Dragon Rekindled: The Oroboroi Chronicles is the upcoming GMC-compatible reboot of Dragon: The Embers. It tells the story of the Oroboroi, humans who have consumed the Hearts of Dragons to gain their power, at the price of the previous owner.
The current development thread
can be found on the official Chronicles of Darkness forums.
While overall faithful to the spirit of Embers, Rekindled differs slightly in that the theme is expanded: rather than focusing on divine right to rule and royalty, it tries to cover power as a whole, as well as what you would be ready to do to get it and what you would want to do with it: Oroboroi usually had to kill their predecessors to become what they are, and as such they can't allow themselves to let their power go to waste, or they become vulnerable to their own guilt. The Oroboroi also are a lot more proactive than in previous editions, forming conspiracies and actively trying to influence the course of history despite being on the verge of extinction.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: The Knights of the Bloody Chalice, while always threatening, had no real ability beside turning immortal through their blood bathing ritual and sweating blood whenever they were in proximity of supernatural beings. This version reimagine them as powerful dream sorcerers who can display a large arsenal of other powers and actively infiltrate Hunter Cells.
- Adaptational Heroism: Many of the Philosophies were retooled to be more fleshed-out and nuanced than they were in Embers:
- Ash Dragons were changed from nihilistic fatalists to believing in destruction as a mean to either eradicate bad things (Crime, sickness, pollution) or destroying things so something better can rise from its ashes.
- Sweat Dragons became less "pain is the only thing proving you are alive" and more industrialists who value effort and drive above everything else.
- Tears Dragons were turned from Well-Intentioned Extremist who will do anything to prevent the world from falling into apathy to more benevolent beings trying to help people stay in touch with their emotions and passions.
- Coin Dragons are directly stated to be Materialists: they believe that the acquisition of resources is the most important thing to their cause. They use the money to fund schools and soup kitchens.
- All the Scholars of the Five Evils became part of the other ones, with their evil edicts like Agony and Mutilation now harnessed by the "good guys". Their misuse of power was inherited by the single Antagonist Philosophy: Void, the school of Nihilism.
- Addictive Magic: When manifesting more than ten dots of Ablutions, Dragons become addicted to their power, forcing them to spend willpower in order to return to their human form.
- Ascended Extra: The Deep Ones, while already present in Embers, had a rather small role and were there only to serve as one potential antagonist among others. This version will flesh them out, give them a bigger role as antagonists and even grant them their own Ablutions, which they can grant to Oroboroi as part of their bargains.
- Biblical Motifs: All of it. Pretty much everything.
- Eden: Dominion, outright stated to be a utopia when man was obedient to benevolent gods.
- First Sin: The Collapse, when humans killed the Dragons, and some ate their Hearts. The act of eating a Dragon Heart and becoming an Oroboros is outright called "The First Sin".
- Forbidden Fruit: The dragon Hearts.
- Big Eater: One of the primary ways to recharge their Breath, the other being to sleep on something expensive (a pile of gold will do just fine,
so long as a human body could actually get a decent night's rest on it). Flammable foods, such as high-proof liquor, work even better. So does gasoline. Ammonium nitrate/fuel oil works really well, though there are penalties for eating non-food-like "food". - Blessed with Suck: As usually is the case with the New World of Darkness. You are an immortal, fire-breathing, flying reptile with supernatural abilities and capable of taking a human form. However, your entire life depends on a Soul Jar you have to protect at all cost, since its destruction would mean the end for you. And a lot of enemies will try to get their hands on it, from humans eager to destroy it out of hatred for your kind or to devour it so they can acquire your powers, to other Dragons who just have an addiction to it; you are very likely to sink into paranoia, always living in fear that people might get their hands on the one thing that could permenantly kill you despite all your power. You also have to find something to do with your power, for doing nothing with it will eventually cause you to drown yourself in your own guilt, which will cause your body to change on the whim of people's opinions; meanwhile, going too mad with your power will make you a megalomaniac hedonist who treats mortals like things and just takes what he wants while ignoring the risks.
