The Creation and the First Dragonform War
The myth of the creation of Dyrn varies from culture, but usually shares some commonality; the concept of Gods in the form of the first dragons, for instance. Elves believe that the Dragonform Gods brought the elves from another world, and created bodies for them upon Dyrn, with the other races coming later. The Delvers believe that the great Forge Dragon Gyrd first fetched as a smith the Delver Moradin from another world, and that He crafted hearts for the first Delvers. But many other facets of the legend of creation remain similar between cultures.
The earliest recorded manuscript detailing the myth of creation and the Age of Divinity was translated from the writings of a Draconic Cleric and is now held within the great Bibliotheca of Tor Sionis. A translation of that document is provided below.
At the beginning of time, there was the First Light, whose golden rays shone alone in the darkness.
The Great Cosmic Dragon, Uldyr, also known as the Allparent and the Urdragon, found the First Light, and desired to mate with it. From its substance it created the world as a nest for their eggs, and mated with the First Light, and rested.
The first egg to hatch was the great Jade Dragon Iadryn, and it’s hatching sent the energy of life across the barren world. The first great hatching created the plants and simple animals which roamed the world and for a time the Great Jade Dragon roamed this new world in wonder at the creation that Uldyr had wrought. But in time the Jade Dragon realised that life could not flourish unchecked, and when the next egg hatched its first sibling, the Ebon Dragon Endymber, to it was passed the power to give each living thing it’s allotted time and then it’s end, and the Great Ebon Dragon became the sibling of the Dragon of Life, the Dragon of Death.
The Jade Dragon desired companionship, and wrought new creations - the intelligent races. It granted the first member of each intelligent race a fragment of intelligence from her brow, and in this way, the he first True Dragons and Dragonborn, and the Humans, Delvers, and Elves were created, to serve the Great Jade and Ebon Dragons. The Great Green Dragon also desired assistance to maintain the great miracle that was life, and when the next of the Urdragon’s eggs hatched a Great Ochre Dragon named Yllorum, the Great Jade Dragon gave to it stewardship of the domain of all nature The First Dragonform Gods walked amongst the newly born races, taking on different forms, teaching them the ancient dyrconic tongue, mostly lost to us now. As the first of the intelligent races came to their allotted time and died, the Ebon dragon summoned the peoples and taught them the ways of life and death, and in their mourning they called out, and in response another of Uldyr’s eggs hatched - Nehthryn, the Granite Dragon, of the grave, sibling to the Black Dragon.
The intelligent races explored the world, and as they did, began to amass knowledge of its dealings. The Great Jade Dragon hatched the next of Uldyr’s eggs, the Great Lapis Dragon of Knowledge Nyrrest, to act as a messenger, to bring this new knowledge to her as the intelligent races delved far and wide. It was the Elves who first discovered the ancient echoes of the draconic words of creation uttered by Uldyr in the forging of the world, and the first of their race to try and echo them was consumed by their ancient power. The next hatching was triggered by this event, and the Great Sapphire Dragon Arcyne was born, tasked with safeguarding the ancient arcane knowledge of the world, and protecting those who might come to know it.
Then one night, as a terrible tempest scoured the world, one of the Urdragon’s eggs hatched in darkness, and the spawn from this egg was born screaming and deformed. The other dragons rushed to its side but despite their power they were unable to undo the calamity of its birth. It’s thrashing carved a great gouge in the firmament, and it’s screams drove the intelligent races who heard it to madness. As the great sun rose the Great Blind Dragon was driven underground, stung by its rays, where it swum the ancient underground waterways and lava flows of the underdark. Jealous of the creation of its kin, it attempted to wring life from the stone of the great Underdark but could not. Instead, it rested, and keened an ancient song in the Elyrion, the ancient magic tongue of the Dragonform Gods, drawing individuals of the intelligent races down below the mantle of the world. Where it found them it would twist them into its own ideal creations, and below the earth, the great races of the Underdark - the Drow, the Duergar, the Illithid, the Beholders and more, were born, worshipping the Pale Dragon as it coveted the surface world created by its siblings.
Iadryn was affronted by the corruption wrought by the Pale Dragon, the moreso when the creations of the Pale Dragon began sallying forth in the night to attack the nomadic encampments of the intelligent races. It enlisted the aid of the other dragons and led the intelligent races to drive the denizens of the Underdark underground. The Great Jade Dragon said an ancient word in Draconic that would hatch the Cyres, the Great Iron Dragon of War, that it might teach the intelligent races the ways of the warrior. But Cyres’ ways were fickle, and it would lend its knowledge to any and all who desired to fight, whether on the overworld or in the Underdark.
Driven again underground, the Pale Dragon schemed. His creations came across another of the Urdragon’s eggs, and in the Draconic language he bade it to hatch. Deep in the dark, he taught the fledgling Amethyst Dragon Enkyri the ways of Trickery, and sent it to the surface to sow discord amongst the other races. He bade his followers to build a network of strongholds, fortresses and dungeons across the Underdark in preparation for a great invasion.
On the surface, the attacks from the Underdark had driven the intelligent races together, and the once nomadic people’s began to gather together, to build walls and cities for protection, and to forge weapons of war. The Sapphire Dragon Arcyne taught more of the Eldyrion to its followers that they might use its arcane powers to bend the reality of the Material plane to their own defence. As they uttered these new words and the Great Lapis Dragon Nyrest carried the new knowledge the intelligent races were uncovering to the Great Jade Dragon, the Cyttra, Marble Dragon of the City and Gyrd, the Cinder Dragon of the Forge were hatched, born to safeguard to twin doctrines of civilisation and industry. The Cinder Dragon taught the intelligent races how to draw metal from the earth and shape it into implements both martial and otherwise; the Marble Dragon taught the intelligent races to build and to grow their great cities. But these new dragons, born after the first great conflict, listened to the whispered words of the Purple Dragon of Trickery, and saw the cities and the forges that the Pallites were making deep underground, and honoured their worship as well.
