dragons

Dragons

Origin

Dragons were not created as a separate species. They are Dragonborn who crossed the threshold from mortal to titan. In the Old World, as dragonborn power grew unchecked, the most powerful among them ascended — becoming the first dragons.

The Dragon Gods

Alarmed by the speed of dragonborn ascension, the United Pantheon elevated two of the first dragons — Bahamut and Tiamat — into dragon deities. The rapid path from mortal to titan to god granted these new deities a unique fluidity between forms: the ability known as Change Shape. Whether this was a failsafe implanted by the gods or a power the dragons claimed as their own remains unclear.

• Tiamat sought to enslave the dragonborn as servants of the dragons.
• Bahamut rebelled against this vision, though both served the Pantheon’s broader aim of preventing new ascensions.

In exchange for their divine status, the dragon gods commanded the dragons to sow division among the dragonborn along color lines and across the moral spectrum.

The War of Brother Kings

Among the most prominent first dragons were two brothers: Andes, a gold dragon, and Etlan, a green. Their ideological split over how to govern mortals erupted into a civil war that reshaped the western continent. See War of Brother Kings for the full account.

The Mortal Wars

During the Mortal Wars, dragons were hunted nearly to extinction. Those that survived went into hiding, many using their Change Shape abilities to live among mortals undetected.

The Broken Pact

When The Fall disintegrated the United Pantheon, the divine pact binding the dragons shifted. The Change Shape ability — once tethered to the gods’ authority — became tethered instead to the survival of the first dragons. As long as at least one of the original dragons who ascended during the Old World still lived, all dragons retained the ability to shift form.

The New Generation

As titans began reappearing in the lead-up to The Fall, Kriv became a dragon — the first of a new generation, not one of the originals. Timrush, too, carries this legacy. These new dragons were not bound by the old pact the way the first dragons were.

The Dragon Cult

In the wilderness, remnants of a dragon cult were found dead — killed approximately 20 years prior during The Fall. Clues left behind revealed a key truth: by slaying the last of the first dragons, one could sever the shapeshifting pact entirely, removing the Change Shape ability from all other dragons.

The End of the First Dragons

With Etlan slain by the Dragonslayers and Andes choosing to die at their hands, the last of the first dragons passed from the world. Their deaths stripped all dragons of their Change Shape abilities — no longer able to hide among mortals, dragons are now revealed to the world for what they are.

“With my death, dragons will lose our shape-changing powers and be revealed to the world for what we are. Kriv is not a first dragon; he is first of the new and certainly not the last. I’ve been hiding amongst you for so long, listening to you tell yourselves we are gone. But we’re not. With my death, dragons return.” — Andes, in his final moments