Dragons are perhaps the most powerful beings in all of Mennara. In fact, Mennara is actually named after the Yrthwright of the same name. No one knows where the flying, firebreathing lizards come from or what their purpose is when they embark on their destructive flights. What is known is that all dragons love gold and precious gems, and can detect it from hundreds of leagues away. During the Third Darkness, also known as the Dragon Wars, the dragonlords and other dragonkin (creatures distantly related to dragons) plundered countless holdings for their artifacts.
Young Dragons
Dragons take decades, even centuries, to fully mature. Unlike the wild dragons of the southern lands, the dragonlords of the Molten Heath are highly protective of their dragonlings, shielding them from the worst dangers of their homeland until they come of age. During this time, the elder dragons instruct the young in the history of their race, which is the history of all creation. From a young age, dragons learn of their unique place in the cosmos, as the inheritors of the Yrthwrights’ legacy. By the time they reach adulthood, dragons understand the weight of their role as stewards of Mennara and guardians of its inhabitants—at least, most of them do.
Although weak and fragile compared to fully grown dragons, the youngest wyrmling is far from defenseless. A newly hatched dragon might be the size of a small stag, with talons strong and sharp enough to split a warrior open. Within a few years at most, the dragonling stands larger and stronger than an ox. Similarly, although they lack the intense depth of insight and centuries of wisdom of their elders, even the youngest dragons are at least the intellectual equals of the finest minds of Human civilization. As was learned by the foolish Count Hector Ysphane, even a young dragon hatchling is capable of leveling an entire keep.
Feral Dragons
Feral dragons—uncultured, savage remnants of the Dragon Wars—occasionally appear and rampage across Terrinoth as little more than violent beasts. Suffused with magic, dragons are very nearly impossible for the average soldier to kill, and even mighty heroes must rely on the aid of runebound shards to have any hope of slaying the beasts.
As dragons have the power of flight and a mastery of magic great enough to level cities, a dragon sighting is a sure sign to flee. As everyone knows, rarely does anything but doom follow.
Dragonlords
The Dragonlords of the Molten Heath, unlike the feral beasts found in much of Terrinoth, are fiendishly intelligent, and they dominate the scattered tribes of dragon hybrids that roam the ash dunes and basalt slopes. The histories even tell of a Dragon Rex, the most powerful of her kind, who rules over the entirety of the Molten Heath.
The dragons dominate the heath, lording over the other creatures that dwell in the foothills of the draconic demense. The dragons' civilization is a rich as any to be found elsewhere, but their motivations are utterly enigmatic to the other races of Mennara. The dragons do not tolerate intruders, but many come nevertheless to seek out ancestral lands and the hoards of magical items the dragons claimed in the Third Darkness.
Seldom have the Dragonlords seen fit to meddle in the affairs of mortals, and since the time of the Dragon Wars, these godlike beings have largely passed into legend. The vast minds of dragonlords are alien to those of Humans and their kin, and even the Elves can only barely grasp the desires and plots of these ancient wyrms. Scholars still puzzle over the reasons for the Dragon Wars and for the dragons’ abrupt departure. In the vanishingly rare event that a dragon’s activities are known to mortals, they are likely to seem cruel or even senseless. Dragons measure time in spans that mortals can scarcely comprehend; without this context, the lesser races cannot hope to grasp the true cause or goal of a dragon’s action. Compounding matters, dragonlords have little regard for the lives of Humans or the other peoples of Mennara, with the notable exception of the Elves.
Dragonlords do sometimes make use of Humans, Orcs, and the other peoples of Mennara in their continued guardianship. More often than not, such individuals never realize they serve the interests of a dragon—particularly in the case of Dwarves, who harbor an abiding hatred for the Dragonkin. Despite the risks of relying on such inferior creatures, throughout history, a number of dragonlords have seen the mortals of Mennara as potentially useful tools in the battle to protect the Yrthwrights’ creation from the depredations of the Ynfernael and the abyssal entities that dwell within.
The Yrthwrights
No one has a clear idea of when the creation of the Dragons occurred. The First cannot have created Dragonkin before the creation of the Aenlong, for the Dragonkin are of it. Further, the Dragonkin must have existed before the First created the mortal realm, because the Dragonkin played a part in its construction.
Regardless of when it occurred, the first dragons were molded from the debris of creation and granted the ability to speak matter into existence in a manner reminiscent of the Lays of the First (note here that the Runemasters of Greyhaven disagree as to whether the runes of the dragons, first learned by Helka the Bold, are vestiges of this language).
Through these incantations, they set about creating the Firma Dracem, the mortal realm, and adorned it with spinning bodies, planets, and suns. Their great work is nothing less than existence as mortals perceive it. Thanks to their talents, they were termed the Foundrakes, also called the Yrthwrights.
Dragon Species
There exist different variants of dragons beyond the common kind. These are often fond of particular environments that complement their unique abilities. Each of the species of dragon may be found as ferals or dragonlords. Not all types of dragon are known, but some of these variant species are listed here:
References
- Realms of Terrinoth