What is Dracomachy?

The Dracomachy (Greek for "dragon battle") is a technique introduced in French supplements that specializes in fighting elemental beasts, or "dragon-effects" in the French version. The third edition rules were presented in Codex des Nephilim. It was divided into three independent techniques: Dracology, Dracomachy, and Dracosophy. Dracology focused on predicting and weakening, Dracomachy on domination and capture, and Dracosophy on transforming elementals into tattoos and weapons. These techniques didn't have Spells as such, but provided combat maneuvers as a magical martial art. Practitioners are known as Dracomaques in French. Notably, Dracomachy allows Nephilim to fight and bind Black and Orichalc Elementals, which are otherwise very difficult or impossible to affect with elemental magic. However, the third edition rules for elementals were incomplete and only the fanzine Vision Ka 5 and Palimpseste 5 provided complete guidelines. 

The fifth edition published some basic rules for dracomachy in the supplement Les Poursuivants de l'Atalante Fugitive. These recap the rules from the Codex but reorganize the effects into Passes, Rites and Charms. Passes are used to directly interact with an elemental, Rites are used to form lasting links between the elemental and the surrounding environment (whether to trap or modify the magic fields), and Charms are used to bind elementals to objects, places or the dracomaque himself.

The user Ouroboros devised his own third edition-based house rules for dragon-effects and dracomachy. I find the latter particularly interesting because he tried to expand Dracomachy into its own occult science with three circles, five paths and associated quests for Agartha. He freely admits his rules are incomplete, but I feel they're a good starting point for my own efforts.

Ouroboros' paths are:

  • Bestial Dance: destroy elemental beasts. No triviality or chivalry. “He who fights monsters.”
  • Coliseum: chivalrous duels, ordering of the magic fields.
  • Eternal Hunt: cunning hunter, knight’s adventure, shamanic vision-quest.
  • Fateful Secrets: archaic alchemy using parts and organs from elemental beasts.
  • Submissive Sentinel: charming and taming elemental beasts.

I would treat it as an "obscure" occult science. Although it's obviously well-suited for Strength Initiates, it's not limited to any particular Arcanum. For example, Temperance Initiates may find it useful to conservation of elementals whereas Devil Initiates may pursue it as part of their emulation of the Dragon.

To account for the jargon differences in the US version, I would rename it to Theriomachy meaning "beast battle", from the term used in scholarly circles on folklore.

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