Steam punk!? No! We live in dragon-punk

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

HA yes that’s the word!

@xemiii

22 күн бұрын

Hole-in-ground punk

@OtachiKaiju68

22 күн бұрын

That would be a neat genre to see! :D

@gamingcat6034

21 күн бұрын

War Dragons

@godli7806

19 күн бұрын

Wake the fuck up bards! We’ve got a dragon to seduce! 😎

We definitely need a short story of someone venturing above ground and getting scared shitless by the dragon equivalent of a raccoon

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Haha of course! Some story plans I’ve got cooking are similar- with a totally unprepared person being thrust out into the world!

Ngl I expected a faction of theocratic nomads. Humans need lots of space, good soil, and good water. Ash is a good fertilizer, and boiling water purifies it. My first thought was a group of dragon-worshippers following in a wake of destruction and setting up small permanent camps.

@kjj26k

21 күн бұрын

Perhaps their preferred species of dragon to follow is particularly massive and does not see humans as worthwhile prey. Eventually, these BIG dragons become more intelligent (perhaps though increasingly complex interactions with their followers.) and begin to recognize the nomads as a tool to be used. The ultimate result being a holy war of sort to sweep across the planet and conquer or destroy all other humans Civilization in the name of their dragon lord. This world's version of the Mongols under Genghis Khan.

Would be a joy to see more creatures who’s evolution was shaped by draconic presence. Makes the overall world appear even more well thought out.

@sawyerleeart

21 күн бұрын

Next vid has a bunch!

I love this concept, it's like All Tomorrows meets How to Train your Dragon. I hope we can see much of this, It's not just the idea but the illustrations are awesome as hell. Keep up the great work!

@sawyerleeart

7 күн бұрын

Means a lot to me! And will do

Please, this is what I yearn for. Speculative anthropology and human cultures is something rarely touched on nowadays. Id love to learn how each and every specific ethnic group and community in this world works. Please keep up the good work my guy.

@Vrikrar

22 күн бұрын

Seconded. If you could give each culture a video, I'd be mighty happy.

I was going to leave a general comment but this seems like an appropriate place. While the dragon designs are awesome, and deservedly the stars of the show, the integration of each species into the human culture around it is so good! As you point out, so often dangerous mobsters are just plopped into the wilderness and left there, with no impact on the way people act at all. I think it's so impressive, and in some ways perhaps harder than just coming up with a cool dragon

@sawyerleeart

5 күн бұрын

Hey thanks! Developing the setting is just as fun as the dragons themselves, and I’m very glad you like it

My take is that humans would just live in heavily forested areas. Of course, here comes the obvious "But can't the dragons just burn the area?!?!" But why would they? Really, imagine a big forest, kilometers of thick woods that cover all, the dragon doesn't create energy out of nowhere, if it were to just burn the whole area it would be losing 10 times more energy that it would gain by eating the humans. Humans can perfectly live in a low profile under woods.

@Christopherson2006

19 күн бұрын

And maybe not all dragons breathed fire?

@thatprofessorguy8316

19 күн бұрын

@@Christopherson2006Point is, dragons have limited shots. It would be wasteful to burn a whole forest to get into a dug in village.

@MrReset94

18 күн бұрын

Also, dragons are generally imagined as very big creatures, which makes the consumption of humans not very smart or practical for such beings. It would be a lot more "normal"(?) for them to hunt down big herbivores, perhaps a world with real dragons would develop also veeeery big herbivorous creatures with thick fire-resistant skin and long tusks/horns to fight off their flying, fire-breathing predators. And Humans could just evolve living in areas less frequented by this humongous creatures. Where do Dragons nest? Where do they hunt? those are off-limit areas that would initially see no human go nearby, then after for centuries the humans kept evolving and developing their technology and society, they might start to think about venturing to those areas to hunt down the herbivores and the dragons. Some might pick dragon eggs to domesticate them, some instead would chose to do so with the youngs of the herbivores.

