Yellow Dragons and D&D's Draconic Color Theory

[@wraithreaper22]

All other dragons: We're facing extinction! Yellow Dragons: Correction, YOU'RE facing extinction. 🐆

[@maxxor-overworldhero6730]

Tiamat butchering a sister honestly feels completely in character for her.

[@craigford33]

😂 the accuracy

[@MiniCerberus991]

Bahamut: Can you stop being a kinslayer for five freaking minutes?!?

[@ravenouself4181]

@@MiniCerberus991 Tiamat: No

[@C29Chris]

The purple dragon seems to be stronger than it’s red and blue parents with its plasma beam so Maybie Tiamat had a younger sister who was growing in power and size quickly and Tiamat devoured her, thus causing some echo of the memory of her sister to reside in Tiamat and all the dragons she is the mother of, leading to the rare but inevitable crossbreeding happening as a form of her sister still existing as she was not destroyed but absorbed by her big sister. Maybie Tiamat has the ability to grow her sisters heads back and just saving this ace up her sleeve.

[@Sparrow_Bloodhunter]

well she did kill her brother Vorel to frame Bahamut.

[@peternagy92]

Another option: Dragons use RGB, so having red, green and blue dragons as primary dragons could work. But if they use RGB, that means that instead of orange dragons we would have cyan dragons, and magentas instead of purples, because R+G=yellow, G+B=cyan, and R+B=magenta. This is my canon now, you can't stop me from worldbuilding!

[@arcticdino1650]

I love this headcannon

[@agsilverradio2225]

Exactly. The writter of the yellow dragon didn't know as much about collor theory as he thoguht he did.

[@Muriuki34]

Yep. Light VS pigments

[@vollavolt1712]

This is the superior colour theory.

[@ConnorSinclairCavin]

There are already light dragons and crystal dragons which seem to use those patterns, but it is indeed an option

[@brianroberts783]

I've always thought that maybe this sister was Lernaea. According to the 5e Monster Manual, Lernaea was an ancient rival dragon goddess who was killed by Tiamat, and wherever Lernaea's blood fell it spawned hydras. It just fits too well. As the goddess of hydras, Lerneae is described as multi-headed, and is actually described as having been killed by Tiamat.

[@Type_blazenil]

If each of your heads gives you a different Power, more heads is better

[@benkayvfalsifier3817]

That makes sense, but with the addition of gem psionic dragons I've been wondering who is the dragon deity of the gem dragons.

[@Type_blazenil]

@@benkayvfalsifier3817 I have absolutely no idea

[@brianroberts783]

@@benkayvfalsifier3817, in previous editions, Sardior the Ruby Dragon was ruler of all gem dragons, although whether or not he's a god can be hazy at times. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, though, it mentions Sardior being killed, and so the gem dragons have no single leader in 5e.

[@EvelynNdenial]

@@brianroberts783 what the fuck could kill sardior? he is certainly on the level of a god, and he possesses another gem dragon every time he dies.

[@Thiccremoch162]

I really like the idea of a Yellow and Topaz dragon within the same territory being constantly mistaken for eachother, and they both absolutely hate each other

[@finchbird2419]

And then it turns into an enemies to friends to lovers, and they create the first Lemon Dragon 😂

[@stupididiot4034]

​@@finchbird2419HOT DRAGON SEEEEEEEX!

[@AnarchoEnby420]

​@@finchbird2419I was thinking something similar lol

[@dandelion_fritters]

And a bronze dragon is just on the side eating popcorn writing down all the things for a work of art later.

[@dranoradragonqueen1494]

@@dandelion_fritters lol oh my gosh yahsss

[@christophermzdenek]

I ran something like this a couple decades ago. The other dragon goddess was Irkalla (sister goddess of Tiamat in Babylonian mythology). Heads of yellow, purple, orange, brown and grey. For the grey I used a template of white, but gave it necrotic (negative energy back then) breath. Nowadays, I'd just use a shadow dragon template for a white. It started with an adult blue "making an offer they can't refuse" to the party, as a trio of browns had stolen her eggs. The true story is that a lot of chromatic egg were being stolen to be sacrificed in a ritual to return Irkalla from the dead husk floating in the astral sea into a living goddess again, all to displace Tiamat in Avernus. The standard chromatics really were the lesser of the two evils. The campaign sadly ended due to all but one player moving away within a month time frame, but while we were playing, it rapidly evolved into a political game dealing with different factions of dragons as the party tried to enlist Gem and Metallic assistance.

[@DungeonDad]

This is very cool, that sounds like it was a really awesome campaign.

[@burningbronze7555]

They already made grey dragons

[@saurianwatcher4437]

@Burning bronze now, yes. But at the time, not necessarily. Also, as most of D&D was at the time subscription magazines or purchasable books and the internet wasn't really accessible until the end of 3.5, it's fairly easy for someone to not have the very minimally available Grey fang dragons not accessible or known about.

