Dragons

Dragons are an ancient and terrible force within the world. Once having dominion over the physical realm, a primordial war with the gods saw them sealed beneath the earth. Awoken by the Dwarves, they waged war against that great empire, eventually being cast down after absolute destruction on both sides. Their offspring, known as Dragonborn, were banished or killed, mostly fleeing to the far south, where they continue to worship dragons as their progenitor gods. They are long wyrms, tunnelling through the deep roots of the earth. While snake-like, some sport wings and various other notable mutations, each having a unique appearance. They are universally intelligent, and powerful sorcerers.

History

Dragons were once the only form of life in the world, lording over its primordial beginnings. They were sustained, and indeed birthed by, the magic that coursed through the earth, forming and destroying it as their whims desired. With the arrival of the gods, the dragons were displaced. Subjugated and tamed, they seethed in their subservience. Titans were created as their equals, more palatable and reliable than the dragons had proven to be. Selfish and greedy, the dragons plotted the undoing of their new masters, and through great ritual and effort managed to banish them from the world. Yet their power was reduced, and the ritual incomplete, merely exiling them for a time. In their absence, their titan children waged war on the dragons, destroying many in cataclysmic battles that scarred the earth. At the pinnacle of this war, the great titan Kamay killed the Dragonking Enza, and upon his death the gods were allowed back into the world. Entombing the remaining dragons far beneath the earth, the gods sought to use their magic energies to fuel their own designs. This hibernation lasted for absolute millennia, until the dragons had long since passed into myth, known only as demons in Dwarvish folklore. Until, that is, the Dwarves accidentally awoke them. They sought revenge against the gods and their children, and immediately waged war against the spawn of Kamay in the Dwarves. The war that would follow saw the near complete destruction of the Dwarven race, but they were able to emerge victorious against the dragons and their progeny, destroying the powerful creatures in the process.

Description

Every dragon was unique, each having their own specific attributes and mutations. For the most part, however, each carried the same general characteristics. All were wyrms, with great snake-like bodies. Their heads were simply maws full of serrated teeth, with beady eyes peering down around them. Feathers, wings, various colours, all were individual to the dragon and helped to set them apart. These features could be changed on a whim, as well, though most were set in their preferred appearances. Some of the more powerful dragons could shift their bodies entirely into various humanoid forms, appearing as Dwarves or even humans in some cases. In these forms, they lost much of their raw power, having to channel much of it into maintaining the form.

Notable Figures

Enza, Dragonking

The greatest of the ancient dragons, it was Enza who led their uprising against the gods. His energies fuelled the creation of the Dragonborn, imbuing that race with all of his own attributes. His death at the hands of Kamay effectively ended any hopes at overthrowing the gods, resulting in the dragons being exiled beneath the earth. He was worshipped as a living god among his own kind, and still is considered the King of Dragons by the Dragonborn, chief among their pantheon of creators. He was a great blue, red and gold serpent, with massive feathered wings erupting from his back. Depictions by the Dragonborn show him with gold bands ringing his body. His selfish and tyrannical nature is highlighted in Dwarf mythologies, where he is depicted as a creature who demands sacrifices of blood and souls to maintain his great powers.

Lahar, Son of Enza

With the death of Enza at the end of the War of Ancients, the dragons were left leaderless. Upon their reawakening, few could challenge Lahar for the role of Dragonking, the offspring of Enza carrying much of the power that his father once wielded. Under his guidance, the remaining dragons and Dragonborn launched an all-out assault on the Dwarves, scouring them from beneath the earth and driving them from even the peaks of their mountain homes. But for all of his power, he lacked the leadership of his father, failing to reign in the selfish and conflicting desires of the various dragons. At the pinnacle of their conquest, as they sought to finish off the Dwarves, his sister sought to replace him as their father’s heir. The pair fought titanically, distracted by the resistance of the Dwarves arrayed against them. Ultimately, Lahar was cast down, wounded by his sister and given a deathblow by a Dwarven hero. Lahar’s corpse has been turned into a great trophy by the Dwarves, hanging from the ceiling in the great hall of Kingsreach to display the empire’s power. While alive, Lahar was an all black dragon, with great horns jutting from behind his skull.

Ashnan, Daughter of Enza,

The daughter of Enza and sister to Lahar, Ashnan was a powerful force among the dragons. Imprisoned along with the rest of her kind, she awoke with perhaps the greatest desire for power and revenge. Barely contained vengeance drove her forwards, and she was the fiercest of the dragons in their assaults on the Dwarf holds. The Dragonborn under her control shared her coloring, red and black, and were known for their particular cruelty and bloodlust. Kept in check largely by her brother, she nonetheless grew more and more radicalized over the course of the Dragon Wars. Ultimately she felt that Lahar was too weak to guide the dragons to the conquest they deserved, seeking to overthrow him at the height of his victories, to earn her own glory by defeating the Dragonking. She managed to kill her brother, but she was herself severely wounded in the process. She fled with her Dragonborn to the south, where her fate is unknown.