Chapter One - A Brief History of Mysticaraena

Having discussed the matter with my editor, I rewrote the entirety of Chapter One. I realize this is almost a year and a half since I put up the original, but I just didn't get around to it. Sorry. :/

CHAPTER ONE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MYSTICARAENA

         At this point, some context may need to be given to the plight of Drygon.  In the world of Hagnor, there were two basic kinds of categories under which one could fall if one was a human: there were the commoners, who, needless to say, made up the majority of the population, and there were the Mages, who could use magic.  There sentient beings other than humans, as well: elves, goblins, and faerie, as well as many dark and mysterious creatures of unknown origin and species that usually stayed hidden in the mountains and were rarely seen by even the most daring explorers.  All elves and fey folk had the ability to use magic, but few of them became specialists.  For them it was just a way of life, and they both took it for granted and treated it respectfully and cautiously.

                Then there were the dragons.  The dragons had (according to ancient Mysticaraenean records) come from the depths of the sea, rising crystalline and majestic from the surf, and frightening the early inhabitants of the land nearly out of their wits.  They could not use magic themselves, but their scales were nigh-on impenetrable, and they were impervious to all the spells that the druids and warlocks cast upon them; they simply could not be killed.  Consequently, they came to be worshipped as gods, and they roamed with impunity, eating what they willed and taking what they desired, and only offerings of food or treasure would appease them for a while.

                Then, one day, a man decided that he could take it no longer.  He would show the people that the dragons were not gods, but were mere beasts that could be hunted and killed like bears or lions.  Thus thinking, he began studying the dragons, trying to find a weakness in their armor.  At last he found one.  He noticed that when they opened their mouths, the backs of their throats were soft - possibly soft enough for a spear to penetrate through into the backbone.  He tested it, and found with many attempts and almost as many near brushes with death that it was indeed the weak spot he was looking for.  With this weakness noted down, he proceeded to demonstrate to the people of his village, and the surrounding ones, that the dragons, while still formidable, were just as mortal as any other beast.  This news spread throughout Mysticaraena in the matter of a fortnight.  Towns sent messengers overnight to the next towns to keep the message moving as quickly as possible: “The dragons can be killed!”

                This led to the widespread slaughter of any and all dragons that went near a village (or a cluster of villages).  The dragons fought back, and there was war between the two races.  Eventually, the dragons fled Mysticaraena to other continents, but news of their weakness had preceded them by several months, and the peoples there were ready.  More dragons were killed everywhere they went, until at last they found an archipelago a few miles off the coast of Mysticaraena, where no men lived, and hunted for food from there.  Many years later, when none but the oldest men could remember a time when dragons terrorized the country, the dragons returned to Mysticaraena.  This time they did not steal from the men, nor did they kill them, but they kept mainly to the forest to the south and the mountains to the west, and hid from the men when they came near.  However, one youth by the name of Azdyn, hearing the tales of dragons that had been passed down, determined to find one and tame it.  Thus he set out to Dargorlad Forest, where rumors of dragons had persisted for several years.

                By this time, Mysticaraena had evolved into a monarchy.  The first king had ordered roads built between villages, towns, and cities, in order that his new army, as well as messengers and merchants, might travel more efficiently.  His son, who succeeded him on the throne, had established a series of inns and stables along these roads, where travelers could rest, and messengers could quickly change horses.  Thus, he made it to the small village of Rugen, adjacent to Dargorlad Forest, in a matter of days, instead of a matter of weeks.  After many trials and hardships, as well as much persistence, and encouragement from the few people that believed that he was onto something, he finally found a young dragon, the color of red maple leaves, deep in the forest, close to death.  He brought it back to the village and restored it to health.

                At first it was cautious of men, and would only communicate with Azdyn, his rescuer.  It accomplished this by a basic form of telepathy, where it simply projected its words like speech, to all within range of its volume.  If he (for he had communicated to Azdyn that he was a male, and that his name was Coran), wished to whisper, he would simply decrease the volume of his thoughts and get close to his intended audience, much like the manner of men and elves.  Gradually, though, he became bolder, and often he could be found telling stories to large groups of small children, who were fascinated by the giant, featherless talking bird.

                The years passed, and the youth learned to make saddles for Coran, and to ride on him.  He used this means of transport to travel Mysticaraena, convincing the inhabitants to make peace with the dragons, and convincing the dragons (for he also traveled to their home) to make peace with the men.  At last he succeeded in this venture, and at last in Mysticaraena, men and dragons lived in peaceful coexistence, with the dragons hunting and bringing their spoils to their human friends, who in turn would give them gold and other riches such as they prized.  Azdyn took a wife, and, his quest complete, settled with her in Rugen, where they had three children.

                Unfortunately, the peace with the dragons did not travel across the oceans, and these people still feared them, and sacrificed frequently to their various deities to keep them away.  Years after Azdyn and Coran had passed on, a king from a far land - a dark elf, nigh-on immortal - came with his army, sailing in great ships to Mysticaraena.  He had already taken the rest of the known world, and now he crossed the sea, in order that he might also take this land for his own.  However, this king did not expect the dragons, nor their ferocious protection of the country and people that had made peace with them.  Whenever he tried to lay siege to a city, the dragons would assault his army from the air, spewing flames of fire, acid, poison, lightning, and even ice continuously from their mouths until the army fled, which almost never took very long.

                Finally, the dark-elf king consulted his druids, who told him the way to defeat the dragons.  With this knowledge, he made quick work of the dragons who stood in his way.  He then quickly conquered the human cities, killed the king, and took Mysticaraena for his own, taking the title and name of Emperor Shadon.  Thus he remained for three generations of men.  While he ruled Mysticaraena, he placed a bounty on dragons of twenty Alovrean per head, raised taxes, established a secret police, made any association with dragons outside of killing them illegal, and many, many other things.  The two most obvious results of this were first that many more people than before lived in poverty, and second that the dragons that remained fled to Dargorlad Forest again, along with the elves and faerie, who had decided to leave, rather than be enslaved to Shadon.  Another result, not quite as obvious as the first, was the forming of the band of outlaws known as the “Dragon Breeders”.  This band was led by Drygon, who was a descendant of Azdyn, and it made its home in the north of Mysticaraena - far away from the Capital City of Thaed -in a colossal mountain that they hollowed out over the years with magic, until eventually the entire mountain was hollow, and they built a secret entrance, and a tunnel to the nearest town, where they had purchased a piece of land and built a storehouse for a fictional company called Nogryd Arms Co.  It was in this warehouse that our story begins.