[@dauntless_5628]

I shall make Irkalla’s appearance and lore: Irkalla is Tiamat’s younger twin sister with heads of Yellow, Orange, Purple, Brown, and Grey with a completely yellow body and a barbed tail (opposed to her sister’s Red, Blue, Green, Black, and White heads red body and a tail that ends with a stinger) Irkalla was half her sister’s size and much kinder and curious, always willing to learn more about the world, she believed there was more to life than razing civilizations to the ground and taking gold, but Tiamat was ashamed of her hating the fact they were twins, so one night when Irkalla was asleep Tiamat killed her and ate Irkalla’s flesh and hid her skeleton in the depths of the Far realm to be sure she could never be resurrected, when Irkalla’s children found out what happened to there mother they were outraged and declared war of the other Chromatics (Irkalla’s young being called the Explorers and Tiamat’s the Exploiters) a war that lasted centuries only ending when , the Giants seeing the weakened dragons decided to attack, the Explores seeing they wouldn’t be able to fight the Giants made a pact “as long the Giants never harmed a scale on The Children of Irkalla they will stay out of Giant territory” with the pact made they left the Exploiters to die, but with there mother gone they couldn’t repopulate fast enough so they went into hiding but they made a promise to kill any of Tiamat’s followers on sight (though after all the years there hatred has calmed down to a strong distain) Edit:spelling fixes

[@j2minerblacksands881]

Now I want to have a plot that is a slight modification of adventure "THE RISE OF TIAMAT" where the unnamed sister alive but having her essence being split apparat into several off colored dragon avatars and it the the party's job to reassemble them before Tiamat finds her way out off the abyss.

[@MykeFahrenheit]

Tiamat is in Baator, not the Abyss, but cool idea

[@AzraelThanatos]

There is the old story of the sister of Bahamut, Tiamat, and Sardior who Tiamat killed for, supposedly, daring to duplicate her work with the Chromatics to make the lesser chromatics (Orange, Yellow, Purple, Brown, and Grey). There was an odd metaplot of 3/3.5 which included a few references to the sister existing and tied her death into the entire Vorel story. Her soul is, supposedly, sealed in Tiamat's horde somewhere with her name bound away so no one can learn it without Tiamat's permission...though Bahamut and Sardior are strong enough to do so without it.

[@sporf_sporf]

Would have loved a side plot to try and bring the Ferrous dragons in against Tiamat or at least keep them from joining on her side. They want to return dragons to dominance, but also hate reds for killing their leader.

[@MykeFahrenheit]

@@sporf_sporf that's already in the adventure, it's Episode 6

[@charlottewalnut3118]

You know she is evil too right so that would just be too super deadly monsters wreaking havoc

[@krimsonentertainment4717]

Imagine being turned into a salt-lick for a giant yellow sky puppy

[@nerdmon7]

That sounds painful, but also a turn on for certain people.

[@zavexcapricious2519]

One thing to note about Tiamat is that her 5 heads are only the colors they are because those are the ones she DECIDED to use for her form, in lore she can have an combination of heads up to 5 as long as they are chromatic and there isn't two of a single color, so she what colors and number of heads she NORMALLY has is a mystery, so yellow dragons might suggest she originally just had 3 of the primary colors

[@Lorkynn]

Tiamat killing her sister would extremely in character for her, and considering her completely stalemate with Bahamut, it could explain why he refuses to take her side. Just the existance of Yellow Dragons opens the door for so much more lore. The only setting I can see it spinning its wheels is Eberron simply because of how inter-woven dragons are to the setting.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

Killing her sister and then erasing her sister's name from history, even more in character.

[@Fibirdnacci-sequence]

With all of the snake like shedding, I feel like having the yellow dragon use those shed skins like illusions and dummies to trick your players feels very on brand. Hiding among these could be an alternative lair action, highlighting its intelligence and tricky nature.

[@DungeonDad]

That's a really clever idea

[@garryame4008]

I wonder what the 3 headed sister of Tiamat would look like in 5e.

[@Blandy8521]

Purple, orange & yellow

[@capy-karma186]

@@Blandy8521 No no no. Purple, Orange, Yellow, and a White stub.

[@NSG0079]

Plaid, Polka Dots, and Houndstooth.

[@crudkick]

@@capy-karma186 white stub?

[@capy-karma186]

@@crudkick Where the White Dragon head used to be, so both Tiamat and her sister used to have an even number of heads before she was destroyed

[@tomkerruish2982]

Red, blue, and green are primary colors of light. Their combinations form cyan, magenta, and yellow.

[@DungeonDad]

That's true! I really wanted to get more into the color theory part of this video but I just ran out of time, so I only included the bits relevant to the D&D concept stuff.

[@KebaRPG]

Red, Blue, and Green are the Primary Colors of Light that Human Eyes have Evolved to detect best to be more precise. Different Animals have different Ranges of Electromagnetic Spectrum they have Evolved to detect proficiently. Though Red, Blue, and Yellow are the Primary Colors of Pigments which are how Human Eyes interpret Light reflecting(/refracting) off(/through) an Object.

[@WolforNuva]

@@KebaRPG I'm pretty sure pigments primary colours are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. I remember never being able to mix up anything but dull greens using yellow and blue paint, but printers using only those colours can still get some very bright vivid greens.

[@KebaRPG]

@@WolforNuva l am old, back in my day they said Blue... The problem is what most Americans call Blue is closer to Indigo. What Isaac Newton called Blue when he was working on Color Theory of Light was probably closer to Cyan/Azure (Sky Blue).

[@WolforNuva]

@@KebaRPG Fair, also I think worth noting is that the further back you go the less complex out language for colours get. For instance orange used to be considered a shade of red. This is just speculation on my part, but I imagine this is likely what initially introduced a lot of confusion on colour theory - what we call magenta today was likely also red back then, and cyan was probably called blue, but as more words introduced more nuance to other tones and shades, the common consensus that the primary colours are "red" "blue" and yellow remained.

[@ruffles4scruffles]

In my homebrew, Tiamat was created be the "True Dragons" or Platinum Dragon in order to spawn more specialized offspring. She had a twin sister named Ninursag. Eventually there was an uprising and Timat killed Ninursag. The problem there was that Bahamut, a prince at the time, was in love with Ninursag. So he vowed to to lead her children, the metallic dragons, in a campaign of vengeance against their mothers killer, Tiamat. The Yellow, Purple, and Orange dragons were created by experiments done on Tiamat before the uprising. Their Metallic counterparts are the Steel, Iron, and Lead dragons.

