Draconid

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Draconid is a term referring to sapient reptilians, amphibians, and related creatures.

The term originates from the Himralda. In their racial hierarchy, draconids are the highest caste. Within it are the subdivisions of greater draconids, middle draconids, and lesser draconids.

Related terms

The term "draconid" is related to the terms "Scaled Ones" and "scalykind." Both of these terms, as far as I'm aware, originate from the book Serpent Kingdoms (2004). They are racial categories devised by the sarrukh, that ancient culture of reptilian humanoids who were likely the first sapient beings to be born on Toril.

"Scaled Ones" is an umbrella term referring broadly to reptilian humanoids. It encapsulates the following groups: scalykind, lizards, serpent constructs, serpents, and serpentfolk. It is to be contrasted with "Scaleless Ones" (i.e., non-reptilian). Dragons are not considered Scaled Ones, presumably because they're not humanoids.

The definition of scalykind is as follows:

SCALYKIND

The term scalylkind includes all creatures with the reptilian subtype, as well as the following creatures from the books published for the D&D game.

Asabi, braxat, dragonkin, firenewt, frost salamander, khaasta, kobold, lizard king/queen, lizardfolk, pterafolk, sa-rkrith, stingtail, tren, troglodyte.[1]

Himraldan racial hierarchy

Draconids Greater draconids Himralda
Middle draconids Tortles
Lesser draconids Bullywugs · Kobolds · Lizardfolk · Xulgaths · Yuan-ti
Ruma Greater ruma Aarakocra · Chshakas · Drow · Gith · Humans · Vedalken
Lesser ruma Pretty much everyone else

This is the Himraldan racial hierarchy. There are two main groups: the draconids and the ruma (non-draconids). The draconids are up top, and at the top of the draconids are, of course, the Himralda. The Himralda believe they are perfection.

They believe "middle draconids" are useful as clerks, bureaucrats, house servants, guards, tutors for small children, advisors, low-level priests, and low-level military officers. They're nice to keep around, so long as they understand their place. The exceptional among them can even rise up to become relatively important members of society.

Lesser draconids barely make the cut as draconids. These are good to keep as slaves and cannon fodder. They're only barely treated better than ruma.

Ruma are not persons, they are chattel—livestock. They are to be fed to gerasaurs and pecaros, and used to fill potholes. The only difference between greater and lesser ruma is that the greater ruma are the most dangerous.

Other races

There are several races not included in the Himraldan racial hierarchy that warrant discussion, namely dragonborn and spellscales. They hold a strange position in Himraldan culture, because they're related to humans: dragonborn (in Marillia) are humans who've transformed themselves into draconic forms, and spellscales are humans with dragon-blood flowing through their veins.

These are strange edge cases for Himraldan racial theory. Luckily, the Himralda haven't had to think too hard about this, since there aren't many of any of those three races in their empire. That being said, what's their stance?

Dragonborn are uniquely hated by Himralda. They're viewed as imposters. Imagine if some kind of racial supremacist met a person belonging to a "lesser race" but who surgically altered their body to resemble the supremacist's race—that's how Himralda view dragonborn.

This might come as a surprise, but Himralda actually value spellscales. Spellscales are viewed in Himralda the way aasimar are viewed in Alicante—someone chosen by the gods/God. They have the blood of the dragon flowing through their veins, and that's what's most important. Two thumbs up.

Endnotes

  1. Source: Serpent Kingdoms, p. 5.