History of dragons

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Tens of millions of years ago, a race of dinosaurs evolved intelligence. While sentient and capable of using crude tools (and, in some instances, fire), those dinosaurs were not social creatures; living independently from each other, they never formed any civilization.

When the great extinction brought about the end of dinosaurs across the world, a handful of that sentient race survived, thanks to their intelligence. Over the tens of millions of years that followed, evolution slowly turned them into the dragons that Avalon's elves would eventually have to contend with.

Dragons were huge, intelligent, long-lived even compared to elves, and magically empowered (thus allowing them to fly and breath fire). They were the top of the food chain, though their numbers always remained very low. The emergence of mankind, however, changed everything for them: While most dragons were vastly more powerful than the hairless apes, an army of humans armed with steel weapons and longbows could present a genuine threat to a younger wyrm. Even more than the normal humans, the elves of Avalon were capable of defeating the mightiest dragons with their magic. This led to the rare show of cooperation among dragonkind known as the Wyrm War - but the combined might of the world's dragons proved no match for Avalon's forces.

Survivors scattered across the world, but as they did, a new threat arose - this time among their own ranks. One dragon, who would come to call himself Uberwyrm, had perfected a magical ritual through which he could absorb within himself the power of a dying fellow dragon. Uberwyrm set out on a world-wide hunt, killing his brethren one after the other, becoming terribly powerful in the process. He was the last surviving dragon by the time magic - and he by extension - were banished to Limbo.

Plot seed:

• Dragon of Avalon: Uberwyrm returns from Limbo. Realizing how profoundly the world has changed, he concludes that even a powerful being like himself will need allies. Entering Avalon, he offers his services to Nollius. Next time the heroes try to oppose one of sorcerer-king's plans, they will need to contend with a Power Level 16 dragon.