[@DungeonDad]

That is a very cool expansion on dragon lore. I dig it!

[@remuslebeau6570]

What's the metallic counterpart for pink dragons

[@ruffles4scruffles]

@@remuslebeau6570 Rosegold?

[@remuslebeau6570]

@@ruffles4scrufflesmost likely

[@obiwankenobi9439]

@@remuslebeau6570 that a euphemism?

[@aaroncunningham8307]

My headcanon for the Dragon Color Theory is is that Tiamat created some primordial dragons and had them experimentally breed to see what they would create. She eventually picked her five favorite breeds as her representatives (hence the heads) while the rest were either wiped out or left to fend for themselves.

[@DoubleDimensional]

It seems like it would make more sense if chromatic dragon colors were additive, instead of subtractive. That way the three primary colors from Tiamat would be red, green, and blue, and the secondary dragons of Tiamat's sister would be yellow, cyan, and magenta.

[@ToonedMinecraft]

Exactly what I was thinking, it took a while before I even saw this mentiones it the comments

[@lukemabe9380]

*slaps desk* THANK YOU!!!

[@JCPRuckus]

Except dragons don't glow. So that doesn't make sense. Especially since yellow, purple (deep), and brown (dark orange) dragons already exist in older editions. I mean, of course you can handwave the lack of glow by saying "it's dragon magic". But that's just an excuse for not building a logically consistent world in the first place. Better not to overuse that crutch.

[@bagaboo4746]

Yellow=salt? Cyan=force Magenta=psychic

[@ansleyp001]

@@bagaboo4746 I still like magenta (purple) making plasma, as a combo off fire and lightning, so cyan would be a combo of poison and lightning. Maybe corrosion, a perfect weapon against metal dragons, justifying their complete erasure from even these dragon video essays.

[@ItsAllNunya]

Yellow, orange, purple, grey, and brown. Two 5 headed sisters. Actually a dope idea. Using this for my future rise of tiamat campaign i think....i have ideas

[@skynyrdjesus]

Bizarrely this makes an incredible amount of sense to me and really helps to bridge the gap between green dragons and the other chromatics. Red are pure ego, Black are pure cruelty, White are pure instinct, and Blue are pure strategists, but Greens are all about plotting, which is a mix of strategy and deceit. I love the idea of a yellow dragon, the essence of lies and deceit, sneaking into Gold dragon society.

[@LordSephleon]

I remember the Yellow Dragon, along with all the "other" dragons from the 2E Monstrous Manual (and a few from other setting books, especially the unique ones). I always found the whole dragon ecology fascinating - nevermind that I've used dragons incredibly rarely in my 25+ years of DMing - and I especially tended to lean towards the lesser-known dragon types when considering involving one because they were, well, lesser-known. Gem dragons were my personal favorites (with Deep Dragons and Shadow Dragons not far behind), but I appreciated all of them.

[@DungeonDad]

I am also a big fan of gen dragons. I want to do a video covering them sometime and maybe comparing the older lore to the new 5E stuff.

[@LordSephleon]

@@DungeonDad "Gen dragons," eh? Doing some kind of Al-Qadim mashup of geniekind and dragons? Can Sha'irs summon and imprison them? ;D I look forward to the eventual gem dragon video(s)!

[@KevinVideo]

@@DungeonDad That'd be a neat idea. Maybe you could team up with AJ for that.

[@sonofalich1825]

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one! I heard Yellow Dragons were only in Dragon Magazine and was like “Huh, I thought they were the desert sand burrowing fast dragons that breathe salt from the AD&D Monster Manual” and I’m pretty sure Dungeon Dad used the art from it too earlier in the video. Then learned that they burrow. And that they are fast. And that they breathe salt. And I just got more and more confused.

[@shanecoffey8314]

@@sonofalich1825 Yeah, ngl, I was thinking the whole time: "So, we're just not gonna talk about the AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual version where they lived in deserts? Arguably the strongest canon source they appear in? O.K., then."

[@Aichi1138]

Yellow dragon is basically Roger from family guy: They hire the party to travel across the world to study a Yellow dragon. To get there they have to charter a ship captained by the same Yellow dragon and complete a branching quest for that captain for passage, Across the sea they inquire about a guide to the lands who, Wait for it, Is the Yellow dragon who will take them to study the areas where the Yellow dragon has been sighted, and the Yellow is just having a good ol time giving the party glimpses and brief almost encounters in its true form to egg them on

[@zacharyhawley1693]

If you use yellow dragons vs dragons.Understand that yellow dragons want other dragons in the air. Their breath weapon ensures any flying creature that uses wings to fly will die or be horribly injured from massive fall damage and the yellow will easily clean up.

[@chrismanuel9768]

And the difference in speed is doubled as well. 60-40 is only 20' difference, but in air 120-80 is a 40' difference, and that could really change things

[@helarki4309]

Dragons: Yo, we're dying out here. Yellow Dragons: I missed the part where that's my problem.

[@NicholasHay1982]

I'm running Tyranny of Dragons rn and planning a 3rd act to the story involving Tiamat escaping Avernus, murdering the Dead Three to absorb their pieces if divine spark & portfolios, and spawning 3 uniquely colored eggs and 2 new heads (the players will be able to egg nap the azure egg and influence its development). Tiamat will gain yellow and purple heads and threaten to rule over multiple worlds in the prime material plane.

