Being an Excerpt from the Fourth Volume of Archmage Destan the Grim's Scaled Tome, as presented at the 1344 DR Shieldmeet, Covenshire, Valudia
"...and so perished the last of the noble and good dragons within Ostia Prim. Since that time, during the ending of the Age of Forests, never has mankind seen a good dragon alive upon these lands.
"As for their evil counterparts, they remain, but in short supply. The race of dragons is clearly dying. Dragon Vale, once covered with feces and other tell-tale signs of dragonkind, has been quiet of late. No Great Wyrm has been seen since Ul'Daegol, the Doom Lizard, was slain. While the numbers of wyverns and other serpentine beasts seems to have moderately increased these past five score years, the number of true dragons has not.
"I feel it only appropriate to herein note a commonly held belief, since this section deals specifically with conjectures surrounding dragonkind. Many scholars, of whom I am one, believe that dragons immediately sense when one of their number has perished. The true debate begins when sages and scholars attempt to determine if dragons know any details concerning the death of their brethren, or whether this knowledge is limited by geographic or planar distance.
"Irrefutably, there exists no proof to either argument.
"I will cite one of many such tales as evidence that dragons learn nothing other than the fact that one of their kind has been lost. When Parren Gal'Galen of Luc Valu slew the young black dragon within the Dead Fens in 897 DR, he was not accosted by another dragon until two years after the battle. The good paladin had sworn a vow of silence after losing his companions in the combat. Yet the vow ended seven-hundred days after he left the Dead Fens, and Sir Parren told of his exploit to the priests of his order once he could speak again. The news spread quickly within Valudia. Twenty days after he broke his vow, Sir Parren was slain by a massive blue dragon supposedly hailing from the Borsk range. It appeared he was unmolested by dragons until he boasted of the deed, and such a tale gives credence to my belief that dragons learn of mankind's victories only through their own wagging tongues.
"Further, Micandeus of Basilica completed a recent study concerning the fates of known dragonslayers within the Age of Empires and the Age of Iron. The wise elf wanted to determine if the so-called 'Dragonslayer’s Doom' was fact or fiction. His research indicates that a dragonslayer’s life expectancy is no more than a few years after the date of their first dragon-killing.
"There are exceptions, certainly, and the Lord Marshal Gorum Ulmyridon comes to mind, but Micandeus' statistics seem to be in order. The most telling information, of course, is that a full three-fifths of known dragonslayers were eventually slain by another dragon.
"Karadas of Arens, in particular, is an interesting study - he slew his first dragon at age seventeen and was ambushed by additional dragons for the next five years, each stronger than the last. The puissant Arenite slew no less than thirteen dragons, one of which was an ancient male. Karadas died in a fall while scaling the Pinnacle of Carabus, so he dodged the normal fate of dragonslayers, but it was widely known that he scanned the heavens whenever he ventured outdoors, fearful of their incessant assaults. Furthermore, he forbade his warrior sons to ever hunt dragonkind. Since that time, most folk on the mainland refer to the Dragonslayer’s Doom as Karadas' Curse.
"To close, let it be known: Be wary of slaying a dragon, but be more wary once the deed is done!"