The Brownwyrm

The Brownwyrm was a massive, draconic creature that spawned circa 1000 BHC in the Dragoncradle, in the continent of Tertobelus. It was the originator of the first chromatic dragons, and with them most other draconic creatures in the realm, and is thus revered as a deity by many sophonts that worship or are otherwise allied with dragons.

Physical Description

Body Features

The Brownwyrm is consistently depicted as a massive snakelike creature, with a long and corpulent body covered in light brown scales. It's often shown with spikes of varying sizes covered its back. Accounts on the number and type of limbs vary greatly: some portray it with hundreds of legs, making it resemble an overgrown behir, while others present a legless, more snake-like version; some grant it large and functional wings, some depict it with vestigial ones, and some exclude wings altogether.

Special abilities

• Spawning Scales: the Brownwyrm allegedly reproduced asexually, not unlike its progeny. Its scales, which it could molt at will, functioned similarily to plant seeds: they could be buried and, under the right conditions, grow into eggs from which powerful dragons would hatch.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Brownwyrm made its conclusive first appearance around the year 1000 BHC, in the continent of Tertobelus, though many beliefs hold that it has been present in the world for far longer. According to legend, a pack of five underground-dwelling kobolds found it in the cavern that would later be known as the Dragoncradle, becoming its first worshippers. After word spread and the entire clan gathered around the newly-found creature, the Brownwyrm shed five scales and asked the kobolds that found it to spread them across the continent, and they accepted the quest. The scales would then become the first chromatic dragons, the so-called First Five; sources vary on whether the kobolds used the scales to become the dragons or simply placed them on the requested locations. One scale was submerged in the acidic waters of the Ellumian Bog, becoming the black dragon Iestygo; one was taken high into an unknown mountain (believed by many to be part of the Tokut Mountains) and buried in snow, giving way to the white dragon known as Zalantha; one was struck by lightning along with the kobold carrying it in the Reddun Wastes, birthing the blue dragon Kralmaraan; one was planted near a river in an unknown location, sprouting as the green dragon Nycepto; and one was dropped into the magma within Mt. Tartarus, from which rose the red dragon Rivorstrex. The kobolds of the clan began worshipping the Brownwyrm and its offspring, and with the latter's help spread the word to other cultures within and even beyond Tertobelus.
The year 1 AHC, shortly after the formation of the Human Confederacy of Iaga, said organism declared war on the dragons of the North and particularily those in Tertobelus, seeking to purge them from the continent. Being sedentary, the Brownwyrm did not participate in the Draconic War directly, but it was the main target of the confederants during the war. Finally, the year 16 AHC, a confederant army broke into the Dragoncradle and managed to slay the Brownwyrm, ending the Draconic War and establishing the Confederacy as an influential power across the entire northern hemiplane.
Even after death, though, the Brownwyrm is a highly influential figure in the remains of the Tertobellian kobold clans, as well as those who still worship the dragons. Some even claim that the Brownwyrm isn't truly dead, that before the Battle of the Dragoncradle it left behind one final scale from which it would be reborn in a new form with time and attempt to lay waste to the remnants of the Human Confederacy, beginning a second Draconic War; a hypothesis believed by certain cults, conspiracy theorists and even some dragons.

Divine Classification

Draconic

Alignment

Unaligned

Life

1000 BHC 16 AHC 1016 years old

Circumstances of Death

Slain in the Battle of the Dragoncradle, at the very end of the Draconic War

Birthplace

The Dragoncradle, Tertobelus

Known Languages

Draconic