[@neos8421]

Tiamat's sister is actually one of the gods replaced by either the raven queen or vecna during their ascension the secreccy really works well with vecna and the yellow dragons tbh, it could be a really interesting thing of having yellow dragon help against a vecna cult and try and persuade players that their patron goddess was a better alternative

[@morgantaylor84]

If I am not mistaken, it's stated in The Raven Queen's lore that she slew the old deity of Death and took their place, so Vecna would be the alternative that makes the most sense since none of the lesser chromatics fit the theme of death more than any of the "normal" ones do. I mean yes they're all death machines, but none are specifically screaming death dragon. Other than Shadow but that's a template, not an actual type, and can also be applied to metallic if you want.

[@Dionysius8421]

​@@morgantaylor84 at least in Critical Role the death god replaced by the Raven Queen was most likely Nerull

[@ANDELE3025]

@@morgantaylor84 Nerull. Null (in GH taking aspects as Falazure and Chronepsis much like Io is broken down to Bahamut and Tiamat) is very much alive and kicking same way Jergal is as you can't really get rid of a greater deity.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

My take on Yellow Dragons. During the Dragon Civil War, the Yellow Dragons sided against the Metallic, Gem, and Chromatic Dragons. They ended up on the loosing side, and hunted down to near extinction. Now, most Yellow Dragons can be found in other planes like the Shadowfell or Feywild, or in places most other Dragons would consider distasteful.

[@benkayvfalsifier3817]

17:00 I can imagine the party holding the defeated pirates at sword point telling the "leader" to surrender and he says "that'd be up to da cap'ain" with a mischievous, evil grin pointing to the bow of the ship. The players watch in horror as the figurehead slowly lifts off the bow and turns its head towards the party as they realize it is actually a yellow dragon.

[@nednedzilla7351]

Johanus the Yellowbelly is literally a perfect name for the dragon pirate captain

[@thatoneguywiththevoice328]

He shoots you if you call him yellowbelly People think it's because he finds it insulting, he doesn't. His natural paranoid nature (since everyone could be after him) is why he kills anyone who calls him yellowbelly, he thinks they are on to him

[@BillAllanWorld]

This video was A+ -- great content, excellent editing.

[@DungeonDad]

Thanks Bill!

[@lunatic0verlord10]

19:10 It's worth noting that Tiamat is actually Lawful, even though three of her five heads represent Chaotic dragons.

[@Zaante]

The eyes of humans have specialized cells called "Cones" that are responsible for the reception of color for the brain to interpret... The "RGB" light comes from Red, Green, Blue, as those are the 3 types of cones that we use to analyze all color in the visible spectrum of light. I would believe that is the reason why we have those colors for the chromatic dragons. Either way Yellow, Purple and Orange dragons are cool.

[@ltericdavis2237]

Yeah, if they had just decided that it was the primary colors of light, yellow could have just been a combination and then there wouldn’t be any need for the invention of Tiamat part 2

[@JCPRuckus]

Seems more likely that Gygax just couldn't bring himself to create a fantasy world where the traditional "green" dragon wasn't a common variant... Lol

[@DungeonDad]

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for watching, this weeks video was a ton of fun both to make and to research! Let me know what monster you'd like to see next! Purple Dragon Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJu6q2ahrrCJgbs Orange Dragon Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3SpgZ5sYsqLh80

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

How's your mother doing? Is she fine?

[@christophermzdenek]

purple, orange and brown dragons

[@link77779]

I'm curious about the other colors of dragons and what makes them unique.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

I always loving seeing "what if ____ was changed by the _____" creatures, personally.

[@nyro417]

I will throw a strange one at you : The Unseelie Fey. In Dragon #304. They are also in the Dragon compendium volume 1.

[@Daolnwood]

If yellow dragons fill the gaps in the Chromatic spectrum, does that mean that Tin and Zinc dragons exist on the Metallic side?

[@MrOctavian2012]

Your comment inspired me to google all the metallic dragons, and it turns out theres 3 dragons on the metallic side that aren't reprinted yet: iron, steel, and mercury. There's precedent to make five dragon gods if you include sardior for the gem dragons

[@KevinVideo]

@@MrOctavian2012 In the newer Fizban's book, it's said that Sardior the Ruby was killed, which sucks.

[@MrOctavian2012]

@@KevinVideo *pushes glasses up as anime background music plays* youve walked right into my homebrew....but nah i knew that, theres also the thing where each gem dragons a piece of sardior from fizbans too so far as i can tell one of each of the five could make an avatar for them

[@majesticgothitelle1802]

@@MrOctavian2012 I just disappointed that the Rudy dragon wasn't a diamond Dragon.

[@MrOctavian2012]

@@majesticgothitelle1802 you and me both, though im happy we got a basic clear quartz represented.

[@ImLordDomo]

Okay, first, I just want to thank you for another amazing video, they're always entraining and get the little hamster wheel in my noggin a spinning. Second, holy cannoli, the formatting and visual presentation for this video is probably my favorite from you thus far, seriously, everything looks great. Keep up the amazing work and I hope you're having a great day.

[@DungeonDad]

You are too kind, thanks for watching!

[@MultiNaruto900]

Ancient yellow dragon: You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of. Bard: But you have heard of me.

[@arcticbanana66]

@2:11 - "Yellow dragons made their first and only appearance in Dragon Magazine issue #65..." They are also in the 2nd Edition Draconomicon and in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual.

[@KevinVideo]

That'd the fault of Forgotten Realms wiki, which D-Dad uses as a reference. Yellow dragons are listed as "Salt dragon, also known as yellow dragons" and only lists Dragon 65, nothing else. If you Google it separately, you find that there's a second entry specifically for "Yellow Dragon", but no mention of it being called the salt dragon, and lists your references, but not Dragon 65.

