Age Of Dragons: Endless Night
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History recalls that for the early ages of the world knew peace between the Dragonbreeds, as the Dragons were too few in number and too scattered to come to blows on a regular basis. The Breeds did not like each other much, but grudgingly respected each others' domains, with even the largest wars never involving entire breeds, or more than a fraction of the draconic population.
This changed some time around four and a half thousand years ago, when a Dragon named Endless Night arrived.
Endless Night would found the Ascendancy - an Empire that would rapidly come to dominate the northern half of the known world, and would threaten the entire realm.
The Arrival of Endless Night[edit]
The draconic and mortal followers of the Ascendancy believe that Endless Night is none other than the first Sable Dragon. They say that he was the twelfth and final Dragon created by the Mother Goddess, and that when he was born he was strong enough to wrest away the last of her lifeforce, essentially taking more breath than she intended to give him. In doing so he also stole her divinity, and became as a god himself.
The Ascendancy claim that Endless Night spent the first sixty millennia of his existence deep beneath the earth, exploring the world below and during this time he conquered the entirety of the World Below. He returned just over four and a half millennia ago to present himself to the Dragons of the living world, and to claim his rightful place as their Emperor.
Dragons outside of the Ascendancy do not know whether they should give credence to this story or not. It is well known that no dragon can exist for more than a thousand years or so before falling to the Sleep of Stone. It is also disputed by many whether there is such a place as a World Below.
Many Pure Dragons (who are loathe to admit that anyone has a right to rule save for themselves) believe that Endless Night was never a dragon at all, but is a demonic entity who has invaded the world from outside it, and has tricked the deluded Sables into believing that he is their progenitor.
Neutral parties who have less vested political interest in one version of the truth or another have noted that many Sables practice a unique Lifepath called the Path of Apotheosis, which teaches them to transform portions of their body into living shadow, albeit transiently. They theorise that perhaps Endless Night is just a Sable Dragon who took this path to its logical conclusion many millennia ago, and in doing so both ceased to be a Dragon and became something altogether different.
The Ascendancy[edit]
When Endless Night initially climbed out from the earth, he presented himself to a council of local draconic nobles, comprised of two Blood Dragons, three Sable Dragons, a Ghost Dragon and a Velvet Dragon. When he declared that he had arrived to claim his throne, he was met with suitable derision and the angry Blood Dragons moved forward to destroy him for his presumption.
It is said that Endless Night spoke a single word of command, and that the shadows themselves moved forward to entangle and paralyse his attackers, and then to do the same to the other dragons present.
He forgave them their disobedience, but demanded that they pledge their obedience to him.
Over the next century, his coterie of dragons expanded, and through their might and his own he threw down the local mortal kingdoms and installed his own rule in place. This Empire he called the Ascendancy, named after the central tenet that he was a dragon ascended to godhood, and that he and his draconic followers were the rightful inheritors of the earth. He would brook no rule besides his own, and so began a period of aggressive conquest.
The Ascendancy was seemingly unstoppable. United behind Endless Night the draconic and mortal armies swept across the land, crushing all who stood before them. Dragons were given the choice between bending the knee to Endless Night, or being killed. Mortals were given the choice of converting to the worship of Endless Night, or being burnt for heresy. Mortal monarchies and republics were conquered, and in their place the Theocracy of the Ascendancy was installed. Endless Night ruled over the Dragons of the Ascendancy, who direct the Priesthood of Night in his name, and who in turn rule the conquered mortal peoples through a combination of fear, force of arms and religious control.
The Ghost Dragons flee[edit]
The majority of Sable Dragons quickly fell into line with the Ascendancy, as did most Blood Dragons and Velvet Dragons local to the area, recognising that they stood to gain power by joining with Endless Night, and would face only destruction if they stood against him.
However, the Ghost Dragonsbeheld Endless Night and saw not a leader to be followed, but a Dragon whose soul had been eaten by the Void Beyond. They saw that this manifestation of oblivion was seeking nothing less than the destruction and enslavement of all Dragonkind. They did not have the strength to challenge Endless Night, but knew that they could not follow him either.
For almost two millennia they survived in the Ascendancy's lands, at first actively resisting and later going into hiding. This situation could not last - the Ascendancy branded them dissenters and rebels, and hunted them down one by one.
It was just over one and a half thousand years ago that the Ghost Dragons opted to flee. They gathered secretly, then as one flight, they fled south, heading for skies as yet untouched by the expanding Ascendancy.
The Ghost Dragons settled in uncharted lands for several centuries, but as the Ascendancy continued its conquests they found themselves inexorably driven further and further south, till they reached the lands occupied by the Ashen Dragons, and the Ashen Kingdom.
The Ashen Dragons' Declaration of Neutrality[edit]
The Ashen Dragons had already heard of the expansion of the Ascendancy. With their own megalomaniacal belief that they were destined to rule, they did not wish to join the Ascendancy, but with they too were in no position to take a stand, as their forces had been long engaged in a battle of attrition against the Hunter Dragons with whom they shared their lands. To their own southern border, they also had begun to come to blows with the Pure Dragon sponsored Orthodoxy of Kalarn, and the Argent-commanded expanding armies of the Arrantian City-States.
Still, the Ashen were strong enough to deny the Ghost Dragons rest in their lands, and so the Ghost Dragon refugees were forced to continue to flee around and through the Ashen Lands and continue further south.
It was not long after that word reached the Ashen Dragons that the Pure, Argents and Solars had been convinced of Endless Night's threat by the Ghost Dragons and had formed an Alliance of Light to counteract the threat.
Unfortunately for the Ashen Dragons, they had little opportunity to petition to join this Alliance, as the Ascendancy had reached their northern borders, and with it their conquering armies had arrived also.
The Ashen Dragons saw that their kingdom would bear the brunt of the fighting whichever side they joined, but also recognised that they themselves represented a significant enough force that neither could afford to drive them into enemy hands. They declared themselves neutral, and declared that the Ashen Kingdom would remain inviolate to North and South. Their gamble paid off, and neither Ascendancy nor Alliance dared to cross their skies.
