Thanks once more to Dreamwood from Furaffinity for the Question
Well yes!.. But they tend to not last. In fact the DragonScapes long term timeline is filled with tales of fallen empires and large civilizations, almost always outlived by the tribes, bands and chiefdoms around them. But perhaps the closest that the éldimor as a whole get to a ‘human like civilization’ would be during the Draconic Golden Age.
The Draconic Golden Age is the xenith of manatechnological innovation on the plana of Suyu (Americas) between 10,000PA and 16,000PA, For perspective Imuas story in The Long Hike takes place in the late 30sPA! The Draconic Golden Age is a period of large urban societies of dragons, with high literacy rates and incredible and quite literally magical feats of technological innovation. It was also the most sustained period of dense urbanization seen in the entire timeline of The DragonScape…
though eventually it would rot, in fact the 4,000 years between the end of the Golden Age and the Human Thalmvaric War that would start the Thalmvaric Age and end time would be known as “The Long Rot”. Which was a millennias long period of gradual crumbling of these golden societies. Be it through corruption, fascism and totalitarianism, economic unsustainability, or environmental collapse. This long collapse eventually would crumble under the Human Thalmvaric War. After that war and the collapse of Suyu and its abandonment, the idea of large urban societies broadly dies out.
By the time of the Thalmvaric age, the endless era at the end of time, There aren’t that many nation states. Perhaps some city states but much of the endless expanse, at least where the éldimor live, is dominated by non state societies.
The DragonScape as a setting is very much an anarchic place. It is not a place where vast nation states and urbanized civilizations dominate the skylines with vast multiplanarial trade, vast factories and fleets, and massive armies. Rather the DragonScape is a setting where non state civilizations find ways to thrive in an endlessly unstable universe. Where bands, tribes and chiefdoms find meaning in smaller (for better and worse) existences and lifestyles.
The setting very much is built like that, its hard for dragons to sustain large urban populations due to drekir being mesocarnivores and ormer needing such extreme amounts of calories. the universe itself is unstable and has a tendency to punish complacent, complex states where smaller far more reactive communities can respond and adapt effectively.
Maybe a bit of a side tangent to close out, I can’t remember where I read or heard this, as it’s been floating in my mind for a long time and I know I am not nearly clever enough to think of such a phrase. But I’ve often had a phrase in my head that is something like: “We live in a graveyard of nations who once though themselves immortal” and I tend to think of that of nation states. Granted don’t get me wrong, I quite like living in a nation state with modern amenities like the internet I am currently scribbling onto with my files and website. But I think there is something powerful in accepting that all large complex civilizations will inevitably crumble for one reason or another, there hasn’t been one yet that has withstood the weight of time after all. Even those like china that have a lot of ancient cultural throughlines have collapsed and reformed under different political orders countless times, so not really immortal.
Of course just like any other state, mine too here in the United States will collapse at some point. Maybe sooner than later, but eventually regardless. In the same way the societies of the DragonScape inevitably rise and fall, with the distinction being in the DragonScape the nation states rise up and sink back down into a sea of tribal peoples who are more able to absorb the shocks of an unstable universe.
Hope that answers that!