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All dragons know of Io, who fashioned mortal dragons
in his image. They also know that Io died not long
afterward. They believe that the other deities, who
banded together during the primordial–deity wars
that followed the creation of the world, left Io to fight
alone except for the aid of his draconic children.
The Fall of Io
During the wars, Io faced a terrible primordial called
Erek-Hus, the King of Terror, on a blasted worldly
continent half shattered from a century of conflict.
With a primordial-wrought axe of adamantine the
size of a mountain, the King of Terror split Io from
head to tail, neatly cleaving the deity into two pieces.
Erek-Hus laughed, his voice jubilant thunder that
resounded across the face of the world. Before his
laugh died away, the divine power released from Io’s
split form entered Io’s two eldest children, transforming
them from dragons into deities.
The Sundering
According to one account, the dragon deities Tiamat
and Bahamut rose from the two halves of Io’s corpse.
Another legend claims that Tiamat and Bahamut were
among Io’s eldest creations and received their father’s
divine spark upon his death.
The First Dragon Deities
What one deity alone could not accomplish, two
working together could. Together the two new deities,
Bahamut and Tiamat, fought and killed the
King of Terror. Bahamut flung the King’s axe into the
starry sky.
The infusion of divine power granted more than
just divine strength to Bahamut and Tiamat. Io’s
character also split. His desire to protect creation
and his sense of fairness took root in Bahamut, now
worshiped as a deity of justice, honor, and protection.
Tiamat embodied Io’s hubris, arrogance, and covetousness
and came to be revered as a deity of greed
and envy.
The two dragon deities looked at each other across
the corpse of the defeated King of Terror. Neither
could suffer the other to exist.
They leapt for each other and battled for days.
Finally, Tiamat fled, and the two deities returned
their attention to the larger war against the
primordials.
First Dragons
The five major dragon families (chromatic, catastrophic,
metallic, scourge, and planar;) share a common origin.
Most accounts begin with mention of the deity Io.
Io, as legend has it, created dragons in his own
shape but without a divine spark, so that dragons
might frolic and exult in the new world formed by
the primordials. To Io, dragons were the epitome
of mortal form. Though they lived in the world, the
power of the Elemental Chaos flowed in their veins
and spewed from their mouths in gouts of flame or
waves of paralyzing cold. They also developed keen
minds and lofty spirits that linked them, as with all
sentient mortal beings, to the Astral Sea.
Io’s remaining children found their position less
secure than they had believed it to be. Forced to adapt
to a changing world, they chose diverse philosophies
and lifestyles to reflect their individual natures.
A number of surviving dragons chose to follow
Bahamut, called the Platinum Dragon, and they
became the first metallic dragons. Over the ages,
as Bahamut upheld justice, opposed evil, and liberated
the oppressed, creatures other than dragons
came to honor him as the deity of justice, protection,
nobility, and honor. In the fullness of time, he has
become better known for those attributes than for his
association with metallic dragons. Today, all metallic
dragons revere Bahamut as their originator, but not
all of them worship him.
Other dragons that survived Io’s death embraced
their physical link to the Elemental Chaos, allowing
the power within them to manifest externally.
They became disasters incarnate, taking the forms
of fantastic catastrophes that shook the world and
that continue to wreak havoc millennia later. When
a mountain explodes, a catastrophic dragon might
erupt from it along with sprays of molten rock. When
a cyclone or a hurricane rages, a catastrophic dragon
might lurk at the eye of the storm, reveling in the
destruction. Catastrophic dragons care little for
wealth or power. They seek to make their marks on
the world, literally, and to have others fear and propitiate
them.
The order of scourge dragons also arose from
among the survivors of Io’s death. Similar to the
way catastrophic dragons embraced their link to the
Elemental Chaos, scourge dragons (also called linnorms)
celebrated their connection to brute reality.
They learned to visit afflictions upon living creatures.
Almost universally evil, scourge dragons enjoy the
raw physicality of melee combat.
The remainder of Io’s surviving dragon children
threw in their lot with Tiamat, whose hatred of the
world that killed her father colored her every deed
and attracted dragons given to rapacity and suspicion:
the chromatics. Chromatic dragons have become
the best-known dragon family thanks to their oftenantagonistic
relationship with humanoids. Like Bahamut,
Tiamat matured into a deity appealing to
more than just her dragon kin. Today, as the evil deity
of wealth, greed, and envy, she urges her followers to
take vengeance for every slight. Most chromatic dragons
follow this dictate.
Planar dragons are categorized as the fifth family
of dragons, but planar dragons did not appear until
long after the other dragon classes matured in the
aftermath of Io’s dissolution. Dragons that emigrated
to offworld planes were affected by their environment,
sometimes radically. Chromatic dragons seem
most susceptible, and later generations of these
planar dragons bear only slight resemblances to their kin.