@ChupacabraRex

17 күн бұрын

@@MrReset94 true, although that might bring up the problem of livestock. In real life, large wild predators rarely(although far from never!) hunted humans. Usually, they picked up the fat, and tame livestock, sheep, cows, things like that. Now, in real life fences and sheperds were pretty good defenses against it, but even if dragons aren't too much bigger than a regular wolf their flying and fire-breathing would make defending livdstock hard against the beasts. Intelligence is also a big factor, maybe even bigger than size, as well as wheter dragons an team-up. Also, even if dragons breath fire it would probably be a last-resort emergency weapon since fire is NOT cheap.

May seem odd, but among all of the amazing dragon designs and concepts you've come up with this world, the rugged men and wildly unique groups of people interest me the most. Plus your armor designs are just superb!

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Aye thanks dude! I’m glad I can make them as intriguing as the titular dragons!

In a world with bears, wolves, and lions our ancestors started built walls... In a fantasy world where dragons exist people build thatched roofs and leave their property open 🤷

@sawyerleeart

18 күн бұрын

Never made sense to me!

Your art is strange in such an amazing way man, it reminds me of looking at morrowinds concept art for the first time. Please keep it going

@sawyerleeart

21 күн бұрын

That’s one of the coolest things anyones said abt my art! Thank you!

God damn. When asked "How much historical materialism would you like in your world" you answered "Yes." 😂 I love what you did ❤

YEEESS THIS HAS FURTHER INSPIRED ME FOR MY DRAGON RULED WORLD! Thanks!

@sawyerleeart

9 күн бұрын

Of course!

I feel like dwarves are the most likely to survive such a world cause they are too small to notice and dig into the ground where the dragons cant get to them.

“We descend from giants” I have never heard something so bad ass

@sawyerleeart

14 күн бұрын

Hell yeah glad you like it!

Ive always wanted a unique Dragon setting and this hit the spot. This setting looks ripe enough for a movie or even videogame adaptation

How humanity evolved alongside giant flying predators is a really interesting question to worldbuild around, and I guess it's something people don't often, consider, I sure didn't, at least on a conscious level; I never asked myself this question for a project of mine but still found an answer for it...

I believe that what truly sets the writing of your world apart from other works depicting dragons is how central said creatures are to the setting you've created. In this video you make it pretty clear that, unlike most fantasy works, this is not a world with dragons but a world of dragons, and that has turned out to be an amazingly interesting premise for the setting.

I was waiting for this one. The goat cooks once again

On the point about Humans evolving on open savannahs and large areal predators being incompatible with that, there were indeed large raptors who preyed upon humans during our early development. Not saying that adding fire breathing wouldn't be a complication, but we already did contend with being predated upon from the skies in addition to all other vectors.

Fantastic! I thought the same thing about people will living underground or in mountains but only after they have been attacked by a dragon. Yours is more detailed in a evolutionary and sociological level. Hope to hear and watch videos from you 😊

This was the coolest thing ever

@sawyerleeart

9 күн бұрын

Thank you sm!

"Humans" as descendants of Giants is certainly an interesting concept, especially since in D&D Forgotten Realms lore Dragons and Giants are mortal enemies. I hope your audio editing improves over time. The mic is a bit over sensitive and picking up more detail than it needs to.

@sawyerleeart

17 күн бұрын

The mic had been my current bane. I’ll be improving it over time, not to worry

@federicobonizzoni5986

16 күн бұрын

@@sawyerleeartso if Humans descended from from giants then that mean their a completely different species from ours

The Hintermen are my personal favorite human culture in this setting. I would happily attend one of their operas.

One really good example of a culture built around dragons, I feel, is The Dragonriders of Pern series. This is of course is not a societal structure made in response to dragons as apex predators in the environment, but instead of the society being organised to support the dragons as part of defences against a much different threat that also comes from a skyward vector. Most of the tension in the early part of the main block of the story (this is a setting who's history spans millennia) comes from major portions of society not wanting to continue supporting the great economic infrastructure requirements of the dragons. In that sense, it is an inverse of the considerations proposed in this video. What does a society look like that is structured so as to enable maintaining thousands of domesticated multi-ton carnivores, along with the full-time occupations of their riders and dedicated support staff who also have to be maintained.

@sawyerleeart

17 күн бұрын

Pern is a classic!

