Although no one alive today has ever seen a living dragon, everyone in Daren knows their legends: gigantic flying lizard-like creatures with bodies covered in scales stronger than dwarven steel. The most intelligent and most powerful creatures in all creation. The once rulers of all land and sky. Capable of destroying mountains with their mighty breaths. There are even those who believe that magic has been passed to the mortal races by the ancient dragons. However, regardless of how powerful these creatures were, very few signs of their existence remain in Daren.
Oddly enough, reports from the Eye of Isha, an outpost at the border of the orcish lands of the Burning Steppes, mention rumors of a gigantic winged monstrosity roaming the skies above the volcanos. Reports of people who claim to have seen the creature say it is a flying demon with coriaceous wings covered in iron. The body, they say, is completely filled with horns and spikes. Its shriek sounds like a harbinger of death. Whenever the guards from the Eye of Isha hear the rumors of such a creature, the witnesses always mention a foul stench in the air, like rotten flesh, the smell of death.
Ever since the rumors of the winged death have been spreading through the Burning Steppes, the orcs have been in an uproar. Reports say that they have been moving toward Okrash Maul all the way from the Valiant Keep, Khal-Rath, and The Eye of Isha. Scholars of the Setting Sun Church know that whenever the orcs gather, something great is bound to happen.
Placing such information side by side with some recent and secret reports, the scholars are led to believe, with the High Priest’s support, that the monster flying above the Burning Steppes, is no other than a creature known as Aral’hezec. Which, if the reports are true, is the last living dragon in Daren.
Since its first appearance, however, the New Age Cult, led by the Shadow Cultists, has been more active in the lands of the orcs and they appear to be moving toward the volcanic region of the Burning Steppes. The scholars believe that the Darkness wishes to eliminate any force that can counter it, and being so, the last living dragon would be, undoubtedly, a target.
Faced with such foreboding, the scholars started researching and gathering every piece of information about the ancient dragons that they could get ahold of. Working with the draconians that care for the temples dedicated to such creatures became a necessity.
According to the little accurate information the scholars could assemble with the help of the draconian priests, not much of the dragons’ behavior could be confirmed. It is a consensus, though, that breath scorching flames out of their mouths is a characteristic form of attack that made the dragons famous and feared in the past.
The dragons’ wings and size should also be a major concern for their enemies as they must be capable of flying at great speeds and attacking the ground with unimaginable power, or even snatch, with claw or mouth, the enemies in their path.
It is unthinkable for the draconian priests that a dragon can be easily killed. Yet, to the scholars of the Setting Sun Church, too many of the Darkness spawns are known to be very powerful. Too powerful to be so sure, and because of that, they fear for Aral’hezec.
