For Sapphira, who asked

Throughout the world, lore and legend agree that dragons have existed since before humans first appeared. Most ancient sources claim that dragons are older than all living beings except, perhaps, the Gods—though some stories suggest that even the gods are dragon-born.

The recent discovery of gigantic dragon-like skeletons, far larger than even the largest dragons in the historical record, beneath many of the world’s great mountain chains supports the widespread idea that the world itself was shaped by a primordial draconian race.

In the Draconian creation myth recorded in the cryptic Oroboros Cycle, which is itself at least seven thousand years old and which may be the oldest book in existence, the world itself is a dragon:

All was water and no stars shone

All was dreaming before the first dawn

Azoth was there, formless and ageless within its egg

Wild and masterless, ancient Azoth,

Of dragons the eldest, before the First Dawn.

In Azoth’s unbroken egg the world is born,

The earth inside its shell, the sky and the sun,

And all that moves therein is Azoth.

Of course, this may be simply a metaphor. However, it is a fact that dragons play a role in most of the world’s creation stories, however much they disagree about the exact role they play. In this chapter, I will focus on the Draconian lore–or as much of it as I, an outsider, have been able to learn. The vast libraries of the Fire Sages of Draconia, whose knowledge comes in part from mystic communion with the dragons themselves, undoubtedly contain many more secrets.

The Codex of Generations, part of the Oroboros Cycle, tells of seven generations of dragons, each corresponding to an age of the world—of which our own is the last.

The first generation was Azoth itself, who ruled over the Age of Creation. During this age, the primal world took shape from the dream-movements of the unborn Azoth. The world was not like what we know now but was formless—pure potential that contained the seed of everything to come after. The First Dawn occurred “when Azoth first recognized, first opened its burning eye and saw its reflection in its own burnished scales,” and each reflection became a dragon, because whatever Azoth thought came true. But though Azoth saw itself, it did not know it was itself that it saw, and so Azoth was lost in the dream of the world, and the Age of Creation came to an end.

The countless dragons born from Azoth’s scales were the second generation, and their age was the Age of Chaos. They swarmed all over creation, each shaping the dream-stuff of Azoth according to their own desires. Each dragon thought itself to be the true Azoth and was not entirely wrong—so when two dragons met, the greater devoured the smaller, and their worlds blended. This continued until only the four Great Old Ones remained, ruling over the Elemental Realms—and, of course, Azoth itself, who dreamed them all. The Age of Chaos ended when the Great Old Ones met in “in the center of the Egg of Azoth, where all the worlds are one.” Recognizing that they were all equal in strength and beauty and claim, and unwilling to destroy each other, they remained in their own realms, “awake within dreaming,” and this was the end of the Age of Chaos.

The Great Old Ones, each born from countless dragons, are the third generation, and their age is the Age of Dreaming. The Great Old Ones spoke with each other in dreams, and their realms, at first separate, began to blend—and where they met at the center, they blended with the dream of Azoth, and became real. The Age of Dreaming ended with the birth of Lotan the Seven Headed, hatched from an egg that formed in a storm at the center of the world. The Fire Sages say that during this Age, the Elder Gods first awoke in the dream of Azoth.

Lotan ruled over the Age of Storms, and the Elder Gods feared the dragon, for its thrashings destroyed what they formed, so the world could not be take shape. The story of how Lotan was slain by the Elder Gods acting together, and its body became the world we know, is told in many lands. The Fire Sages, however, say it is not so, and that Lotan still lives, and we with it, for every piece of Lotan that was cut off took on a life of its own, bird or beast or fish or human, and not a drop of blood fell that did not bring life.

From the great Pearl that was held at the breast of Lotan were born the Elder Dragons, whose bones I believe to be those found by delvers beneath the world’s great mountains. The Elder Dragons, who were the fifth generation from Azoth, lived during the Age of Gods and Monsters, and they were feared and respected. During this age the world took shape, with its mountains and valleys, its seas and forests, and the cycles of the seasons became fixed. Humans grew and multiplied, though as yet they built no cities, for the rule of the Elder Gods and Dragons was harsh, and they lived as wild beasts in awe and fear of the Elder Powers, and monsters dwelt in the waste places of the earth. But there was one born among the Elder Dragons called Nin-Gishzida (though some claim Nin-Gishzida was a god, and indeed, in those days, there was little distinction). Nin-Gishzida saw the humans, and fell in love with them. By deep magic, Nin-Gishzida took from the Elder Gods and Dragons a third part of their power, and gave it to the humans. Nin-Gishzida gave them the knowledge of fire, and the growing of crops, and the forging of metals, and the writing of words. When this happened, the Age of Gods and Monsters drew to an end; the Elder Gods and Dragons recognized that the world had changed. They retreated to the far corners of the world, leaving it to the humans and to a new generation of gods and dragons.

