The history of dragons stretches back to the dawn of time. Each flight has its own heroes, triumphs, and defeats,and over the course of tens of thousands of years much truth has been lost or consumed by legend. This tome addresses events Khorvairian historians have studied,no doubt but a few glittering coins in the vast hoard of draconic history.
The Progenitor Worms
The wisest dragons contend that the world was born in battle. According to myth, the emptiness before creation was the domain of three mighty dragons. Golden Siberys was the source of all magic. Gentle Eberron was the fountain of life. Cruel Khyber was the master of secret knowledge, and of the powers that lurk in the darkness. Together, they held dominion over the fate of all, and they pondered the proper shape of the universe.
In the beginning, the Progenitors worked together. They started with the thirteen planes, but as they molded reality, rifts began to form between them. Dark Khyber grew greedy, and noble Siberys responded by becoming more forceful; each sought greater influence in the work. Daanvi, Fernia, and Irian bear the prevailing mark of Siberys. Kythri, Mabar, and Xoriat show the dominant touch of Khyber. Eberron sought to mediate but could not bridge the divide.
When it came time to create the final, central plane,the tensions between Siberys and Khyber could not be contained. The dark one tore into her sibling, mortally wounding the gold dragon and scattering his scales across the sky. Although not powerful enough to defeat her, Eberron knew that Khyber could not be allowed to benefit from her deeds. The gentle one refused to fight Khyber with claw and tooth. Instead, Eberron embraced her, trapping Khyber within her smothering coils. Eberron called on the powers of life, giving birth to soil, tree, and ocean, and so transformed herself into a living prison that Khyber could never escape.
Thus Eberron became the world on which all life grew. To this day, she nurtures and sustains all. Sibery's remains became the ring around the world; his scattered scales became the stars. Khyber remains trapped within—the Dragon Below, the Mother of Monsters, the source of all darkness—forever struggling to escape and bring an end to it all.
The First Age
In the wake of the battle of the Progenitors, life emerged on the new world. Siberys had fallen in battle, but power remained within his blood. Filled with the purest essence of magic, that blood fell on Eberron, merging life and magic to produce new creatures with the strength of both Progenitors: dragons. Where the blood of Siberys struck the clouds, silver dragons were born. It fell on the cold peaks, and white dragons rose from the ice. It struck the swamps, and black dragons emerged from the dark depths. And so all the dragons were born, mighty and proud, possessing the mystical power of Siberys and the vibrant life force of Eberron.
Few of the creatures of the modern age existed at the dawn of time. The titans of Vrigan were in their infancy, possessed of power but lacking knowledge. The lesser races had not been born; the dark creatures had not been spawned. So it was that wild flights of dragons soared above the world, reveling in their might.
The dragons' only true match were the couatls, the divine feathered serpents. For all their power, dragons are mortal creatures. They reproduce, they grow old, and in time they die. The couatls stood outside the cycle of life; legends say that the couatls were formed from the pure blood of Siberys before it struck Eberron, and that, as a result, they were truly immortal. They were reborn only after death, so that their numbers remained constant. Though powerful, the couatls kept to themselves in the remote parts of the plane, leaving the dragons to explore the world.
The Blood of Khyber
For untold millennia, the dragons were the sole lords of Eberron. Then a new threat emerged. Khyber was bound in the depths of Eberron, but this did not eliminate the dark dragon's power. In time, a host of horrors spawned in the depths. Balors, aboleths, and other terrors emerged to lay claim to the world above. The greatest were The First Demons: fiends with such power that they could almost be called gods. At that time, the dragons were organized into simple flights, which fought with one another as often as not. Scattered and wild, they were no match for the The First Demons of Khyber.
The Draconic Prophecy
After the mighty fiends consolidated their hold on the surface world, they ruled over a nightmare kingdom for hundreds of thousands of years. The once-proud dragons were forced into slavery and servitude. The fiendish dominion might have continued until the end of time, if not for the couatl Hezcalipa and a blue dragon named Ourelonastrix. Working together over the course of centuries, these two visionaries studied the sky and stars, and compared their findings with mysterious patterns that appeared on the earth. They became convinced that such study could reveal a map of the future, an outline of the myriad paths history might follow. Ourelonastrix believed it to be the wisdom of the Progenitors, the very blueprint of reality. He called it the Draconic Prophecy, authored by Eberron and Siberys themselves.
