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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1256 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Jan 2026 : 03:08:32
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Dragon Magazine was a goldmine of ideas that I miss more than almost anything from the pre4e phase of DnD. It’s lost is second only to the spellplague in the list of things I don’t like that have changed over the years.
With that being said, the ferrous dragons we such a cool concept and I wonder if they could have a place in the Forgotten Realms.
I assume that the Draco Holy Wars and the war with the giants was such a huge span of time that it wasn’t the only thing going on. Do you think the Iron Wars could have fit in to Realmsian history? If so, maybe the ferrous dragons are in exile elsewhere in the world? Graughlothor lives somewhere beyond Maztica to the west or even in the mountains of the Utter East?
Have you ever used them? For reference, these dragons appeared first in Dragon Issue 170, and then updated in 356. I’ve also put up a small book on them for 5e in DMsGuild.
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8066 Posts |
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PattPlays
Senior Scribe
484 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jan 2026 : 09:28:40
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Big G isn't exactly a specific creature.
Big G dies, the next biggest Iron Dragon across the crystal spheres transforms into Big G.
Big G dies, repeat ad infinitum. At least thats how I interpreted the ecology. I love ferrous dragons! Tungstens are my favorite- I had one as a ghost in a dungeon that had been used by dwarves as a tungsten mine. My players investigated a blown-apart foundry that had been hit by the breath weapon of the Tungsten Dragon. The breath weapons of the ferrous are really creative! If you add them to Faerun, be sure to check the date you are playing in. If the game is modern and the final dracorage has come and gone, then all dragonkind should be surging as the giants fail to oppose them. The cult of the dragon has also changed a lot leading up to 5e, so think about what your dragon values more: the tribe of Big G or personal immortality...
quote:
The Supreme Dragon, Gruaghlothor, is the ruler of all ferrous dragons and is an incarnation of all the sovereign iron dragons since the dawn of time. Despite this, Gruaghlothor is not a divine power. Gruaghlothor is said to have been the very first ferrous dragon ever to exist. It was under his guidance that the clan hierarchy was formed. He was destroyed in battle with a huge pack of red dragons. With his dying breath, Gruaghlothor swore to destroy the red dragons if he had to come back from the grave, and return he did.
The red dragons remain, but deep under a mighty mountain burns the smoldering hatred of a thousand kings waiting to flare into the destruction of their age-old enemies. Whenever Gruaghlothor dies, the iron dragon chosen to replace the former goes into a state of hibernation for one year. During this time, the chosen one undergoes a metamorphosis.
When it emerges, it has become Gruaghlothor. There is no solid explanation for how this works, and the iron dragons answer only, “It has always been so.”
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Edited by - PattPlays on 16 Jan 2026 09:46:36 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12225 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jan 2026 : 13:31:11
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After experimenting with it a little bit in some of my stuff, I really like adding these "oddball" dragons over in other parts of the realms that are NOT Faerun. For instance, the amber dragons, I loved adding over in Anchorome. Also, since Anchorome, Maztica, and Lopango are full of deserts... I like the idea that brown dragons AND Sand dragons .... which are both similar in build but different in appearance... browns being slim/long .. sand being stockier with "fins" ... along with the cobra dragons of one book .. are common in those areas. I also like putting in stories where the more common dragons have tried to encroach in these areas and been rebuffed by these dragons as a result (for instance, my article on the amber dragons of Anchorome mentions a conflict between these dragons and greens encroaching their forests).
Similarly, I really REALLY like the idea of filling Anchorome's forests with very "fey" like dragons... whether that's good fey or bad fey. By bad fey, it reminds me of a topic I mentioned in another thread two years back that I never developed... but worth rementioning. The hag dragon.. so just copying that text over here just to aid discussion. Not sure exactly how to fit some of this in with the ferrous dragons mind you, but the idea of "put the other dragons somewhere else" fits. You could have some ferrous dragon though that's been "corrupted" by hags as discussed below.
I was recently at a friend's/player's house ... and while he hasn't played in nearly 15 years, he's always enjoyed the memories of the campaigns I ran for them in the early 2000's. My buddy always enjoyed the games, but he was never one to pick up the game books and read overmuch and just enjoyed playing his fighter-type classes. His son as well grew up hearing us talk, and that same son is now in his early twenties. When his son went to college, he caught the gaming bug, and so he's been playing D&D now for 4 or 5 years. So, he was showing me things he found, and one was this guy who puts up a youtube channel and calls himself "Dungeon Dad" .... and he came up with a concept that I just love, though his implementation I feel needs work personally for if I were going to use it.
