Tales of Zemmera:

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. There was once a time where my floating island in the sky was home to only one dragon. I used my power to lift the island away from the mainlands. The Island is massive with its own mountain and beautiful waterfalls that lead into its many woodlands. All its beauty aside, its most important purpose was to serve as a getaway for myself and a few other races to avoid the ongoing conflict below. The dragons beneath me all either wished to rule the world, or protect all the beauties which the world had to offer. Finding no peaceful solution, they caused chaos across the land destroying so many different races entirely, and bringing the dragon population itself down to a mere handful. I did not watch the horror with my eyes, but I could feel it both in vibrations caused from battle, and a certain sixth sense of pain caused by the mass loss of life. Time went by and some of the few races I had saved from the chaos had built themselves structures to live in, farms and pastures to feed themselves, and a temple where they would go to worship me as their savior. As the only one who could fly above the island I could see that I truly had saved them. Sometimes I would visit their temple and tell them stories of power even higher than my own. Whenever they would bring offerings to me, I would return the offerings back to the people in secret. One day while I was in the temple bringing knowledge to the people, I heard the subtle vibrations of a dragon beating its wings in the skies above my island. I went outside the temple telling everyone from the town to stay inside. I looked into the sky and saw a shadow flying through the clouds. Our eyes locked against each other as I walked into the forest and away from the temple. The trees cut away our gaze, but I could still hear the dragon circling above me. It wasn't long before I reached a clearing in the trees where our eyes locked again and the shadow descended from the sky. It hit the ground hard pushing leaves into the air and leaving a small crater in the ground for each of its four legs. He used his long neck as a guide as he approached me slowly until we were face to face with each other.

He introduced himself as Thadaemeor, the dragon of the shadow mist. Like his title would suggest, his form seemed ethereal, as if he stood in multiple realities at once. A black fog flowed around his body at all times. He had bright red glowing eyes, sharply curved talons, and two whiskers that hung down from his snout. He had fins that seemed even more ethereal than the rest of his form, to me it seemed he used them to travel in and out of shadows at will whenever he wished. He folded his wings in a demeanor that was to show respect from one dragon to another. Thadaemeor waved his hands around telling me that of all the land below there was never such a great shadow cast on the world, than that which the island causes. He claimed that he used it to slay many creatures that would dare cross into his territory, all but one. He said there was a great red dragon named Infernious that would bring about such bright and potent flames, even his shadows were extinguished. He told me that Infernious was one of the many wretched heathens that drew dragon blood in order to preserve the disgusting nature of this world. He talked about how counter intuitive it was considering his fire is responsible for torching so much of the land below. He briefly glanced at the trees surrounding us on all sides. He claimed they were much older than most of the trees that he'd seen grow below. He asked me if this island had been completely preserved away from the war. I told him that it had seen no conflict since the great age of chaos had begun. His jaw dropped at that and he began to drone on about how he never wished to kill as many as he did, claiming that he only wanted to preserve his own claim. He said it would've been so nice to simply have his own island far away from the rest of the many horrible things he’d seen in this world. Thadaemeor was selfish in his words, calling the elves fools, the humans dirty savages, the orcs war hungry, and the dwarves no better than greedy goblins. I told him that some of those races lived on this island and yet it still retains its beauty. He nodded in agreement saying that “I guess not all of the lower races have taken to our devastating nature.”

I was offended by his statement calling the other races “lower,” and told him “There was no sense even calling them lower races when it is our kin that destroy the lands.”

To that he frowned in disapproval stating “If the dragons weren’t around they would simply destroy the land over a longer period of time, as they dont have the power to do so in a few days like we do.”

“How about we make a wager on that then,” i asked him “Why don’t we get all the dragons in the world to agree to a ceasefire and we’ll see what the other sentient races do with the world.”

Thadaemeor raised his shadowy eyebrows, pondering about my offer saying, “I’m interested in your proposal, but how will we get all of my kin to stand down?”

I told him “You will be the messenger that tells each remaining dragon of the world to stand down, or they will be slain by the great army of Apocolyptia.”

Thadaemeor chuckled a bit, reminding me “What a foolish human you are to still believe in the old dragon fairy tales, there is no dragon army and there never was a dragon called Apocolyptia.”

I smiled and raised my hand to which many Dragonborn soldiers with white scales and shining white and black plate armor came out of the trees filling the sky. Thadaemeor unveiled his wings and tail looking around in anxious fear as more and more troops filled the sky drawing their swords and shields. I curled my hand into a fist and my whole body began to glow a bright white light as my fist became claws, skin became scales, wings sprouted from my back, my tail was unraveled, and frills from my head down my back extended outward toward the sky. The white light turned black for an instant as the transformation into my natural form was complete. Thadaemeor now looked up at me in awe and terror. I lowered my own head down to his and told him “All fairy tales have their roots, even our own.''

Thadaemeor bowed in respect pleading “How may i be of service to you Apocolyptia.”

“You will not simply serve me, you will play my role in the fairy tale for me. We will also have our little wager in the process. You will find and go to each of the dragons telling them that the great Apocolyptia is ordering an immediate ceasefire for all dragons against each other and all other races. If they do not believe you send them to my island, if they agree and hold peace then you will leave them with peace, but if they simply refuse to acknowledge the power in my name you may use my armies to extinguish them.”

Thadaemeor nodded and accepted his new task without hesitation. He knew that even if he wanted to resist me, he wouldn’t survive doing so here. He leapt up into the sky where my children were waiting. He looked around at them as two dozen of them formed two separate parallel lines across the horizon in front of him. He did not question their loyalty as he knew they were simply an extension of my power. After analyzing them as best he could from the distance they were at he turned around and flew off. Thadaemeor’s first target was the dragon who had always given him the most trouble in the past, Infernious.