- Body Horror: Pretty much in every direction, considering the Oroboroi are creatures of thought-made-physical.
- The Reimagining, through which the Oroboroi find themselves permanently altered by the views of others.
- Hydras, where antecedents form their own separate heads on the Oroboros' body.
- The Metamorphosis, where the human body is burned away to fuel a copying procedure where they wake up as a Dragon.
- The Drowning Hosts of the Deep Ones have it the worst, with Deep Ones simply throwing away parts which are no longer useful to them, leading to things like a lack of toes, tentacle-like arms, and uniformly organless interiors. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Deep One can now rewrite parts of their brain chemistry.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Dragons known as Devourers have a habit of stroking their Furnace with Hearts stolen from other Dragons. This practice is even more reviled among Oroboroi than Diablerie is among vampires, since in addition of being morally abject, each Heart devoured cause a Dragon to die permanently, getting their already Dying Race even closer to extinction. It's also very addictive and causes parts of the Devourer's victims to appear on his True Form, eventually growing into full additional heads denouncing his crimes.
- Central Theme: Power. Whereas Embers was more focused on Dragons as a metaphor for royalty and kings, this version chose to use them to explore power as a whole, and how you'd chose to use it.
- Decomposite Character: Or more accurately, Decomposite Philosophy; Ash Dragons' nihilistic tendencies were removed and instead given to a new separate Philosophy, Nihilism.
- Demonic Possession: Deep Ones are now capable of doing with their Heart something similar to what Dragons do by giving their own Heart to eat to mortals, creating what is called "Drowning Hosts". Unlike Oroboroi, a Drowning Host shares control with the Deep One, with the catch being that the Deep One can start removing or adding anything he wants from the body, including organs, but also emotions. Most of the time, the Host ends up nothing more than a puppet in the hand of the Deep One.
- Divine Right of Kings: The "Mandage of Heaven", in which the gods gave Dragons the right to rule over humanity. Except the Dragons WERE the gods, so they may have just made the whole thing up.
- Dragons Prefer Princesses:
- Once again incorporated in the concept of Maidens, albeit in a different fashion than in the original version. Rather than people the Dragons keep captive as a way to feed on their subservience, they are essentially non-draconic friends or loved ones who are supposed to serve as an Oroboroi's Morality Pet. Unfortunately, because of their paranoid nature, Dragons tend to be very protective of them, and can sometimes (especially at high hubris) resort to hold them against their will in an attempt to keep them safe.
- As a nod to this trope, Princesses will have crossover rules granting them bonus if they serve as a Dragon's Maiden.
- Existential Horror: The existence of the Oroboroi in general, such as the fact that the Reimagining means their appearance, powers, and very personality is subject to the whims of others.
- Fridge Horror: In-universe, Oroboroi occultists who learn too much begin realizing the Existential Horror of their situations, especially when they realize that nothing of their physical human body survives the transformation, and they themselves may just be a copy made by the heart, and not the person who ate it.
- Grand Theft Me: One of the new abilities owned by the Knights of the Bloody Chalice; some of them can, whenever they are dying, try to reincarnate inside the body of someone they have imbued with their Breath. Should they succeed, this results in the person dying and changing to match the Knight's old body.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Dragonborn; the children of Oroboroi are born with innate Dragon-like powers, but without a Dragon's Heart, they are still very much human.
- Healing Factor: Dragons can use Breath to "reform", downgrading damage for each point spent.
- Heroic RRoD: Each Dragon can only manifest a specific number of Ablutions safely. If he manifests a number of dots above the level defined by his Heartstring, they will take a toll on his body and cause bashing, then lethal damages.
- Involuntary Shapeshifter: Oroboroi suffer from a process known as the Reimagining, which causes their true form (and at higher Headstring, their human form as well) to change according to how mortals perceive them. They have no control over this, though they can resist its effect if their Karma Meter isn't too far into Guilt, and can flat-out No-Sell it if it's high enough in Hubris. Also, if they take damage from heat or fire in their Human Form, it reveals the scales beneath.