The children of the Elder Dragons were the sixth generation from Azoth and were called the Terrible Ones. Their age has been called the Age of Heroes, but in Draconia it is called the Age of Sorrows, for in this age the humans, freed from their servitude to the elder gods, sought to rule the earth themselves, and made war on the dragons. The new gods fought alongside the humans, and one by one, they hunted down what dragons were left, slaying them and taking their power and their treasure. Finally, when the dragons were all dead or in hiding, the humans turned on the gods, calling them mere fantasies. For a long, harsh age the humans ruled the world, building great cities and wondrous machines with the powers they had taken from the gods and dragons—but their power was not balanced with wisdom, and they wrought terrible destruction on the earth.

The Dragons of the Present Age

After the sixth age, dragons were believed to be nothing but myths, and were nearly forgotten. The gods, too, retreated one by one from the world of humans, and magic died. But Azoth dreamed and remembered its children the dragons, and in the heart of the world, a single egg survived.

The story of how dragons returned to the world is told in the Deed of Awakening, which is recited in Draconia each year on the Feast of the Father of Dragons, and which is known even in Brymarita and in Thule, far from the lands of dragons. The Deed tells how, in the last days of the Age of Sorrows, certain humans began to dream of dragons. Their dreams led them to explore remote places, and to read old books, and to create songs and art that spoke of dragons and the days of old, and to mourn their passing.

It was a girl-child who found the last egg, as she sat played in the woods near her home. Sitting on a large stone, she sang to herself the words that came into her head, a song of ancient dragons—and the spirit of Azoth, hearing her, stirred in its sleep, and the earth shook. Clutching the rock, the child bit her tongue, and a single drop of blood fell on the stone. The grey rock dissolved as if touched by acid, and great clouds of smoke arose. When they cleared, a single egg was revealed, perfectly round, like a black pearl in which swirled all the colors of the rainbow.

Hearing the child’s cries, other humans came. When they saw the egg, they were filled with wonder and fear, and took counsel among themselves. It was decided that the egg should be moved, studied, and destroyed if necessary. But the child, who heard the song of the dragons, threw herself on the egg and vowed to protect it—and at that moment, a thunderous roar shook the entire earth. Birds fell from the sky, stunned; the earth shook; towers fell; and the machines of the humans, built with the stolen power of dragons and gods, broke apart and gave back their power. The last egg hatched, and the Age of Magic was born into the world. This was seven thousand years ago, by the reckoning of the Fire Sages.

Two dragons came out of the egg. They have many names, but in Draconia they are called Kuzenkamet, Father of Dragons, and Silmaraïs, Mother of Dragons. The place where they hatched is called the Grove of the Egg, and the child who protected the egg became the first of the Fire Sages, who tend the Grove to this day within the walls of the Temple of the Egg near the center of Draconia. It is said that on the day she hatched, Silmaraïs laid four eggs, from which hatched the dragons whose comings and goings bring the seasons. After this, Kuzenkamet and Silmaraïs took flight, one to the east and one to the west, and where they live is unknown.

Since that day, dragons have multiplied in the world, and the world has recovered from the ravages of the Age of Sorrows. The children of Kuzenkamet and Silmaraïs are wild, like the Terrible Ones, but also wise, and they have both aided the humans and checked them when they fall out of balance with the world.

All living dragons are the descendants of Kuzenkamet and Silmaraïs, who return to Draconia and the Grove of the Egg once in a human generation to mate and lay eggs. Occasionally, however, either the Mother or the Father of Dragons will disappear for many years, only to return with a new hatchling, born from them alone. These dragons are called the Children of One, and their appearance heralds great changes coming to the world.

The descendants of Kuzenkamet and Silmaraïs also mate and lay eggs, but their children have less of the power of Azoth than their parents with each generation, until the great-grandchildren of the Original Dragons are wyverns, basilisks, and other beasts. Thus the numbers of dragons are limited, and they remain in balance with the humans and the dreaming world.

Thus it is written in the Book of Generations. So it is known to be.