Love your world building man, this broadened my already great love of dragons. You’re going to release a proper book one day yeah? This seems to good not to be a physical book

@sawyerleeart

6 күн бұрын

Exactly! Currently in the editing phase now

I've rarely seen the question of how humans evolved in a fantasy setting touched on, this is really cool!

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

It’s bothered me for so long! Had to make a video abt it before continuing with my dragon profiles

So the only way humams combat drahons is evolve into dwarves

I love the concept of humanity descending from giants via neotheny, I've never seen it before. Kind of reminds how in many mythologies humans are created by gods or titans, maybe they consider their giant ancestors deities or something similar. I also find fascinating how different looking all these kinds of people are, my favourite is a hinterman, hairy humanoids living in cold enviroments are usually depicted as something like a beast or a savage, whereas here they posses an artistic soul.

@sawyerleeart

18 күн бұрын

Thanks! The giant-to human evolution not only made sense to me but gives people an interesting kinship with their huge brethren. Large hairy humanoids are all too often the savages and brutes of a setting- they indeed deserve their philosophical reflections!

I have an idea for a Dragon if anyone wants to hear (or read in this case) What about one based on a corvid. Like Ravens, Crows, and Magpies. Dragons that are smart, able to solve puzzles and use simple tools like sticks and rocks. I imagine they would be a nuisance to keep out of cities, as they always find new ways to break in, or draw people out. Just food for thought.

I am so happy that you have a youtube channel, the dragonslayer codex is one of my favorite spec evo projects EVER

Very cool mate. My idea would be that one of humans first important tasks would be to "craft" some material that is fire resistant and that you can wear as armor. This could be some slimey honey-like stuff in which you soak your normal cloth clothes and that at least repels fire for like a minute or something and then also burns or, and this is also a second idea that can be expanded, they use the scales of dragons themselves that might be fire resistant. Either after they managed to slay one or they find a carcasus that died of age. So here there is also the idea of taking the biological material of dragons and use the bones of construction or amuletts, the skin for something, the scales for armor etc. (Everything high value of course) also search for 16th century warfare (pike square or "Gewalthaufen"), they got extremely long pikes which would also be helpful against dragons, applicable to your setting. ❤ Oh, how interesting the religion will be... :)

@terrorcop101

11 күн бұрын

If dragons molt, that could be another way to get their scales.

We already live in a society built around dragons Don't forget that

Honestly the idea what, for humans to ever exist in a world populated with giant fire spitting reptiles, their ancestral species of primates have to also be something suited for that world is actually really clever. And making those proto-humans - Giants, is just genius idea. Like, it’s only natural what primates would be easy prey for dragons, hence to survive they had to adapt to not be an easy target.. By becoming elephant sized though-skinned creatures.. As a whole that is really interesting interpretation of that fantasy trope of humans actually being descendants of something greater in a way, like giants. Ad that’s pretty much explains WHY exactly humans despise dragons. Because they ALWAYS were the possible prey for them, even before humans, it’s just in their genetic memory.

Great stuff here as always!

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Thanks Keenan! Love your recent stuff

@eternalifyshorts

22 күн бұрын

the legend himself!

I had this exact thought a few months back. If dragons are do powerful and sometimes even smarter than humans, how the hell they are always subjected to just be a animal that needs to be killed or worst, just be a fancy ride for knights. I even made a TTRPG about this. On my RPG the dragons are the main characters and not just a cool thingy on the background.

I'd say this experiment is a success! Always love to see how thought-out, and yet still wildly imaginative the Dragonslayer's world is - these comprehensive videos have worked very well as the connective tissue between the otherwise isolated Codex pages. Asking out of silly interest (since I can imagine it's not in your plans at all for this world haha) - if the current timescale of the Dragonslayer's world is, say, in medieval times to us - what would a "modern" age Dragonslayer world look like?

@sawyerleeart

21 күн бұрын

Well said! And thank you much! Some of these kingdoms are discovering engines and implementing them already! A modern world with this premise would launch an age of exploration MUCH later in societal evolution than it was on earth, and the once isolated kingdoms would have to grapple with how to get along as one entire unit. I still see them living underground as a cultural thing, but technology may allow above ground homes to become commonplace, as will the invention of stronger weapons, which bodes ominous futures for the fauna

Seven generations, but every single building is new

@sawyerleeart

16 күн бұрын

If only they built down!

