Origin of Dragons

Dive into the full story of Erenel's creation here to learn more about the architect and the foremother! Story of Creation

In the Era of the Architect, the creator god Al'Madoon, the Architect continued to populate the world based on his conversations with the world tree Aymara the Foremother. Everything from the birds soaring overhead to the small ants scurrying below the dirt came from Al’Madoon and Aymara’s conversations. This ancient era saw the creation and rise of multiple dragon species, including the dragon turtle, drake, landwyrm, and wyvern. Fearsome creatures of the land, sky, and oceans, these Prehistoric Dragons inspired terror and wonder in the reasoning species.
One fateful day, the first ripened fruit filled with creation magic fell from Aymara’s branches, only to be quickly consumed by a gargantuan landwyrm resting in the shade below. Furious after witnessing the dragon devour the fruit before it could bear a child of creation, Al’Madoon grabbed the creature by its tail, hurling it out into the void.

Awakening of the Nameless

After being thrown into the Black Sea of Nothingness surrounding Erenel, the landwyrm could feel its stomach swell as the overwhelming power of creation magic began to pour forth from the first fruit. While the wingless landwyrm drifted further from Erenel and struggled to comprehend its fate, the fruit burst. Bathed in cosmic light, the landwyrm would be torn to pieces, instantly vaporized into dust.
While the name of the unfortunate landwyrm remains shrouded in mystery, its impact on dragonkind continues. As the nameless landwyrm was disintegrated by the power of the first fruit, its soul shattered into five separate pieces, each piece holding its own broken personality and fundamental drive, amplified by being interwoven with creation magic.
Over time, these five shards of a shattered soul would begin to congeal into balls of cosmic light. Drawn to the energy radiating from Erenel, these five lights would return, bound by the memories of the nameless landwyrm. Yearning to complete some unresolved task from life before, each piece of the shattered soul would look to inhabit a prehistoric dragon and return to the world of the living.
One by one, as the shattered soul fragments of the nameless landwyrm possessed a prehistoric dragon, remnants of creation magic pulled from the first fruit would surge throughout the dragon, awakening and mutating the prehistoric creature into something greater.

A demigod. An Ascendant Dragon.

Hexwing Dragons

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The Five Elder Dragons

After the five shattered soul fragments of the Nameless each possessed a prehistoric dragon, the elder of each dragon type was born. The only dragons able to lay eggs with a hatchling already in possession of a soul, the five elder dragons are considered demigods and have their own beliefs, goals, and personalities.

Elanthil the Allsight

Gemstone Dragons

Eol the Starheart

Cosmic Dragons

Khalrashan the Godslayer

Chromatic Dragons

Movoidis the Bloodsong

Hexwing Dragons

Rynngrailar the Greatwyrm

Metallic Dragons

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Dragon Eggs

In Erenel, all ascendant dragons begin as humble eggs, nondescript until their infusion by the soul of a dragon that drifts endlessly in the ethereal plane. Once a dragon’s egg is claimed by a soul, it begins to take on characteristics of its bearer, changing color and physical appearance to match the dragon soul’s type. This crucial process means a dragon is not guaranteed to be the same type as their parents, and instead, the dragon type is decided by the soul of the dragon which finds and claims it.
Luckily, dragonkind has control over which type of dragon soul will find an accepting egg. Dragons can naturally call out into the ethereal plane, attracting souls that share their dragon type. This process can be further amplified with the help of a clutch keeper, members of the reasoning species skilled at warding off unwanted dragon souls.
If a dragon’s egg is not infused with the soul of a dragon from the ethereal plane, the hatchling stays nondescript and emerges after 180 days. Lacking a soul, these dragons are known as Slate and lack the benefits of their ascendant dragon brethren, including a breath weapon and magic capabilities. Instead, the soulless dragon grows bony plates that armor its skin with a sharpened scythe-like blade on their tail. Slate dragons are naturally aggressive and overly vicious, lacking the inherited personality and motivational goals granted by a dragon’s soul.

by Purple Duck Games

Slate Dragons

Death

Few dragons reach their full potential lifespan. When a dragon dies, its soul shatters into a number of pieces dictated by its age. Wyrmling dragons 5 years or younger shatter into four pieces. Young dragons of 6 to 100 years into three pieces. Adult dragons of 101 to 800 years into two pieces. Mighty ancient dragons of 800 years and older instead do not shatter with their soul remaining whole in the ethereal plane.
As their soul waits in the ethereal plane, each soul fragment retains the ascendant dragon type (chromatic, cosmic, gemstone, hexwing, metallic). A fragmented soul, no matter its size, can infuse with a nondescript dragon egg, allowing a dragon to be reincarnated as a wyrmling. However, the farther the soul is shattered, the less it retains from its previous lives. Some dragons can only temporarily remember glimpses of the past, faded memories of all their lives, split between multiple fragments. Others return as a wyrmling with full recollection of their death, plotting their vengeance over centuries, growing stronger as they age.
To be an ascendant dragon is to benefit from an ancestral legacy, endlessly reincarnating and attempting to hoard memories from the era before. This deathless nature has seen the rise of Dragon Cults, focused on helping the dragon they worship return from the ethereal plane while solitary dragons amass great treasure vaults, built over multiple lifespans.