[@Mordaris]

I LOVED this video. Here is another quick factoid; the yellow dragon is on page 87 of the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons "Monstrous Compendium". The art you showed at 1:12 is the art used from that book. The purple, and orange dragons are conspicuously absent. Awesome job, man. Your stuff is always great. Also, "can of wyrms" @ 19:19 :Well played, sir.

[@stefanilic475]

Another great video that gave me plenty of ideas for a dragon hunting campaign. On the note of dragons I'd love to see how you would tackle Fang and Grey dragons, as they are more martial dragons. Personally they are my favorite dragons, Fang dragons with being faulty as they can't fly nor do they have a breath weapon, but their bite can decrease the targets Con, and Grey dragons as they were made as a replacement for the Fang dragons and given a ooze like breath weapon and the power to turn enemies into stone.

[@KevinVideo]

Fang dragons are on the list, so I'll add your name to it, but I somehow forgot about grey dragons. Looking it up, it seems fang dragons were given the nickname of gray dragon. That said, Frog God Games bought the license for gray dragons and published them in the Tome of Horrors 5e. Not quite sure how to unpack that. If you have a source for the grey dragon (the not fang dragon, but the caustic ooze breathing one), that'd be fantastic.

[@stefanilic475]

@@KevinVideo Grey Dragons appear in the 4th editions Draconomicon Chromatic Dragons, tldr for them is they were made to replace fang dragons as a better version of them.

[@my-alias-obviousleh]

19:18 mised opportunity to label the can "Wyrms"

[@ronanepp3279]

I instantly went into the comments to make this comment if it wasn't made already😂

[@viniciusfranciscoalvesdoss5440]

Remember that by killing Lerna, a draconic goddess, Tiamat dismembered her body, and every part of it that I fell into the material plane became a hydra probably Lerna was this "sister"

[@zacharyhawley1693]

I love the forgotten color dragons. The purple is my favorite haha.

[@odinulveson9101]

I love em all. I follow natural color theory RYB and stars color spectrum. Tiamat could be helped/ gifted by Io and/ or Asmodeus to get out of Avernous or getting some to capture a few of the missing chromatics then to absorb Yellow salt coastals/ Orange oily explosive jungle/ Purple plasma underdark neighbours of the Deep dragons and Browns searing sand blast desert dragons. She herself made Greys outta Fangs so they are secured.Another lore way is that Tiamat is just using her 5 known dragon heads out of habit, but she is ALL chromatic colors if she so well chooses to spawn more.And Im adamant if WotC broaden the lore dump on yellows they ditch the 4e yellow sand dragons ( to make em more distinct ) and go for a winged coastal yellow dragon. Fastest and weakest and salty AF! Imagine doing a campaign questing for Yellows, Topazes and/ or Bronze dragons. All coastal dragons and frustrating neigbhours 😂 The 4e? Yellow sand dragon could be repainted sandy brown/ tan and have monicker Sand dragon, neighbour to Brown desert and Blue dragons

[@dum617]

I’m so glad the lost chromatically are getting covered. I have been using them for quite awhile, and orange dragons have quickly come to be one of my favourite types. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

[@Aysonhere]

The idea of a yellow dragon is really interesting and makes me think about other dragon variants

[@Darkness09ization]

I love the sheer amount of lore in this video. It took 6 parts before we finally hit combat. I can't wait to put these guys and their mother (Tiamat's sister) in my game🤩

[@DungeonDad]

There ended up being a LOT to unpack. Thanks for watching!

[@HughToob]

I'm old enough to remember reading those articles... It was amazing to read about. I agree it would have been nice to flesh them out some more. Your vids on them are really great! Thanks for putting these out there. Would be interesting to see a grey dragon (black and white should get busy too if the other chromatics are)... Noxious freezing fog breath weapon? Saps the color from everything.... Ultimate depression aura

[@capy-karma186]

The sister of Tiamat could still work in the lore of dragon kind. Could be her sister had more heads, maybe even having the White head while Tiamat had the black head and the rest of her colors, giving each four. In The Elegy of The First World, Tiamat is locked away by the gods but eventually escapes to destroy the first world. Perhaps it was Tiamat and her sister who were imprisoned, and Tiamat simply killed her sister to gain the power needed to escape on her own, stealing her white head to make her the main goddess of Chromatic Dragons.

[@jemm113]

My idea is that Tiamat had ALL chromatic heads and she either sacrificed them to free herself, leaving the dragons of the colors she sacrificed destitute, or when the world broke the backlash shattered her essence, leaving her with 5 colors. The shattered colors could have reformed into very weak avatars of that color or even remain dead or dormant. And finding a living color avatars and fusing it to another avatar or a dead essence could be a way to bring about Tiamat’s “sister”. Perhaps these reborn avatars end up with motivations outside of the original Tiamat! Maybe they don’t want to rejoin with the prime essence. Perhaps they reflected on their (Tiamat’s) actions during the breaking of the first world and gain a lawful (evil) alignment. Her (their) motivations could be numerous: rejoining the old world, ruling the new one, join with Bahamut as a new god of ultimate polarity of good and evil? Or perhaps she just wants to see her brother, the gem dragon, reformed or rebirthed. Who knows?!

[@lawrencelopez9839]

campaign idea where the adventurers enter an alt dimension where Tiamat was the one who died and the dragons with her sister's colors are thriving

[@justgarrett0]

Gem dragon: What am I, chopped liver?

[@DungeonDad]

Oh they definitely need their own entire video.

