http://www.panzerdragoon.net/factions/images/drones_03.jpg
http://www.panzerdragoon.net/factions/images/drones_04.jpg
The ancients would’ve required hundreds of drones to operate their technology, but how many surviving drones have their very own dragons? Personally, I think we will have the pleasure of meeting more drones who are loyal to no one but the ancients and forever hell bent on serving their will in the future. Of course, where there are drones, there are dragons. If more Ancient Age dragons are waiting to be found, then what’s stopping the Empire from taming them?
Drones can be viewed as safeguards serving as the keys to the weapons of the past. Without them, no one other than the ancients (who controlled these drones), could abuse their technology.
The information contained in Panzer Dragoon Orta states that drones masquerading as humans lived in the borderlands before the foundation of the Empire. I’m left wondering how they managed to survive for so long on their own. Are drones immortal (as in ageless) or did these drones only recently emerge from hibernation? Does anyone have any good theories or explanations?
http://www.panzerdragoon.net/theories/images/race_of_drones_theory_09.jpg
http://www.panzerdragoon.net/theories/images/race_of_drones_theory_10.jpg
I think it’s safe to assume that Abadd was meant to awaken from hibernation after the Towers had restored the world to its former glory. However, the Towers didn’t complete their task, so Abadd remained in a state of perpetual hibernation… until the Empire stumbled on his resting place. So far, we’ve seen great examples of drones who remained loyal to the ancients and drones who were turned against them. Did the drones who were freed from the clutches of the ancient ones fight against their creators of their own volition, or were both groups nothing more than pawns in a much larger game?
Drones are quite fascinating since they are sentient beings who were born into slavery, yet now face a future without the aid and guidance of their masters. The question is: how many of them are left the world to fend for themselves? Are future encounters with drones the inevitablity some of us think it is?
Hard to say. We can just about conclude that all the Drones we’ve encountered so far - the Sky Rider, the Dark Dragon’s rider, Azel and Abadd - were sophisticated high-end Drones, the kind that could interface with certain pure-types and ancient technologies, but would a lesser Drone be able to control a dragon? I expect that any main-character Drones in future games will be intelligent high-end Drones too, so this probably wouldn’t be a problem. (It’d be interesting to find out what the less advanced Drones were like, though; would they seem as human as the Drones we know?)
On the other hand, Abadd didn’t seem to have a dragon of his own; he was a pretty important Drone too, so the Ancients may not have given many Drones dragons at all.
This isn’t a very interesting explanation, but I get the impression that the Ancients’ creations were just made so well that they don’t deteriorate or die. The “ruins” still seem brand-new after ten thousand years for example, and the pure-type sentinels waiting inside them just wake up and carry out their guard duties when anyone comes near. As Drones are essentially another kind of pure-type, the same rules would probably apply. Both Azel and Abadd had been put into some kind of deep hibernation, but that may just have been the Ancients’ way of keeping them out of trouble for all those thousands of years.
What I find odd is the way we’re told that there were “whole tribes of Drones” living in the Frontier before the foundation of the Empire. Where exactly did those tribes of Drones disappear to then, and why? It doesn’t look like the Empire or the Seekers ever came across them, but it’d be interesting if a future game showed us that those Drones are still out there. (It’s one possible explanation of where the Sky Rider came from too, I guess.)
From a story-design point of view, I’d say yes; Drones are a fairly interesting plot element, and I’m sure there’s any number of things that future games could do with them without re-hashing Azel and Abadd’s roles. It’d be interesting to have a “normal” Drone as a playable character, too; Orta may have technically been a Drone, but she came across very human.
It would be great if a new game let you play as a drone. Having more insight about their history would be great too.
Apparently there aren’t many high-end drones like azel and abbad walking in the PD world. But certainly it wouldn’t be farfetched to find some more in the ruins. An interesting plot to use anyway.