Foreword

No Euthoran of adequate sapience to be able to understand the concepts beyond simple survival does not know what a dragon is. From the crib, we humans in particular are taught that dragons are mighty, powerful creatures, as dangerous as they are cunning. As intelligent-- or perhaps even more so-- as humankind, a single dragon can terrorize a town and beat back any group of humans that the town might send at it. The far-off shapes of dragons soaring in distant skies can be either an inspiring sight or a terrifying one. Once our rulers, now considered beasts to exterminate, no creature has risen so high nor fallen so far in the order of the world. They feature in our legends, heraldry, constellations, we’ve even named one of our moons after one.

I, myself, am a mere scholar-- a simple traveler, roving the planet in search of all the information we as a civilization have on dragons and all that is associated with them. I’ve traveled from the safety of a Seotaran town to the dusty crags of the Farixyan protectorate, from the glass plain of Nienearcl to the frigid reaches of Ethana. I have climbed Divinity’s Peak to converse with Shyr himself, then ridden a dragon across the Mythril Sea to my next destination and asked it questions along the way, simply in exchange for a satchel of silver coins for it to eat. Even then, I know I am missing key pieces of information, I know that I have not seen every reach of Euthora where these magical beasts inhabit.

But I have learned histories, cultures; I have learned of instincts and behaviors straight from the dragons themselves and spoken to alchemists about the properties of dragon scales and blood. I have found an individual of nearly every species of dragon that still lives today, and done my due research on those that I could not, for one reason or another, track down. I have suffered my share of burns and scratches and even a particularly nasty envenomed bite from an ornery old wyvern. I have spoken to those that command dragons and read the memoirs of those who lived under a dragon’s command.

All of this I have done for the express purpose of gathering all the information that I can on the creatures we call dragons. Some is my own research; some is regurgitated from those who came before me. But all of it makes up the nuances that go into the beast that can wildly switch from worshiped ruler to vicious monster. My name is Zephan Ashvale; I present myself to you as a humble researcher who wishes to educate the masses on that far-off shape you may watch in awe as it passes the sun.