Born of Ash and Torn Asunder

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Of course depending on the time frame one is considering, there wasn't always a valley either. Go back far enough and what is now a valley was once a chasm which split wide the floor of an ancient sea. That sea teemed with creatures that many thought were dragons, but turned out to be nothing more than rather large fish with fins on each side running the lengths of their massive bodies. When they leapt from the water, which they had the propensity to do quite often, their great fins would spread wide to each side, pushed apart by the rushing air. This gave them the appearance of flight to the naïve fishermen who first spotted them. They called them aquaero' dr'aco, and they were greatly feared. It turned out their fear was misplaced as the aquaero' ate nothing but phytoplankton. The reason they leapt from the water was not in pursuit of other fish or even sea mammals to eat, but so they might strain another ton of tasty microbial life through their gaping maws. They had no teeth nor even any jaws to hold them, and reportedly were gentle and highly intelligent. That realization did not stop the ancient Kromlize people from hunting them to extinction. They were prized for their blubber, and most importantly the webbing which was packed like a cotton plug into the gigantic plankton filtering orifice which served as the mouth of the aquaero'. The webbing could be used for many things the Kromlize found particularly useful, not the least of which was building nets to trap ever more of the giant fish. Over time the practice of net trapping decimated their slowly reproducing population until suddenly, before anyone knew what was happening, they were gone. Every last one. Dead. Species never to be seen on this world again. It is a great historical and tragically sad irony that an entire race of majestic sea creatures was wiped from the face of Lasion by an ignorant race of people using the dr'aco's own anatomy as the instrument of their doom.

Ignorant they may have been, but the Kromlize were not stupid, nor were they amoral. When they realized what they had done, a great guilt fell upon them and they made a pact with the demi-God Arbor so they might atone for their sin. That pact required that each Kromlize plant 27 trees for each aquaero' they, or their direct descendent, had killed. The reason for the number 27 is lost to history and to this day none have discovered its origin nor its purpose. But the Kromlize would continue that tradition year after year, and as their population boomed so did the forests of Lasion, in multiples of 27 trees at a time. Some of the Kromlize had killed large numbers of dr'aco over their lifetimes as fishermen and those families spent great sums of money and invested much effort in tree planting, a tradition continued with each new generation. Every child born from that family line had the same requirement thrust upon them, and to not meet their pledge was, and still is, considered the highest dishonor. Out of a great historical tragedy, and the genocide of an entire race, a new world was eventually born. In that world, today's world, almost exactly one thousand years later there are real dragons in the valley. Like the aquaero' they are greatly feared and highly intelligent, many believe the better of man in that regard, but unlike them their jaws are not filled with soft netting, but rather row upon row of razor sharp teeth. They do not eat plankton, they eat meat, large game, and have a particular affinity for the meat of humans. In yet another historical irony, the same humans, who once hunted an entire race they believed to be dragons to extinction, are now facing extinction themselves at the hands of actual dragons. Should that happen, there will be none left to plant trees for either species. A great tradition will end when the people who now carry it forward end. That will be a sad day indeed, should it come to pass. But, it has not yet, and there is still hope, one Kromlize lives who possesses the knowledge and skill necessary to save her people and end the dragon threat for all time. Unfortunately, she does not yet know this, fortunately neither do the dragons. Her name is Kratelinne and though she is ignorant to the fact, the fate of all the Kromlize people, and all the races of Liason, rests in her hands.