Napftor
Explorer
Jon Potter said:
Sorry about your wife's half-dragon. There's always next character though.
And if you're interested in the variant origin story, I dug through my files and found it. Enjoy!
When the world was young, two lesser deities were created to have dominion over the world's lands. While the greater deities held sway over the civilized cultures, the lesser humanoids and forms of life were these two godlings' responsibility. Both beings always appeared in the winged reptilian forms which today's dragons are known for. The male's body shone with a bright silvery color while his wife's skin subtly shifted colors spanning the rainbow. For centuries their rule over the natural world and its lesser inhabitants was without incident. Both of the deities sent their dragon avatars to promote peace among warring cultures, prevent natural disasters, and otherwise keep the world in a state of peaceful balance.
However, during this time the queen's personal consort was slain and secretly replaced by an agent of a powerful demon lord named Xalchik. Xalchik had discovered and nurtured a deeply hidden desire inside the queen to rule alone without her mate. Of course, the demon lord planned to destroy the queen after she had dispatched her husband. Centuries of whispered promises of absolute power eventually corrupted the chromatic queen. She hid her dark desire from her metallic mate, waiting for the right time to strike him down. All the while she performed her duties as protective godling to the hilt. Her moment came when the gods decided to grant these lesser deities a permanent place in the pantheon. The gods also granted the dragon godlings the ability to spawn before they ascended to their chosen planar realms. The dragon eggs were to be placed around the world, each clutch reflecting the terrain they would grow up in. While not immediately divine like their parents, these still powerful dragons would continue to keep watch over their specific terrains (and their local increasing populaces). To aid them in their duties, each dragon was given the ability to telepathically communicate with others of its kind. Such communion would keep dragonkind up to date on other parts of the world while ensuring that an attacked dragon would receive aid quickly.
With Xalchik's help, the queen poisoned the essence of the unborn dragons she
was responsible for--effectively turning half of the godlings' spawn to evil. The ritual involved introducing demon blood to the unborn form inside. This action caused the birth of what is known today as metallic and chromatic dragonkind. Just prior to the poisoning, Xalchik fashioned a spear to use against the dragon king that would temporarily sap his divine essence (called the Heartspear). During the few moments he would be weakened, Xalchik promised, the queen could finish him quickly. But unbeknownst to the queen, Xalchik created the spear to not only sap the metallic’s divine essence, but the queen’s as well when the spear was used. All was in readiness.
When the metallic king saw what had happened to the half of the precious eggs, he was overcome with despair, grief, and confusion. The queen, along with a demonic horde under Xalchik’s command, attacked the king as he wept for the corrupted spawn. The battle was fierce and lengthy before the queen could get close enough to call on and use the demon lord’s spear. The king called on his wife to stop her assault. In response, she plunged the Heartspear into her mate’s chest. Magical lightning flashed, running up both sides of the weapon. The godlings cried out in shock and pain as their divine powers quickly faded.
But before the Heartspear could snuff the dragon godlings out of existence, the greater deities finally stepped in to preserve their children. They immediately shattered the magic-draining spear and promoted the lesser deities to full god status. Both were sent to their pre-selected planar realms to heal. For interfering in the pantheon's affairs and nearly slaying their creations, the gods exiled Xalchik. They stripped the demon lord's consciousness from his body and sent it to drift outside of this reality for all eternity. But the damage was done. Dragons, both good and evil, were in the world to stay. Since the balance between the two forces was equal, the gods allowed the creatures to live on. The poisoning of the eggs to create chromatics interrupted the telepathic link all dragons were to share. The result is the intermittent "wyrmbond" which they possess today. Because the Heartspear joined with the godlings for a few moments, it (and now its shards) became permanently connected to dragonkind by way of the wyrmbond. Every dragon secretly seeks out these shards—the only physical connection to their creators.
As for the Heartspear, its pieces were scattered across the world from the explosion. The five pieces which survived are still charged with the divine energies it drained from the godlings. The chaotic magics also mixed with Xalchik’s powerful aura before dispersing. This is why his minions, the xalchi, search for the “heart shards” to this day. They believe that with all of the shards reassembled it is possible to bring the demon lord’s exiled consciousness back to this reality.
