Zao

Zao was a proud human, who believed he was born to greatness. As such, he set his sights on Loviise, the daughter of Queen Soovi, and was determined to win the position of her Lordling. But when Loviise rejected him, he turned against the Dragons searching for ways to bring them down.

Overthow of the dragons

Zao saw the opportunity to do so in Keert's madness. In order to contain him, Soovi was forced to explain to the humans how much the dragons relied on Dragongrass during combat. Zao took this information, and used it to create a battle plan to overthrow the dragons. He inflamed the discontent among the humans in Kaitstud to burning point.
Once enough of the humans were riled up, he formed a force to fight against the dragons. He split them into four regiments, naming them the bears, the cats, the wolves and the foxes, after four wild creatures that lived alongside them. Together they split up the dragons, picking them off one by one. After the first attacks, he led many hunting parties deeper into the mountains, trying unsuccessfully to find their hidden base and rout them all.
When all traces of the dragons had disappeared, he maintained guards around the edges of the mountains, looking for signs that the dragons had returned to the communities. After ten summers he was successful, and they followed Loviise back to her lair. Once her eggs hatched, his forces struck.

Creation of the first shifters

Once Zao's army had slaughtered Loviise, her two babies and Mikkli, Varvaara's brother-guard, he celebrated that with a feast for his army. Wearing their uniforms, which all contained fur of their respective creature, he shared an elixir with them based on the four dragon hearts. The next morning, nearly all of his soldiers had transformed and were able to shift into theie totem animal.
The aftermath of the dragon's downfall led to huge unrest within the lands, as various groups fought for dominance in different areas. There was chaos for many summers, until the remains of the four regiments formed into clans and split the land between them.
Zao himself, as the leader of the Wolf Regiment, extected to end up as the leader of Kaitstud, with a similar structure in place to that he'd had in his army. But he was forced out by his generals after they found out he'd tricked them all into becoming shifters without their consent.

Historical legacy

While many people look back on Zao's movement as understandable, there is no doubt that he was fuelled by revenge and wasn't acting out of the best interests of the humans as a whole. He gave the dragons no chance to react to the grieviences the people held against them. He first struck against them with no warning.
But for many, his most monstrous act was the use of dark magic to combine the dragon hearts into a way to create the shifter clans. He administered this elixir to his soldiers, without gaining their agreement for the change it would enact on them. While for most people this change was successful, for a minority it proved fatal.
His name is now used to frighten children, and as an example of the importance of considering the implications of your actions.