes the overall world appear even more well thought out.

Please, this is what I yearn for. Speculative anthropology and human cultures is something rarely touched on nowadays. Id love to learn how each and every specific ethnic group and community in this world works. Please keep up the good work my guy.

I love this concept, it's like All Tomorrows meets How to Train your Dragon. I hope we can see much of this, It's not just the idea but the illustrations are awesome as hell. Keep up the great work!

I was going to leave a general comment but this seems like an appropriate place. While the dragon designs are awesome, and deservedly the stars of the show, the integration of each species into the human culture around it is so good! As you point out, so often dangerous mobsters are just plopped into the wilderness and left there, with no impact on the way people act at all. I think it's so impressive, and in some ways perhaps harder than just coming up with a cool dragon

Ngl I expected a faction of theocratic nomads. Humans need lots of space, good soil, and good water. Ash is a good fertilizer, and boiling water purifies it. My first thought was a group of dragon-worshippers following in a wake of destruction and setting up small permanent camps.

May seem odd, but among all of the amazing dragon designs and concepts you've come up with this world, the rugged men and wildly unique groups of people interest me the most. Plus your armor designs are just superb!

Steam punk!? No! We live in dragon-punk

“We descend from giants” I have never heard something so bad ass

Your art is strange in such an amazing way man, it reminds me of looking at morrowinds concept art for the first time. Please keep it going

I love this idea that humans started out as almost eusocial organisms, and from there have developed strategies to defend themselves against dragons. I'm a fan of the pepperman

My take is that humans would just live in heavily forested areas. Of course, here comes the obvious "But can't the dragons just burn the area?!?!" But why would they? Really, imagine a big forest, kilometers of thick woods that cover all, the dragon doesn't create energy out of nowhere, if it were to just burn the whole area it would be losing 10 times more energy that it would gain by eating the humans. Humans can perfectly live in a low profile under woods.

YEEESS THIS HAS FURTHER INSPIRED ME FOR MY DRAGON RULED WORLD! Thanks!

I love the concept of humanity descending from giants via neotheny, I've never seen it before. Kind of reminds how in many mythologies humans are created by gods or titans, maybe they consider their giant ancestors deities or something similar. I also find fascinating how different looking all these kinds of people are, my favourite is a hinterman, hairy humanoids living in cold enviroments are usually depicted as something like a beast or a savage, whereas here they posses an artistic soul.

On the point about Humans evolving on open savannahs and large areal predators being incompatible with that, there were indeed large raptors who preyed upon humans during our early development. Not saying that adding fire breathing wouldn't be a complication, but we already did contend with being predated upon from the skies in addition to all other vectors.

God damn. When asked "How much historical materialism would you like in your world" you answered "Yes." 😂 I love what you did ❤

How humanity evolved alongside giant flying predators is a really interesting question to worldbuild around, and I guess it's something people don't often, consider, I sure didn't, at least on a conscious level; I never asked myself this question for a project of mine but still found an answer for it...

In a world with bears, wolves, and lions our ancestors started built walls... In a fantasy world where dragons exist people build thatched roofs and leave their property open 🤷

I believe that what truly sets the writing of your world apart from other works depicting dragons is how central said creatures are to the setting you've created. In this video you make it pretty clear that, unlike most fantasy works, this is not a world with dragons but a world of dragons, and that has turned out to be an amazingly interesting premise for the setting.

Great stuff here as always!

"Humans" as descendants of Giants is certainly an interesting concept, especially since in D&D Forgotten Realms lore Dragons and Giants are mortal enemies. I hope your audio editing improves over time. The mic is a bit over sensitive and picking up more detail than it needs to.

Love how the entire setting is focused on dealing with dragons as the ultimate power/threat in the world. Always liked deep diving into dragon lore like in DnD, but like you said, most setting keep them detached. This reminds me of a more engrossed and detailed version of the Monster Hunter series and I love to see what you are building.