[@CyColt]

@@DungeonDad then do it.

[@ToothFairy473]

MAN, NOW IM CURIOUS ABOUT THE ORANGE AND PURPLE DRAGONS! GREAT VID!

[@DungeonDad]

Coming soon!

[@dallaspark9100]

Thanks for this, I'm running a homebrew tiamat adventure and wanted my players to encounter one of these. You never disappoint dungeon dad! :)

[@עומרשרייבר-ל4ר]

Now I really want to see this sister. Also now that I think about could this whole color theroy work with matallic dragons as well, only with alloys instead of colors? Like a child of a gold and silver dragons will be an electrum dragon.

[@anonymousoff-brand7538]

iirc, electrum dragons have shown up in older editions. also, can't forget bronze and brass are alloys.

[@rainbowmothraleo]

@@anonymousoff-brand7538 so there are tin and zinc dragons out there

[@skyguy713]

I cant wait for the bismuth bronze dragon.

[@Stormer13]

This is really awesome... *Yoink* On the side, I would love to see you tackle the orange and purple dragons as well

[@Voromire1]

It's super funny that you mentioned them being a Pirate captain. In my campaign, I have a Bronze Dragon named Peetahl (based on the Hindi word for Bronze) who is a Pirate Captain who's ship is their lair. They use their ability to control the weather to speed up travel and give them more favorable conditions in ship combat.

[@allcanadianweekend]

There's actually I difference between the primary colors in paint, and primary colors in light. Open up MSpaint or something and look at the color wheel there: RGB Red Green Blue Though I really have liked this series. Very well done.

[@odinulveson9101]

YOU actually gives sense and dont go haywire. Both Primary color sets are TRUE. However at least two dizzwongers here around gets fanatical and will hinder the opinion and true reason of natural color teachings. Primary light colors and Primary natural pigment colors. Equal valuable, equal useful

[@archermon373]

What you said about them being fast and agile, to the point it let's them solo bigger dragons, reminds me of Valstrax from monster hunter. It's literally a dragon, but a fighter jet and a shooting star. Like it literally has jet engines.

[@aaronjack7791]

Dude I only have been listening to your vids at work now I actually see one holy shit the visuals and editing are top tier

[@DungeonDad]

Thanks!!

[@derekjay2000]

I really want a video on the purple and orange dragons now, also entirely obsessed with the pirate captain yellow dragon idea.

[@jakesmitherman3699]

Great video, the tiamat’s sister info was a bit surprising! Really got me thinking about how to run this dragon, that salt breath sounds too fun!

[@orom6581]

Yellow dragons rocking that marshall d teech energy

[@benfenton9669]

this video earned my like and subscribe. high quality production work, research, and passion. looking forward to see more

[@stickmanmageofthelordtacha4917]

When tiamat is the more reasonable choice you know the alternative is fucked up

[@ramuk1933]

I like how Nicol Bolas from MtG is used as the Orange Dragon picture.

[@RedFoxGrappler]

I’m adding Tiamat’s sister to my world and I’m naming her Blergden

[@MrStubix]

I really appreciated the editing in this episode dd. Proud of how far the show has come

[@DungeonDad]

[@jasonstatham5879]

I like the idea of the three dragons from Tiamat's sister all being Neutral. Chaotic, Lawful and True.

[@Zoomscoping]

Masterfully done video, as always!

[@Neutral_Tired]

I've had a concept floating in my head for a while for brown dragons which are super tanky and resist weapon damage but can't fly, instead having a super high burrow speed and the ability to burrow through stone., leaving a tunnel in their wake. This concept for Tiamat's sister gives me an excuse to implement them. So I'm adding Ossamat, Tiamat's chaotic evil younger sister with 4 heads: Brown, orange, purple and yellow

[@BeckyNosferatu]

Please cover the other two dragon colors! I miss my purple dragon so much! It's nice to see your "monster of the week" series, It's given me some awesome monsters for my Campaign!

[@AdamTehranchiYT]

A neat story that could about is a yellow dragon adopted by a gold dragon. Honestly they sound interesting and as scary as dehydration can be it hasn't stopped people eating jerky yet.

[@connornelson5434]

Awesome video man, love the effort you put into this stuff!

[@jaredeschweiler3505]

I've run Tiamat's sister as the central villain in a 4 year campaign. I named her Apsu (Based on the god name theme of Tiamat & Bahamut). The campaign centered around Apsu being imprisoned in a pocket plane and forces trying to free her. The players over the course of the campaign figured out there were major inconsistency in the Apsu lore (this was intentional). This left the plays wonder what Apsu and her followers were or really up to. In the final arc of the campaign the players faced "Apsu", and defeated her. However they discovered this being was really just a demigod created by the Kuo-Toa who were worshipping a broken statue of Tiamat (two of the heads were missing). In truth Tiamat had used this whole endeavor as a ploy to get artifacts gathered needed to free her from the hells. The purple, orange, and yellow dragons the players had been encountering and defeated we're created by cultists of Tiamat using other dragons eggs (my Dragonlance throwback). They faced off against the cultists and managed to prevent Tiamat's release. They did fight her avatar and won by the skin of their teeth. To this day my group cites Tiamat's sister (Apsu) as the best plot in one of our campaigns.

[@warioskapelli3100]

LOVE the scene transitions in this video. A new dragon absolutely deserves a video with this much effort put into it

[@augustelos]

I would create a lore to revive this sister but to strengthen her I would add more 2 colors being the Brown Dragon and the Pink Dragon. I want to see videos of the Orange Dragon and Purple Dragon and add the Brown Dragon.

[@DungeonDad]

I love that idea!

