A Treatise on Dragonkind

Dragons on Heroda all trace their creation to the dragon god Hasrai. In both form and function they are similar to their counterparts found upon the Great Wheel, however they have no connection to Bahumat or Tiamat or to the creation myths of dragons found on the Great Wheel. Reflecting their creation, dragons on Heroda are more neutral in alignment than found elsewhere.   There are two overarching forms of dragons that are linked to very specific acts in the mythic age. Hasrai formed all dragons originally from treasures he found on the spheres and with the help of various powerful figures but the forms that his children would take are split between Hasrain Dragons and Rashan Dragons whenever his body was Resurrected as the snake goddess Rashahana. Dragons who saw Rashashana as assuming the mantle of their father had their forms changed to become more sinuous and snake like which to them confirmed that this was the correct choice as this was closer to the form their own father took.   Dragons do not, as a rule, give much weight to worship and the like. Even the Schism between Hasrain and Rashan dragons is more one of semantics than it is of religious fervor and war. The fact that schism formed at the tail end of the brutally destructive Shattering War with the remnants of all involved exhausted and sick of death certainly helped smooth that transition.   Neither type of dragon will normally go out of its way to attack humans, though there are often cases where they rule over humans tyrannically. Dragons have a very paternalistic view of humans and often will consider even the worst acts in the name of "helping" them. Dragons are actively involved in several human nations, ruling through might or through wise council. They often see themselves as guardians of vital bloodlines that they have been caretakers of for thousands of years. No such compulsion is held for other races and they are ruled over, destroyed or helped as each dragon sees fit. With life spans as long as theirs, some greatwyrms are still alive who remember the Shattering War. The feelings that dragons have towards Giants are mixed at best, thankfully with their distant kin sleeping it is not a topic they have need to weigh in on.      The Creation Myth   Seeking companionship Hasrai would seek help crafting children and it is from this act that the gods of the dragons were created and the divisions between Metallic, Chromatic and Gem dragons were formed. Hasrai found inspiration from the elements and the natural world for his children, scouring the primordial spheres for the perfect inspiration to mold them against.   Deep within the Sphere of Earth, he came across the god Falhirn and spoke to him of his own desire for creation. Falhirn was moved by his words and presented Hasrai with 5 ingots of the purest metals he had ever refined and told him to craft his children from this. Giving his thanks, Hasrai swallowed the gold ingot and melted the metal within his fiery gullet before letting the liquid metal pool out from his jaws, using his talons to mold the malleable metal into the shape he had for the first of his children, the Gold Dragon Heranai. While his new creation cooled, he went on to repeat the process with the Silver Ingot and formed the Silver Dragon Sheidunasix. Happy and excited with his creations, he swallowed the Copper and Zinc and Tin ingots at the same time.   Falhirn watched in concern as Hasrai's mouth bubbled and frothed with the liquid metal. The dragon slowly let the copper pool out of his mouth and formed the copper dragon, Lirosan. However the metals in his gullet began to mix in ways that he had never intended, choking and pounding at his throat, he would spool out the final two forms in Brass and Bronze. The Dragons Megirosus and Irounitus were formed.   The dragons forms were perfect but their souls were not yet formed, these massive statues were nothing but empty shells. Falhirn helped to polish and refine the forms while Hasrai mused, feeling like his creation was incomplete. The Dwarven god promised to protect the shells while Hasrai continued his journey throughout the spheres of Heroda.   From the Sphere of Fire, Hasrai fought and defeated a primordial fire elemental and from its heart he scraped away the form of the red dragon Marganixius. On the Sphere of Death he discovered a shard of Onyx, carving into it to reveal the form of the first black dragon Felisidus. On the Sphere of Life he found a dying Treant that had risen from a seedling of the Tree of Solitude who granted him the right to create the green dragon Garistryx from its trunk. On the Material Sphere, he found an crater in a massive desert that had struck and burned itself out in such a way that all that was left was a sphere of glass with the pure colors of the sky, from this he carefully melted the form of Starkalus the blue dragon. When travelling through the sphere of air, soaring across the cloud studded sky he came upon a jagged shard of pure elemental water that had frozen in the chill air. He carefully carved out the form of Hoaran the white dragon.   