Ive always wanted a unique Dragon setting and this hit the spot. This setting looks ripe enough for a movie or even videogame adaptation

I've rarely seen the question of how humans evolved in a fantasy setting touched on, this is really cool!

I was waiting for this one. The goat cooks once again

I wish more fantasy settings did more with the freedom granted by the genre instead of just taking medieval Europe and taping on a grab bag of mythological creatures and a basic magic system

In a anime, I remember there being a cool scene where the fallen scales of a legendary dragon are actually used as shrines to scare off weaker monsters from villages. I think it was in the anime Danmachi, which gets really good in the later seasons.

One really good example of a culture built around dragons, I feel, is The Dragonriders of Pern series. This is of course is not a societal structure made in response to dragons as apex predators in the environment, but instead of the society being organised to support the dragons as part of defences against a much different threat that also comes from a skyward vector. Most of the tension in the early part of the main block of the story (this is a setting who's history spans millennia) comes from major portions of society not wanting to continue supporting the great economic infrastructure requirements of the dragons. In that sense, it is an inverse of the considerations proposed in this video. What does a society look like that is structured so as to enable maintaining thousands of domesticated multi-ton carnivores, along with the full-time occupations of their riders and dedicated support staff who also have to be maintained.

I have an idea for a Dragon if anyone wants to hear (or read in this case) What about one based on a corvid. Like Ravens, Crows, and Magpies. Dragons that are smart, able to solve puzzles and use simple tools like sticks and rocks. I imagine they would be a nuisance to keep out of cities, as they always find new ways to break in, or draw people out. Just food for thought.

I love all the thought you put into the humans of this world. Probably my favorite version of humanity in a fantasy setting

The Hintermen are my personal favorite human culture in this setting. I would happily attend one of their operas.

This was the coolest thing ever

I love how you draw

I am so happy that you have a youtube channel, the dragonslayer codex is one of my favorite spec evo projects EVER

Fantastic! I thought the same thing about people will living underground or in mountains but only after they have been attacked by a dragon. Yours is more detailed in a evolutionary and sociological level. Hope to hear and watch videos from you 😊

I'd say this experiment is a success! Always love to see how thought-out, and yet still wildly imaginative the Dragonslayer's world is - these comprehensive videos have worked very well as the connective tissue between the otherwise isolated Codex pages. Asking out of silly interest (since I can imagine it's not in your plans at all for this world haha) - if the current timescale of the Dragonslayer's world is, say, in medieval times to us - what would a "modern" age Dragonslayer world look like?

How would mixed-race children work in your universe? Some of these nations are strikingly different from others, such as the Hinterman and the Wing-Runners, could their offspring be healthy and fertile? Sorry if questions are intrusive, I just can't help but want to learn more with such interesting worldbuilding

Very cool mate. My idea would be that one of humans first important tasks would be to "craft" some material that is fire resistant and that you can wear as armor. This could be some slimey honey-like stuff in which you soak your normal cloth clothes and that at least repels fire for like a minute or something and then also burns or, and this is also a second idea that can be expanded, they use the scales of dragons themselves that might be fire resistant. Either after they managed to slay one or they find a carcasus that died of age. So here there is also the idea of taking the biological material of dragons and use the bones of construction or amuletts, the skin for something, the scales for armor etc. (Everything high value of course) also search for 16th century warfare (pike square or "Gewalthaufen"), they got extremely long pikes which would also be helpful against dragons, applicable to your setting. ❤ Oh, how interesting the religion will be... :)

Honestly the idea what, for humans to ever exist in a world populated with giant fire spitting reptiles, their ancestral species of primates have to also be something suited for that world is actually really clever. And making those proto-humans - Giants, is just genius idea. Like, it’s only natural what primates would be easy prey for dragons, hence to survive they had to adapt to not be an easy target.. By becoming elephant sized though-skinned creatures.. As a whole that is really interesting interpretation of that fantasy trope of humans actually being descendants of something greater in a way, like giants. Ad that’s pretty much explains WHY exactly humans despise dragons. Because they ALWAYS were the possible prey for them, even before humans, it’s just in their genetic memory.