The Great War
The Draconic Prophecy gave Ourelonastrix insights into the weaknesses of the demons. Even more, it gave the dragon and his kin a sense of hope, the belief that dragons were part of something greater. Following the path of prophecy, Ourelonastrix and Hezcalipa rallied their peoples against the children of Khyber, setting in motion a war that would continue for thousands of years. Despite their raw power—or perhaps, because of it—The First Demons were scattered and overconfident.This allowed the combined might of the dragon–couatl alliance to defeat them one by one.
Despite this advantage, the war seemed hopeless.The fiends were truly immortal. The defeat of a First Demon was temporary at best, and no simple spell could bind them. Then Hezcalipa's studies uncovered a path to victory. Indeed, the outcome appeared ordained. Still, the cost was terrible. Led by Hezcalipa, the couatls sacrificed almost their entire race, forging their immortal essence into a pure force that could hold the Demons and their dire followers. A few demons escaped, but the war was won.
Although the dragons fought fiercely, some believe they abandoned the couatls at the end, refusing to share the cost of the final sacrifice. It's possible that this was a matter of fear, although that seems unlikely. It might be that, being mortal, the dragons simply didn’t have the spiritual energy required. Perhaps the dragons survival was a calculated decision. The sacrifice of the couatls removed both celestials and fiends from Eberron, leaving the dragons as masters of the Prophecy and the most powerful beings in the world.
Expansion and Withdrawal
The Great War against the demons united the dragons. It forced them to set aside their petty rivalries and to master the mystical powers that had long lain dormant in them. The surviving dragons were more powerful than ever before, but their population had been devastated by battle. Following the defeat of The First Demons, most of the surviving dragons retreated to the sanctuary of Zyddrydem. The elders gathered in the first great Conclave and laid the foundation of draconic culture that remains in place to this day. The survivors spent tens of thousands of years nursing their wounds, rebuilding their flights, identifying and studying the signs of the Prophecy, and honing the magical gifts they had developed during the war. In time, some began to look beyond Zyddrydem, and to explore the lands they rediscovered.
Sixty thousand years ago, the dragons began spreading across Eberron again. They found dozens of growing civilizations—kingdoms of giants and titans in Vrigan, primitive clans of dwarves in Frostfell, nomadic groups of shifters, and nascent goblins in Khorvaire. Some merely wished to study the lesser creatures. A few came as mentors, foremost among them the descendants of Ourelonastrix. These dragons shared the secrets of magic with giants, curious to see what innovations these promising creatures might develop. But the bulk of the dragons chose the path of conquest. Flights of dragons carved out dominions across the world.
For most of the dragons, it began as a game—one with a high cost in life among nondragons. In time, however, the struggle turned dragon against dragon. Friendly rivalries became bitter. The blood of dragons flowed. And as the troubles spread, the Daughter of Khyber herself stirred in the Pit of Five Sorrows. Hundreds of dragons fell under her sway, and the spawn of Tiamat rose from tainted broods. Given time to spread,this corruption could have destroyed Zyddrydem. Fortunately for the dragons, the watchful Eyes of Chronepsis were able to identify the tainted dragons,and the militant Light of Siberys brought an end to the corruption.
The Conclave gathered at a massive natural aerie in the heart of Zyddrydem. There the students of the Draconic Prophecy presented their findings. To this day, the records of this gathering remain privileged information even within Zyddrydem, shared only with respected and powerful elders. Most dragons believe that the seers linked Tiamat's rising power to the spread of draconic activity across the globe—opining that the influence of the dragon lords in turn empowered the Daughter of Khyber. One fact is known: Following the council, the Conclave called on the scattered dragons to return to Zyddrydem. The age of draconic expansion was at an end.
The Devastation of Vrigan
Explorers in Vrigan, Q’barra, or Haleth might stumble across a weathered statue or faded image scratched into a cavern wall, but the dragons left few traces of their dominion . . . with one exception. The giants of Vrigan were the most advanced nondragons of the age, and they had learned much in their interactions with the dragons.Those who worked with Ourelonastrix’s students used draconic magic to carve out empires and dominate their continent. The arcane arts spread, and soon the giants began to explore new approaches to magic. As powerful as they are, the dragons are mired in tradition, and certain paths they refuse to tread. The giants of long-dead empires, such as the Cul’sir Empire and the Group of Eleven, had no such qualms—their exploration of bloodmagic and other dark arts diverged wildly from the codified teachings of Ourelonastrix.