Welcome back good sir. I do like the idea of exploring how cultures adapt to overcome the threat of dragons, I also like the idea of the different humans having physical and genetic differences that also give them unique benefits in their environments.

Lol this gives me ideas for my own draconic world. I've been compiling every dragonish thing I can find and putting them on a tree of life. It's set in the bronze age too, so it's a bit earlier than the other medieval dragon worlds.

Its nice to learn how humans evolved and from their cultures within a world rule by dragons but I do wonder are there any psychical attributes to be a worker or guard, thought training or both ? and since they are Descendants from giants so how big can they get ?

Brilliant. I love that the humans aren't quite the same as real humans would be and why should they? This is an alternate world where people evolved differently and have to deal with different threats. Lately I've also been questioning why is it that fiction starring dragons doesn't have more thought put into the environment. If a giant flying lizard can pass by and just burn down your whole town, why aren't there ways to prevent it or people building better homes? In parts of the world where tornadoes are common people go into the basement. In places with extreme snow storms people live in high buildings and so on.

Your Sorry!? What are you babbling about!? This is Pure brand level of bloody epic fantasy definition!!! Truely For Gold Edition of Speculative Worldbuilding Biology! You literally show how a Realistic Reign of Fire Should actully work! Groovy Fairly Humies!!! Simply Marvelous! Cant wait to see your Giants, Beasts and More!!! 👏💝🐉

@sawyerleeart

18 күн бұрын

You rock! Thank you sm!

@juanisol8275

18 күн бұрын

@@sawyerleeart You too! 🥰❤️‍🔥🐉

the algorithm is starting to algorithm

Now I'm curious will we'll see other Megafauna like "Gryphons" or Dangerous Flora like Barbed Seedpods or Carnivorous Flytraps

@sawyerleeart

21 күн бұрын

Totally plan to add more megafauna

@shellknight1323

11 күн бұрын

@@sawyerleeart Literally can't wait

This is the best dragon universe I've ever seen. Keep up the work my guy I wanna see more of it

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Wow thank you! Means a lot

Haha yep, this is why my setting's dragons aren't generally stomping around the same plane as the humans. Now animals with dragon-like features, absolutely. A horse-like animal with armored scales is still very cool, and useful, but nowhere near as overwhelmingly powerful. I feel like other fantasy creatures are much more manageable evolutionarily. A chimera isn't much more of a threat than a raptor species: not big enough to carry an adult human while flying and not so strong that an adult human wouldn't be a serious threat. They would largely be a threat to children, not adults. The pressue would then be to group up for the safety of the young, which is not a huge difference from the pressures exerted by big cats in real life. Humans were prey once, and it shows in our parenting behaviors. I don't totally buy your giants-to-humans evolution here. The issue is that your giants are herbivores like ground sloths, meaning they have chosen the path of investing in a complex digestive system. In the real world, this is mutually exclusive with evolving a complex brain. You need some kind of extreme event to explain why a species that had chosen to solve the problem of tough vegetation by developing a bigger and bigger gut, would suddenly change course. Maybe your neothenous giants developed on an island? Perhaps one which became more open as the climate warmed up, but which lacked any large dragons: larger fliers are usually clumsy so perhaps this island was just too far away. Or, you might relocate your giants to the polar areas of your world and make them omnivores: their large size would be an adaptation to the cold then. In this scenario, the hairy faces of the hintermen would be an ancestral condition rather than a novel evolution. Also, these are subspecies, not just cultures. Which makes sense given the genetic isolation imposed by the dragons.

Goes hard, your a huge inspiration dude. Huge fan of the civilization route you took, super interested in the slayer stories and the the codex release

@hudsonmiller6908

22 күн бұрын

Also the domesticated animals

Hi there! I had a neat idea for a Anti dragon weapon inspired by the gunlance from monster hunter: It's a large 2 handed Lance with a hollow tip for ejecting poison, on the grip of the weapon there is a trigger to eject the poison, typically when it is embedded in the flesh of a dragon, that acts as a potent neurotoxin to make the dragon uncoordinated at least, and unable to move muscles in the effected area at worst. Obviously you can't make it too overpowered because it removes all the pressure from a fight but its still lethal enough that a 2-3 man squad could effectively use it.

