The History of the Dragons.

I just finished Brisingr and I felt compelled to write. You may recall the post where I wrote three paragraphs about some young man who was checking a list. Well, I have given it a lot of thought, and I have some characters and some of the history of the world it takes place in. After finishing Brisingr, I wrote this.

Jason sighed at sat down on the table again. “The history of dragons is a long one, as is any history, so please don’t interrupt. I don’t care if you have any questions, save them for later. It is said that near the beginning of time, Dragons were the first species to have any intelligent thought. Of course, that is contended far and wide, but it doesn’t matter. The dragons started out savage, the most of any race. They would have destroyed themselves if it weren’t for Bahamut.

“Bahamut was the greatest of dragons. He was one of the first, and was very old, and very wise. He saw that the dragons would end up killing themselves if something wasn’t done, so he set up laws for the dragons to follow. Many dragons didn’t like that he had proclaimed himself their lawmaker, but none could contest with Bahamut, for he was the most powerful of any dragon, even at his age. It took time, but Bahamut eventually was able to calm the dragons. They were still fierce beings not to be trifled with, but they had stopped killing one another and other intelligent beings. You wouldn’t be able to say that they were civilized, they still loved to fight, but they were much better than they were.

“Bahamut ruled as the king of the dragons for a long time. Some say that because of his wisdom, he was blessed with a substantially long life, others think that his tales of greatness are exaggerated in dragon history, but every person who has successfully become a dragon knows, or so my parents have told me, that he was the greatest dragon who ever lived, and that he lived a long time. I could go on and on about his great exploits, but I won’t. There are too many things to say, and I would not be able to do him justice. When he realized that he was soon going to die, he needed to find a dragon to take his place. He held a great tournament among the dragons to find one who was worthy to rule the dragons in his stead, but he found none. He had many children, and they all went to their father asking for him to give the thrown to them, but he refused. He realized that he had spoiled his children, and that none of them would be able to rule honestly.

“Bahamut was beginning to lose hope. He needed to find a replacement before he died, or he feared that there would be a great war among the dragons as they all sought to take the throne, and that the dragons would return to their savage ways.

“Travelling all across the land, he searched for a Dragon worthy of the title of king. Back then, there were many creatures and races, some more mysterious than others. Bahamut went to all intelligent races, hoping that they would be able to help him. Most just cowered at the sight of him, others chased him away, for they remembered the way dragons had once been. Others tried to share with them their wisdom. The phoenixes tried to teach him how to stay alive forever, as they could, but Bahamut was a dragon, and not a phoenix. The centaurs told him to find a group of wise dragons and have them all share the throne. The leviathans mocked him for trying to find one who could control such a species. The few humans who were brave enough to speak with Bahamut, such as King Odin, tried to give him advice, but back then, humans were not as wise as they are now. There were several species that we have lost record of that tried to help Bahamut, but Bahamut never found an answer that satisfied him.

“One species that Bahamut visited, the name of which has been lost to history, had the ability to see into the future. They told Bahamut that dragons were doomed to die out. Bahamut didn’t believe them; he thought them insane, as they seemed to tell that to every species that came to seek advice from them except humans.

“Bahamut gave up his search. He found no one and he was nearing his grave. He feared that the ones who could see into the future had been right, that his race was doomed, but then on his journey back to his home, Bahamut met a strange creature.

“Again, we do not know what species the creature was. Many of the old races have been lost. Some believe that this creature was the only one of his kind, because there isn’t any other mention of any other creature like this in all the histories we know of. This creature saw Bahamut and saw his incredible sorrow for all dragons and had a desire to help Bahamut. The powers of this creature must have been great, for the blessings it gave to Bahamut.

“It asked Bahamut, ‘What troubles you great dragon?’ Bahamut replied, ‘I fear that my race is doomed to extinction, and there is nothing I can do about it.’ “I shall help you then, for I do not wish to see the dragons die.’

“The creature blessed the dragons to be an immortal race. That doesn’t mean that that a dragon cannot die, but that they would never die out. He blessed that there would always be dragons on the earth. Bahamut thanked the creature and asked how he could repay him. The creature said that he was not finished. ‘I have one more blessing for you, great Bahamut.’ He blessed Bahamut with enough life to raise another son. He warned him that he would need to raise him right this time, because this would be his last chance. If his new son wasn’t worthy to be a king, then the dragons would still become savage, and his blessing would have become a curse to all species, for the dragons would destroy everything.

“Bahamut knew that he needed to this right. He raised his new son away from other dragons. He raised him and loved him. He named him after himself, Bahamut. The day he died, Bahamut named his son, Bahamut the Second to be his successor. Some say that Bahamut the Second was even greater than his father.

“Most history after that is incredibly boring and not very important. Dragons were a proud and great race and helped shape the ancient world, but then something happened. We have no record of exactly what happened, but it must have been great and terrible. Somehow, every race but the humans were wiped out. The immortal race of the Dragons died. The Phoenixes, who were individually immortal, died. All races that had intelligence died, except for us. Humans somehow survived. Whatever catastrophe that happened wiped out so all the races on the earth, but somehow passed over the humans. No history that the humans kept tell of what happened. Most don’t even mention that something happened. The only one that tells that something happened says that for some reason, the other races that have traded with humans stopped showing up. Later it says that they were gone, and that they don’t know why.

“For a long time, humans lived alone. After a time, most forgot about the other races. The ones that did remember them say that they were myths. But they weren’t myths. They had existed. After a time, some humans started showing odd behavior. Some would breathe fire. Others started flying. One day, a man named Stephen came across a mountain lion and had no means to protect himself. As the lion jumped at him, he transformed into a dragon. Dragons were blessed to always be on the earth. Something tried to wipe them out, but they were unsuccessful. The spirits of the long gone dragons couldn’t leave the earth and go into the afterlife, they had to stay, and that was painful for them, so they saw the humans and saw that they were the only ones left and decided to join their spirits with the humans. A body cannot handle two spirits inside it at one time, especially if one is a dragon, without dramatic changes. People who have had the dragons spirits reside in them became the first Dragon Knights. Their children didn’t have dragon spirits go into them, but they could still transform. The ability to turn into a dragon is passed down from the generations. The dragons live on through humans, as was their only choice. The history of the dragons that we know we learned from the first Dragon Knights. They gained all the memories of the dragons that joined with them, except for the memories of how they all died out. We are the descendants of the first Dragon Knights.”

So, what I still don't know is what this great and terrible catastrophe was. I'll come up with something though.