The Worm Turns: Gamemastering

Gamemastering

“But see, amid the mimic rout A crawling shape intrude! A blood-red thing that writhes from out The scenic solitude!

It writhes! — it writhes! — with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food, And seraphs sob at vermin fangs In human gore imbued.

While the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, ‘Man,’ And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”

• Ligeia, Edgar Allen Poe

D

ragons are a mystery. Dragons make dungeons full of magical traps. No one knows why. Dragons do not speak the common language, and attempts to communicate with them have driven sorcerers insane. They may not be evil, but they are so far away from humanity that you might as well call them such. Mesi, the ancient philosopher, theorized that dragons domesticate and cultivate humans in the same way humans cultivate cattle, and no modern discussion of dragons fails to bring up (and usually disagree with) this curious point. The fact is, nobody knows much about dragons. (Dragons steal princesses, too. No one is sure why, either.)