WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0010 0010
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thority, giving rise to the first Dragon Kings. Some even
emerged from among those ranks of existing clergy, empowered by divine magic but driven to reject the ancient
gods’ harsh demands for worldly obedience. Operating in
secret, the incipient Dragon Kings branched out in sorcerous mastery, cloaking their activities until they were
of sufficient power to rival those gods themselves.
Though steeped in myth today, the classic accounting of
the fall of two specific gods illustrates how mortals kindled
the fires that burned away the gods of old in order to end
their tyranny. Anastus, a priest of Phatrash, the Bull God,
bulwarked its vanity through fawning songs and mammoth monuments. In secret, she conspired with the rival
god Yazmiir against the Bull-God. After years of subterfuge,
Anastus manipulated both gods into a war against each other
to banish them both from the known universe. She also stole
what energy she could from both during their conflict to
build her own power as a burgeoning Dragon King. These
origins betray the kernel of truth behind many of the original
Dragon Kings—they held mastery over two separate avenues
to magical energy, one priestly and the other sorcerous.
The Migrations
Khitus’s human tribes originated in the once-fertile
regions of the distant south. These tribes—the Attites,
Makadon, Chindi, Prajalu, and Nordor—developed distinct cultures before they raced out of the south in epic
migrations that churned the very earth beneath their
wagons. Tribal wars were the primary motivation for
these massive journeys, as one group displaced another
and so on until they pushed inexorably northward. The
Attites and Chindi followed similar paths to one another,
reaching generally to the east and up toward the world’s
The three moons
of Khitus
Luth, the White Moon, phases from full to new and
back to full every 28 days.
Yaluth, the Red Moon, reputedly more impatient,
does so every 14 days.
Chalor, the Slave Moon, circles Khitus differently
from the other two, going around the poles every 7
days, phasing completely just once per year.
‘Paired Moons’ is a concept that varies by culture,
meaning either two moons that actually appear to
touch each other as they pass in the sky, which happens
infrequently, or two moons that merely come close to
each other, which happens comparatively often.
8
equator. The Makadan tended not to go quite so far
north, settling instead the more temperate region that
would one day become the Old Countries, though some
stretched further toward the equator to mingle with Prajalu who settled toward the equator and further west. The
Nordor went furthest from their original lands, trading
the distant south for the frigid lands of the distant north.
Around the equatorial regions, the human tribes found
they were not alone. They encountered the Pachyaur, intelligent elephantine centaurs with their own civilization
in the warmer realms. At the time, though, the settled
lands were scattered widely through a vast wilderness,
and conflicts were few. Other intelligent races had yet to
emerge onto the world that seemed entirely fresh and new.
Dawn of the Dragon Kings
No single force did more to forge Khitan cultures than
the Dragon Kings. They imposed a benign governing
force that unified the intelligent races of the world for so
long that it is difficult now to imagine just how diverse
those creatures were, and how varied their stories and
relationships with the peoples they watched over. While
a few nigh-immortal wizards claim to have walked with
the Dragon Kings, there are none alive today who can describe the touch of their gentle hands guiding the affairs
of the world, much less describe their emergence when
the forests grew green and tall and Khitus’s planetary
neighbors wandered among the night’s stars like youngsters romping freely in the meadows.
Contrary to modern perceptions, the Dragon Kings were
not all imposing sovereigns ruling over nations of men
and other creatures. Neither were the Dragon Kings equals
in origin, powers, or attitudes. Indeed, they were not all
even dragons, though most took forms of the world’s most
formidable creatures to reflect their own power and magnificence. Most Dragon Kings, despite the title, were mortal
men and women; Tharcluun, during his days, told many of
his origins as a soldier who rose to be a Makadan philosopher-king before scaling the summits of magical mastery.
Others cloaked their origins in mystery: Bhayan allegedly
came from beyond the moons, while many said Mai-Rong
was a god fallen to mortality, albeit with near-divine power.
By later reckoning, most Dragon Kings were humans,
and all were masters of tremendous magical powers.
While each one sought the heights of magical mastery
for his own reasons, once attained they collectively found
themselves the most powerful living beings upon the
world, and the eyes of the new young nations turned to
them for guidance. As several had already assumed the
physical form of the world’s powerful daragkon—wild
dragons—the masses dubbed them the Dragon Kings.
