A summary of Drake history and legends as told by the Gliders in present day Wesnoth.


----  Time of Beginning  ----

The oldest time drakes remember, when Irdya was in its natural fiery state.
Creatures native to Irdya thrive in this time; tellers (fire wraiths) in the skies and stonekin (trolls) deep underground.
Drakes and other dragons thrive at Irdya's poles.




----  Time of Fate  ----
Begins 2400 kya.

Tellers try to warn drakes of the awakening of the Faerie Realm to the existence of Irdya, but are silenced by its power. Soon after, the world begins changing.

Cataclysmic cooling of Irdya through the appearance of the enchanted mists (living mists, will of the wisps).
Otherworldly flora and fauna arrive from elsewhere- saurians, naga, mermish, dwarves, humans, and many others.
Faerie creatures are enchanted into being through the transmutation of these new creatures- the woses from trees, the elves from humans, the nixes from mermish...

Tellers greatly diminish in size and power and retreat to fiery sanctuaries underground and near volcanoes while stonekin begin to surface from the deep.
Drakekin (fire dragons) lead drakes to migrate from Irdya's darkened and freezing poles (the Moonlit Wastes) to the equator.
The drakes formerly of the southern pole form the burner caste, while those of the north form the glider caste.
The warmth siphoned from Irdya by the enchanted mists, along with the siphoned power and anguish of the diminishing tellers, coalesces into the Ruby of Fire.




----  Time of Legend  ----
Begins 20 kya.

Irdya begins to warm with a slight waning of the enchanted mists, through the feeble yet concerted efforts of the tellers.

Drakes come to rule over a world spanning tribal confederation, which absorbs the fleetfoot (saurians) into many of their tribes and allies with two other races, the serpents (naga) and the craftlings (dwarves).
Working together, these races craft toolworks unmatched in all later time.
The clasher caste is formed to act as arbiters between the drake tribes and masters of their toolworks.

A second civilization emerges shortly thereafter, of one race- the casters (humans).
It comes to possess a likewise unmatched knowledge of magic, taught to them by the tellers.
The Golden Order of mages become the wardens of this magical knowledge and the terrifying secret of the Faerie Realm's true nature and aim, as told to them by the tellers.

One teller in particular, against the judgement of the others, further teaches the secrets of unlife, a crude form of the transmutation magics emanated by the Faerie Realm.
From amongst their chronically ill and suffering, this rogue teller chooses three individual casters to remake into the immortal archons, and shares with them all the ancient knowledge of the teller race.
Under the guidance of these three archons- Solis, Telum and Nova, the power of the caster civilization eclipses that of the drakes, through its widespread skill with unliving magic.

Yet the very practice of this art consumes and poisons the enchanted mists that shroud Irdya, causing deserts and seas to grow.
The resulting famines lead to a war between the drake and caster civilizations, which lasts two thousand years until a drake surrender.
Mysteriously, the archons then depart for far away places. Solis ascends through the Aethermaw, Telum goes west treading across the Great Desert, and Nova goes east slipping into the Great Ocean.




----  Time of Turmoil  ----
Begins 11 kya.

Famines grow more frequent as the deserts expand, until the practicers of unlife are too weak to stand against the faerie creatures that rise to defend the enchanted mists.
In desperation, the casters create thirteen immortal lich-lords to replace the archons, against the judgment of the Golden Order.
Unlike the original archons, these lich-lords are created from the most ambitious and cunning individuals of the ruling elite, and together possess several times more raw ability.
Yet these formidable lich-lords only delay their empire's destruction a century longer.

Despite all the magical wards and devices protecting it, the capital city of Mora is overrun after Lich-Lord Jevyan's legion forsakes it.
From the inner Citadel of Mora, the Golden Order makes its final stand against every shape and size of creature, monster and direct manifestation of the Faerie Realm.
The battle escalates, as each side employs greater and greater forces of nature, until one unleashes the elemental power of the sun itself, reducing the city to a crater of glass in an instant.
Only some apprentice mages, that had recently been taught the art of teleportation, escape the city before its destruction. They manage to save just a few of the 72 master scrolls from the Golden Library. 
With these scraps of ancient knowledge they go on to found the secretive Silver Order.

The victorious faerie creatures now turn against all other races, as a mysterious new motive begins to stir the Faerie Realm towards wilder action.
They drive the craftlings deep underground and sweep nearly all drakes from the Greatland (Great Continent) despite the daring and cunning tactics of the recently formed fighter caste there.

A league of drakes, craftlings and casters unite against the faerie creatures on the western continent.
As this league only begins to turn the tide, the Faerie Realm allows new and destructive races to cross over to Irdya.
These races, the jotnar and the horde (orcs), attack and consume all who they encounter; mundane and faerie creatures alike, as well as each other.
The league manages only a pyrrhic victory against them, driving the jotnar into the Wilderlands and the horde into the Moonlit Wastes of the far north.
Ultimately, creatures of the faerie far outnumber the remnants of the league, who fall into senses of despair and desperation.

Yet the faerie creatures do not attack; instead their behavior becomes quite strange.
Some of them despair, as if suddenly empathetic to their victims, while others attack or even devour each other, as if jotnar or hordlings.
The few faerie creatures that remain sane, swiftly slaughter their erratic counterparts and retreat across the oceans.

