The Cosmic Egg hatched and from it came the Grand Ancestral Dragon. It sat and meditated in the Silent Void, treasuring the secrets of the universe. The halves of the eggshell were made into the servants of the Grand Ancestral Dragon and were called the Inside and the Outside.
The Grand Ancestral Dragon is invisible and omnipresent, as are all the dragons greater than him. He is responsible for the created world, and he is the first who shows character and actual, rather than philosophical, interaction. He represents the wholeness of Being. He is shown as hostile or benevolent, when personalized, though his worshippers claim that his acts are totally neutral no matter how they appear to the observers caught within the effect.
The Grand Ancestral Dragon was committed to six actions which it voluntarily undertook. Each these resulted in the creation of one of the Ancestral Dragons. The Ancestral Dragons were born of the entanglements which their creator committed itself to, and the entanglements, in turn, were created from the birth of the Ancestral Dragons. This paradoxical creation is typical of dragonewt explanations. Whatever the understanding of it may be, this brought about the creation of a recognizable pantheon of Dragon Gods. The six Ancestral Dragons are:
- Guardian of Silence;
- Guardian of Secrets;
- Guardian of Being;
- Guardian of Experience;
- Guardian of Thought; and
- Guardian of Spirit.
Either during or shortly after this time the Grand Ancestral Dragon was assailed by powerful enemies. Some of the limbs torn from Orxili had returned. The mild waves of Disorder lapped back from the Void and the Oozing Chaos was born, returning now to thwart creation and reclaim its own to the void. The first sluggish waves of chaos burbled at the feet of the meditating dragon, interrupting perfect plans. To combat the distraction the Grand Ancestral Dragon took the Disorder power and used it upon the chaos which in turn made a new power which drove off the chaos and held it at bay. This was the race of Darkness, formed from the feet of the Dragon.
When the meditations were complete the Grand Ancestral Dragon cut open its loins and from the blood that ran forth was born the power of the Oceans, sea, and all liquid things.
From its belly the Dragon created the power of the Earth and all things which lay within it.
From the head of the Dragon came the fiery beings which are the Sky and the Aetheric powers, and each of the Dragon’s eyes became a noble god of that realm.
The brains of the Grand Ancestral Dragon, hidden deep inside and outside the worlds, hatched secretly among the fledgling races of immortals. These were the Ancestral Dragons, wise teachers of deities, who met once for a mating dance in the place now called Dragon Pass. They completed their mysterious dance, laid the first dragon eggs, and disappeared from the world.
This dismemberment, called utuma in dragonewt philosophy, is the result of the Grand Ancestral Dragon’s willingness to accept the duty of entanglements which his actions had brought about and resulted in his full integration into the world. By dying he re-entered the world to fulfil his duties. To have done otherwise would have resulted in a fatal weakness which would have destroyed the basis for draconic existence. This is often equated, or confused, with the dragonewt sense of “honor.”
The Ancestral Dragons are believed to have form and essence, and also complete control over any part of the world. Each of them is alike and has access to the others’ secrets. They are not elementally oriented, and they are acceptable as objects of worship since they are both real and reachable. Dragonewt worship consists of meditation upon the pure principles of these entities in an attempt to reach, merge, and thereby experience and understand them.
These universal creatures are inaccessible to most beings. When they intrude into the mythology of other races they are always objects of respect and fear. The dragonslaying myths of those religions do not ever reach these immortals. Even so, they are believed to have favored homes upon the world, some staying in one element or another as a note of personal preference rather than any obligation.
The Ancestral Dragons are known to have laid eggs of their own, just as the Cosmic Dragon had laid the Cosmic Egg. The favored nesting place for them was the place of their mystic mating dance, Dragon Pass, although some came from other parts of the world.
The True Dragons are immensely powerful beings in their own right, and they often appear in the mythologies of other races. Sometimes they are benevolent helpers, sometimes hostile enemies who are either slain or are victorious. There are True Dragons who are primarily associated with the elements (thus there is Helldragon, also called Nightdragon; and the Earth Dragon, who protected the goddess Asrelia and was called her friend). Sometimes True Dragons were given titles instead of descriptive names. Thus one dragon is known only as the Emperor of Wisdom, another as the Imperial Fountain of Peace. Some do have true names, like Sh’hakarzeel (also called the Mover of Heavens) who was slain by Orlanth.
The True Dragons were said to be capable of actions and magics which could be duplicated by none of the gods, whether from the Celestial Court, the Elemental Council, or the Burtae Renegades.
The True Dragons are also recorded as having had many epic struggles in the dawn of creation. Their foes are sometimes called chaos things, but most mythical hints indicate some sort of titanic struggle between the True Dragons and one or more races of giants. Though no one knows for sure, and the dragons aren’t talking, popular belief is that the dragons were the victors in all their battles.
These True Dragons were, then, creatures of immense power from myth, generally most active in the era before Time. However, they are still capable of participating in the world of History. The best-known case was the massive intervention of the dragons, including the True Dragons, during the Dragonkill War of 1120.
The true dragons, where they are known, are said to be asleep. Indeed, their physical state appears to be that of sleep. But the boundaries of a True Dragon and the rest of the world are less certain than a human’s, and the consciousness of the dragon impinges upon the waking world of mankind. Thus the dreams of the sleeping True Dragons manifest in the world, bringing about Dream Dragons.
A lot of information in there. Most has appeared in one form or another elsewhere but worth looking at it again!
A key section – “by dying he re-entered the world to fulfill his duties.”
There are so many wildly competing theories on the nature of the Ancestral Dragons – mostly from Kralorelan and EWF sources. The Kralori are known to worship the Blue Dragon of the Deep as the Goddess of the Kahar Sea. The East Islanders giver her a typical sea goddess ancestry but the Kralori insist she – like many other deities that rule parts of the world – is a dragon.
Thrunhin Da, the Dragon of the Waters: lives east of Kralorela, beneath the Kahar Sea, from whence she once taught humans of the Cult of the Orca to help combat the wicked Zabdamar mermen of the sea. She is generally considered a True Dragon.