Crazy theory #9001: Draketooths are too paranoid

[smasher0404]

Ok this is going to sound crazy. The death of 1/4 of the world's population of black dragons isn't exactly unnoticeable. The draketooth's might have thought that whoever killed the black dragons might come after the gates. So they faked a family tree and dug up dead bodies and placed them all over the place. The list is used to strengthen the illusion (non-magical). They then hide in a hidden shelter and watch to see if anyone comes. They purposefully left fewer illusions to better draw in the enemies of the gate so they can render them useless.

[Othesemo]

Possible, I suppose, but a bit on the implausible side. For example, how would they know to fake a family tree mural showing a black dragon, without knowing specifically how all of the dragons died? They were killed by an epic spell known only to one Neutral Evil soul in the after life, making it rather unlikely that they were aware of how it works. They could have just as easily assumed that it was the Epic Spell "Dragon Purge," or something like that.

Also, seeing as the Black Dragon's preferred environment is a swamp, and they live a very secluded life in the middle of a desert, I would be surprised if any of them had even seen a real black dragon in their lives.

[ThePhantasm]

Plus V's own familicide speech to the black dragon indicated that black dragons were few in number and had a low reproduction rate.

[Porthos]

And the dead bodies have only been dead for a couple of weeks, per Durkon.

[NerfTW]

Ok this is going to sound crazy. The death of 1/4 of the world's population of black dragons isn't exactly unnoticeable. The draketooth's might have thought that whoever killed the black dragons might come after the gates. So they faked a family tree and dug up dead bodies and placed them all over the place. The list is used to strengthen the illusion (non-magical). They then hide in a hidden shelter and watch to see if anyone comes. They purposefully left fewer illusions to better draw in the enemies of the gate so they can render them useless.

Like I said in another thread, it makes no sense. This is the logical progression of the plot. If it was all faked, then we'd have to see the same repercussions ALL OVER AGAIN at a later point.

Yes, in real world terms, this could be a perfectly crafted illusion designed to screw with someone. But in terms of plot, it is clearly the results of the previous events of the story.

Think of it this way. Yes, in the real world the big villain might die in a completely random car accident on his way to the grocery store. But if that happens in your story after spending several chapters chasing him, readers are going to be extremely let down and annoyed. Good storytelling trumps "I'm going to throw something random in here because the world is totally random!"

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

I'm going to put on my bard hat and say that it's dramatically improbable. It would cheapen V's agony over having committed a genocidal act, which has been a major point of his character development. The mysterious death of Tarkin's wife and her connection to the Draketooths was only mentioned in passing, which makes it unlikely to be a red herring. The OotS is perfectly set up to crawl through a dungeon full of traps and illusions to reach the Gate, and it has been a while since their last dungeon crawl.

[Chess Tyrant]

+1 to the people who say it's dramatically improbable - you are entirely correct.

In the spirit of WMG, though, it's entirely possible some of the Draketooths survived/that they had some contingent means of getting themselves raised (for example, a construct whose orders included raising one person if everyone were killed)... There are many different ways that a few of them could still be around.

Rules question: if I cast Resurrection on a tiny piece of skin torn from a corpse, does the original corpse disappear when the target is raised? All the dead guys in the room could be alive again by now.