So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about "hag dragons" ... and below is the link to give his idea in detail .... but in short, hags take a dragon egg and corrupt it to create a servant being.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvAh33-Filc
So, it occurred to me that what he wrote up could be spun a lot of ways.... and just like liches, there may not be a single way to "corrupt" a dragon egg by hags. He even acknowledges that his dragons will look different based on the base dragon that gets corrupted. It might also vary based on the type of hag that corrupts it. (By the way, this topic also makes me want to make dragons changed by other beings like the aearee).
So, since one of the things I did for the Anchorome campaign was focus a sourcebook on the Amber Dragons ( a sap eating form of dragon that lives in forests and generally keeps to themselves) .... it hit me, what if some hags captured an amber dragon egg and made a unique dragon that's a threat to nature?
So, since we're talking Anchorome, I figured make it a coven of hags, including a "Hisshishtawia" or red woman, a green hag, and maybe a night hag which has come to the material plane. What kind of corruption for the amber dragon? Maybe it needs to drink the sap/blood of living trees (treants, dryads, etc...) and/or magical trees in order to age. Maybe it can also drink the honey of the Abeil if its mixed with the blood of an Abeil Queen...
Along this same line... it occurred to me that these hags might also try to corrupt a turquoise dragon, and that the Great Spirit known as Turquoise Man would absolutely be livid about it.
At present, just throwing out the idea to muse over. What do you think? |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12225 Posts |
Posted - 17 Jan 2026 : 16:15:02
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Returning back to the idea of ferrous dragons themselves.... where would we use them?
Let's look at them?
Tungsten Dragons ... an extremely lawful good dragon that lives in deserts, has a sand breath weapon that is also super heated (so its almost like its breathing molten glass). Its greenish in color. Well, I was already talking about 2 other dragons that breathe sand. Why not a third? These 3 types might compete with each other for territory as a result (brown being evil, sand being chaotic neutral, and tungsten lawful good).
Nickel dragons ... almost a copy/paste of black dragons in many ways .... the only reason I see to include them is for story purposes in saying that "ferrous dragons are here and not chromatic ones"
Iron dragons ... one thing we were doing with Anchorome and Maztica was NOT including a lot of references to using iron and steel by the locals. What if this is because of the iron dragon's NEED to consume iron in their vicinities, and thus any region with significant iron resources is ALSO typically inhabited by an iron dragon clan?
cobalt dragons .... what have we been told? .... decidedly evil, living in underground caves connected to deep, dark forests and jungles, which they strew with traps, and having a "magnetic" breath weapon that does force damage. They're also immune to electricity They are also fiercely protective of their own kin. My thoughts are actually to subtly change these dragons in a way. Their breath weapon seems odd. Their first entry in dragon 170 mentions that they are magnetic and cause things to fly around and hit people. The third edition variant makes this "force damage" and considers being "bull rushed".
What if Cobalt dragons "evil" is misunderstood. What if their breath weapon and/or natural "draconic field" actually cause an effect that interacts with the iron in the blood of individuals? What if it specifically has an effect on nearby iron and carbon, forcing it to combine to make steel. They maybe make this iron in a being's blood extremely "magnetically" charged in that all the carbon nearby materials are attracted to them. This may be why they try to live in caves BENEATH jungles and forests, because at least to some degree maybe they're forced to try and stay away from other living beings? Maybe the plants near their lairs start to suffer from iron chlorosis (yellow leaves with green veins), and maybe iron dragons hunt cobalt dragons because they have a natural tendency to destroy iron deposits (making steel). Maybe this is why they are so reclusive and also why they try to control any living thing that does come in contact with them (because they know, they're likely slowly killing it and the being is likely to turn on them if they don't control them). To note though, they might be perfectly fine having steel or metallic/silican beings around them (helmed/battle horrors, iron golems, modrons, other constructs, etc...)
Chrome dragons are fine as written. They are evil, so they can take the place of white dragons. They are also often confused with silver dragons, so they make a perfect ploy to use on adventurers. Plust their "flesh to crystal" ability can make it such that their lairs are filled with beings who are "perfectly preserved popsicles that never melt". Their breath weapon can either be a cloud of freezing crystals OR a solid icicle that they pierce people with like a ballista bolt. They make nice, coldhearted villains in remote territory to plague adventurers and/or settlements.
Finally, on Gruaghlothor, its said that he died fighting against a large number of red dragons. Its also said that he's not a divine power in the entry where he was created in either 1e or 2e in dragon 170. This predates the concept of primordials. He would seem to fit the concept of a primordial, and maybe he was killed by a mass of the first red dragons that hatched after falling from the sky following the first sundering. Maybe the "renegade" mentioned in the story of Asgorath dying, the coming of red dragons, and the coming of the "dragons of unliving metals" .... is Gruaghlothor and not Bahamut.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 17 Jan 2026 16:53:18 |
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Ferrous Dragons in the Realms
