Dolmenwood Wyrms: Human Origins & Corruption
Hey Townies. I have been thinking back to that lauded OSR module The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford and the lore for where the wyrm came from and I think I recall it was a dwarf corrupted by greed. Really liked this idea that dragons (wyrms) could have once been humans (or demi humans in this case) who succumbed to strong negative emotions and been associated with some sort of fall from grace or tragedy.
In fact this way of wyrms being created makes more sense to me as Dolmenwood wyrms are all very solitary, jealous, and confrontational; making mating or even searching for a mate seem unlikely. So instead of a regular reproductive cycle I thought perhaps wyrms come about from extreme and extraordinary corruption that only happens once in a genration. Perhaps it's a willing transformation, akin to lich-dom (requiring a pact with dark forces or occult transgressions of some form).
Some origins for wyrms could be :
Black Wyrms (Melancholic) - committing a great treachery (e.g. Lord Soth)
Bile Wyrms (Choleric) - corrupted by wrath leading to a massacre (e.g. Iago)
Phlem Wyrms (Phlegmatic) - nihilismunchecked that consumed an individual (e.g. ??)
Blood Wyrms (Sanguine)- passion that became an obsession (e.g. The Vampire Strahd Von Zarovitch)
These origins could also tie into each wyrms specific weakness as it reminded them of their human past?
Eager to hear your thoughts, I kinda thought this was cool and differentiates wyrms even more (they are already amazing in DW) from standard 'D&D' Dragons making them more mysterious