The Defiance of the Dragons and the Red Death

Continuing the history of Draconis

The Empire of the Dragonlords did not last. Reigning from Dragonback out of Aurora, the realm of Draconis prospered. But with the settlement and development of the continent, the land's natural magic was diminished. In time, Aurora's lords and wizards grew entirely dependent on their Dragon allies and the mineral known as Bloodstone.

Natural Bloodstone deposits amplify the flow of magic around them but when mined, the mineral can be forged into Bloodsteel, the key material of magical armor, weapons, and wondrous items. The armies of Draconis came to depend on their Bloodsteel equipment and the mined Bloodstone was used as the foundation of magical knowledge throughout the realm.

The advance of civilization and its accompanying disruption of the natural flow of magic, as well as the ruthless mining and exploitation of Bloodstone came to anger the Dragons. A rift grew between the humans of Aurora and the Dragons, culminating in what scholars now term "The Defiance of the Dragons".

Within one week, all Dragons on Draconis left their human companions and went into hiding in places unknown. High-level magical research ground to a halt and many of the realm's more advanced spells failed. Aurora's most gifted arcane talent, a man known as Aenarys, sought a way to continue the magical advancement of the Empire and he turned his research to Bloodstone.

For years Aenarys toiled in his laboratories. Researching draconic lore and experimenting with Bloodstone. On one fateful day, however, his experiments backfired and a crimson mist rose up from his arcane spire. Within minutes, the entire holy city of Aurora was blanketed in the red haze. Victims exposed to the mist died within moments. Only those strongest of will or body were able to escape its grasp. Those that died from inhaling the crimson vapor rose again as ghouls, their skin taking on a red hue and their eyes shining with an unnatural red light.

The mist slowly dispersed throughout the realm. The malady that gripped Draconis came to be known as the Red Death as thousands died and rose again as red-eyed, red-hued ghouls. The southern cities were the first to fall. Over the course of three years, the Red Death spread across the continent. Major population centers were depopulated and evacuated. The only respite came from the Church, whose clerics and paladins were able to turn and destroy the undead. Towns and cities where the Church was strongest were able to hold out untill the plague had run its course. Population centers without powerful priests were doomed. Many people fled into the countryside and organized themselves into warbands.

A generation has passed since the Red Death. Aurora has become an abandoned husk. The Empire of Draconis has fallen. Many cities are battlefields between the undead and the living. The wilderness teems with warbands and lawless rovers. Here and there, palisaded communities of survivors led by priests or warlords eke out a living in the countryside.

Amidst all this anarchy, rumours circulate that the Dragons have returned...