@prehistoryenthusiast

22 күн бұрын

Another one could be a razor net that could be flung at a dragons wings to rip them and make flight a far more difficult task, whilst not effective for killing a dragon, it makes preventing escape much easier

woahhhh!!!! just discovered your channel via this video! im so enraptured by this world! your whimsical and grounded design and art is just amazing

@sawyerleeart

15 күн бұрын

I really appreciate that!

Hey,lee what about a group of people who instead of fearing dragons became dragon worshipper by sacrificing their people to the strong dragons to protect them from other dragons

@styffiswiffis6027

3 күн бұрын

My guess would be that dragons are apex predators. They are animals, not deity’s which can be worshipped. They can be tamed as they are animals and he has thought of that. Hope this helped.

I think game of thrones did a good job with valarian dragon steel and stone melted by dragon fire. The iron throne was made from surrendered swords and melted together with dragon fire.

This is something I don’t see very often in media but you have portrayed it very well. My favorite dragons are the hushmurmur and the sideblinder I think it was called, the dragon with reflective wings and frills

This video was unexpected, but a really cool surprise that was fantastic to watch. I remember wondering how humanity came to be in a world full of dragons, and this video did a good job of touching on that. It’s also really interesting to see the diversity of physiology humans have in this setting, I feel like it’s something often poorly explored in most alternate worlds. Overall a great introduction to the people who call this setting home. Honestly I enjoyed this video alot. While I love the usual dragon videos I hope we get more like this in the future further exploring the worlds flora, non-dragon fauna and unique cultures 😁

This is amazing! I thought the humans were going to look normal but this make sense in a world filled with flying, fire breathing animals that can be as common as a bird.

I'm curious: evolutionarily speaking, are all these groups different species of human (like with _Homo sapiens_ and Neanderthals) or just different forms of one species, similar to dog breeds? Also, I loved the video!

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

It’s a bit of a spectrum where something like a Hinterman is enough to speciate but a Wingrunner is sort of straddling the line between it. All can produce fertile offspring

@denisovan_the_menisovan

22 күн бұрын

​@@sawyerleeart Very interesting. Making groups of humans this different isn't something I've seen much outside of something like The Stormlight Archive, so taking the time to flesh out your world's people this much is really appreciated by all of us.

Allways glad to have more of unique and high quality world-building

man this is so cool, i love how the region shapes the culture of the population. you really nailed it❤

@sawyerleeart

4 күн бұрын

I appreciate you!

i love worldbuilding stuff keep up the videos man

Whoa, the quality of this earned my sub

@sawyerleeart

6 күн бұрын

I appreciate that!

This was a great video and I would love to hear more on pretty much every topic brought up. It’s really interesting and like you said, not really something that we think of when we think of dragons in a world, but this kind of approach to biology and evolution with dragons present is really awesome and interesting to think about. Loved all of it!

Loved this, would be super interested in seeing more

@sawyerleeart

3 күн бұрын

Awesome! There will be

Would be interesting to see da vinci like inventions used in this setting, for improved civilization and to fight against the dragons I would also like to see if there would be more nations that have tamed dragons or other species to fight dragons. "In order to fight monsters we created monsters of our own" sorta way, kinda like the kinghound

2:16 I never really thought about the evolutionary history of humans in a medieval fantasy setting. The only fantasy author I can think of who's even touched on it is GRR Martin in the ASOIF novels. Where he has other species of human like the brindled men exist in sothoryos. Implying humanity evolved naturally in planeteos instead of being divinely created by a god or gods.

I have another question. Given how different the bodies of workers, guards, and monarchs are, do these humans have an ant-like caste system or is that just how you draw them?

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Physically that’s just stylization, but culturally they’re very ant-like. I can see that reflecting in their appearances tho- guards being muscular and strong, workers smaller and more enduring, kings large and well fed

@denisovan_the_menisovan

22 күн бұрын

​@@sawyerleeart Thanks for clearing that up.

So cool love all the thought you put into the worldbuilding.

I always bring a sack full of pepper with me werever i go, you know, incase a dragon shows up.

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Smart move!