Nonetheless, the dragons remained uninvolved. The elders of many flights studied the Draconic Prophecy, but agreed that it was best not to manipulate its outcome. They simply traced its myriad paths and watched as fate chose its course.
Then the quori came to Vrigan. The motivation for this extraplanar incursion remains a mystery, but the giant records portray the quori simply as ruthless invaders. Other evidence suggests that the quori merely sought refuge from a disaster on their own plane, or even retaliation against acts of aggression instigated by the lords of Vrigan. Whatever the root of the war, it was a struggle that lasted for centuries. Powerful mystical and psionic forces were unleashed by both sides, and, in time, nearly all the arcane knowledge the giants possessed was turned to the war effort. In Zyddrydem, students of the Draconic Prophecy warned that this struggle could shake the planes themselves, but the Conclave insisted that the dragons stand aloof. The outcome is known to any student of history; the giants unleashed forces that tore Dal Quor from its orbit, bringing a sudden and terrible end to the conflict.
The giants' gambit devastated their continent and shook the foundations of Eberron. Their former slaves, the elves, rose up against their weakened masters. Desperate, the giants began harnessing power once more, preparing to unleash the same forces that had vanquished Dal Quor. Perhaps they thought victory was possible, but many historians believe it was pure nihilism—if the titans couldn’t rule the world, they would destroy it.
The dragons saw the threat traced out in the Prophecy. Shocked and alarmed at the effect of the forces already unleashed by the giants, this time they chose to act. A scaled army poured forth from Zyddrydem, with flights of all colors led by the militant wyrms of the Light of Siberys. The conflict was brutal, and its outcome never in doubt. The dragons had no interest in holding territory. They made no effort to avoid civilian casualties; they brought fire, fang, and epic magic to bear in the most destructive ways imaginable. In the end, nothing was left of the proud nations of Vrigan. Giant, elf, and all other cultures of the land were laid low by the dragons, and powerful curses ensured that the giants would never again threaten the world.
Their mission accomplished, the dragons returned to Zyddrydem to brood. All agreed that the people of Vrigan would never have posed such a threat if the dragons had not shared the secrets of magic. The Conclave called the event kurash Ourelonastrix—Aureon’s Folly—and forbade any flight from sharing the secrets of Zyddrydem with lesser beings.
The Elf-Dragon Wars
Although the destruction of Vrigan was monumental,some of the continent’s denizens did survive. While the dragons brooded, elf refugees established the nation of Haleth. Thousands of years of research into necromancy and the energies of Zyddrydem produced the Undying Court, an alliance of deathless elves with a gestalt power that rivaled the Demons of the first age.Since that time—nearly twenty-five thousand years before the founding of Galifar—dragons and elves have been at war. The tides of strife ebb and flow, and centuries might pass between battles . . . but sooner or later the dragons return to fight once more. The basis of this age-old conflict, and its conduct, is another of the mysteries of Zyddrydem.
Many find it impossible to imagine that the Halethi could stand against the force that utterly destroyed Vrigan. In truth, the elves have never faced the full power of Zyddrydem. The strike on Vrigan was carried out by the full, unified force of Zyddrydem; the elf–dragon wars have involved only a few flights from the Light of Siberys. The fact that the Undying Court has been able to hold off the dragons remains an impressive feat, but it has not faced the power that ravaged a continent.
Those who study this puzzling behavior ask: Why not ravage the continent? What motivates this seemingly endless struggle? If the dragons truly wish to eliminate the elves, why don"t they commit their full forces to the task? If they don’t care enough to do so, why do they continue to fight in such piecemeal fashion?
One theory is that the dragons despise the extensive practice of necromancy, even when it draws on the positive energy of Irian, but do not view it with the same abhorrence as the giants' planar studies. Thus, they cannot agree en masse that Haleth should be laid low.
Another possibility is that the struggle is a form of exercise for the dragons, a proving ground for the younger warriors of the Light of Siberys. Conversely, it might be that the wars are fought to test the elves and harden them for some future conflict, just as a soldier will sharpen his blade in preparation for battles to come. The dragons might be unwilling to share the secrets of their power with lesser races, but they can still push the lower creatures to reach their full potential. The long struggle with the dragons has certainly forced the Halethi wizards and Tairnadal warriors to master the arts of war and magic.
The lords of Zyddrydem offer no explanations for their actions, nor do they negotiate. Only two instances of elves and dragons working side by side are known, and both involve the noble line of the House of Vol. Following the appearance of the Mark of Death, a number of green dragons began working with the line of Vol. This alliance produced the half-green dragon Erandis.
