Draconians

 
Draconians are an ancient humanoid race which have existed for thousands of years. The history of the draconians is rooted in two early developments. The first was the draconians' growth in knowledge and mastery of phi. The second was the discovery of a deep underground ocean of a mysterious fluid they call taraol. Taraol is highly responsive to phi magic, and can be absorbed into material objects. Some materials can more readily absorb taraol than others, including gold, gems, and some living organisms, both plant and animal. Taraol was a great source of power and wealth for the draconians, but it was also difficult to manage. Some of the early explorers of the taraol ocean descended into it to find its depth or to discover what was beneath it. None of those who entered the taraol have ever returned.

In time the draconians learned to harness the power of taraol. They built an immense global empire connected by teleportals powered by taraol. The taraol was absorbed into large gold forms at each teleportal and controlled by sorcerers who could open and close passageways between the cities. As the draconians were highly skilled artisans, they decorated and shaped the gold blocks into forms of animals, birds, and people. Many of the more famous teleportals were dedicated to Hrasai who had aided the draconians in their early history.

Ch'kibiattumakhius

Thus the draconians coexisted with the elves for nearly two thousand years, but they grew increasingly jealous of the elves' longs lives. And so the draconians began to experiment with magic to extend their lives. The most famous pioneer in this field was Ch'kibiattumakhius who discovered how to enhance various reptile species using taraol and ingestion of taraol-fed vegetation. The enhanced reptiles exhibited various increases in size, intelligence, and life span. Ch'kibiattumakhius' results, however, were not immediately applicable to the draconian population. In the first place he found that many test subjects could not survive the transformation process. Some of the test subjects also fell into an uncontrollable pattern of violent behavior, seemingly driven mad by the ordeal. Finally, the amount of energy required to transform even a few small reptiles was enormous and difficult to control. It seemed that the draconians would have to find another avenue.

Adz'sakugghilias

A draconian prince named Adz'sakugghilias had different ideas. He traveled to many draconian cities attempting to gather support to continue the work which Ch'kibiattumakhius had begun. But most of the other draconian princes were unwilling to spend time or resources on such a risky venture. Adz'sakugghilias became desperate and secretly convinced Ch'kibiattumakhius to build a facility which could transform a thousand draconians at once. In the meantime he devised a plan in which he would feed the energy of each teleportal through the teleportals themselves and into the transformation facility. All his planning was well concealed by those who were loyal to him. The draconians viewed his behavior as suspicious but assumed he was perhaps preparing for war against neighboring princes. They didn't discover their mistake until it was too late. When the facility was finally ready, Adz'sakugghilias filled the transform chambers with soldiers and leaders loyal to him, while Adz'sakugghilias himself took the primary chamber. He then ordered the teleportal energy transfer, but no one, not even Ch'kibiattumakhius, could have predicted what happened next.

The energy was routed through the teleportals as planned, and the thousand transformations began. However, the teleportals were not all made equal, and the excess energy exploded back out through many of the weaker teleportals so violently as to entirely destroy the cities where they were located. The teleportals that remained were weakened by the transfer of so much power, and many of them detonated under the strain. Within a less than a minute from the time the transfer had begun, most of the draconian cities lay in ruins and all of the teleportals were incapable of functioning any longer.

In the meantime Adz'sakugghilias and his followers were undergoing an extraordinary transformation. Most of their bodies doubled or tripled in size, while some increased size by a factor of ten. Their bodies also became less humanoid and more lizard-like, most with wings and horns. These are the most ancient dragons, ancestors of the entire race.

Some individuals did not survive the physical torture of the process, others were turned into hideously mangled creatures whose forms were no longer capable of sustaining life. Several dozen transform chambers were destroyed by the explosions feeding through the teleportals. Still other subjects were driven to an insane rage from the procedure. The chaos which ensued and the fighting that broke out among those who survived the transformation brought final destruction to Adz'sakugghilias' home city. Adz'sakugghilias himself survived but found he had little control or influence over most of his fellow dragons. Fearing retribution from the dragons or the draconians (not knowing that the draconian empire had been destroyed), he fled the ruined city.

The Draconian Legacy

The consequences of the great transformation went far beyond the draconian cities. Great earthquakes shook every continent, and the sky was filled with dust and smoke so that the sun was blotted out of the sky. Fires raged from the cities into surrounding forests, many of them burning for over a year. The sky was darkened for over a decade, and for a time Raieh became cold, harsh, and desolate.

The draconians who survived the cataclysm banded together, but they have never regained one hundredth part of their former glory. Many of the old draconian cities have crumbled to ruins, looted by thieves. A few were resettled by draconians or other races, but rumors tell of some as yet undiscovered draconian cities filled with treasure beyond imagining and terror beyond words.