First Empire

First Empire was - as the name suggests - first civilization that existed in Gates of Eternity, mainly because it was its creator - primordial ancient dragon known simply as Eldest - that separated Light from Dark and established a stable reality that could be inhabited by mortal races. It was also the only country to ever unify entirety of known world (or at least entirety of its surface), while subjugating countless - and sometimes most alien - races.

Structure

Atop the First Empire lied the Eldest, oldest and most powerful ancient dragon, that was also a progenitor of entire specie. Beneath him lied the entirety of his race, with ancient dragons lording over vast numbers of inferior species, with their cities surrounding their lairs and dragons considered beings akin to gods.
For serving them faithfully, ancient dragons rewarded their subjects with their 'divine' protection, obliterating dangerous beasts, brigands and primitives that roamed lands between their city-states.

History

The modern civilizations possess next to no knowledge about the lenght of its existence or when exactly it was created, due to enormous ammount of time that passed since then. Even Imperium of Karadia has only rough estimates (even with help of last remnant of Kashya the Dragonslayer, still trapped in the Vault below the Grand Library in Falon-nir, Imperium's capital). The knowledge of how Eldest separated Light and Dark is also lost, just as what exactly befell the Dragon Empire, since Kashya is too defragmented to remember it.
Even the remaining accounts are no help, since Old Empire was technologically stagnant to almost unheard level, with next to no technological breakthroughs happening during its whole history. Which was a direct effect of Eldest policy of progress supression, since he - mistakenly - believed that technological knowledge was the reason behind the Gates of Eternity descent into Primordial Chaos that existed for millenia - or seconds, because even time itself was disturbed - until Eldest banished it. The time wasn't a line but a cycle, calendar had no way of tracking years, with most written history beginning with "many, many cycles ago".
The First Empire was decimated during the First Darkness War, waged against Dark One called Kashya the Dragonslayer. With Eldest and most of the ancient dragons dead (rest made sterile by Kashya's curse) the Old Empire collapsed into an age of barbarism and genocide that lasted until the rise of supercivilizations of antiquity.

First Empire

Capital: Unknown.
Official Languages: Countless, with Dragon Speech being lingua franca.
Religion: Dragon Faith, with dragons venerated as gods together with various nature spirits.
Government: None.
Last Ruler: The Eldest
Population: Unknown, estimated around one billion at its peak.
Currency: Varied.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

Dragon Empire, Old Empire.