Dragons of Night Primer

Did you think yours was the only world that existed? Even if magic didn't exist, there are strange worlds beyond your reach that turn with and against the lost world of the children of the sun, the moon, and the earth. But magic is real, and so are all the monsters that go bump in the night.
Long ago, the skies burned with dragon fire, the fae reigned from their circles of power, the fallen guarded the passages of the dead, the phoenixes sought their forbidden wisdom, and giants walked the face of the earth. That was before writ of exile cut the lying powers off from the magical world and the two went their separate ways.
I have gotten ahead of myself, haven't I. Let me start at the beginning.

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The Four Worlds

No one knows where magic came from. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that everyone believes they are the only one who knows how it all started. Each of their stories is different, and who knows, maybe they are all true in their own way.
The dragons believe their kind came into being with the holy ones carried the great stone of heaven into the world bearing the first dragon within it. The fae believe that the Great Mother Danu took pity on this world and sent her children here to save it from the darkness. The Rephaim tell tales of the Son of Chaos who build his own garden to mock the creator and the great angel Eleleth who sacrificed himself to save humanity. The phoenixes naturally believed everything started and would end in fire.
No one knows the stories of the giants, but they tend to keep to themselves and rarely intervene in the affairs of elders and mortals. Except, of course, for the one notable time when they did.

by C. E. Dorsett

What its undeniably true is that this planet of ours shares its existence with three others: the elusive otherworld of the fae, the luminous celestial real of the holy ones, and the dark world of the shadow. It isn't fair or right to say that our world is caught between them, or that it is a battlefield. The giants believe that it is a nexus where the worlds meet and that is as good an explanation as any other.

The Otherworld

The Otherworld is a lot like ours in that it also has land, rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans, but other than that it is quite different. On a calm day, if you sit by a still pool of water, it is just possible to see the otherworld just beyond the surface. Over the years, some have called it a mirror world, but that isn't quite right. Things there are not opposite the way they are here, they are just different.
Forests burn with fiery leaves, mountains of towering glass and brilliant gems cut through the land. Trees of silver bark and gold foil leaves surround fields of singing grass and whispering meadows with agendas of their own. To the uninitiated, it is a strange place, but only because it plays by its own rules.

The Realm of Light

Few words exist that can capture the nature of the world of light, because as the name implies it is a land where no shadow falls. it is hard to distinguish this from that in such a world where everything appears to exist on a continuum of this to that rather than this and that. While free of shadow, it is not devoid of color.
This is the Avalon, Elysium Fields, the Empyrean, Shambhala. Legends grant it many names.
I wish I could tell you more, but just thinking about causes me to have a headache. Suffice it to say, it lives up to its name.

The Realm of Shadows

There are some who believe that the shadow world doesn't exist and that it is just the other half of the realm of light. Not everything there is darkness, and some light persists in the darkness.
Over the long centuries of our world, sages and prophets who encountered this world world called the gray realm of the dead, hell, or hades. I don't believe it deserves any of these names, but I would be remise if I didn't mention that the rivers or Styx, Acheron, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Cocytus flowed through it, so perhaps Hades is an appropriate name for it for that reason alone.

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The Elders

It wouldn't be right or fair to associate any of the elders with one of the lands.The Fae claim to originate from the otherworld, and both the dragons and the Rephaim say they came from the realm of light. No one remembers where the Jinwu said they came from, but it is safe to assume that it was also the luminous world. No one knows how the giants would answer that question.
What is safe to say is all of the Elders are practically immortal. While they can be killed by various and sundry means, there is no known natural end to their life. They are all born with their own kind of magic, but beyond that, they share very little in common.

by C. E. Dorsett

The Dark Gentry

by Denis Moskowitz

The dragons, the children and their attendants all fall under the category of the Dark Gentry. Since the fall of Nyx at the end of the Age of Night, they have suffered under her death curse to be bound to the night and the shadows. Sunlight is fatal to them, but they have taken to curse as a badge of honor. They sacrificed so many of their number to end the reign of the tyrant queen.
When the giants called for assistance to ward off the rising darkness, the dragons of Mercia were the first to answer. They helped not only to spread the word of the covenant, but swore their magic to found Aernadael and banish the wrecca who refused to join.
The Dark Gentry received a blanket pardon for their need to feed on the life force of the mortals so they could survive without fear of retribution so long as they didn't kill unless it was as an adjudicated punishment for treason or other crimes that threatened the survival of the people.
Along with the Rephaim, the Dark Gentry are remembered by the wrecca as vampire, lamia, and other creatures of the night with other creatures of the night who hunt for mortals blood.

The Rephaim

by Denis Moskowitz

The Rephaim, who are often called the Noble Dead or the Fallen, are the closest with the mortal world. They claim to have been born in the aftermath of the fall of the Garden of the Son of Chaos, when the angel or luminary Eleleth sacrificed himself to save their mother Lilith or Sophia from judgement. They are the center around which the Trivian people turns, and have helped their people survive threats from the other elders and the non-magical communities alike.
Though they came late to the Covenant of the Giants, they joined they other elders in the exile of the wrecca.
The Rephaim have suffered persecution, extermination attempts, and discrimination from both the elder and the wrecca through out their history, most of which ended after they joined the covenant, but they wish to maintain their culture and practices, known as the Old Ways to the others.
Over the centuries, they have been called witches, vampires, revenants, and all manner of names. They are a matriarchal society with a close relationship with the spirt world which includes those of the dead.