Welcome back good sir. I do like the idea of exploring how cultures adapt to overcome the threat of dragons, I also like the idea of the different humans having physical and genetic differences that also give them unique benefits in their environments.

Lol this gives me ideas for my own draconic world. I've been compiling every dragonish thing I can find and putting them on a tree of life. It's set in the bronze age too, so it's a bit earlier than the other medieval dragon worlds.

Love your world building man, this broadened my already great love of dragons. You’re going to release a proper book one day yeah? This seems to good not to be a physical book

This is the best dragon universe I've ever seen. Keep up the work my guy I wanna see more of it

Absolutely obsessed. Love this concept. Such natural complexity and progression from such a simple idea.

I feel like dwarves are the most likely to survive such a world cause they are too small to notice and dig into the ground where the dragons cant get to them.

Brilliant. I love that the humans aren't quite the same as real humans would be and why should they? This is an alternate world where people evolved differently and have to deal with different threats. Lately I've also been questioning why is it that fiction starring dragons doesn't have more thought put into the environment. If a giant flying lizard can pass by and just burn down your whole town, why aren't there ways to prevent it or people building better homes? In parts of the world where tornadoes are common people go into the basement. In places with extreme snow storms people live in high buildings and so on.

Your Sorry!? What are you babbling about!? This is Pure brand level of bloody epic fantasy definition!!! Truely For Gold Edition of Speculative Worldbuilding Biology! You literally show how a Realistic Reign of Fire Should actully work! Groovy Fairly Humies!!! Simply Marvelous! Cant wait to see your Giants, Beasts and More!!! 👏💝🐉

I love the evolution from giants to smaller species and how the different "sub-races" look, really well done!! And beautiful art :O

Now I'm curious will we'll see other Megafauna like "Gryphons" or Dangerous Flora like Barbed Seedpods or Carnivorous Flytraps

Something ive been feeling inspired by for dragon based societies is the new dragon lore in the elden ring dlc. We already knew of ancient dragon and their lesser drake descendents, and about dragon communion, where people would eat the hearts of drakes to gain power. But as it also turns out, the progenitor of the drakes and the lord of the ancient dragons have a long held rivarly, and that humans were set up to hunt the drakes by the ancient dragons, since they knew the short lived humans would be reckelss enough to do so. I think a whole society based around this could be really cool. Its sort of a synthesis between "dragons as mere wild beasts" and "dragons as primordial intelligent beings"

Its nice to learn how humans evolved and from their cultures within a world rule by dragons but I do wonder are there any psychical attributes to be a worker or guard, thought training or both ? and since they are Descendants from giants so how big can they get ?

on humans evolving to living in hive-like / eusocial communities: check out Stephen Baxter's Coalescent (and, to a lesser extent, the other parts in the Destiny's Children trilogy) for a very interesting and well-developed (scifi) take

After watching all your videos Sawyer, I think you’ve more than earned a subscription from me. Dragons are a subject I’ve always enjoyed in general, but I truly love this setting you’ve put together, from the diverse creatures to the unique civilizations that coexist with them. Like many people have already said, I think this is the only setting I can think of where it is actually influenced by the dragons as a whole. I hope the concepts in this video will be explored more thoroughly in the future videos, I’d really like to see some for the giants and my favorite group, the Hintermen.

I love the giant origin for human evolution

So the only way humams combat drahons is evolve into dwarves

I am your follower on DA for a while and I've been fascinated in this world of Dragon Slayer Codex. I'm so happy to see you have a Video channel. I cannot wait to watch all of them. Subscribed!

Seven generations, but every single building is new

Please go into more depth about the giants!

