Editing The Great Dragon Hunt (section)

===Setting===

It is the twilight of a majestic race of giant lizards. Dragons once held dominion over all of the north. The coming of men and other sentient races — originally paying tribute to the mighty dragons — are now harnessing the power of alchemy and ingenuity. They are developing cunning engines of fire and death, and pervert dragon rebels through manipulation against their kin to now challenge the dragons’ dominance of the skies. 

The quest of man is to eradicate the last of dragonkind and trade in the fabulous wealth of dragons. In addition to possessing ages-old hoards of silver and jewels, dragons are themselves a manifestation of the raw elements — fire, shadow, cold, and even iron. And the remaining eggs of the mighty dragon matrons — priceless geodes that take an age to incubate and possess riches and exceedingly rare elements — are coveted by man to power airships and machines of war. The surviving eggs now number only in the mere dozens. 

The end of the winged lizard kings draws near. Their noble bearings begin now to erode to reveal their raw, untamable and tempestuous natures. They guard their hidden lairs and hoards from mankind, sometimes moving them as needed when their territories fall to pioneers with the courage and grit enough to lay stake further north. 

Although each dragon may lair separately and gather only in small close-knit clans of relatives, in order to survive, the savage serpents have founded Serpent’s Spire, their last refuge and solitary place of unified strength. They gather in a rivalry-fueled loose unity under the ailing Elder Wyrm — greatest living member of their kind and well versed in their songs. Without some semblance of solidarity, putting aside differences and territorial disputes, enterprising man would have already hunted them down to extinction. 

Through their devious consumption of stolen dragon eggs, mankind is developing numerous marvels, including airborne gasbag powered warships, cruel adamantium harpoons and black powder cannons. Along with these innovations is the empowerment that comes with rising to challenge the dragon’s supremacy. A challenge the Dragons are slowly realising with dread they cannot meet in kind, crippled by the same size and strength that makes them the mightiest of all races.

Dragonkind strives to survive. The threat of man, a dwindling frontier to serve as food and refuge, in addition to the lost dragon eggs that need to be recovered and incubated are not the only threats the species faces. Their own raw natures threatens to spill over their levees to consume them and the world, and their contest to amass the resources necessary to survive the coming hibernation at the end of the age number among their challenges. They must adapt to the cleverness of the human mind or face extinction. And even immediate survival will amount to little if they cannot foster a new generation.