The title pretty much sums it up. Most of the Dragon Metamorphosis focus structures were pyramids/ziggurats (Tectuktitlay, Kalak, Kalid-Ma), Abalach-Re had a flat pyramid for her jaunt in Forest Maker and Rajaat had his inverted research pyramid in the swamp at the Jagged Cliffs.
I know the Draj ziggurat ties in with the Mesoamerican culture of the city, but it doesnt explain the preponderance of pyramidal/ziggurat focus structures elsewhere. Rule of cool or something more profound?
Thatās a good question, and the answer is one that is grounded in real life and is too long to post here. But hereās a good article.
Whether the designers intended this is unknown.
EDIT: Thereās also this.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta09.htm
Scroll down to āThe Pyramid Mysteriesā.
I think itās utilitarian reasons. The shape of the Ziggurats are perfect as a focus for psionic and magical energies.
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Iād say the designers were actually inspired by the pyramidal monuments of the ancient cultures and didnāt give much thought to it. Everywhere you look, you can see pyramids or ziggurats. From Egypt and Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica and Cambodia, almost every civilisation had a pyramidal structure in some form. One of the main practical reasons was its stability (better weight distribution), but it also had a supernatural reason, that of the connection to the sky, the stars, the afterlife, the deities.
Apart from that, redking gives a fine reason for the existence of pyramids/ziggurats in a fantasy setting.
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Plus every evil villain needs a pyramid/ziggurat to sit on top of/ stand in front of.
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@redking Totally agree! I believe Dragon Kings talks about it.
@zontoxira Yes, i donāt think that the designers actually gave much thought to their actual real life purpose, and just kind of slapped them in there since most ancient cultures had them, whether as an actual pyramid, a ziggurat, or a more primitive giant mound.
@ReWerk lol, i agree. Fights on a ziggurat can be very fun, and add a new layer of complexity and challenge to the fight!
Mesoamerican ziggurats were associated with both sacrificial rituals to appease the gods and bring fertility to the land as well as āgod-kingsā self mutilating so their blood could be the conduit for a rebirth of life. Often located near places where games were played to the death, with the deaths being sacrificed to the gods.
Chinese pyramid(s) were burial sites for at least one deified emperor who was to rule eternally over a representation of his kingdom, complete with his clay soldier army.
SE Asian structures (actual name escapes me at the moment) like Angkor Watā¦ Well, it is the largest religious site in the world and encircled by canals and intricate levies that once allowed for a fertile crop harvest likely 2x a year (a very similar take on this is in Draj).
Egyptian pyramids were resurrection machines meant to protect the king inside and keep his cult going while he transcended his current, physical state and went to join the sun in its journey and Re in his combat against the evil serpent of chaosā¦
Mesopotamian ziggurats were centers of worship and seats of power, but donāt know much more about their specific, intended functions.
Aside from matching up to the technological era, visually meshing well with the various city statesā¦ The themes fit well, too, at least in an allegorical sense. That Raajatās was upside down I think is an intended comparison to show where his intentions were the entire timeā¦ And an upside down ziggurat kind of looks like an arena, to me at least.
Could just be a happy accident and they thought the feel of the structures looked cool, too?
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Straight up rule of cool. Any other answers you get are going to be tacked-on afterthought justifications.
Some of those TOAJs are pretty cool though.
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