Goes hard, your a huge inspiration dude. Huge fan of the civilization route you took, super interested in the slayer stories and the the codex release

man this is so cool, i love how the region shapes the culture of the population. you really nailed it❤

This is something I don’t see very often in media but you have portrayed it very well. My favorite dragons are the hushmurmur and the sideblinder I think it was called, the dragon with reflective wings and frills

woahhhh!!!! just discovered your channel via this video! im so enraptured by this world! your whimsical and grounded design and art is just amazing

To be honest, I clicked the video expecting how a generic human dnd society would actually deal with a near constant presence of dragons, not its entire evolutionary journey under them, but its quite impressive regardless!

This video was unexpected, but a really cool surprise that was fantastic to watch. I remember wondering how humanity came to be in a world full of dragons, and this video did a good job of touching on that. It’s also really interesting to see the diversity of physiology humans have in this setting, I feel like it’s something often poorly explored in most alternate worlds. Overall a great introduction to the people who call this setting home. Honestly I enjoyed this video alot. While I love the usual dragon videos I hope we get more like this in the future further exploring the worlds flora, non-dragon fauna and unique cultures 😁

We already live in a society built around dragons Don't forget that

Hi there! I had a neat idea for a Anti dragon weapon inspired by the gunlance from monster hunter: It's a large 2 handed Lance with a hollow tip for ejecting poison, on the grip of the weapon there is a trigger to eject the poison, typically when it is embedded in the flesh of a dragon, that acts as a potent neurotoxin to make the dragon uncoordinated at least, and unable to move muscles in the effected area at worst. Obviously you can't make it too overpowered because it removes all the pressure from a fight but its still lethal enough that a 2-3 man squad could effectively use it.

Allways glad to have more of unique and high quality world-building

I’m surprised D&D didn’t make such a setting. You’d think it would be easy money.

I would love to see a video on how the dragons in general have evolved to adapt to the tactics of their human pray

I had this exact thought a few months back. If dragons are do powerful and sometimes even smarter than humans, how the hell they are always subjected to just be a animal that needs to be killed or worst, just be a fancy ride for knights. I even made a TTRPG about this. On my RPG the dragons are the main characters and not just a cool thingy on the background.

This is amazing! I thought the humans were going to look normal but this make sense in a world filled with flying, fire breathing animals that can be as common as a bird.

Whoa, the quality of this earned my sub

I think game of thrones did a good job with valarian dragon steel and stone melted by dragon fire. The iron throne was made from surrendered swords and melted together with dragon fire.

Short stories from characters perspectives would be so awesome! Especially in styles similar the AJ picketts dnd monster profiles for example the aurumvorax. Your videos are super awesome and I hope to see more 😊

Hey,lee what about a group of people who instead of fearing dragons became dragon worshipper by sacrificing their people to the strong dragons to protect them from other dragons

2:16 I never really thought about the evolutionary history of humans in a medieval fantasy setting. The only fantasy author I can think of who's even touched on it is GRR Martin in the ASOIF novels. Where he has other species of human like the brindled men exist in sothoryos. Implying humanity evolved naturally in planeteos instead of being divinely created by a god or gods.

Humans be like "reject modernity, become ant"

God i love the way you build your world, the level of detail you put to making the dragons and everything around them make sense is amazing

i love worldbuilding stuff keep up the videos man

the algorithm is starting to algorithm

I love this!! Recently went back to my own worldbuilding project and RU-vid gave me this video, I love the concepts and the idea of humans descending from giants. Instant sub because I want to see more

Would be interesting to see da vinci like inventions used in this setting, for improved civilization and to fight against the dragons I would also like to see if there would be more nations that have tamed dragons or other species to fight dragons. "In order to fight monsters we created monsters of our own" sorta way, kinda like the kinghound

This is amazing, I usually don’t find fantasy worlds interesting but this has really caught my eye. I love that the people are descended from giants and I love all of the designs of the dragons and especially the animals you’ve made that live in tandem with them. Thank you Sawyer Lee this is possibly the best fantasy world I’ve seen since snaiad