He returned to Falhirns forge with his new creations in tow where to his delight he found his friend with several creations of his own. Tiny, stunted version of Falhirn were industriously building and expanding the forge and the hulking forms of the metallic dragons he had made previously where standing upon pedestals in the work area. The god of creation, though looking more tired than Hasrai had last recalled, was delighted to see his friend and his creations. He quickly tasked the tiny versions of himself to displaying the creations while telling the dragon god what he had made, which he called "Dwarves" and explained that through them he had learned more of existence than any amount of his own wandering had.   They sat for many years, telling each other of their journeys and ruminating over what they had learned. It was during this time that Hasrai felt that there was still something missing, he was not quite ready to breath life into them. He expressed this idea to Falhirn and told him that he would journey more to find more answers, his friend told him that he also would muse over this and bade him farewell.   On the Sphere of Water, Hasrai discovered the enormous creature of the void, the Eye of the Deep. Hasrai battled this amorphous cloud of void, beak and tentacles for hundreds of years before the two combatants fell apart in the murky blood ribboned depths of the sphere to drift away too wounded to continue. He was found by sea turtle and nursed back to health, becoming fast friends. Hasrai infused her with some of his power, testing out the method he had developed while musing over his still unfinished creations and making her the first Dragon Turtle, Mahlrand. She would go on to lay the eggs that would spawn the rest of Dragonturtle kind as well as Dragon Tortoises eventually. Soon after he travelled back to the Sphere of Life and wandered the wilds there for many years, during which he attracted dozens of small fey spirits that he took delight in speaking to and being entertained by. Whenever it was time for him to leave, he transformed them into the first Faerie Dragons who then created the "Court of Rainbows" from which the rest of Faerie dragonkind would eventually spread from. He travelled next in the depths of the material sphere, the Underdark where strange eldritch things lurked and played. It was here that he met with and sat with a great Myconid Sovereign for several centuries, sharing minds and journeying through dreams with it and its massive colony. It was through this connection that over time, the first 5 Deep Dragons were born. As the sovereign and Hasrai dreamed, the Sovereign began to fade and die and from its body grew 5 large pods. Hasrai waited until the pods opened, revealing the Deep Dragons who he gave names and imparted on them parts of the Sovereigns dreams before leaving with yet another piece of the puzzle he was missing for his creations in tow.   When Hasrai returned, though he had made fast friends and discovered more wonder and delight in the world he was left without what he felt was the final missing piece of his creation. It was in Falhirns forget that his friend presented him with 5 perfect gems and a shard of quartz crystal of enormous size. He claimed that his Dwarves had discovered these while delving deep into the earth. Without the skill to do anything with them, the dragon could only give his thoughts as Falhirn and his Dwarven assistants began the slow and arduous process of slicing, polishing and refining these gems into beautiful sculptures of Amethyst, Crystal, Emerald, Moonstone, Sapphire and Topaz. These would become the first gem dragons, Iridan, Fatilious, Regantonix, Haladreliel, Sinjanulite and Morphox.   Finally, Hasrai felt complete. He gathered his creations and wished Falhirn and his Dwarves farewell before leaving. He took the shells he had created to the temple where his father had first breathed life into him and set them before his father. Hasrai first breathed his own essence into the shells, transferring the roiling essense of the spheres he had gathered into them and giving them a distinctly elemental aspect. Solag looked upon his sons creations and was impressed, adding his power and giving the dragons the final spark of life.   The newly born dragons blinked their now living eyes, looking upon their progenitor and creator. They raised their heads high into the air and welcomed life with a cacophony of roars before taking wing with Hasrai and soaring above the First City in a scintillating rainbow of scales and celebratory gouts from their mouths. Eventually these dragons would go on to craft their own eggs, eggs that Hasrai would breath life into and from which would hatch the second generation of dragons that would go on to create the draconic species that are seen in the world today. Rashan Dragons would come as a result of the final hours of the Shattering War that saw Hasrai resurrected as Rashashana the Snake Goddess.