Draconic Betrayal
Many years ago, long before this old Professor roamed these strange lands, the skies were much busier than we currently see - or so they say. Among the flocks of birds and flutters of butterflies were the tremendous thundering beasts known as dragons. Most people would consider dragons to be a myth and at least from what we see today that may be the case, but according to many inscriptions on tablets and engravings carved into ancient ruins of temples not only were there dragons but they in fact had an entire civilisation that swayed amongst the heavens. Great colossal spires floated high above the land, spiralling endlessly into the skies beyond the vision of any recorded land dwellers. These dragons were known by many names amongst the recovered tales, the most common being "Pax Ara'Spiri" or "Great Spire Serpents".
Scholars for many years argued whether they should be called serpents or something else as no known species of serpent exists that can fly, and this seems quite preposterous. One of the leaders of the great scholarly institutions, Aaron Sparksby declared that these great creatures should henceforth be known as Dragons as the descriptions matched the strange creature that adorned his family's crest. The room was split in opinion, me included however Sparksby was always known to be quite the smooth-talking wordsmith.
After much deliberation amongst the scholarly institutions in Elditia City, it has been mostly decided that these "Dragons" must have existed over four thousand years ago at least. Much evidence of their existence has been wiped from the lands we have explored so far, at least anything substantial as to their history or any ruins of their great structures that once filled the skies. The only significant history found thus far is from a tablet titled "Calamica Draconicus" which we presume was written towards the end of the dragon's civilisation. What I found odd about this tablet is how rough the carvings were. These sorts of tablet carvings normally were quite smooth after sitting around gathering dust for many thousands of years, so either the person working on this tablet was sloppy and, in a rush, or this tablet was made much more recently.
The Calamica Draconicus tells of a great war in the heavens, of how the dragons had become too greedy and complacent in their power. The "divine reckoning" wrought much strife in the lands, any deaths of land dwellers seemingly of little importance to those clashing above. For three days, echoes of turmoil and death filled the skies marked by bright explosions of varying colours high above the clouds. Then, as if the entire world slept all at once, the next day the spires had disappeared with no trace, no ruins and no corpses or debris to be found. No one heard nor saw a dragon again and no explanation forthcoming when the various tribes tried to pray to their gods for answers.
I speculate of some sort of partnership between the gods and the dragons, and that for some reason they fell out of favour and were punished. They and their city were simply banished, moved elsewhere perhaps? Truly a strange story and one worth investigating further.
- Professor Alfred Hemmingsworth