Quill and Compass, Entry 3: The Age of Dragons
If the Age of Dawning was silence broken, then the Age of Dragons was the Realm's first roar. For in this era, Gaiaxia welcomed its first true rulers—majestic, terrible, and long-lived beyond all reason. Dragons were the first stewards of the Realm, and its first tyrants.
With the Age of Dawning behind, Gaiaxia stood as a wild and unshaped land. Into it, Ikozra set the Dragons. At first, they were not the mighty lords we know from song and tale, but blank slates: fledgling creatures placed in Gaiaxia to grow with it, to live, to breed, to die, and in doing so, to become guardians of the Realm. Their power, in those early days, was raw and unfocused. Their legendary draconic breaths existed, yes, but in crude form, untrained and unstable, more accident than art. Their true strength came only with the turning of centuries, as they steeped themselves in mountain, forest, desert, and swamp, until their very bones sang with the songs of their homes. Thus they became the Dragons we know today—Gold, Silver, Copper, Red, Blue, Green, Black, and White—diverse, brilliant, terrifying.
Alongside the Dragons came the Wyverns, their leaner and fiercer cousins. They never learned speech nor magick, and some Dragons dismiss them as little more than beasts—or food. Though the Wyverns had different plans, with two wings, two legs, and a predator’s simplicity—they became a fierce competitor to the Dragons through sheer number alone. Those who have seen a flight of Wyverns tear across the sky, their wings blotting out the sun and their sheer tenacity and aggression leaving almost nothing in their wake, can attest that there is little “lesser” about them.
Beasts as grand as these required an equally grand food source, so Ikozra shaped the Giants, known in the Draconic tongue as the Valkaz—or “those who step with burden.” They were meant as prey, a living storehouse of Energy and flesh to bring Gaiaxia back into balance.
First came the Trolls: towering with thorn-like skin, ever-regenerating herds that walked like meat given legs. Then Ogres, solitary but clever enough to build their own burrows and altogether too resourceful for easy harvest. The Fomorians followed, fierce and prolific, scattering across the plains like sparks from a fire — and just as quick to burn whatever they touched. And finally, the Jotnar, the most troublesome of all: spiritual, coordinated, and possessed of a defiance Dragons could not easily swallow. Many a proud wyrm found themselves forced to skirt Jotnar valleys with something uncomfortably close to respect—Imagine being birthed as supper, only to turn and make your would-be diner regret ever sitting at the table.
But the full tale of the Giants, dear reader, deserves its own telling. For now, think of them as the counterweight to Dragonkind: imperfect, but formidable.
Yet there was a flaw. A Dragon’s life stretches far beyond the horizon—a span incomprehensible to most of us mortals. Unless you have an imagination as refined as my own, it is difficult to envision the endless consumption stretched over such a span of time. In that long age, Dragons consumed endlessly, but returned little back to Gaiaxia—that is, until the inevitable territorial disputes claimed the life of one of these majestic beasts (seems like Dragons aren't all that different from us after all). Shortly after its untimely demise, the surrounding land flourished: plant life bloomed, wildlife congregated, and Gaiaxia seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Beautiful as that must've been, it was a fleeting beauty, like a piercing gaze in the twin moonlight, as the newly rejuvenated land would become a battleground for its fresh resources (I rest my case). Even with Dragons warring over resources, and each new death spurring the fight on with renewed intensity, the Energy pooled within them did not flow back quickly enough. The Realm began to wither under their weight, drained by its own guardians.
Curiously, life found another path. As Dragons grew stronger, their magic began to overflow. One fateful day, a Dragon’s unfertilized egg, brimming with magic, cracked open, not to reveal a dead shell, but a new life entirely: the Kobold.
Small, clever, industrious—every Kobold was a daughter of her Dragon mother, the closest thing to a clone one can imagine; bearing her horns, scales, tail, teeth, and claws in miniature. Some Dragons scorned them as pests, others treasured them as kin. The Kobolds themselves, however, had little interest in asking permission to exist. They built warrens, crafted tools, and found ways to endure in a Realm that often overlooked them. Their warrens grew into cities in their own right, laying the foundation for much of early civilization's systems of leadership, bartering, agriculture, and even city design.
I once stayed in a Kobold-built tavern in Troxoganii, where the beds barely reached my shins and every stool wobbled. Worst wine I ever had, but some of the best, and most entertaining, service I've ever had the pleasure of receiving.
As if conducting an orchestra, Ikozra introduced more ancestral wildlife to feed the Dragons, Wyverns, and Giants. Plants, once unchecked, were grazed back into harmony. Mountains, once the sole domain of Dragons, now echoed with life. Predators and prey began to dance in earnest. This was the first true ecosystem of Gaiaxia—a balance wrought not by chance, but by desperate necessity and thoughtful design.
Despite all of this shaping, Gaiaxia still faltered. Dragons lived too long, Giants fought too fiercely, and Energy still did not flow quickly enough back into the Realm. There was a glimmer of hope, however. As the centuries turned and the Giants grew more intelligent and communal, eventually establishing enough security to venture into early forms of art and craftsmanship, Ikozra noticed something. A spark, infinitesimally small at first, but growing larger with each passing generation of Giant, particularly within the Jotnar. The brighter this spark, the greater the return to Gaiaxia. And so, Ikozra forged something new: the El’koryn.
Inspired by the Jotnar, this new species was shorter-lived than Dragons or Giants, wiser than mere beasts, and carried a far deeper tether to the Spirit of the Realm. The El’koryn were to be the next stewards—bridges between Spirit and soil, tasked with restoring balance to a withering Realm.
Though the Age of Dragons waned, the Dragons themselves did not. They remain—mighty, radiant, and terrible in equal measure. Not merely beasts, nor mindless tyrants, but guardians shaped to shepherd the Realm in its youth. Some were noble stewards, others ruthless predators; some cherished mortals as companions, others scorned them as lesser things. Indeed, their story is not one of extinction, but of endurance—long-lived and ever-present, shaping Gaiaxia’s fate across every Age.
Much has been left unsaid of the Dragons — their cultures, their courts, their endless peculiarities. But I must confess, dear reader, those are stories for another telling, for now the world was turning toward its new stewards.
And thus ended the Age of Dragons, some two hundred thousand years—an age remembered only in Dragon memory and Giant folklore. For the rest of us, it survives in stories like this one, and in tales told across campfires.
But do not fret, dear reader. For next time, I shall speak of the El’koryn Age, where Magick first burst into mortal hands, and the world forever changed.
Signed, sealed, and handsomely delivered,
Yours, ever truly,
— Tobias Elanor, Bard, Scholar, Explorer Extraordinaire
© DracTheDrake
Hello hello!
Dragons were an absolutely HUGE part of worldbuilding for Gaiaxia. Lilly and I LOVE dragons (I mean, just look at our personas), so we definitely wanted to do them justice in Gaiaxia. We tried to keep them familiar while taking them in unique directions as they evolved, which will absolutely be covered in a future entry. We also wanted to give Giants similar love, by featuring giants from real world folklore and modifying them to fit into Gaiaxia.
Thank you again for reading entry 3! I hope you all come back for entry 4 and beyond. I'm deeply enjoying writing as Tobias, and hope you're enjoying this fledgling series thus far!