Thar Be Dragons

Hundreds upon thousands of years ago, Dragons traveled freely throughout the lands, before there were human, dwarves, gnomes, cities, societies. There was no war as we know of it today, but there was an eternal battle between creative Metallic dragons and the destructive Chromatic dragons. Their differences and close proximity kept them in a consistent struggle, thus their populations never reached such that would give them tremendous power over the existing races. Besides that, dragon’s are not ones to thirst for power and control over others, rather they hunt for wealth and knowledge from every source possible.
The races of the elves, Halflings, gnomes, and dwarves came to respect, and in some cases worship, the dragons, for their knowledge and benevolence, while others feared and despised them for their power and wealth. Some races built pantheons for the dragons so that they could rest and store their hoards, though these structures seemed to be more for their own use as the only thing a dragon has to worry about is another dragon. However, this often was the case and soon these groups came to bond with their companions and fought against rival sects. This was a time when there came wars to the lands, though race meant nothing. Dwarves, elves, halflings, and gnomes stood side-by-side with orcs, lizardfolk, giants, and titans. Soon, though, the greatest threat to the dragons came to the world: Humans.

At this point in time, humans had came to the earth but were an almost meaningless species. However, they soon began to form tribes and societies, eventually settling and building villages and towns and immense cities. The dragons saw these structures as places that held great wealths of treasures, ripe for the plundering, and the humans saw the same of the dragon’s hoard. They saw them as a righteous kill, done under self-preservation and protection from unnatural and evil beasts. The humans were cunning and fought in large numbers, making it easy for them to wipe clean the Dragonkith that had attempted to protect their chosen leader. Some dragons formed groups to protect each other, though this only spurred the human’s attempted at defeating them. In response, they created gatherings, eventually becoming well-structured guilds, that specialized in killing the enormous monsters. The gathering of the dragons only made them easier to be killed by either rival dragons or the often sung of Dragon Slayers, or the less known but much more terrifying Dragon Stalkers, that were the outcome of the human’s perseveirance. As the numbers of the dragons dwindled almost to none, some groups eventually came to their senses and took up arms against the hunters of dragons, eventually creating the Knights of Bahamut. Even with the help of the humans, elves, and dwarfs who went to the aid of the dragons, the meniacle red, blue, and black dragons took this as their chance to completely destroy their eternal enemies.

The War of the Great Wyrms saw the destruction of the last of the surviving silver, bronze, and brass dragons, while only a few red dragons and a single golden dragon managed to survive. The gold dragon, known as Riikano Alinaris, fled from the battlegrounds and was never seen (Rumor and lore have it that, due to the overwhelming grief that he felt from the loss of his brethren, he gave himself to the Twilight, joining his family). The red dragons, Kalfyra, Zdothyx, and Raaze, originally celebrated their victory, finally giving them free reign over the world; however greed eventually overcame them when they attempted to divide up the hoards of the dead dragons. Arguing turned to fighting, fighting turned to battle, and battle eventually lead to death. Raaze was the one to kill the other two dragons and he began to collect the treasures of the fallen ones, however he was never able to find the largest and most sought after collection; that of the one called the Ascendant or the Twilight Drake or the Radiant One or the Watcher, the last of the great dragons, Riikano Alinaris. Raaze searched for the hoard of Riikano until his last days, though legend has it that he died unsuccessful.

Some say that Raaze was so consumed by his failure that he attempted to do anything that would give him more time to complete his own treasure, even staving off death. Some legends have him becoming a Shadowdrake, while some tell of the creature of a draconic version of a lich, and others talk about him becoming a disciple of Ashardalon. Nobody is certain what his fate was, though no evidence points to Raaze’s success or failure in his attempts.

Riikano Alinaris:


The last of the Metallic Dragons to survive the War of the Great Wyrms, Riikano Alinaris fled the battle after seeing the deaths of his brothers. From that point, nobody has seen or heard from him, believing that he passed into the Twilight many centuries ago. A dragon flying off into the skies and never returning is nothing of a mystery, as their graveyards were often in places unreachable by other races.

Some say that the golden drake traveled to the graveyard to join his brothers in the Twilight, though upon arriving he was visited by The Watcher, Chronepsis. Riikano was told that his punishment for leaving the other dragons to their death would be to do what he could do when they were alive; protect them. He would have to spend eternity guarding the graveyard, making sure that nobody disturbed them in their eternal slumber. Riikano watched as death, destruction, and chaos flooded the lands while compassion, hope, and joy did their best to survive. The last great wyrm eventually stopped caring about right or wrong, good or evil, and instead just watched. The legends tell that he sits there, amongst the bones of his brothers, observing the events of the world around him.

Another of the lore behind this great gold wyrm is that he sought out a place within the world that he could observe the surviving evil dragons, while keeping safe enough that he could contemplate how to defeat them. It is here that he meditated for centuries, attempting to come up with a way to destroy the evil that had plagued the world. Some say that, in his deep thought, he came face-to-face with Bahamut and reached complete understanding of both the material and ethereal itself. Now, he is simply waiting until the time when he is supposed to unveil himself to the world, as he has been told by Aasterinian and therefore Io himself.

Raaze:


Killer of every dragon, or at least that is how he has proclaimed himself, Raaze spent his entire existence after the War searching for the treasures of his fallen foes. For thousands of years he sought the hoard of the great wyrm Riikano Alinaris, a coward who left his own brothers to die. There are many stories surrounding what happened to the last dragon:

Story of the Dark Dragon:
The Shadowdrakes feast off of the creatures that fall into the River Styx. Due to their connection with the waters that run through this river, they are effectually immune to death, though at a price; they are eternally bound to the river, never being able to leave it for any significant amount of time. Due to this limitation, legend has it that Raaze comes to the surface once every ten years to search for the hoard of the Golden Wyrm. He makes his appearance during the Nerullian Moon (a time when the moon goes black and the world is cast in shadow) and must return to Styx before light touches him.

Story of the Undead Dragon:
In his attempts to stave off death, or possibly even prevent it, Raaze took whatever measure he could. The lore surrounding this is circumstantial at best, though there is some study that makes these stories plausible. One says that he made a pact with a powerful sorcerer promising him half of the treasure in his hoard (a lie that would turn deadly for any who believed, foolishly, that a dragon would ever part with any of his wealth) if he would raise him from the dead before he made his way into the Twilight. Another claims that he sought out the assistance of a vampire clan that would turn him into an undead. The final says that, through careful and time-consuming study, he was able to transfer his soul into a piece of his hoard, better known as a phylactery, transforming him into something not undead, but something beyond. The first two make very little sense in terms of Raaze’s ultimate goal (the first would leave him a mindless beast while the other would tie him eternally to his hoard), with the third would put his fate into some Hoardstealer finding and destroying his soul. However, out of all of the legends created for the Red Dragon, the latter does make the most sense.

Story of the Demon Dragon:
While being hunted to near extinction by the humans, dragons were at a loss as to how to save themselves, though one dragon managed to come to a solution; replace his soul with that of a demon. During a fight between a Slayer, the red dragon Ashardalon was stabbed in the heart and left for dead. With the last of his magic left, he summoned forth the Eater of Souls, the balor known as Ammet. He took the demon into his claw and placed him into his own chest, binding it with his own spirit. Many since have tried this in an attempt to gain demonic powers, though most who have tried end up dying at the hands of the very demon they try to control. However, some say that Raaze was in fact powerful enough to control a demon long enough to bind himself with it, then repeating the process over and over again. Rumor has it that Raaze still grows in power to this very day, though he has long been driven insane by the demonic spirits that now inhabit his body.