Dragons: The Creation of Narya & The Masters of Smolder

“My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, 

 the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”

"I am Fire. I am Death."

Perhaps, no monster in fantasy is as iconic as the dragon. After all, they don't call it "Dungeons and Hydras" or "Dungeons and Owlbears". Nope. They call it Dungeons and Dragons.

 DRAGONS

I am sure you know the answer to this question but, for the sake of this article, humor me: what are dragons?

Dragons are legendary creatures with serpentine, reptilian and avian features and, typically, fly, breath fire and possess magical qualities. There are two main types of dragons depicted in literature and media: European, which are animalistic reptilian sexrupeds (possessing four legs and two wings) and Eastern, which are  intelligent serpentine quadrapeds. Traditionally, Dungeons and Dragons is more concerned with intelligent European-style dragons, but these two paradigms hardly represent the gamut of draconic creatures depicted in cultures from around the world. Why are they so omnipresent in world cultures? By answering that question, we can probably understand why they might just be the ultimate monsters.

Dragons, of some sort, seem to be represented in civilizations across world history independently of each other. These legendary creatures are even found in the art and religions of civilizations like ancient Mesopotamia, such as with the depiction of Tiamat (depicted above), the inspiration for the classic Dungeons & Dragons villainous god. Personally, I adhere to the theory that I'll call "omnimythical" or, that is to say, that dragons are an example of a mythological staple in all cultures due to universal needs and shared ancestry. In this case, dragons serve as both an amalgam and exaggeration of primal fear for creatures including but not limited to: snakes, large lizards, crocodiles, large cats, birds of prey and more. By combining the features of these creatures, the quadrupedal body of a large cat,  the wings and talons of a bird of prey, the scales of large reptile, and the elongated neck similar to that of a serpent, we come upon a shape representing the animals that threatened men in the wilderness. It honestly makes more sense than dragons have ever existed outside of these myths.

And, as for the fiery breath, I'm not exactly sure about the origins of that myth but it is easy to imagine the dangerous power of fire if you've ever seen a large wildfire, a building catch fire or the use of a flamethrower. The addition of that, mostly, supernatural element creates an enemy that is more dangerous than any natural predator and, by combining that with human or above human intelligence, we get the iconic villain of fantasy.

Side note: I would love to hear some theories on why fire breath is practically omnipresent in dragon mythology?

As is traditional in Dungeons and Dragons, there are good dragons and evil dragons in Sublanarya of various metallic kind or color. Most dragons in Sublanarya are evil "chromatic" dragons and, in fact, in the Tytanyan Age, there are believed to be no good "metallic" dragons left alive. The smallest dragons are the size of a horse and the largest can take on truly unfathomable proportions. Quadrapedal, winged and reptillian creatures with high intelligence, an affinity for magic, breath weapons, and, in the case of chromatic dragons, a strong desire for power, wealth and comforts.

There are other true dragons but those are not relevant in Sublanarya.

Ultimately, in the world of Narya(yes, I'm done with the silly book report section of the article), dragons play a vital role in not only the balance of power but in the creation of the world itself. This article will breakdown the creation myth of Narya, the role of dragons through out Sublanaryan history, and the dragons of Smolder in the Tytanyan Pact.

DRAGONS: THE CREATION OF NARYA

The following is the creation myth according to followers of Abzulon the Lustrous:

In time before time, there was not but chaos and the goddess Nu.

Nu, the cosmic dragon and mother of all, exists outside of space & time. She sees and remembers all that has been, all that is, and all that will be.Upon the shores of nothingness, she lay a great golden egg. The egg contained all the infinite energy & matter that ever was or ever will be, buckling and roiling within, incubating existence. From the egg, bursting into the void, came the mantle on which all of creation is founded. The dragons believe that the world has a consciousness. They call this Narya or, in common tongue, "the dragon soul".

The dragon soul is believed to be the source of all magic and Nu's partner for the creation of the world. Narya birthed the first dragons, the Scaleless, who oversaw and instructed the twin civilizations of the Clay Peoples. The clay peoples became corrupted and the Scaleless tried to intervene in a war that would destroy everything they had helped build. It was too late. The Scaleless were slain, or fled into hiding, and the dragon soul was harnessed by the clay peoples to create their own gods.