[@lordmars2387]

Excellent information on the color wheel theory. I ran a homebrew Cobra dragon. It was the best most fun boss fight I've ever run. It would be awesome if they could get their own dedicated video.

[@relicking9207]

I like the idea of a neutral Dragon Deity, that has the colours(and metals) that the other two ignored for whatever reason, I could see Yellow being anywhere in the neutral part of the Good-Evil Spectrum(I'm leaning towards LN myself), and they just don't interfere with the mortals around them because their busy with something else, since this is the Yellow Dragons turn, I could see them being hermits and that's why they live in remote locations, why they're Hermits I don't know, perhaps they're trying to find a way to bring their Deity back after Tiamat shunted them into the void, because they refused to help her against Bahamut

[@jemm113]

OOOOOH! What if Tiamat does have all chromatic dragons original, like all their heads. Or as someone in another comment said she can change head colors at will but doesn’t for surprise factor. What if all the missing colors are ones that refused to help her and either sided with Bahamut, remained neutral, or even betrayed her during the events of the First Word?? She either removed their colored heads from her essence to cut them off of her! Then after the shattering these heads coalesced into a new dragon deity for the abandoned ones! Maybe similar happened with “betrayer” metallics?? Except maybe since Bahamut wasn’t tied directly to each metallic essence there was nothing for those like steel to make a new god from? Or the metallics sacrificed a number of themselves to either create a neutral metallic god or have their essence to the chromatic betrayer god as the ultimate deity of disgraced dragon kin!

[@relicking9207]

@@jemm113 I was thinking a Neutral Dragon God of the abandoned Dragons/Kin

[@citizenchrispy155]

After being 9 months late to this party and watching the video (which was great by the way). I would do the following in my campaigns: Tiamat gave birth to the TEN chromatic dragon races with a mate. She has the normal Red, Blue, Black, Green, and White heads, while he had Brown, Yellow, Grey, Violet, and Orange heads. Afterwords she killed and consumed him, black widow-like, and set her preferred children (matching her heads) to destroying his, thus making those five types rare. I think it's a little neater from a lore perspective. New to the channel, but you earned a subscribe after only one video so good job and keep it up!

[@7of475]

Why use color theory primaries when RGB primaries both makes sense and keeps Tiamat’s lore/logic in tact? It’s fun to play with either way, just positing an idea.

[@isaacorr3180]

Because dragons don't physically glow show it's obvious their coloration comes from pigmentation

[@MrDEMarq]

Always enjoy your lore videos, thanks for sharing this 😀

[@Cuprite1024]

I feel like retconning Tiamat's heads could work pretty well if you go by this theoretical color-theory system. Like, I could see her green head and the theoretical sister's yellow head being swapped around so Tiamat has the primary colors and black/white while that sister has the secondary colors. Idk, I just think that could be cool (Idk if it would work in practice since I don't know much of the actual D&D lore, if there even is any outside of official campaigns. I don't do TTRPG stuff much. Lol).

[@KhannUurrr]

Can't wait to see your take on the Gem Dragons!

[@SabbyCat52]

I really like the idea of this dragon sister, and her uncommonly colored children in turn, being neutral. Even the Yellow dragons being selfish works nicely in that. Help the good guys? If it helps me, sure! Help the bad guys? Am I getting something out of it? Cool, let's go! Maybe there was a disagreement (one of many) between Tiamat and Bahamut and the sister wouldn't pick a side so Tiamat killed her in a frustrated rage. 🤔 Just some ideas.

[@Hektols]

The Gem Dragons would be the Neutral Dragons.

[@duwanglover3424]

Can’t wait to see the next couple episodes over the purple and orange dragons. I’d love to see your attempt at making and naming the sister as well

[@frankly_earnest]

RGB as the additive primary colors makes a lot more sense, with G+B = cyan, R+B = magenta, and R+G = yellow...so having Irkalla as the subtractive dragon god would be interesting vs. Tiamat as the additive dragon god. It keeps in line with the DnD positive/negative plane split, Babylonian mythology, and actual color theory!

[@JCPRuckus]

RGB based dragons doesn't make sense unless dragon's coloration is based on them actually glowing. Which then immediately falls apart when applied to metallics. Because glowing metallics would look like flat colors, not metallic. Sure, you can excuse it with "magic". But why go the way that requires that crutch when... you don't have to, the other way is more (older edition) lore friendly, and you get a free dramatic hook of sororicide? I mean, do what you want. I'd just prefer to set myself up for less handwaving, not more.

[@monferno1]

Moral of the story is that Dragon Magazine is GOAT and always has been, always my favorite content

[@DungeonDad]

There is so much awesome content in those issues

[@monferno1]

@@DungeonDad yesss back when I played 3.5 I always loved pulling up random dragon magazine stuff

[@pibb2474]

There are actually two different versions of yellow dragons in D&D history. The one described in this video is more commonly referred to as the salt dragon. The other yellow dragon debuted in the original _Draconomicon,_ where it was a desert dweller that fought with blue dragons, and they were known to be selfish and stake out under sand to trap prey in sinkholes. This video seems to conflate the two into a single species. Nothing wrong with that; just wanted to point it out. I nonetheless enjoyed the video!

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

Was the original Draconomicon the 3.5 one, or was there an earlier one that I'm not aware of?