A thousand years passed, and a second thousand, as new gods came to pass. The barrier between the other planes and the Prime Material Plane of Dyrn was thin, and the Gods, both Dragonform and New, walked the earth with their worshippers, guiding them and teaching them.
Then, deep underground, the Pale Dragon found another of the Urdragon’s eggs, and summoned Enkyri to itself. Together they spoke a profane word of Eldyrion and Nyada, the Turquoise Dragon of the Tempest was hatched. Immediately, the Purple Dragon began whispering to it, and drove it mad, and it took to the air, darkening the skies with its magic. With the sun hidden, the Pale Dragon launched its assault and the denizens of the Underdark spilled out into the overworld. The Pale Dragon opened a great portal to the lower planes, called the Mouth of Ythradun, and bid forth demons and devils to pillage and burn the mortal races.
The Great Dragonform War is said to have lasted a thousand years, and plunged the world into a great darkness. The First Light, cut off from the world, languished and died. The first target of the Underdark was the ancient library of the races, it’s location lost to time, where mages of all the First Races had gathered to study and learn the arcane power of the Draconic words of creation. The Pale Dragon himself arose to sack the library, met in battle by Arcyne. The Enkyri guided the denizens of the Underdark in a massive invasion of the settled lands of the First Races, in a delaying tactic that would ensure the Sapphire Dragon would fight alone. The Pale Dragon vanquished her, and her dying scream echoed across the world, spreading the Words of Creation, the ancient Minor Eldyrion, to all of the intelligent races who had the desire to hear it. The Pale Dragon sacked the Great Library, stealing from it a Profane Word of the Major Eldyrion.
As the war drew to an end, the forces of the Underdark were held at bay at the great fortresses of the intelligent races, supported by the first Dragonform Gods, and it looked like the war might be lost for the Underdark. With a great cry, the Pale Dragon harried forth from the ancient underground waterways and beseeched Cyres, promising him a great offering in exchange for his assistance. Together, the Blind Dragon, Cyres, and Enkyri worked a terrible magic, using the Profane Word stolen from the Great Library to create a magic which lifted the power of Endymber from the battlefield. The many dead, of both the Underdark and the overworld, rose, the shackles of death broken, to assault the last great strongholds of the First Races.
The elder gods cried out in rage at this injustice. Endymber beat his wings in a great fury at the usurpation of his domain, throwing Nyada from the sky. The Nethryn screamed in anger at his great offering being stolen from him. Iadryn called out in ancient Dyrconic words for Uldyr to wake from it’s long sleep to reign in the actions of its offspring.
In response, the final two great dragon eggs hatched in a great catastrophe that sundered the world. The Great Twin Gold and Silver Dragons of Light and Protection, Sullyste and Selyne were born and rose above the battlefield. The Dragon of Light flew to the heavens to tend to its mother, the ailing sun, palliating her final rays and then taking her place above the world, becoming the Second Light and banishing the darkness wrought by the Turquoise Dragon. The hordes of undead crumbled to dust as in the new light Nethryn once more took possession of his offering. Iadryn whispered to the Silver and Gold Dragons of the creation of the world and it’s near unmaking at the hands of the Pale Dragon, and they knew their task. The Silver Dragon shed a single great scale which she placed deep under the earth at the boundary of the overworld and the Underdark. The Golden Dragon shed another great scale and shaped it into a celestial barrier to stand between the Celestial Plane and the Material one. They uttered an ancient word in Eldyrion, given to them by Uldyr at the moment of their conception as they slumbered in the shell. With this great spell, all of the gods and celestials, including the Great Dragonform Gods, were banished to the Celestial Plane, prevented from returning by her Great Celestial Scale.
Finally, knowing that no great dragonform god could be allowed to walk the world again unchecked, The Great Silver Dragon Selyne gathered the remnants of her shell and flew into the heavens, where she became the moon and surrendered her form, so her spirit might light the night, warding the world from the denizens of the Underdark. Likewise, the Great Golden Dragon Sullyste gave up his own form, letting his spirit meld with the sun.
To this day, the twin spirits of the Great Golden Dragon and the Great Silver Dragon light both the day and the night, and their magic penetrates down to the Scale, preventing the followers of the Pale Dragon from venturing into the surface, except when the moon wanes.In the aftermath of the war, as the Gods left the world, the mortal races knew disease and frailty and pestilence for th first time. The lifespans of the mortals were shortened considerably, with the oldest of the Delvers passing to the new generation, and the first natural deaths being seen within Elvendom.
These are stories of the first Gods, also known as the Dragonform Gods, and they appear to us in many different forms. In the time before the Celestial Scale was formed by the goddess Selyne others ascended to Godhood from the various races, empowered by the belief of their brethren, granted a reprieve by the Black Dragon from their natural death, each risen to serve one of the Dragonform Gods as an aspect of their being. But the Great Dragonform Wars put an end to the practice of ascension, and some who were risen before then are no longer worshipped, their spirits brought low, worshipped only at the tiny temples of the Small Gods, patrons to the lost or the homeless.