Another dragon video nice! Keep up the good work!

I saw this from Curious Archive first!! You rock man. Thank you!

I love this!! Recently went back to my own worldbuilding project and KZread gave me this video, I love the concepts and the idea of humans descending from giants. Instant sub because I want to see more

Wow, I'm looking forward to learning more about the factions in your world

This video is absolutely amazing, I love cultural evolution.

See this is why when all the dragons decided to start attacking people in my world, we had to literally kill their god to get em off our backs because holy moly our second age people were NOT ready for that 😂

Short stories from characters perspectives would be so awesome! Especially in styles similar the AJ picketts dnd monster profiles for example the aurumvorax. Your videos are super awesome and I hope to see more 😊

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Great idea! Love pickett’s stuff

God i love the way you build your world, the level of detail you put to making the dragons and everything around them make sense is amazing

I am reading a book series called "A Natural History of Dragons" by Marie Brennan which does have dragons as legitimate parts of the ecosystem.

@Some_Siren

17 күн бұрын

Dude I love this series

@urbani8231

17 күн бұрын

@@Some_Siren I am only up to the third book. I think it is one of the most original fantasy series I have read.

This is cool and inspiring as heck. Now I want to get back to developing my own setting

This is so cool! I love the art style and has some cool world building. Would love to see a map of your fantasy world and to see the different cultures, kingdoms, heraldries, warriors and armors. Perhaps there could be a tribe/city of humans that specialise in hunting the dragons like a "Monster Hunter". Great stuff boet! Would love to see more.

I'm a little disappointed that I'm not allowed to save this video to my watch later list, so I can use it for further reference.

@sawyerleeart

5 күн бұрын

It should be able to! Might be something on KZread’s end, but I appreciate the thought nonetheless

Really wonderful worldbuilding!

@sawyerleeart

15 күн бұрын

I appreciate you!

Hey.....wait a minute.....this isn't the epically detailed spec evo dragon video I signed up for! (this was a fantastic video dude! I'd welcome more like this to the channel! Love your work!!!)

@sawyerleeart

22 күн бұрын

Haha we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon! And thanks!

Great ideas, really! I am loving your codex. My personal favourite must be the kinghounds: it’s such a simple yet effective concept. Love your works, really

@sawyerleeart

18 күн бұрын

I really appreciate that!

Astounding and captivating visuals

I really liked this video, and I am actually making a fantasy world as well. My goal is to balance familiarity and novel ideas that my friends and I bring to the table. Even called the setting Vastmarch because we wanted to follow Nomadic and Migratory populations and figure out a cultural evolution from there, for all the Humans and Fantasy Kin we have.

This is absolutely amazing, I've been searching for various ideas like this to incorporate in my own stories. Please keep doing you and can't wait to see what comes next

I look forward to seeing more of this

This was amazing to watch! I love the further notes on the unique traits of each species of human. I'd love to see more like this!

I absolutely love the anou6f thought your putting into your world, this level of effort is what make truly amazing setting, I'm very much enjoying your work so keep it up

Fantastic video can’t wait to hear about all the other dragons and animal species in your world

I liked this. Its something that I thought of but never wondered how it could come into being.

Yes bring more man, this is incredibly imaginative and amazing!

This is great! Subscribed and can't wait for more!

Fantastic video! I am amazed at your talent in creating worlds, this video being further proof of the clever worldbuilding you do. Would love to see more of these quinds of videos in the future.

This was great, Sawyer! I also got some great ideas from your video for harmonious coexistence with dragons.

I loved this! I definitely would look forward to more

They dont have to be the fire breathing dragons. It could be a benevolent dragons like those in eastern regions of the world much like blue whales.

@italucenaz

3 күн бұрын

Not all dragons are hostile in his world, but most are

This video was the best I saw on your channel, seeing the dragons is very interesting, but even more so is seeing how they shape the world and how the world shapes itself to them

@sawyerleeart

17 күн бұрын

Good to know! Thank you!

Amazing work, i was waiting for this !

Such a cool idea! Love all the human cultures, so creative- I wonder what technology would evolve eventually Like a industrial revolution, geothermal, Dragon power?? :0

Geez, this is verry well put together, i love it❤❤