The nemesis to the giants in the 1,000 year war.
Giant magical beasts that have vicious claws, mighty wings, and deadly breath attacks!
Dragons are a major part of fantasy and thus a major part of DnD.
4th edition didn’t necessarily rewrite dragon mythology but expanded it to include things
like the elemental chaos and the first sundering which was the war between the gods and the
primordials.
Culminating in Abeir-Toril being sundered in two, as now separate worlds.
First let’s talk about Io, he was the lord of all dragons, a mighty god.
Io created dragons in his image but without a divine spark.
He wanted dragons to be able to live in the new world formed by the primordials.
The power of the elemental chaos was part of dragon kind, it flowed through their veins.
Tying them to specific elements and giving them their elemental breath attacks.
During the war with the primordials Io fought a huge primordial who wielded a giant axe
known as the King of Terror.
The King of Terror took his mighty axe and cut Io in two, splitting him right down the
middle.
The two halves of Io reformed into two mighty dragons, Bahamut and Tiamat.
The two dragons teamed up for the first and only time to attack and kill the King of Terror.
A number of the surviving dragons chose to follow Bahamut and became known as the metallic
dragons.
Other dragons chose to follow Tiamat and became the chromatic dragons.
This created a separation between dragonkind and the two hated one another.
Chromatic dragons being on the evil side and metallic dragons being on the good side.
Which coincides with their specific deities, bahamut being good and tiamat being evil.
Dragons first came to Abeir-Toril during an event known as the Tearfall.
This event isn’t fully understood, it’s been an oral history between dragons which
has been altered or misinterpreted with each telling.
In fact the dwarves and elves have a version of these events which is probably more accurate
than any dragon story at this point.
But in short the Tearfall was a devastating rain of meteors to Abeir-Toril in -31,000
DR.
It created a series of catastrophes across the planet with fires earthquakes rearranging
whole continents.
It was believed that these meteors were actually dragon eggs that fell to Abeir-Toril.
Whether that is true or not is unknown but dragons did appear soon after the Tearfall
ended.
They likely were dragon eggs because a similar event happened in 1374 DR with meteors raining
down again during big lightning storms.
Bahamut and Tiamat instructed their followers to seek out the impact points because they
contained dragon eggs.
Dragons were mighty rulers at first, they came in and soon controlled elf, dwarf, and
human civilizations.
The elves grew tired of their rulers and in -25,000 DR came up with a plan to thwart dragon-kind.
They created a mighty magical effect within the weave called the Dracorage Mythal.
Created by high mages it was a Faerun-wide effect that was tied to a comet in the sky
known as the King-Killer Star.
Whenever this comet was visible in the sky a great uncontrollable rage would take over
all the dragons.
They would recklessly attack their surroundings even killing their own offspring without realization.
Dragons that had built up mighty kingdoms could not hold on to them in this state and
were pushed away by the humans, elves, or dwarves that wanted to be free of Dragon rule.
The dragon population and rule waxed and waned with the rise and fall of this comet.
The rage would last for a tenday and could take place in a number of different cycles.
Some took place every few decades while others every few centuries.
This rage coupled with the infighting between metallic and chromatic dragons caused dragonkind
to become the apex predators but not rulers of faerun.
In 1373 DR a Lich named Sammaster found the tower that held the Dracorage Mythal and tied
his phylactery to it.
So that the mythal’s effects were no longer constrained by the appearance of the King-Killer
Star, but instead linked to his own life force.
Sammaster’s goal was to change all dragons into dracoliches, as dracoliches would remain
unaffected by the endless, ever-intensifying Dracorage.
It was a group of adventurers that thwarted Sammaster’s evil plot.
They discovered how to counter the Dracorage Mythal by using a specific spell called “Abate
Dracorage” and turned their efforts to finding the mythal’s capstone.
Eventually finding it and having a mighty battle against Sammaster and some of his corrupted
dragons the adventurers won and destroyed Sammaster, his phylactery and the Dracorage
Mythal.
This ended the curse put upon dragonkind no longer being tied to the sway of the King
Killer Star.
At first glance a dragon may resemble a reptile.
It’s obvious, the clawed feet, scales, the batlike wings.
Despite these features a dragon’s body has features that seem more feline than reptilian.
Their eyes resemble a cat's eye with a vertical pupil.
Even the way they walk is feline with alternating front and back legs moving.
The frills on a dragon’s back and tail help keep the dragon stable when flying or swimming.
Their scales overlap their neighbors like shingles on a roof, creating a suit of armor.
A dragon neither sheds its skin or sheds individual scales, their scales just grow larger as its
body gets bigger.
Dragons hatch from eggs, which vary in size depending on the kind of dragon.
They are usually the same color as the dragon that laid them.
They’re very strong and from start to hatching the total incubation period can be up to two
years in some cases.
From an egg a wrymling is born and the baby dragon will almost immediately start searching
for food.
When hunger is no longer a problem a dragon then looks for a liar.
Somewhere hidden and defensible where it can rest, hide, and begin storing treasure.
Some dragon parents will raise their children but it is not uncommon for a dragon wyrmling
to raise itself following instinct alone.
Dragons grow up from wyrmlings to young dragons, to adult dragons, and finally ancient dragons.
If a dragon survives more than a thousand years it is considered a Wyrm.
No one is sure how long a dragon lives, in fact many myths state they are immortal.
However when a dragon feels ready to move on they are able to will their spirit to depart.
Upon doing so, the dragon dies, and it’s spirit is released into the hereafter.
Oftentimes Dragons will fly to isolated dragon graveyards before passing on in this way.
Dragon graveyards are haunted by the spirits of dragons, and the place is a mess of elemental
energy.
With vortexes popping out elemental energy or elementals themselves.
Dragons actually have elemental energy in their blood.
This energy lets it instill fear, stave of exhaustion, and fly on its wings.
Chromatic Dragons represent the evil side of dragonkind.
Aggressive, gluttonous, and vain, chromatic dragons are dark sages and powerful tyrants.
Metallic dragons can be evil as well but it is much less common.
Some metallic dragons have the innate ability to shapeshift into other creatures.
Which they can turn humanoid and mate with humans or elves causing half-dragon spawn
to be created.