A Brief History of the Dragonmother and her Disciples

Written by Vallaia, daughter of Abbadon, Priestess of the Temple of Dragos; Translated by the historian Garrouth

#### Book 1: In the Beginning

In the beginning it is said there was no one, only the void. Then the cosmos where born, worlds with infinities contained in finitudes. At first the Titans formed, masses of raw magical power coagulating into the first physical forms. Titans are not thought to have intelligent minds but instead are divine automata driven by basic laws of magic. Then born from the concept of the Titans were the Gods. The Gods are the first definitively known forms of intelligent beings in the cosmos.  We generally classify these Gods into their divine orders; Gods of Light, Dark, Life, and Material being the most common (although there are many more now). Each God was unique in their mind, form, and alignment. Each God came to existence bound to a plane of the cosmos, and they immediately came into conflict with their neighbors. The causes and results of many of these conflicts remain a mystery but eventually they resulted in equilibrium. Gods can’t be destroyed only altered. Eventually conflict ceased and a steady state of being persisted in the Cosmos.

Then the mortal plane formed.

The mortal plane is unique beyond anything else in the cosmos, a marvel of creation. Every single mortal life born there contains a soul and when the mortal dies the soul can travel to any part of the Cosmos enriching it. It is believed that there is no limit to the amount of souls the mortal plane can produce. The raw power of mortal souls became a driving engine that accelerated change in the Cosmos. The birth of souls of the mortal plane is the principle cause of the ever-increasing amount of magic in the cosmos. A God’s power is strengthened by gaining the service of souls. Eventually the Gods became powerful enough to traverse between the different planes. This led to even greater conflict.

As I have stated before each plane of existence is the native home of some variety of Gods. Mount Celestia and the Nine Hells for example are home to many Gods. The mortal plane is no exception. The most important God that formed there was the Dragonmother.

Over countless eons of souls being born and dying in the mortal plane life evolved into increasingly complex forms and as complexity increased the density of magic in their souls increased. This led to the rise of what we would call “monsters” in modern life. Massive collections of raw magic began to accumulate into increasingly tremendous forms. This drew the Gods of the other planes began to exert their influence over the mortal plane as its boundaries were naturally porous. As their magic mingled with the magic of the mortal plane eventually, they formed the Dragonmother. The Dragonmother was the first God born of other Gods.

The Dragonmother exhibited a form of boundless and unyielding life. She is said to have been the size of a mountain and have shimmering metal scales of infinite colored patterns. When she breathed her flames into the air the land would burn and storms would form. Her wings stretched across continents and wielded metal spines that would tear the sky. She birthed the first dragons both chromatic and metallic from the light and material components of her form. Her daughters and sons would become the dragon races and would dominate much of the mortal world for quite some time. But it was never enough. She viewed the mortal plane as her sole domain and detested the influence the foreign Gods exerted. In particular she found their claiming of the souls of mortals to be a great loss.

So, she waged war against all the other Gods. She quickly took control of the elemental planes and used their power to wage a devastating war across the cosmos. She was never able to achieve full victory but wasn’t defeated either. The Gods of Light and Dark in particular formed an alliance and posed the greatest challenge. Eventually the Great Cosmic War settled into a truce.

The true issue at hand was the control of souls that died in the mortal plane. The neutral Raven Queen who had become a God of death on the mortal plane was selected to be an arbiter. Each soul would arrive at her court and be judged based on the actions and lives they led. Afterwards they would be sent to the God that best fit the Raven Queen’s judgement. The ledger would keep a strict record of deaths and judgements and would be ruthlessly fair. If a mortal spent their life worshipping a specific God it would generally lead to their soul being committed to that God. Part of the agreement was that no Gods could make their residence on the Mortal Plane so the Dragonmother made the elemental plane of Fire her new seat of power. This deeply angered the other Gods but they had no choice but to compromise.

This agreement is still in effect today and it guides the passage of every mortal who dies in our plane of existence.

The Dragonmother had good reason to feel comfortable leaving the mortal plane. Her progeny had begun to disseminate across the lands as the apex predators of the monster food chain. Her descendants would also join the humanoid mortal species as the dragonborn. It is known that with each passing generation the original magic became increasingly dispersed and dilute. Modern dragons rarely destroy civilizations or raze continents but are still the apex predators of their ecosystems.