The True Story:

There have always been dragons.

They were walking before man, hunting before fangs, and flying before birds.

The dragon gods ruled before any other form of royalty existed.

And the two main ones were in a constant battle. The fire dragon fought aggressively for control of the world. He was primal, he was destructive, and he was the most powerful. Cináed, the fire dragon, had taken over Amon, the wind dragon’s territory. The electric dragon, Fafnir, was next to be taken over…

Okeanos, the water dragon, had teamed up with Poseidon, the earth dragon, rather than take over. The teamed up pair were able to keep a majority of the territory, but Cináed became more and more aggressive.

When the humans came, the power struggle heightened. Okeanos and Cináed’s rivalry grew worse as they tried to take over human villages. Cináed favored giving people power, transforming them into dragon like beings.

Okeanos gave his followers power as well. He gave them great knowledge, and the ability to gain more. He also gave them basic elemental magick, and chose one family to rule. To them he bestowed them the aquatic abilities to create water, control it, and harvest it for energy.

Cináed’s followers became the Occultations. They were as close to being dragons as anything could get. The stronger they were, the more demonic their appearance—cursed with power. The light began to give them problems; they couldn’t use their full powers when daylight struck them. Their island became a jungle of trees and caves—a dark, shadowy place. At the center of their massive island was a grand volcano where the fire dragon lived.

Cináed made his presence overly apparent. He wanted his followers willing to die for him, too want to fight if he told them to. He was starting a war—and needed his army as ruthless and evil as he was. He gave them immortality so they would not fear death, and you couldn’t get a better army than one who didn’t think they could die.

Death was possible for them, of course, but the stronger you were the harder you fell.

Okeanos and Poseidon saw this. They knew what was coming, and hatched a plan. There was a sacred power Cináed held— a fire spirit that allowed him to give his followers their power. This spirit was the fire dragon’s very essence, its source of power. While the other elemental dragons had retained their spirits within them, the fire element released his and while the other dragons faded away, Cináed stayed strong as ever. That dragon spirit was the reason. It was destined to be great—it was developing into a soul which would be reborn and would hold all the powers of Cináed and contain the power to destroy the other dragons completely.

The Occultations worshipped this spirit, and awaited its earthbound arrival. It was their assurance that they would remain in control—that even if Cináed faded he would be able to return; they went to calling it Dragon, giving it a name as if it were already alive.

Poseidon stole it.

Poseidon knew his time was coming to an end, he was fading and nothing was going to stop that. Going down without a fight, as the others had, was not in him. He wanted to go down with a righteous act, so he stole Dragon and flew swiftly back to Okeanos and gave the spirit to him. They acted fast, after that, because Cináed was enraged and prepared his army to go after the two other dragons.

Okeanos and Poseidon fused their powers and attacked Cináed’s island with all their might. The earth shook and the waves plowed into the island—the fiercest storm it had ever before taken. The volcano erupted with Cináed’s rage, but his main source of power was gone, and he could not save the island.

It sank. It sank till it was only a fourth of its original size, and the volcano had crumbled into itself—using up the last of Poseidon’s stored energy. He went into hibernation as the other gods had. Resting, and letting the sentient beings run the world, acting only when called for.

Most of the inhabitants were killed. Drowned, crushed, burned…

Two groups remained: the Pure Occultations who had the demonic appearance and the major power, and the ‘Lessers’ who appeared human.

They still sought after Dragon. It became their only hope of obtaining all that they had lost.

The prophecy was the most important thing.

A child would be born with the flame ability. That child would be the Dragon—and Cináed would awaken. If it was the right soul, the prophesized one, then Cináed would know.

The Occultations began searching for the soul, knowing it would have to be born eventually. Even as Okeanos quieted down and vanished from view, the Occultations searched. Just because it was taken, did not mean it was lost. No matter what—it would eventually transfer to the cycle of souls and be born by a host that would be able to contain its powers.

It would be its own person. Maybe kind and gentle, or maybe primal and fierce as Cináed was, but it would be theirs once again.

No matter what.