[@SallyWilliams]

@@nicholasfarrell5981 www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F4%2F4a%2FFOR1_TSR9297_Draconomicon.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDraconomicon&tbnid=oXJtda1CrfPNtM&vet=12ahUKEwjr64HP66D9AhW7nycCHcTiD2kQMygEegUIARDBAQ..i&docid=cwoMWgqiPB9I7M&w=234&h=300&q=Draconomicon&client=firefox-b-d&ved=2ahUKEwjr64HP66D9AhW7nycCHcTiD2kQMygEegUIARDBAQ

[@CorporalCookie]

​@@nicholasfarrell5981 There is at least an AD&D Draconomicon. Not sure if there were others before 3.5e.

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

@@CorporalCookie cool, thanks!

[@justhavingsomefun9539]

I watched this video a long time ago, and I just finished DM'ing a campaign with Tiamat's sister coming back, though in this case it was bahamut that gave the quest. It was a lot of fun looking for abilities and old stats then adjusting them to work for 5e. Just came back to this vid to say thank you for the idea. my players absolutely enjoyed it and now they have a staff that will summon an adult chromatic that they can use once every 5 long rest. they're absolutely looking forward to trying it.

[@Kat-qb2bh]

Of course the last option is that the chromatic dragons are based off the light color mixing with the primaries of red, blue and green with white being all lights and black being none.

[@sfordy]

This is awesome! I'm planning to run a dragon heavy campaign and I was looking for the right dragon type for one of the important dragons and this is PERFECT. Thanks a ton.

[@tennoyamamoto1800]

Option C: The Chromatic dragons work in a RGB color system where Red, Green and Blue are the primary colors (so Yellow is a mix of Green and Red)

[@Balafras]

I'd completely forgotten these even existed once upon a time back in AD&D. 😮 Just shared your video with my DM, and mentioning your others for the Orange, Purple and Pink Dragons, too. Add some extra spice to our campaign. 😈

[@kevinduke8928]

Alternative view on the color theory: R Y B are primary colors when you’re referring to pigments (ie paint). However, when referring to light, it’s R G B. With light, instead of yellow and blue making green, green and blue make yellow. Perhaps the primary colors of light, and not pigments, are the source of the colors for chromatic dragons because (fill in some crap about arcane magic and light being related or something). This would mean that yellow dragons could have their own lineage if you hold to the color theory that you are espousing.

[@amphyess]

Great video so excited to see you cover the other 2 colored dragons

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

First! Not counting Dungeon Daddy.

[@dubwubz9759]

can confirm, other than the dungeonly dad himself, this was first. congrats, i guess?

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

@@dubwubz9759 Thank you, I guess?

[@DungeonDad]

Hell yeah I guess?

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

@@DungeonDad Poggers I guess?

[@liamcanavan-randall1033]

I like your content very much.❤ As a boy i had the first 4th edition monster manual, and i loved the pictures so much as they captured my imagination. This speaks to that boy. Thank you for sharing your vision🎉

[@Harrowed2TheMind]

Wait a minute, can't Tiamat change her heads' colour to that of any chromatic dragon type at will? She's typically depicted with the five main chromatic dragon heads mostly for familiarity's sake (even the most eminent sages of Candlekeep, for an example, don't necessarily know of the existence of all dragon types, especially when some of them are much rarer and/or have more reclusive lifestyles), but you could technically encounter her with a Purple, a Grey (don't you dare mention their Fang Dragons cousins in her presence, though!), a Yellow, an Orange and a Brown dragon head, for instance (I doubt she would show up with a Pink head often, though). Not that she'd want you to know about that ability, though, so it would make sense that she keeps her appearance constant whenever she shows up, what with all her draconic paranoia, wanting to keep her cards close to her chest, etc. And regarding a potential sister, her sororicide wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, as Tiamat pretty much instantly annihilates any non-dracohydra multi-headed chromatic dragon that she so much as hears about (that would imply that she's not the unique representative of her species, which is a big no-no in her book!). Also, the proginy resulting from the pairing of two different chromatic dragons - assuming they are viable - would most likely depend on the egg's growing environment, as Dragons are exceptionnally adaptable and in large part elemental in nature (aka the wyrmlings of Red and Blue parents would most likely be born Red Dragons if they were incubated in their Red Dragon mother's volcanic lair, for instance). Cue to the existence of Planar Dragons, Shadow Dragons, etc. A 'Hybrid' dragon could be born naturally in the form of a rare mutation, but they would most likely be infertile (now, a voluntary draconic hybridation through magical rituals, etc. is a whole other story...). A new subspecies following such an event would be extremely rare, though not completely out of the realm of possibility. Indigo Dragons (not Faerie!) could eventually become a thing, y'know? AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) made a video on this very subject in recent months. I cannot recommend his channel enough, if one likes D&D and storytelling.

[@leathersmith88]

Awesome video! Would love to see videos for purple and orange dragons as well.

[@nessesaryschoolthing]

With how gods work in D&D, it makes sense that Tiamat's sister was not only killed but also largely forgotten. Gods gain power from their number of worshipers, so to truly kill a god, you would need to make sure they can never be worshiped again, meaning ideally they should be forgotten altogether. I could see the higher orders of the Cult of Tiamat taking on the responsibility of seeking out and destroying all evidence that "The Three Headed One" ever existed.

[@sunsetta9496]

Never even heard about yellow dragons in D&D until now. Thank you sharing.

[@Sb_Antimony]

The p is s drago n

[@bonesherington751]

I hope this is the start of a series on the forgotten dragons. id love to hear about the purple and orange dragons and what they can bring to the gaming table.

[@ianyoder2537]

Anyone else want to write a dnd campaign about a necromantic dragon cult intent or resurrecting Tiamat's sister? ... or maybe Tiamat is red blue and green because it's the light spectrum not the color spectrum.

[@hopefulskippy464]

Now I really want orange and purple dragons! Why must you give such good ideas!