A Slave's New Purpose: A Brief History of Dragons

The dragons in this universe are naturally capable of changing size with their magical abilities. They are able to comfortably stay either size for long periods of time, although this wasn't always the case. Normally reclusive and territorial creatures, dragons began as large predators that used their magic to hunt large prey in order to sustain their huge bodies. While they are omnivorous, the heavily wooded area they inhabited grew very few edible plants, and berries and fruit were a rare delicacy. Over time, dragons formed a peaceful tribal society in a large forested region of the planet, thick with wildlife and magical energies. Large, simple family homes were constructed miles away from one another, occasionally found in clusters of two or three when a family grew large enough. However, interaction with other dragons remained limited, and families generally stayed small in order to not over-hunt the local wildlife.

This was up until the first dragons interacted with humanoids, intelligent creatures that were considerably smaller than the reptiles, yet could communicate, hunt, and use magic like the dragons did. The arrival of these foreign invaders was met almost exclusively with fear and caution, and contact was severely limited. The dragons had an unspoken agreement to avoid the intruders, and the humanoids wandered aimlessly through the massive forest, catching fleeting glimpses of something large and fast rushing through the densely packed trees. That was until several adolescent dragons, either brave or foolish in their youth, decided to try to interact with the small travelers, revealing themselves to the group in the dead of night as the group sat hunched around a campfire.

The sudden appearance of these monstrous reptiles sparked alarm and fear among the humanoids, the adolescent dragons watching curiously as these tiny invaders scurried around before them. One of the dragons attempted to soothe the panicked campers. Unfortunately, his gentle greeting were interpreted as growls of anger, neither party able to understand the other. Thankfully, one of the traveling strangers tried to use his magic to communicate before the meeting descended into chaos, and that night, the first conversation between dragon and any other species occurred. The travelers were a group of cartographers, aiming to map the Greatwood, the enormous forest that stretched across a large portion of the continent. The dragons were gleefully attentive, peppering the group with a series of questions about what lay beyond the sea of trees, and the mage and his comrades did their best to answer. After that interaction, both groups rushed home, eager to tell their brethren what they had encountered.

News that the foreigners in their forest came peacefully spread rapidly among the dragons, and outside the forest, stories of enormous intelligent lizards living in the Greatwood spread like wildfire. Groups of mages quested into the forest in hopes of meeting with these legendary beasts, many shocked and awed at the sight of the dragons, and many dragons were eager to treat with these exciting strangers. After a few of these interactions, many of the mages noticed the massive magical potential of these reptiles, the dragons having used magic to locate prey for millennia. Several wizards attempted to teach the dragons how to harness this innate ability and focus it, bending the energy flowing within them to their will. To their surprise, the dragons learned more rapidly than any of the magicians expected, and they quickly began spreading the knowledge of how to use magic to communicate to any dragons willing to learn, and young dragons flocked to these insightful wizards. Eventually some inventive mage decided to teach his dragon students how to change their shape using the magic that flowed strongly through their bodies, and the practice of using their magic to shrink themselves down to the size of their two-legged friends quickly became widespread. After generations of using this method, the ability to magically change size became innate in nearly all dragon hatchlings once they reached adolescence, at an ever-shrinking magical cost. Eventually, dragons could live for years in their newfound smaller form without any noticeable side effects. However, dragons still have to "scale-up" during gestation periods (pun intended).

Now capable of living amongst other species without needing larger accommodations, dragons were welcomed into cities across the globe, interacting with a plethora of different beings, learning about all sorts of advancements in magic, science, architecture, and agriculture. While some preferred the hustle-and-bustle of these foreign cities and chose to remain there, many dragons brought this new knowledge home with them. Some began building smaller working quarters and homes in order to save time and resources. Remaining in humanoid form over extended periods of time resulted in much less food necessary to feed a family, and as a result, the dragon population skyrocketed. The importation of the seeds of fruit-bearing trees and planets redoubled the growth rate, and the reptilian race quickly found that living secluded from one another was both expensive and inefficient. Towns and villages began to form, and dozens of dragons built small homes close together, content with living a majority of their lives in a smaller form. In close proximity, the spread of knowledge and ideas flourished, and schools and businesses sprang up for the first time among the reptiles. Sections of towering trees were leveled, lumber being used to build homes for an ever-growing populace, evergreens replaced with orchards and vegetable farms. On a rare instance, wealthy families replaced their archaic family homes with large mansions using architectural advancements from across the planet, preferring their secluded lifestyle to that of the growing commonwealth. This rapid change began only recently, and as a result, some areas of the country are much more developed than others, some areas in a sort of limbo state between urban and rural society as they develop into a new civilization, eager to join the world outside their forest.

It’s been centuries since dragons first traveled beyond the edge of the Greatwood. Since then, the world outside their secluded grove has been changing rapidly, and they aren’t keen on getting left behind. Countless wars have been fought, alliances have been forged, and conquests have stretched across the globe. The dragons have participated in almost all of them, and the aftermath of some of these events are still felt today, even in the heart of the Greatwood where young Arthur, a human slave born and raised deep in dragon territory, has been promised to the Dwarvish Sarlyst Mine hundreds of miles away. Times are certainly a'changing.

This has been a brief glimpse into the history of dragons and the origin of their powers. Thanks for reading!