Nu left the world behind. Without her love, the world shriveled, the clay people perished, and the husk of a world was left in ruin as a tragic morality tale. And then, the gods forged from the dragon soul, the Primordials awoke.

The Primordials were the draconic deities. It was these deities who fought off the invasion by the Elder Gods and the Old Ones. Chief among these gods were Tiamat and Abzulon.

Abzulon was a god of good, order and peace. Tiamat was a goddess of evil, chaos, and conflict. It was their destiny to be a pair, to one day mate, combine their greater qualities to create a master race of dragons. But this destiny was denied. The two immediately became rivals and Tiamat hatched a desperate scheme: to trick her siblings into fighting over her and to help her slay Abzulon.

Tiamat's treachery was exposed. She and Abzulon came to blows and the cosmos trembled.

With each blow the gods landed against each other, drops of their blood flecked the landscape, and from that blood came Tiamat's children, the chromatic dragons, and Abzulon's children, the metallic dragons.

Abzulon realized that while he would not yield to Tiamat, neither could he make her yield to him. Instead, he chose to end the conflict another way. Tiamat pinned her brother and prepared to land the finishing blow when he burst into a million points of light. He and all of the metallic dragons had disappeared. He used all of his power to imprison his sister and her followers, sacrificing his own freedom to protect the world from her tyranny, so that his allies could oversee the world in his stead.

In this prison, called Armageddon, and endless battle rages on between the two gods forever. Dragons believe that the world will end when Armageddon and the material world become one.

The metallic dragons descended to the primitive world and to the Isle of Saesun. Many years later, they would become the teachers and protectors of elvenkind.

The elves call the world Narya without knowing that the they are spreading a small prayer, a memory, of the draconic faith.

DRAGONS: THE MASTERS OF SMOLDER

For millenia, most chromatic dragons remained trapped within the prison created by Abzulon's magic. It faded into myth and legend. It was not until Queen Tytanya of the High Elves began studying the protective magic the metallic dragons used to protect Saesun that she discovered that the prison was very real. She originally sought to use the same magic to win her war against the humans that had slain King Orpheron. When she discovered she could tap into that magic, manipulating the runes created by Abzulon, she realized she could find and expand cracks within the dragon god's wards. It was through such a crack that she risked communicating with Red Typhon.

Typhon was the greatest of all the chromatic dragons in Tiamat's horde. Much like Tytanya, he too had obtained a level of power that made him a demigod. In fact, Tiamat considered him her consort and, when she fought in the great dragon wars, he was the first of her generals and slew countless good dragons for her glory. Such an evil would seem an unlikely ally for Tyanya but, in her grief and desperation, she sought any allies against the armies of man led by metallic dragonkind.

She made a pact with Red Typhon. She would free him and his lesser brethren. She could nor would free Tiamat. In exchange for his assistance in winning her war, she would reward him and his kind the massive and wealthy island to the North of Saesun to be their kingdom. After millenia imprisoned, Typhon agreed to this contract. This contract and the resulting united empire, between Tytanya & the high elves of Saesun with the chromatic dragons of Typhon would become known as the Tytanyan Pact.

The skies above Saesun filled with evil dragons and the armies of man crumbled beneath the beating of dragon wings. The Tytanyan Pact routed their enemies from Saesun and uprooted the dwarves of Rock Island. But it didn't stop there. With the combined power of the elven army and naval forces, second-to-none in Sublanarya, and the superior firepower of dragonkind, they also conquered much of western Thule and, in the centuries since, have had several campaigns of expansions including the Nuar Islands. As for the metallic dragons, most if not all were slain by the superior numbers of the chromatic dragons.

Today, between the military and magical superiority of the high elves and the might of the chromatic dragons, it is possible that nothing can stop the combined power of the Pact.

But how do the dragons rule as the masters of Smolder? What sort of civilization would dragons rule? Who do they rule? How do they get along with elves? And how do the elves justify continued alliance with undeniable evil?

That and more will be answered in "Elves: The Isle of Saesun & The Tytanyan Empire" and in "Dragonkind: The Pyramid of Power".

SMAUG on The Colbert Report