As I lean into developing the Anattan Continent, I explore the possibility of Ur Draxa’s previous influence there. Quickly, the question arises: were the Draxan’s permitted to leave the Dragon’s secret realm, and lead their lives in the outside world, even if only for a time?
It seems the simple answer to this from the excellent Valley of Dust and Fire is no. Yes, the Dragon Warriors might venture out to patrol the Valley of Dust and Fire, along with other elite elements, but beyond the Great Ash Storm, it seems only the Lord Mariner’s undead fleet was allowed to range. It seems Borys took care that they only had mindless crews, though we may speculate undead vasaliches or the like captained the ships. Borys seems to have made it a priority for no Draxan to truly see the outside world. We even hear that incoming slaves to Ur Draxa, fresh from the world, were on pain of death forbidden to speak of the world beyond. Pretty extreme. Borys really wanted his people to live in a world unto themselves.
But I admit I struggle with this. I smile a bit regarding the Ur Draxans coming out to Tyr in Wake of the Ravager, but aside from this, it seems very difficult to me for Borys to keep such a militant and competitive people bottled up inside his city. It seems to me his people might atrophy in such an environment, or go mad in their desire to experience what lies beyond. It is the problem of the Mouse Utopia of recent lore, and I speculate even Borys’ frightening intelligence and magic could not have solved this completely.
Thus, I ask, was there some way for Draxans to leave. Was some Draxan empire of sorts growing along the shores of the Anattan Continent? Once they left, were they allowed to return? What was the Dragon’s true policies on all of this?
The Ur-Draxans or People of Ebe are used in my game as the real messengers of Borys. If things ever get too out of hand to threaten the balance of power or the Levy in the Tablelands, they are tapped to enforce the Dragon’s will.
They also raid off map areas for additional bodies for the Levy.
It is interesting to use the Draxans outside their legendary city. I speculate that, at least during the days of the Dragon, there was little if any need to send the Draxans out to enforce the Dragon’s will. Spies likely had their uses though. We know from DS MC II that the Lord Gladiator Neltor was such a spy, and other Dead Lords such as the Lord Spy, Lord Assassin, and perhaps others kept the Dragon well-informed of significant developments in the Tyr Region. I speculate the Dragon made such outside contact the province of the Dead Lords themselves. Only they were privy to his deeper secrets, I think, and only they were powerful enough to make their capture most unlikely, and thus the secret of even the existence of the City of Doom would remain quite safe to all but the sorcerer-kings themselves.
Recently I have had a concern that the Draxans were literally unable to escape the Cerulean Storm and being boiled alive. With the Dragon so singular as to the security of the City, I thought that he alone might possess the command words to the Gate of Doom so as to cross the Ring of Fire, and therefore the Draxans were trapped and doomed. However, a passage I discovered tells us that the Dragon did extend trust to select of his followers:
To invoke the power of the gate, a traveler must either be with the Dragon when it uses the magical device or know a magical command word. Only the Dragon knows the entire set of command words, and the word differs for each individual who uses the Gate of Doom. No matter where the Dragon is on Athas, it can close or open the Gate by a mere act of will. Usually, the Gate is set to allow servitors of Dragon Warrior, vizier, or templar rank to pass, along with anyone accompanying them.
VoD&F, 36
Conceivably, a fair number of Draxans escaped. What that means for the rest of Athas is hard to say. It would be fun to hear what any of you out there have done with them.