Hey Folks

So I just learned I am god awful at drawing humans

But that’s not why I am here.

I wanna talk about human colonies in the DragonScape, this is a broad and general look as to why a human nation would want to try and colonize the Americas.

First the picture, This is a colony belonging to the West African Union, presumably in the Northern regions of South America (Venezuela most likely)

So why would humans establish colonies in the DragonScape?

Generally by the time the human world (not the Americas) has access to the DragonScape it’s a magical wilderness with often very superstitious societies or mysterious kingdoms of dragons. The very nature of the DragonScape warps humanity itself, so why bother?

1) Resources: It’s been at least 40 years since the Pulse happened, with this reason becoming more important as the decades drag on (dragon?) in the DragonScape. But in the 40 years between the Pulse and the first chance humanity has to go into the DragonScape a lot of resources have probably been burnt, either for economic gains or by the turmoil of the 40 years inbetween.

The biggest resource that is sought after in the DragonScape is wood, not that the forests of the human world have run dry, but wood is starting to get a bit pricier and a cheap source of wood is needed. And humans can make the mana laden wood of the DragonScape ‘somewhat’ mana clean.

Though of course, humans are seeking a lot of the untapped resources of the DragonScape, There are hundreds of mines waiting to be taken, city ruins full of prepulse metals and materials to take, and wealth lost that can be rediscovered and used to enrich one’s nation.

2) Science: There is just that part of humanity that is just curious, and when 1/3rd of the planet falls under the passive influence of billions of dragon gods, I would think you would have some questions. Drekir themselves have a lot of unanswered questions and humans are no different, however humans do have the means to research and be more studious than most drekir societies.

Many humans research the DragonScape, the mana, the anomalies, the dragons themselves, for many various reasons

3) Defense: Many humans see what happened to the Americas as a threat that could spread (forboding!) and there is the idea that the DragonScape needs to stay in the Americas, as such colonies of some nations are seen as defensive, keep an eye on the dragons to make sure that what happened to the Americas doesn’t happen to your own country.

But what are colonies like in the DragonScape?

Probably the most important thing to note about a human colony or outpost in the DragonScape is that colonies are not self-sufficient. The food grown in the DragonScape is mana laden and can drekify humans, the water is not much better. Rather these colonies are bases that are supplied by their home state, they are not in the DragonScape to be a permanent fixture necessarily as humans cannot settle the DragonScape without themselves eventually becoming drekir and losing their humanity.

Due to this danger of magic for humans, they need to cover up any magic and do it as cheaply as possible. These colonies run off of the technological innovation of mass fabricators, industrial 3d printers that can print out modular pieces that can be assembled into larger buildings. Everything in a colony is printed, from clothing and weapons to buildings and electronics from various plastics. This is done to ensure a “mana-clean” environment. The ground is covered in a single sheet of plastic to prevent any mana laden plants from growing and presenting a threat, the buildings are cuboid and sleek with plastic and the colonists wearing jumpsuits to protect from direct mana contact, even the facemasks they wear to not breathe the stuff are printed.

Often human colonists keep behind their carbon-plastic walls, only letting local dragons in to trade, many colonies see a benefit in getting the local drekir to scavenge or mine for them in return for printed technology, sometimes even building stores for locals to barter and trade (at rather unfair prices) for technology that some of those drekir have never seen before (being born post pulse).

But overall, human colonies are rather fragile, reliant on shipments from their mother nation to survive and often at risk of being overrun by the much more numerous local dragons if those dragons don’t take a liking to the colony (and the sivilāo think humans are monsters). Additionally the DragonScape can turn a human into something inhuman.

Due to what is above as well as the cost of just having a small set of urbanized coastal colonies that are still rather exposed to the magic of the DragonScape, human colonies don’t reach too far beyond the coast. A drek village more than 50 miles inland may rarely see humans and a village 100 miles in may not even think/know humans exist. The only exception are human sponsored inland outposts, but considering that these are mostly staffed by drekified operatives that are often very poorly funded and rarely supplied, they don’t exactly exude the power of humanity. Humans are really only a species that has an impact on the coasts of the DragonScape, the land itself makes it impossible to really push deeper inland, and most colonies don’t need to, so a lot of drekir don’t even know humans are a thing or still exist in the post pulse.

Ok have a good day!