Allies of Vol claim that this was intended to forge a bond between the two races and bring an end to the wars. Others believe that the emerald dragons sought to gain control of the Mark of Death through their half-dragon offspring. In the end, Erandis d"Vol did unite Haleth and Zyddrydem . . . in a quest to eradicate the line of Vol. But this alliance was short-lived and involved minimal communication between the allies. Once the house of Vol fell into shadow, the dragons returned to Zyddrydem, and in a few centuries the cycle of war began anew.
Vvaraak's Betrayal
Throughout time, rogue dragons have pursued their own agendas and dreams. Still, in the aftermath of Aureon's Folly and the destruction of Vrigan, few dared to share the secrets of Zyddrydem with lesser creatures. One such rebel was the Emerald Claw, father of Erandis d’Vol, and it destroyed him. A more well-regarded rogue was Vvaraak, the black dragon who brought the secrets of druidic magic to Khorvaire. A true child of Eberron, Vvaraak foresaw a disaster that would wound the world itself. The Conclave had no interest in this struggle; just as the dragons had stood aside while the giants of Vrigan battled Dal Quor, the elders of the Conclave told Vvaraak that they would act when a clear threat to Zyddrydem existed, and not before.
Frustrated, Vvaraak abandoned her elders and her flight, traveled across the world, and began training humanoids and other creatures in the use of natural magic. Although she is best known for teaching the orcs of the west coast of Khorvaire, Vvaraak had other students. Some Seren druids attribute their skill to the teachings of the Ebon Mother, and lizardfolk boast powerful magic in Q'barra and Vrigan.
Vvaraak stayed in the Shadow Marches for less than a century, and her final fate is unknown. Perhaps she lived out her final days in humanoid form, moving among her students and hiding from the angry Eyes of Chronepsis. Perhaps she descended into Khyber to teach the derro and other denizens of the deep. Some say that she returned to Zyddrydem, that her act of rebellion was actually a carefully calculated move on behalf of the Conclave. If so, it could be that the dragons subtly planned and implemented the destruction of the Dhakaani Empire.
Dragonmarks and the Chamber
The Prophecy is constantly evolving. As the actions of the present open new paths to the future, these routes are revealed in stone and storm, in the convergent motions of moon and plane. A few thousand years ago—within the estimated lifespan of a gold dragon—the Prophecy revealed itself in a new form.
Dragonmarks.
Traced across the flesh of a number of the lesser races, these sigils are more than a source of mystic power. To a student of the Draconic Prophecy, the actions of the dragonmarked provide insight into the paths of the Prophecy, much as a lesser augur might read hints of the future in the movements of birds. The appearance of the dragonmarks sent shock waves across Zyddrydem. Why were the marks appearing on humanoids instead of the far more ancient and nobler dragons? Would this give humanoids the power to shift the path of the Prophecy? Some declared that this transition from stone to short-lived flesh was asign that the Prophecy was nearing its end . . . an end that would herald the death of Eberron and the birth of a new reality.
Many among the militant Light of Siberys urged the Conclave to destroy the dragonmarked, to prevent the demons, devils, or other enemies from using them. Other dragons argued that this was a manifestation of the will of Eberron, and destroying it would be a blasphemous act that could have cataclysmic results. While the Conclave considered, a new voice was heard in the tumult. Young dragons of all colors challenged the passive philosophy of their elders. The world was changing; this new age called for direct observation and, when necessary, manipulation of the lesser beings. After long debate, the Conclave agreed to give the members of this new movement a chance to explore their theories. Stern warnings were issued about empowering Tiamat, however, and a set of guidelines limiting involvement was drafted. Freed, at least in part, from the restrictions that branded Vvaraak and others anathema, the younger dragons formed the territory known as the Tapestry in Zyddrydem. A select few were chosen to travel across the world, to monitor the dragonmarked, to search for other signs of the Prophecy, and to oppose those who worked against the interests of Zyddrydem. This group is known as Calemaryx—the Chamber.
Over the course of the last three thousand years, the Chamber has spread across Eberron. Its agents are concentrated in Khorvaire, since this is the center of the dragonmarked and the nexus for events involving the Prophecy. Many dragons are still dubious about the mission of the Chamber, and the Eyes of Chronepsis are always ready to eliminate any agent of the Chamber who goes too far. It is a dangerous life, but those who serve the Chamber are shaping the future of Eberron.
Comments