- Klingon Promotion: The Knights of the Bloody Chalice have a loose hierarchy where new members usually rise by killing the predecessors.
- Kryptonite Factor: Jadeite (True chinese hard jade), which inflicts aggravated damages to the Oroboroi the same way silver hurts werewolves.
- Masquerade: Like most supernatural creatures in the World of Darkness, Oroboroi enforce one, which is especially understandable, seeing how back when humans actually knew about them, they nearly exterminated them. In their case, it's enforced simply by the fact that they don't look real, which doesn't actually prevent mortals from seeing them or taking photos, but makes footage of them seem faked and people who have seen them question whether it was a dream.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dominion, when the Dragons were in charge, is described as a golden age of progress and prosperity, when man was able to leave his cave and build the first great cities. The Collapse, when humanity rose up and slew the Dragons, was the end of it all. Of course, this is all according to the Dragons, who may have been embellishing a little on how great they were.
- No Campaign for the Wicked: Played with; it's technically possible to play a Nihilist, but the rulebook warns they make for poor player characters, and advises to use them as antagonists instead.
- No-Sell: Oroboroi suffer no damage from extreme temperatures, and fire only causes them bashing damages, though it does damage their human disguise.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Physically, the Oroboroi are a hodgepodge of traits from various cultural mythologies. They used to be worshipped by humans as gods, but have lost their influence nowadays, and are slowly dying out. They are immortal as long as they maintain a connection to their heart, which allows them to reincarnate as long as it's safe, otherwise they will fossilize; they are unable to procreate naturally, instead passing their powers by having a human eat their Heart. They can assume a human form to walk among mortals. Jadeite is their Kryptonite Factor, and they have a set of Dream Based powers.
- Painful Transformation: the Metamorphosis is described as very painful, feeling like if your whole body was burning and hot spikes were piercing through your chest. It feels pretty good once it's over, though.
- Partial Transformation: One of the Dragons' two powersets work like this; each Oroboroi has a specific set of draconic features known as "Ablutions", which he can chose to manifest separately at more or less high level in human form. Below five dots of Ablutions manifested at the same time, he will still look human aside from very subtle clues, but above, the clues become less and less subtle, and his appearance becomes more and more dragon-like; for example, a Dragon with five dots of Ablution manifested will still look relatively human aside from sharper teeth and an unusual skin tone, while starting with ten dots, he will turn into a Lizard Folk. Manifesting all Ablution dots at the same time cause the Dragon to assume his true form.
- Power Copying: Thanks to the Reimagining mechanics, Dragons can now sometimes acquire abilities reminiscent of the other supernatural creatures they hang out with; for example, an Oroboros hanging out with vampires might develop retractable fangs allowing her to drink blood. This is pretty much the game breaking mechanic that the Deep Ones exploit.
- The Power of Blood: Dragon Blood (possessed by the Oroboroi) is an extremely potent component for Dream Sorcery.
- Reality Warping: Dragons' second set of powers, Purviews, allow them to impose their will on reality. They are very limited however, as each "Impositions" inside a Purview allows only to control a specific facet of reality.
- Reptilian Conspiracy: In this game, it's an organization of Oroboroi.
- Resurrective Immortality: If an Oroboros's physical form gets destroyed, her soul stays anchored to her Heart until the body is repaired.
- Straw Nihilist: The whole Nihilism Philosophy's shtick, as suggested by the name. They are dragons who got their Heart with no purpose behind it, and as such became convinced that life is meaningless. Worse, one of their Purviews actually allows to force this vision on someone.
- Taking Up the Mantle: How Inheritors get their Hearts; some Dragons get tired of their immortality, and end willingly handing their Hearts off to mortals as a way to finally find peace.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: As the decades wear on, some Oroboroi begin to feel guilty and unworthy, and willingly give their Hearts up so that they can find peace.