Haha yep, this is why my setting's dragons aren't generally stomping around the same plane as the humans. Now animals with dragon-like features, absolutely. A horse-like animal with armored scales is still very cool, and useful, but nowhere near as overwhelmingly powerful. I feel like other fantasy creatures are much more manageable evolutionarily. A chimera isn't much more of a threat than a raptor species: not big enough to carry an adult human while flying and not so strong that an adult human wouldn't be a serious threat. They would largely be a threat to children, not adults. The pressue would then be to group up for the safety of the young, which is not a huge difference from the pressures exerted by big cats in real life. Humans were prey once, and it shows in our parenting behaviors. I don't totally buy your giants-to-humans evolution here. The issue is that your giants are herbivores like ground sloths, meaning they have chosen the path of investing in a complex digestive system. In the real world, this is mutually exclusive with evolving a complex brain. You need some kind of extreme event to explain why a species that had chosen to solve the problem of tough vegetation by developing a bigger and bigger gut, would suddenly change course. Maybe your neothenous giants developed on an island? Perhaps one which became more open as the climate warmed up, but which lacked any large dragons: larger fliers are usually clumsy so perhaps this island was just too far away. Or, you might relocate your giants to the polar areas of your world and make them omnivores: their large size would be an adaptation to the cold then. In this scenario, the hairy faces of the hintermen would be an ancestral condition rather than a novel evolution. Also, these are subspecies, not just cultures. Which makes sense given the genetic isolation imposed by the dragons.

I absolutely love this world you've made, keeping in mind both the small and large details to make the world feel more alive and diverse. It makes me want to explore the world in its entirety myself. Through some form of media of course, as if I were to wind up there as I am, I'd surely became a dragon snack.

I'm curious: evolutionarily speaking, are all these groups different species of human (like with _Homo sapiens_ and Neanderthals) or just different forms of one species, similar to dog breeds? Also, I loved the video!

Really wonderful worldbuilding!

Great ideas, really! I am loving your codex. My personal favourite must be the kinghounds: it’s such a simple yet effective concept. Love your works, really

Cool. I did something similar for my homebrew but focused more on the Gods than on Dragons. Also a lot of work went into understanding the nature of magic. In my world Humans, Orcs and Elves all evolved from a common Hominid Ancestor. The Elves were those that fled to the lands of the Fae to avoid a devastation, while the Orcs made a pact with a Bestial Spirit and were infused with hardiness and rage. Vanilla humans were the rest of humanity and survived in part by hiding, part by breeding profusely and part by being captured and enslaved by an assortment of other peoples. Dragons were more tied into the nature of magic than simply being predators and there are not different colors or metals of dragons, each dragon is unique and its nature determined by its diet, environment and magical influences surrounding it.

Haven’t watched the vid yet, but the cover is giving me Panzer Dragoon flashbacks

This is so cool! I love the art style and has some cool world building. Would love to see a map of your fantasy world and to see the different cultures, kingdoms, heraldries, warriors and armors. Perhaps there could be a tribe/city of humans that specialise in hunting the dragons like a "Monster Hunter". Great stuff boet! Would love to see more.

Impeccable. Such a creative and original setting, love the cultures and their way of adapting to the dragons of their world

Hey.....wait a minute.....this isn't the epically detailed spec evo dragon video I signed up for! (this was a fantastic video dude! I'd welcome more like this to the channel! Love your work!!!)

Another dragon video nice! Keep up the good work!

Wow, I'm looking forward to learning more about the factions in your world

This is insane. I was literally coming up with a world where ironwork and smithing is too dangerous (long story) so dragons are hunted to make armor from their hides. And now I come across this

This is cool and inspiring as heck. Now I want to get back to developing my own setting

This was a great video and I would love to hear more on pretty much every topic brought up. It’s really interesting and like you said, not really something that we think of when we think of dragons in a world, but this kind of approach to biology and evolution with dragons present is really awesome and interesting to think about. Loved all of it!

Loved this, would be super interested in seeing more