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Draq'conia
A planet a bit larger than Earth, and quite a bit older, that sits in the center of a solar system shared by two small stars. Each cycle around this system lasts about ~4.3 ish earth/human years, or 1 Draq'conian cycle. On average, Draq'conians live to be about 170-200 cycles, finishing adolescence around 30ish cycles. Some trees have lives as long as 3000 cycles, and there is fauna rumored to be around 900, much older than any living Draq'conian. It's unclear whether Draq'conians are native to this planet, as even their own written origins suggest that they are descended from dragons, a type of fae that come from Lazura. It could also be possible that this is untrue and merely a translation error in describing some sort of great beast that existed in Draq'conia many cycles ago.
Draq'conians
Name assigned to the primary intelligent humanoid species on Draq'conia. They split into 4 primary subgroups: feathered, scaled, furred, and hybrids. They're spread across the planet with even more variation within each group in accordance to their specific regions. Other than the presence of each subgroups key traits (presence of fur or feathers vs harder scales or carapace, presence of spines or quills, regional traits like larger claws or teeth), they all nearly identical anatomy. Most have very strong senses of smell and hearing, as well as being naturally agile. They have an internal balancing mechanism like a cat, and most have near-perfect night vision. Occasionally, there are less common but not entirely strange traits such as spikes or quills, larger claws or teeth, infrared/heat vision (often substituting for lesser night vision), or magic abilities connected to various forces at play common among the planet's native wildlife.
Throughout many millennia, smaller nations and groups of Draq'conians have fought many small scale wars, which eventually grew as technology advanced, as did the size of unified nations. In semi-recent history, there was a great war, and the main kingdoms of Draq'conia managed to unify under the conquest of [hero name] and their two spouses [spouse 1] and [spouse 2], using the artifacts given to the 3 original dragons that the species and primary religions claim to be descendants of in some way or another. The extremely magical artifacts were claimed to have been gifted to the heroes by a force of light, and served as the center of research for a new technical revolution, using them as a powerful prototypes. There is now 3 massive nations unified by a greater council in an unprecedented era of peace. Each zone also keeps its own artifact under tight lock and key guarded by parts of the council.
( Note: Something to be noted culturally among the major belief systems in the Draq'conian empires, 3 is a very important number found throughout many stories, religious texts, and general societal norms. For example, more common than couples in their society is polyamorous groups of three, usually in a mutual triangle form but also slightly less common in the idea that it is the norm for each person to have no more than 2 partners, which can create sort of a polyamorous web thought of as beneficial to community structure in some places but detrimental in others. Individual practices of marriage or social expectations of relationships are highly regionally dependent, but it in majority it is common to see both marriage and parenting done in triads. In culture/beliefs it is also very significant, what with the presence of the 3 heroic dragons, the 3 legendary artifacts, and the 3 primary subgroups of Draq'conians (with hybrids being someone of any combined descent but only recently being considered a subgroup of their own), and more recently reflected in the 3 modern heroes and 3 modern empires. There are other significant figures and numbers regionally (pairs are also common because of the 2 suns in their system, or the large desert region had the 4 legendary oasis that the cultures there came from, which also gave way to 7 when combined with 3 motifs, the most common number system is 16-base, etc), but this is very well ingrained because of the physical presence of the 3 subspecies and 3 very real magic artifacts. )
In much more recent history, Draq'conia was razed and ransacked by The Empire, who have stolen their ancient artifacts due to its connections with a being in their possession. The mega-kingdom that the Draq'conians had established was swiftly destroyed, with many of its residents killed or taken by the Empire itself, along with many native specimens
The Artifacts (and some religious notes/history)
The three artifacts were gifts to legendary conquerors by a goddess of light. In most stories, these conquerors were actually dragons that either found the land and/or used the artifacts to create it. The goddess of light in question is the primary source of devotion in the dominant religion in the empires, where the dual-suns are thought to be her ever-present protective gaze over the peoples of Draq'conia. In reality, this is an avatar of the fire goddess Vesta, who presides over fire overall. This kind of is shown through the usage of the items functionally, as the abilities of each artifact evoke a different aspect of fire: life/sustainability, death/destruction, and ingenuity/creation. The three artifacts all have the similar effects of bonding to its user and being unable to be removed unless by choice,maintaining a small aspect of sentience and ability to communicate with its selected user telepathically, being able to shapeshift into the users desired form, granting the users with fire/heat resistance, and being virtually physically indestructible by normal means. In addition to their ability to transform at the user's command, their default forms also inherently change in accordance to the personality of the previous user over the duration of their life, and the artifact will generally be found with an appearance suggested to epitomize whoever used them last. All users also have been known to be able to breathe regardless of their environment, so long as they breathe oxygen. This is perhaps referencing the necessity of oxygen for fire to burn.