by C. E. Dorsett

The Seelie Court

by Denis Moskowitz

The Seelie Court of the fae joined the covenant, swearing their magic to weave shadow and light to help conceal Aernadael from the eyes of the wrecca. In exchange, the Dark Gentry of Aernadael renounced their claims to territory in the otherworld.
Under the covenant, the main duty of the Seelie Court is to maintain their control over the Otherworld, and the monitor the portals to earth so keep magical creatures from revealing the existence of magic to the wrecca. They are the wardens of the wild spaces, ensuring there is enough land for the wondrous creatures of the world to thrive.
They also allowed the Sith Thyrsa and the Trivians to establish outposts in the otherworld to train children in the magical arts. Most magical schools and academies have a mirror institution there now.
Ever vigilant about the people they allow into their domain so they can keep the darkness from invading the otherworld, they maintain the right to expel anyone they wish to keep the otherworld from descending into the madness of the world beyond.

The Sith Thyrsa

by Denis Moskowitz

The Sith Thyrsa is technically the name of every one who has joined the covenant of the giants, originating from the Old English phrase "Se Sith thara Thyrsa," which means, "The path of the giants out of this world." It has come to be used as the common name for the mortals who live under the covenant who do not practice the old ways of the Trivians.
Under the covenant, the Sith Thyrsa form the curia that maintains and teaches the covenant for the mortal population. Those who don't volunteer to work in the curia are free to build their own lives in whatever way they see fit so long as it cause harm to none.
Along with the Fae and the Dark Gentry, the Sith Thyrsa field the Salian Order to maintain the barriers of their world so they can stave off the powers of Darkness and preserve the wild.

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The Secret and the Shadow

The current age of the world is known as the Age of Ashes, because they feel as though they are watching the wrecca burn their world down. There has been some debate over whether or not the Elders and the Sith Thyrsa should intervene, but such discussions never go far. With the exception of a few wars and skirmish in the wrecca world where they fought against other elders who already tilted the battlefield against the mortals, Aernadael has left the affairs of the wrecca to them. For the elders, the memory of the Age of Night still stings, and they do not desire another great war.

The Age of Night

It is difficult to say when the Age of Night began. Some count it from the Day of the Black Sun (June 15, 763 BCE), when the dragon Nyx declared her intension to establish an empire in the Middle East and Europe. She called on the power of the realm of shadows, and an entity remembered as Erebus to black out the sun so she, her children, and their combined Ryukishi could launch coordinated raids against her rivals. She succeeded in engendering fear in the Elders, but failed to gain dominance.
This period is often referred to as The Great Elder War. After centuries of hot, cold, and guerrilla war exhausted most of the major powers of the region.
In 284 CE, The Edict of Nyx circulated throughout the elder kingdoms and empire, proclaiming Nyx as the eternal queen of the world. One by one, the powers surrounding the Mediterranean Sea fell to her influence. By this time, everyone agrees the Age of Night began.
Nyx ruled the world with an iron fist, bringing terror to elder and mortal populations alike. She had a particular hatred for the Jinwu who she set bounties for and ordered her forces to kill on sight.
Over the centuries, her atrocities mounted though many elders continued their war against her. Many lost hope that her empire would ever fall.
On December 7th, 588 CE, Nyx's daughter Philotes entered her chambers and killed her, Moros, and Thanatos, and became known as the Night slayer. With Nyx and her top children generals dead, the rebel forces were able to rise up and topple her empire.

The Age of Giants

After the last bastions of the empire of night were torn down, the elders tired of war and strife. They longed for a lost world that never was, when peace and prosperity ruled the world.
This new golden age was not meant to be. On December 8th, 588 CE, the Mercian giant Fritha received a vision. The darkness that empowered Nyx didn't die with her and sought another vessel to rebuild its empire. This time, magic would be forbidden to the mortals and those elders who wouldn't swear a binding oath of fealty would be slaughters.
From 589 to 601 CE, the giants forged the covenant, and they and their heralds traveled the world inviting all to join their path out of this world or accept exile. Magical wards and barriers would be established to separate the two communities to keep the darkness out and prevent the vision of Fritha from coming to pass.
They established the new kingdom of Aernadael, and rejected all the hierarchal structures they believed allowed Nyx to not only come to power, but to maintain control for so long.

The Black Death

In 1334 CE, an organization known as the Black Death sent plague carriers throughout the world to strike down the population and make them easier to conquer. Under the leadership of Dark Lord Shilin Won, the Black Death waged war on the world.
While Aernadael officially stayed neutral, numerous secret societies formed to fight the threat of the Black Death.
In 1710, the first major revolt against the Black Death started in Prussia, followed by more in Serbia and Hungary leading to the fall of the Black Death in 1738 CE.

The Age of Ashes

Chroniclers called the current age the Age of Ashes on account of the many wars and atrocities that have engulfed the wrecca world after 1738.
Over the centuries, several prominent voices have called for an end to the exile and a reintegration of the lost world, but the fear of the darkness prevented the opinion to take hold in any persistent way.
After the end of the Second Thule War in 1945, restrictions were eased in most of the Aernadael Commonwealth to allow for strictly non-magical contact and trade with the outside world. As a result, more wrecca popular culture has penetrated into Aernadael, and a few elders and Sith Thyrsa have had careers in wrecca entertainment, but the barriers remain.
Through the 1960's, a few disguised their magic as the influence of different drugs, but they were caught and censured for risking the exposure of their hidden world.