Kovenoth the Builder
This is an old stub article modified for Summer Camp 2025
Kovenoth was one of the four Founding Dragons of the Kingdom of Swynfaredia and is the founder and namesake of House Kovenoth.
All the Founding Dragons agreed on the notion that dragons shepherd humanity, but they had different approaches to doing this. Kovenoth’s main goal was to create a grand lasting legacy, largely through physical constructions: castles, temples, roads. Hence his nickname Kovenoth the Builder.
Physical Description
Body Features
-Garan, Swynfaredian Bakerby Eron12 with Hero Forge"Don't say this around a member of House Kovenoth, but Kovenoth the Builder's actual life was pretty boring, so the most interesting thing about him was his appearance. He was famoous beautiful multicolored scales. That's why he had the nickname 'the rainbow dragon', and why House Kovenoth spends a fortune on fancy dyes for the uniforms of their retainers. I'm not a dragon anatomy expert but I understand Kovenoth was painfully average, at least by dragon standards. Average body length, average musculature, average scale density. Just amazing coloration."
by Eron12 with Hero Forge
Special abilities
Any dragon can dig with his or her claws, but only a few dragons are natural burrowers. Kovenoth was one of these burrowers and can burrow into snow or soft soil very efficiently. He didn't get to use this ability much because he emigrated to what is now the land of Swynfaredia, he didn't have a lot of places he could easily burrow in.
He personally a powerful spell to let him enhance his natural abilities to burrow into harder soils. He helped human construction workers excavate for castles and dungeons, and researched engineering techniques to let humans engineer safe artificial subterranean caverns.
Mental characteristics
Sexuality
The Founding Dragons wanted to guide the Swynfaredian humans, but they didn't plan to hold their hands forever. They created a large brood of half-dragons to lead them after the Founders were gone.
Kovenoth was very legacy minded and viewed sex as a means of producing offspring and not as a means of expressing love or enjoying recreation. Kovenoth took human form often and had eleven half-dragon children with three human wives. He had one casual tryst with Morgana the human producing a single half-dragon daughter. Little is known about Morgana but she is a popular source of speculation. Their daughter Lady Morgana Kovenoth the Transmuter was one of Kovenoth's most magically powerful children.
Education
Kovenoth did not hit the books as hard as his colleague Gorisonad the Wise, but Kovenoth was well-educated on many topics and unsurprisingly showed a great interest in reading every tome on engineering and architecture he could find, eventually writing a few tomes of his own.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Kovenoth wanted to establish a lasting legacy and he sought to create a very literal and physical legacy. He was big on creating castles, temples, and roads especially and managing physical resources carefully.
Modern Swynfaredia is egalitarian (at least for those with sorcery), but the first few generations of Swynfaredian Dragonbloods had patrilineal succession. This mean that sorceresses couldn't inherit titles and their children would take on their father's surname.
A disproportionately high number of Kovenoth's half-dragon children were female, so they didn't carry on the Kovenoth, but they did carry on Kovenoth ideals. They brought Kovenoth style management and building sensibilities to the other three houses and Kovenoth the Builder himself considered this a political win.
Though this had an unexpected downside generations later. When everyone had skilled builders in their house, Kovenoth lost their main bargaining chip with the other major houses.
Failures & Embarrassments
Kovenoth wrote a fair few political treatises but they are often criticized as being naive to how the real world works. Kovenoth was very focused on carefully managed budgets and efficient and fair taxation. By dragon standards at least, Kovenoth was not very cunning. While he and his human descendants were often excellent managers and stewards, they were underwhelming in terms of intrigue and diplomacy.
This may or may not have contributed to House Kovenoth's gradual loss of influence centuries later.
by me with Midjourney
Morality & Philosophy
Kovenoth's guiding moral principle is that everyone should aim to create at least slightly better world for those that came after. While this was altruistic on the whole, Kovenoth liked grand projects because he liked the idea of beautiful things glorifying his name long into the future.
None of the Founding Dragons were believed to be especially pious, but always warned his descendants not to get too arrogant and to never forget that as powerful and clever and dragon and dragonblooded humans are, the Nine are more powerful and more clever.
Kovenoth and Kovenoth's descendants sponsored the construction a lot of beautiful temples, partially to show off, but mostly to try to try to win the Nine's favor, or at least avoid their collective wrath.
Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake
Personality Characteristics
Representation & Legacy
House Kovenoth remains one of the four main houses of the Kingdom of Swynfaredia, but they have never been close to holding the crown. Depending on how you measure things, House Kovenoth is either the third or fourth most influential house in Swynfaredia.
The House looks strong on the outside but the rainbow banners conceal a lot of struggles underneath.
House Kovenoth boasts a lot of amazing castles and public buildings. They have vaults full of mighty heirloom magical items, but they at the same time they are also poor.
Swynfaredia had three major civil wars in its history. In every such conflict, the majority Kovenoths backed the losing side. And each time when the final peace treaty is drawn up, House Kovenoth had to cede land to the winning side to keep the peace. As a result, House Kovenoth less farmland, less timberland, and fewer productive mines than the other major houses. This means they have less income streams than the other houses.
In theory, they could sell some magical items but it's very hard to find buyers for such priceless items willing and able to pay a fair price. And selling family treasures would be a mark of great dishonor.
Kovenoth lords and ladies have to cut corners where ever they can to save money while also taking every possible step to maintain the appearance of wealth and respectability. Some whisper their rainbow painted castles have become beautiful prisons.
Relationships
Species
Life
334 CE
1030 CE
696 years old
Family
Spouses
Trina the Human
(spouse)
Morgana the Human
(lover)
Mererid the Human
(spouse)
Adyna the human
(spouse)
Siblings
Children
- Lady Adyna Kovenoth the Cold
- Lady Addiena Kovenoth the Conjurer
- Lady Tulia Kovenoth of the Colors
- Lady Winona Kovenoth the Dark
- Lady Morgana Kovenoth the Transmuter
- Lord Merrick Kovenoth the Shrewd
- Lady Bryna Kovenoth the Sun Dragon
- Lady Trina Kovenoth the Dragon Blood
- Lady Cordelia Kovenoth the Strong
- Lord Tristin Kovenoth the Defender
- Lord Valdor Kovenoth the Castle Builder
- Lady Mererid Kovenoth the Adept
Sex
male
Founded Settlements
Comments