The artifacts are proposed to be extremely powerful beyond being the sum of their parts if combined or wielded simultaneously. However, they have never been combined in known history. It's likely that if one were to wear/use the second and third objects simultaneously without the first, they would suffer massive physical damage to their body from the tolls of their powers. It is also an observed fact that while the artifacts will prefer users of Draq'conian descent overall, it is also partial to those of fae descent, though with much less frequency. The artifacts will not work for those of divine descent, and the first two will likely kill undead upon physical contact. Each artifact appears to have some sort of preference in user. The crown prefers those with frailer constitutions or anemic users, the necklace prefers those who have physical scars, and the ring prefers those with calloused hands. Any other sort of physical or psychological preference has yet to be observed, but texts in the most popular Draq'conian religion depicts the preferences as quoted: "The crown is worn by those who have known what it is to be weak, the collar is worn by those battle-weary enough to protect them, and the ring is worn by one with the wisdom to guide them both." One other thing known about the preferences of the artifacts is the fact that if attempted to be worn/used by those who have killed their immediate previous user, the artifact will burn at the touch, regardless of any heat resistance abilities. In rare cases, the artifacts will teleport away from unwanted users, though not very far.
The first artifact represents life and the sustaining of life, in the way ashes help plants to grow or that warmth is essential to life. It's initial form is a circlet or small crown, evoking the brain as the sort of center for essential life functions. This artifact is known to greatly elongate the lives of any and all of its users, supposedly living up to twice as long as would be normal for a Draq'conian, with unknown effects for other species. The user also seems to be slightly more resistant to physical damage or sickness, and will rapidly heal from any physical harm done to them short of immediately fatal blows. The primary effect granted by the user is the ability to heal others from almost any wound or ailment, barring psychological ones. The price dealt to the user for more severe usage of this ability is developing a short physical illness with some degree of flu-like symptoms. The user also obtains the ability to resurrect the recently dead, but only at the expense of their own life, or the life of someone they have immediate physical contact with at the point of resurrection. There's a lot of stories of lovers who wielded this artifact giving their lives to save a loved one.
The second artifact represents destruction and the act of taking life, in the way fires burn down trees or villages, smoke chokes those who breathe it, or evoking the usage of weapons forged in fires to wage war. It's initial form is a choker or necklace, evoking the way smoke and ash from fires can cause suffocation, or sitting over vital organs as a necklace. When wielded in the form of a weapon, this artifact can cut through almost any material. Beyond this, the primary ability provided is power over pure, destructive force. This takes a visual appearance of fire or magma, but can have a variety of properties not normally seen in either, as desired by the user. The users of this artifact also have the ability to change the heat of an intended object or being, either lowering it or decreasing as desired. The user of this artifact often sees significantly shortened lifespans, as exorbitant usage of its power will leave the user emaciated and withered, with large enough displays of force being matched with the user immediately being reduced to ash as a result. The areas razed using this artifact's destructive force have been said to see rapid plant growth shortly thereafter.
The third artifact represents the act of creation or invention using fire, like in a forge, oven or kiln, or it perhaps references the source of invention as being the discovery of fire. It's initial form is a ring to be worn on the finger or as a facial piercing, evoking the usage of the hands or mind in the act of creating something. It has a few primary abilities. Firstly, it can project or manipulate light or other electromagnetic waves, secondly it can utilize something called 'hardlight' to create solid projections of objects as envisioned by the user, the complexity of which is limited only to the user's imagination, and manifests similar physical properties to the envisioned matter, so long as it is solid. These hardlight creations cannot be sustained without the presence of the user. The third, most draining usage of the ring is the ability to physically manifest actual materials needed for any schematic, regardless of rarity, so long as the user understands its properties. This does have a physical toll on the user, immediately burning up calories or fat proportional to the items created. If there is not enough for the ring to work off of, it will begin to eat away at the body of the user, and if too much is created at once, the user will burst into flame. There are many tales of legendary builders and inventors who wielded the ring and died trying to create ambitious projects.