Credit goes to Draconomicon books and Wikipedia...
in his image. They also know that Io died not long
afterward. They believe that the other deities, who
banded together during the primordial–deity wars
that followed the creation of the world, left Io to fight
alone except for the aid of his draconic children.
The Fall of Io
During the wars, Io faced a terrible primordial called
Erek-Hus, the King of Terror, on a blasted worldly
continent half shattered from a century of conflict.
With a primordial-wrought axe of adamantine the
size of a mountain, the King of Terror split Io from
head to tail, neatly cleaving the deity into two pieces.
Erek-Hus laughed, his voice jubilant thunder that
resounded across the face of the world. Before his
laugh died away, the divine power released from Io’s
split form entered Io’s two eldest children, transforming
them from dragons into deities.
The Sundering
According to one account, the dragon deities Tiamat
and Bahamut rose from the two halves of Io’s corpse.
Another legend claims that Tiamat and Bahamut were
among Io’s eldest creations and received their father’s
divine spark upon his death.
The First Dragon Deities
What one deity alone could not accomplish, two
working together could. Together the two new deities,
Bahamut and Tiamat, fought and killed the
King of Terror. Bahamut flung the King’s axe into the
starry sky.
The infusion of divine power granted more than
just divine strength to Bahamut and Tiamat. Io’s
character also split. His desire to protect creation
and his sense of fairness took root in Bahamut, now
worshiped as a deity of justice, honor, and protection.
Tiamat embodied Io’s hubris, arrogance, and covetousness
and came to be revered as a deity of greed
and envy.
The two dragon deities looked at each other across
the corpse of the defeated King of Terror. Neither
could suffer the other to exist.
They leapt for each other and battled for days.
Finally, Tiamat fled, and the two deities returned
their attention to the larger war against the
primordials.
First Dragons
The five major dragon families (chromatic, catastrophic,
metallic, scourge, and planar;) share a common origin.
Most accounts begin with mention of the deity Io.
Io, as legend has it, created dragons in his own
shape but without a divine spark, so that dragons
might frolic and exult in the new world formed by
the primordials. To Io, dragons were the epitome
of mortal form. Though they lived in the world, the
power of the Elemental Chaos flowed in their veins
and spewed from their mouths in gouts of flame or
waves of paralyzing cold. They also developed keen
minds and lofty spirits that linked them, as with all
sentient mortal beings, to the Astral Sea.
Io’s remaining children found their position less
secure than they had believed it to be. Forced to adapt
to a changing world, they chose diverse philosophies
and lifestyles to reflect their individual natures.
A number of surviving dragons chose to follow
Bahamut, called the Platinum Dragon, and they
became the first metallic dragons. Over the ages,
as Bahamut upheld justice, opposed evil, and liberated
the oppressed, creatures other than dragons
came to honor him as the deity of justice, protection,
nobility, and honor. In the fullness of time, he has
become better known for those attributes than for his
association with metallic dragons. Today, all metallic
dragons revere Bahamut as their originator, but not
all of them worship him.
Other dragons that survived Io’s death embraced
their physical link to the Elemental Chaos, allowing
the power within them to manifest externally.
They became disasters incarnate, taking the forms
of fantastic catastrophes that shook the world and
that continue to wreak havoc millennia later. When
a mountain explodes, a catastrophic dragon might
erupt from it along with sprays of molten rock. When
a cyclone or a hurricane rages, a catastrophic dragon
might lurk at the eye of the storm, reveling in the
destruction. Catastrophic dragons care little for
wealth or power. They seek to make their marks on
the world, literally, and to have others fear and propitiate
them.
The order of scourge dragons also arose from
among the survivors of Io’s death. Similar to the
way catastrophic dragons embraced their link to the
Elemental Chaos, scourge dragons (also called linnorms)
celebrated their connection to brute reality.
They learned to visit afflictions upon living creatures.
Almost universally evil, scourge dragons enjoy the
raw physicality of melee combat.
The remainder of Io’s surviving dragon children
threw in their lot with Tiamat, whose hatred of the
world that killed her father colored her every deed
and attracted dragons given to rapacity and suspicion:
the chromatics. Chromatic dragons have become
the best-known dragon family thanks to their oftenantagonistic
relationship with humanoids. Like Bahamut,
Tiamat matured into a deity appealing to
more than just her dragon kin. Today, as the evil deity
of wealth, greed, and envy, she urges her followers to
take vengeance for every slight. Most chromatic dragons
follow this dictate.
Planar dragons are categorized as the fifth family
of dragons, but planar dragons did not appear until
long after the other dragon classes matured in the
aftermath of Io’s dissolution. Dragons that emigrated
to offworld planes were affected by their environment,
sometimes radically. Chromatic dragons seem
most susceptible, and later generations of these
planar dragons bear only slight resemblances to their kin.
Credit goes to Draconomicon books and Wikipedia...
Last edited by Greed on Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