In their haste, they leave behind a number mysterious artifacts, including the Ruby of Fire which the drake Dominant Morogor captures.




----  Exile  ----
5 kya.

Seeing the harm the Ruby of Fire is inflicting on her forbidden mate, drake Windshaper Witwegana has one of her gliders take it to a seeker of the Silver Order for safe keeping and study.
However the Ruby is intercepted by Lich-Lord Lenvan, who along with the other Lich-Lords, is already preparing for a total war against the living in the distant future.

Witwegana sends word to her Morogor of this terrible error and races to confront Lenvan before he carries this new weapon into the underworld for careful centuries-long study.
Knowing she is hopelessly outmatched, Witwegana nevertheless challenges Lenvan to duel, buying precious time for Morogor's wing to catch up.
Yet Morogor arrives late to find only the lifeless remains of his love. The slim fissures in his mind left by the Ruby are cracked open by the sight.

With the one-in-every-four of drakes loyal to him, Dominant Morogor puts humanity and its Lich-Lords to the flames of his wrath; a betrayal of the former league of races against the faerie.
Honor bound to act, friend and fellow hero of the war, Enforcer Parapathos challenges Morogor to duel and defeats him, but refuses to end his friend's life, despite the protests of Lich-Lord Jevyan.
Morogor with all his followers are outcast into the sea by the league.
They settle in a distant chain of islands in the center of the Great Ocean; the new Domain of Morogor.

In his anguish, Dominant Morogor forbids the telling of all history preceding the exile.




----  (Winds of Fate)  ----
3 to 4 YW

The events of this campaign.




----  War with Prey  ----
4 to ~20 YW

24 Flights arrive on the Greatland (Great Continent). They lead assaults on Wesmere and western Wesnoth.
However their military strategy is nonexistent, as they sweep wide and unfocused in a hunting pattern, not yet aware their "prey" is capable and organized far beyond their imagining or willingness to accept.

Heavily fortified cities in eastern wesnoth retaliate with massed cavalry against the isolated hunting camps of the thinly spread drakes.
They employ a hammer-and-anvil strategy by chasing and maneuvering isolated wings and smaller flights of drakes into ambushes by well positioned infantry at prearranged choke points.
Lintanir sends aid to the western elven enclaves while strengthening its own military power to defend against the sparser scouting flights that they encounter.

Most flights are routed within a few years, retreating deeper into the continent in every direction.
The remaining dominants in the western region coalesce their forces and assault human and elvish settlements one at a time. They are successful in destroying several fortified human cities.
Their siege of Weldyn is less successful and drags on until they find themselves exhausted and surrounded, whereupon they are vanquished in a pitched battle.

There are only minor skirmishes until around 20 YW, when the remaining drake combatants retreat all at once into the wilds.
Their dominants have been summoned to a grand counsel gathering by Gorlack, who convinces them an entirely new outlook and strategy is needed for the Greatland.
They adopt the Windpath of the Great Contention and through it come to see their former "prey" as fellow "contenders" in what will be a long contest for control over the whole continent.
All the flights retreat en masse to the many remote regions of the Greatland and remain a rare sight to most races for the next century.




----  Great Contention  ----

Drakes reemerge from the wilds of the Greatland with steadily increasing frequency and mysterious motives.
Despite the terrifying reputation left over from their first horrific appearance, they now engage in diplomatic actions with other races and are often a powerful ally to heroes of other races on their quests.
Indeed, a number of drakes (such as Krash) in this time period have come to respect the power and nobility of other species or individuals thereof.

At the same time, this new, enigmatic behavior pattern of the drakes slowly reveals signs of a structured, ruthlessly pragmatic strategy.
The odd alliances they form, the conflicts they suddenly abandon mid way through, the edicts and restrictions they place upon their protectorate states and vanquished enemies...
These maneuvers work to propel the drakes' slow and steady rise towards a continent spanning power.
An apex civilization to replace their long abandoned role as apex predator on Old Morogor.




----  Reascension  ----

With the destabilization and approaching collapse of the Kingdom of Wesnoth and the Northern Alliance, the races of these lands clamor for an end to the chaos of ascendancy wars and ruthless despots.
Many pledge fealty to the drake dominants and obedience to the Ways of Gorlack (a code of laws that has by now greatly expanded and drifted far from its original intent).
Formerly untouchable warlords wake from their soft beds to the rumble of distant hooves and wings-- knights with dragons massed together, charging them at first light.

From this new power, a continent wide peace begins to emerge.
The most elite talents of the once disparate races are combined into wonders Irdya has not seen since the Time of Legend.
The craft of the runesmith, the experiments of the mage, and the secrets long warded by the clasher, together yield metal beasts of burden powered by combining the opponent elements water and fire.
The towering bodies of mechanical warriors stirred to life by the same practice, help to keep the new Great Peace.

Yet it all comes at a price.
The Ways are a chokingly complex and ruthlessly enforced code of laws from which there is no escape for any one or any kind.
A universal, tyrant-less tyranny, where every action one takes could be an unwitting violation and the most harmless or well meaning infraction punished without understanding or mercy.

And despite so much law and security, an ancient menace grows between the cracks and under the foundation of the Great Peace.
Magic, the one remaining blind spot of the drakes, the one power that still eludes their full comprehension, is about to supplant them.



