Dragonreign

"In time immemorial, before the First Men deigned to rule the land, when the Cursed Tongue remained on their lips, and Elves still walked as equals among them, there was chaos. Amongst the unextinguishable fire of entropy, the dragons pacified them all. Flying over the lands and retreating the fire with his icy breath, the great King Inver rose, and with him flew his queen, Areksa."

— The King's Chronicles, Phileus Destrophy, 1,162nd year of the Storm

In the history of Yaleakasardia, the Dragonreign is the name of the state and time period in the Before during which dragons and their dragonlords held power over the Elves and First Men of the continent. The time period is also known as the Age of the Dragon, designated as such in The King's Chronicles.

The Dragonreign overall resulted in the destruction of many Elven and First Men settlements throughout Yaleakasardia and tens of thousands of deaths, all in the pursuit of a stronger rule in the name of the great dragons Inver and Areksa. To this end, after consolidating their rule over the continent Inver and Areksa officially recognized the growing Dragon Order, which dictated that the great dragons were gods who created the world, and rose from it to pacify the chaos the Elves and First Men had created. Furthermore, other dragons were said to be their messengers and divine figures.

Society during the Dragonreign placed high value on the reverence of dragons in all aspects of life. Homes were required to have a shrine to either Inver or Areksa, and daily prayer was expected (but not enforced until the Draconic Divorce). While dragons do not require any sustenance, Inver made tribute in either food or coin to the dragons a core part of the religious practices of the Dragon Order. The urban merchant nobility class often lived in fear of their dragonlords as they often were executed for hoarding wealth that belonged to the dragons. Living conditions in the Dragonreign hardly ever improved, and a general fear and paranoia was ever-present, as Inver often ordered the destruction of villages and towns that he perceived to have been defiant or in violation of some tenet of the Dragon Order, in some cases carrying out the destruction himself. Due to these factors, the Dragonreign is considered to have been a technological dark age for its lack of long-lasting innovations.

The Dragonreign ended following the Dragon War when dragons were made extinct.

Naming

The Dragonreign has had many names given by scholars throughout the history of Yaleakasardia, of which many emphasize the negative aspects of the time period. Some of those names are:

• Tyranny of Dragons (unknown, recorded by Phileus Destrophy)
• Rule of Dragons (unknown)
• Age of Ice (unknown, named for Inver's ice breath)
• Age of Destruction (unknown)

Many other names have been recorded but did not come into more popular use. During and after the reign of Corprealius the Scholar, more research efforts were put into the history of Yaleakasardia, and thus more information on the time period was discovered, as well as new names. The most popular name that emerged was the Dragonreign, alongside another less popular but still widespread name recorded in The King's Chronicles, the Age of the Dragon. Dragonreign became more prominent due to its concise, three-syllable nature.