Origin Story

## 65 Million Years Ago...

The end of a 160 million year reign of peace, harmony, and enlightenment was marked by fire and darkness.

After some 10 million years, Dragonkin had finally rooted out all that is anathema to peace and prosperity. They had finally found an end to those traits such as greed, hatred, and jealousy which became the sole cause behind the falling of great empires.

At last the Dragonkin had avoided self-destruction and ushered their kind into a golden age which lasted far longer than they had been evolving on Earth. For 150 million years, Dragonkin tirelessly sought to understand the mechanizations of the multiverse. Over time their mastery of nature extended well beyond the four dimensions of our Universe: they were close to mastering the workings of time and space. However, for all of their mastery of nature, the Dragonkin understood the extent of their impermanence.

Long before their reign, the Universe had wiped life from earth several times before, always starting anew as if experimenting with different prototypes. In their infinite wisdom, they knew that what had been learned from the universe was far too important to risk losing: the inevitable would be unavoidable whether it be the delivered through the destruction of their planet, their moon, or their star.

Separating the fabric of space and time, the Dragonkin crafted their own dimension separate of all the parallel realities of the multiverse. The ancient ones marveled at the complexity of their creation, a stable universe separate from the infinitude that is the multiverse. It was a masterpiece connected to over 160 million years of evolution and constant study.

And so the time came, when the Oort cloud was disturbed by external forces, causing calamity on all planets which found refuge with Sol. In the end, they struggled but failed to bridge Earth to their masterpiece in hopes of saving their beloved home. What fragments of their world that could be saved were bridged through space and time. Their masterpiece became a haven from the vicious cycles of the multiverse where they could fine tune the fabric of their reality as they saw fit. But their loss was tremendous...

The Keepers, as the ancient scrolls refer to them, would portion up the governing bodies of their universe so that no force of energy would be overlooked. The Keepers of Fire would engineer the stellar nurseries needed to create their galaxy while the Keepers of Storms worked to distribute the energy needed to sustain it. The Keepers of The Void worked with The Keepers of Fire and Storm to guard the energies within their universe, lest their masterpiece collapse on itself due to the slightest imbalance. Through all of this, The Keepers of The Grove would pursue that which the multiverse alone had mastered, the creation of life. Together, The Keepers nourished a Universe which comprised all the arts acquired over the eons.

Using the tools which gifted them their masterpiece, The Keepers discovered a way to recreate creatures from their native lands and experiment with those from other dimensions. Eventually The Keepers created a near perfect reflection of their home world, a menagerie of Dragonkin accomplishment - they would call it, "The Observatory".

For eons, The Keepers of The Grove worked relentlessly to master the workings of life, and more importantly those of consciousness. Over the course of several cosmic cycles, the dragonkin had learned how to craft magnificent creatures... and horrible abominations. It was the Keepers of Fire who finally propounded the others to notice the methodologies of the multiverse, by wiping all life from their world to start anew. And so The Four Keepers resolved to purge their world with every new cycle of abomination, their skill of creation improving with each new iteration, until one such abomination caught the attention of The Void: Humans.

In their search for a perfect organism - they found that the mobility of the biped was the optimal template when considering a vessel for consciousness. After many failed attempts of trying to fuse the likeness of dragonkin to the template of the mammalian, Humans came about as a result.

The Keepers had agreed that the form of a Human was far too fragile to contain the Dragonkin essence of tenacity... but the Humans demonstrated something that the Dragonkin themselves had come to accomplish over the eons: Reasoning. Like the dragonkin, humans were able to pull objects into existence from other dimensions by first visualizing it in their mind's eye.

Those of Fire had moved to stay resolute in their previous practices throughout the long cosmic cycle, but The Keepers of The Void saw an opportunity that they feared would take them millions of years to discover again. Indeed, while the tenacity of the Dragonkin form was easier to replicate, they wrestled endlessly to replicate their own ability of reasoning.

So the other Keepers conceded to nourish this rare gem of consciousness, lest it be a fluke. However, to the lament of The Void, the Keepers took the Oath of Purity: these Humans were on their own, that any Dragonkin intervention would be forbidden. The Keepers of The Grove decried such measures to be outside the cosmic order, that all of their creations are assigned a purpose or purged as an abomination. It was The Void that assigned them their purpose, so that Humanity would not simply serve for the mere amusement of Dragonkin. Humanity would serve as a monumental reminder of their accomplishments, that their goal was not outside of their reach, that they could create the perfect organism.

Ancient as they were, the dragonkin had rooted out the reckless abandon of their infant civilization many eons ago, but humans were not so fortunate in the elements of time - the one element overlooked by those whose scales wither as stars die and are reborn. Over the ages, Dragonkin had forgotten the origins of their success, and took the stance that Humans had surely held the same level of purity as they.

Perhaps it was those of The Void, The Grove, or The Lords of Lightning, but one Keeper had broken the Oath of Purity - Humanity had been bestowed a draconic artifact. The Ancient Scrolls speak of how the bearer of the gift had taken the form of a Hawk, as to obscure their true identity. With the Artifact, Humanity was given a codex with the instructions needed to draw from its power... and how to keep it all hidden from the Keepers. For hundreds of years the Humans would learn in secret out of fear that they would call Armageddon upon themselves.

It is written that The Observatory's separation from the multiverse allowed them to peer inside an infinite number of dimensions and alternate realities. Eventually, Humanity had traced their origin to somewhere within the Multiverse and to the notion that they could possibly reconnect with their kind, bringing with them the knowledge that they had been gifted.

The notion took root like a sapling within minds of Man, nourished by their own existential fear. Humanity resolved to escape this inhospitable world and connect with their origins. Whether it was their confidence in their understanding, or their actions clouded by fear, humanity ripped open a portal tying The Observatory to all timelines and realities where their own could be found.

The catastrophic energy released by the portal threatened to implode The Observatory, devouring more energy as the rift widened. It is written that The Lords of Lightning attempted to close the rift but found its unending hunger for energy to be more than The Observatory could offer. Those of Lightning used their mastery of the cosmic energies to summon a storm of immense power which would serve to sate the hunger of the rift.

It is 333 years later.

The Maelstrom still persists, the portal at its heart still beating alive, feasting upon the energies provided by The Lords of Lightning. The Dragonkin cannot close it no matter how hard they try, and with each passing year, more of our kind flood through the portal and find themselves washed upon the Draconic shores of The Observatory.