Welcome to Dravaria

Basic Setting

This campaign takes place in a world known as Dravaria. The setting has a long millenia spanning history of conflict between the mortal races and dragons in which the mortals won their freedom in a revolutionary war. The aftermath of the conflict left both sides fractured with the death of the kings for both mortals and dragons. Powerful but divided city-states have risen and flourished since the war, each with diverse strengths and cultures. The dragons amassed into competing broods that vie for dominance and the throne as the next dragon king. As the centuries passed, the city-state's cumulative territory (known as the Mortal Realm) grew and drew the unified attention of the dragons once again. With a unified focus returned to the Mortal Realm, violence grew. The city-states created the Dragon Slayer Guilds in an effort to fight back. The conflict increased in intensity and scope as the years passed and looked to lead to another war. Both sides unsure of victory, called for a truce. The accords would see that the dragons would leave the Mortal Realm in peace if their expansion would cease and the dragon slayer guilds disbanded. The city-state governments agreed. Controversial among the Mortal Realm, many could not believe the dragons to be trusted and most of the dragon slayer guilds went into hiding rather than disband. Though most faded away to time, some persisted and operated in unofficial or secret capacities to avoid complications. Many citizens across the Mortal Realm grew to hate the once beloved heroes. Many believe that the dragon slayers will reignite the war and bring ruin on the Mortal Realm. 400 years have passed since the accords and there has been relative peace with only minor insurgencies of draconic creatures and the rare report of a dragon slain. In the last century however, these incursions seem to be growing in size and frequency while reports of dragon slayer activity returning becoming more common.

Role of the Players

The party will be taking the role of aspiring dragon slayers seeking to join one of the dragon slayer guilds in hiding or make a name for themselves on their own. The players may have many motivations for taking this journey: a drive for vengeance, a sense of duty to bring back the guilds to protect the people, a desire for wealth and treasure, glory to relive the old tales or something else entirely. Once a dragon slayer proper, the party will deal with navigating the city-states and their newfound role in societies that may hate them in their pursuit to stop the draconic threat once and for all before a new war erupts.

History

The land has been split between mortals and dragons for as long as written history has recorded. The mortals of this land do not remember when or how they arrived in this land only that the dragons have always ruled it. The mortals suffered under the cruelty and oppression of the dragons for untold generations. Through cunning and valor, the mortals began to form small colonies and organize. Through these efforts, small towns began to form in defiance of the dragons. Eventually these towns would lead to fiefdoms with growing autonomy, but the threat of flame and claw was ever-present by whichever local dragon ruled the territory. One day a brave warrior decided that mortals had suffered beneath draconic tyranny for too long and for the first time, took up arms against the draconic overlords. With his closest allies this warrior snuck into the dragon master’s lair and attacked the beast as it slept. With the element of surprise and the drive to have justice met for his people, the warrior and his band of companions slew the beast. This mighty warrior was the legendary Deurem Rexis, and his band of companions known as the Paragons. With the first dragon slain in known history, Deurem and the Paragons painstakingly carved pieces from the beast and brought back all they could carry to his people. With these strange draconic materials in hand, they were the first to discover the power of dragon slaying. With the magical and powerful components, he was able to form powerful arms and empower their magic. Deurem and the Paragons begun their crusade to free the rest of their kind and unite them all under one banner.

As their crusade grew and their strength swelled, more dragons began to fall and their methods for refining materials from the beasts grew sharper and more precise. The discovery of draconic materials and their powerful natures catapulted the freshly freed mortals into creating a powerful kingdom over the next century. Under Deurem’s leadership, the mortals were able to defend this kingdom and keep the dragons at bay. What was once deemed a pest and annoyance to be dealt with by the local dragons that ruled in the west had suddenly become a significant threat as the discovery of slain dragons became known to the rest of their scaled kind. The first and greatest of the dragons sounded the call to gather their draconic legions and finally put an end to the mortals. The first War of Scales erupted in a bloody conflict that lasted 200 years. Many ancient dragons perished, and the kingdom was nearly destroyed. The war culminated in the cataclysmic Day of Ruin. In this battle, Deurem lead their grand host as a last stand against Kur, King of Dragons. The climactic battle led to the destruction of nearly the entire host. Not even the Paragons and Deurem were spared, but in his death, Kur was slain. With no king, the dragons splintered and struggled to organize and continue the war effort as infighting for the throne took hold. To prevent more losses, a truce was called and the dragons agreed to leave the mortal’s kingdom in peace in return for the mortals staying to this newly carved out land. The aftermath of the war left the kingdom splintered and their greatest champion could no longer lead them. The corpse of Kur was used to forge the Armaments of Kings, a suit of powerful armor and weapons buried with Deurem to honor his sacrifice, only to be retrieved should a new War of Scales erupt. This resulted in factions staking claims of power and creating rival city-states. In the end, leaving both sides broken and desperate to try and pick up the pieces.

Neither side has ever fully healed as the city-states have resisted unification centuries later and no replacement for Kur has arisen to unite the dragon broods. As time passed, memory of the truce has also begun to fade. Taking advantage of the dragon's continued infighting, the Mortal Realm began to expand once again. Seizing new lands and resources to accommodate for their growing populations. Though not the focus, the fearsome beasts had never fully ceased hostilities with the mortals. This dragon's passivity would not continue and eventually began to take notice of the mortal's expansions. They responded by launching devastating raids along the borders of the Mortal Realm in an attempt to slow or stop the mortal's efforts. In return the mortal states formed powerful guilds of dragon slayers to specialize in hunting down the wyrms and spear head expansion. The formation of the guilds proved highly effective and successful These elite forces worked extremely well for a time, problematically so. The continued growth of the mortal territories and increasing amount of dead dragons began to unite the warring broods back upon their common foe. For each dragon slain on a hunt, the dragon's fury would grow and as their aggression escalated, so too would the hunts. While conflict was constant, neither side ever fully committed their forces in their attacks against the other. The dragons never attacked the Mortal Realm with anything other than small broods and the city-states never mobilized their grand armies into the Dragon Lands. Both sides could clearly see full scale war was inevitable with the constant escalations. A new truce was negotiated, known as the Coexistence Accord, to disband the dragon slayer guilds in return for the cessation of raids from the dragons and their vassals.

Though officially disbanded, no longer supported, and even condemned by the governments, many guilds remained. Most have fallen apart over the course of history, but others still remain and cling to existence in whatever ways they can. Many fear the guilds will restart the War of Scales while others see them as the last bastion of protection against the draconic threats. 1800 years have passed since the War of Scales and centuries since the treaty. It has not been a perfect peace, but violence from either side was very rare. In the last century, tensions and violence have begun to rise again. Draconic raids have grown in occurrence along the borders of the Mortal Realm, targeting small settlements in the countryside. In response, many of the city-states have begun expanding outward again to cleanse nearby threats of these lesser broods. Even with the rising violence, no greater dragon has been seen since the Accord. Many scholars theorize that the infighting between the dragons has escalated since the signing of the Accord. Thus weakening the broods far more than they would ever show. This has lead to growing sentiment that the time has come to strike and finish the dragons before they unite and do the same. Unwilling to reignite the war but also unwilling to become complacent, the mortals continue to arm and ready for a new conflict. It is only a matter of time until the Children of Kur rear their heads again and decide to finish what they started. War is always on the horizon.