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Kilieit · **06-24-2016, 03:30 PM**

(06-24-2016, 02:38 PM)kyioku Wrote: 3) Is there any reason other than Dragonsong War that dragooning is, I think, exclusively an ishgardian style of combat?

Well, Ishgardians are the only ones who have such a large portion of their history devoted to fighting airborne foes; which explains why they're the only ones to have developed such a style, at least as far as we can tell.

And especially within the current living memory, Ishgard has had a very closed-off foreign policy - until very recently, it just wasn't that likely that anyone who wasn't born there would gain enough prestige and trust to be trained in one of their most exclusive forms of warfare.

But besides all that, I mean... okay just gonna spoiler tag this. It's sort of tinfoil hat stuff and I'm not sure if any of it is confirmed, but it might be useful inspiration-wise?

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DRG 30-50 spoilers, DRG 50+ spoilers, major Heavensward MSQ spoilersIn the DRG 30-50 quest chain we learn that the reason the dragoons use that specific type of armour, drachen mail, is because it "calls to their inner dragon", bringing it forth and empowering it. This enhances the supernatural abilities dragoons possess - their jumps, {Dragonfire Dive} and {Blood of the Dragon}/{Fang and Claw} type abilities, and so forth. It also "draws dragons towards you" to make it easier to find and fight them.

During Heavensward MSQ, we learn that everyone who can trace their ancestry to the Ishgardians of a thousand years ago... is infused with the power of the great wyrm Ratatoskr. Ratatoskr was killed, and her Eyes were consumed by the Ishgardians of the time, who then went on to sire children and pass this power on through them. It became diluted over time, but it's still there. And, I mean, it's still enough to physically transform any Ishgardian into a lesser dragon if they imbibe even a single drop of a true dragon's blood.

Now, what I'm about to say isn't a hard-and-fast rule, more of a general idea that suggests why it's Ishgardians who developed this fighting style and no-one else.

I feel like most of the principle behind being "dragoon" as a skillset is based on the idea that you have an "inner dragon"; in other words... that you possess the power of Ratatoskr within you.

Obviously, The Warrior Of Light can learn to become a dragoon. For intents and purposes of quests, the WoL is not even from Eorzea, let alone Ishgard. Which means it's not totally impossible to become one if you aren't descended from Ratatoskr's killers. The WoL can even excel as a dragoon (see: DRG 50+ quests), which proves it's also not impossible to be a really good dragoon without Ratatoskr's blood within you. Just unlikely.

However and nonetheless - I feel the Ratatoskr connection is likely the reason why, all politics and lack of accessibility aside, it's statistically more probable for an Ishgardian to succeed at learning the skills of a dragoon than anyone else.

Dragoon lore questions

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