“The land of Arameth was not always as it is now. Long ago, when men, elves, verrik, and the other humanoids dominated the land, the Council of Dragons kept a peace that had lasted for many millennia. The council of dragons ruled peace and harmony and contained one dragon from each of the families of dragons. There were the chromatic dragons, which above all valued power and wealth and tended to be sinister, and the metallic dragons that valued art, peace and thought. The leader of the council was the great gold dragon, Lortane, and he was alone able to keep the chromatic dragons in check. One night while Lortane slept the gods who governed over the council came in a dream and told him of lands far to the east and of the creatures there who needed help. Lortane awoke with a sense of responsibility to aid the creatures and the next morning, Lortane explained what happened and bid farewell to the council leaving the silver dragon Darnok to lead in his stead.

"Lortane left the council and in his absence the chromatic dragons felt that they, at last, had the ability to take over the council. In a bid for power they attempted to slay all of the metallic dragons and rule over the council but they failed and began a civil war that threatened to kill every dragon and other creature. The war dragged on for many years with neither side gaining an advantage, but all taking heavy losses. Finally in hopes of ending the war for good, the metallic dragons pooled all of their allies and attacked the chromatic dragons in one final battle. The succeeded in destroying many of the leaders of the chromatic dragon armies but were eventually forced to fall back and, with a great victory, heal the wounds of battle.

"Still yet, the two most powerful of all chromatic dragons, Kretesh the Black and Nithogar the Red survived the battle and went back to their lairs in what is now the swamp and volcanic forest. Feeling the full weight of the war on their heads now, the two great tyrants came together to try and find a solution to their problems. One fateful day good fortune fell upon the leaders. A stranger from the west with red skin wearing a hooded cloak walked up to the dragons’ keep and told of a power that would allow them to build an army of soldiers to aid in their struggle. The stranger then presented them with the tenebrian seeds. Kretesh and Nithogar, both with keen eyes for magical items, could see the power in these seeds. The stranger did not require treasure and all he asked in exchange for the seeds was a dragon egg. Seeing the potential in the trade, Nithogar freely gave up one of his own spawn to the stranger in exchange for the seeds. The stranger left the Keep of Blackfire, vanished and has not been seen again. After the two dragons received the seeds they studied them and found that they could infuse a little of the dragon essence into each one. After a little time, something emerged form the seeds.

"The dramojh were born.

"Part dragon and part otherworldly creature, the dramojh— meaning "dragon scions”—fascinated Kretesh and Nithogar. They found the dramojh, like dragons, to be quick studies with a real aptitude for magic. They taught their creations what they knew, and still the dramojh hungered for more. Moreover, the dragons sensed the dramojh’s thirst for battle and death dealing, a thirst far beyond that of even the darkest hearted dragon. These dramojh, they thought, would make excellent warriors. Without the metallics’ knowledge, Kretesh and Nithogar created more of the creatures. Soon there were thousands of these terrible demon-dragons.

"The dramojh horde, wielding destructive and corrupt spells, washed over the already battle-weary metallic dragons. Though the dragons held out for years, it became clear that soon every last one of them would be dead. They conquered the lands and mastered them for a millennium. During this terrible age, they created many horrible creatures—most of them cross breeds like themselves that live to this day and have become known as the legacy of the dragons.

"Soon after, Lortane returned to the land of Arameth and found it in shambles with all of the humanoid races enslaved by the evil chromatic dragons and dramojh. With him journeyed a creature much similar to a human, but standing about 16 feet tall, a giant prince. When they arrived on the shores of Arameth, Lortane quickly located all of the remaining metallic dragons. It was not long he found Darnok, badly injured in a battle with the dramojh and dying. Weazing in pain as life drew from him, Darnok told Lortane the tale of the war and the emergence of the dramojh. He finished and entered into the eternal darkness. Lortane and the giant prince were so angered by these creatures that they gathered what resources lay at hand and launched a mighty battle. The battle raged for days on end before ending in a draw, but found Lortane mortally wounded. As he and the giant prince left the field of battle Lortane asked the Prince for help and the prince readily agreed that with every ounce of blood he had that he would find help for the peoples of Arameth. The great dragon then imbued the giant prince with the mark of the dragons and gave him the power of flight so as to aid him home. The giant prince left with the greatest of haste as Lortane drew his last breathe and died, but not before Kretesh and Nithogar sent their most vicious flying assassins to deal with the giant.

"The great prince, now with the power of the gold dragons, flew as fast as he was able. Many days passed on his journey to get to the land of the giants, but it was not long before the flying assassins caught up to him. He fought them with all the strength and magic that was given to him by Lortane. The battles raged for many weeks as the prince flew closer and closer to the land of the giants. Finally, the prince slew the final creature and fell from the sky onto the shores of the giantish lands. He managed to crawl to the greatest city and once there fell to his knees and muttered only one word before succumbing to his wounds.

"’West.’

"No one there knew what killed him or what he meant for sure, but the only thing that lay west was the boundless sea. Following this omen, however, thousands of giants and their sibeccai servants climbed aboard ships of great size and sailed across the sea to discover the land of the humans—and the dramojh that had enslaved them. As is the nature of giants, the discovery of a new land invoked in them a powerful sense of responsibility. These giants, in the mindset of what they called Chi-Julud, arrived in the land ready to fight.A thousand years had passed since the dramojh subjugated the realm.

"In this time, they had grown complacent, just as their slaves had grown docile. Their only concerns were the verrik, who had holed themselves up in the western half of their land, and the humanoids who had escaped into the southern land known as Keltoras. Neither presented a serious threat. Although real information about the period is sketchy, akashics now believe the dramojh had divided into rival factions, contesting against one another through proxy—forcing their slaves and servants to engage in bloody struggles on their behalf. For all their magical might, it seems that they did not foresee the coming of the giants.

"The giants quickly defeated many of the dramojh and sent them in flight into the last of their strongholds: the Temple of Dragons at the base of the mountains in the desert, and the Keep of Blackfire, the two remaining chromatic dragons home where the swamp meets the volcanoes. As the dramojh came out of the eastern mountains to the temple, the verrik loosed their most powerful magic, learned from the akashic node and using the akashic memory to destroy all dramojh that ventured there.

"The giants, with their sebiccai and all of the freed peoples of Aramesh gathered their battle gear and journeyed to the Keep of Blackfire. There they waged what would later become known as the Battle of the Serpent’s Heart. Kretesh and Nithogar and the remaining dramojh unleashed horror after horror to stop their foes’ advance. The skies turned black and the sun shone red due to the discharge of dark sorceries loosed into the world. It did not save them. The giants used their canny knowledge of stone to tear down Blackfire, collapsing it upon the defending dramojh and their monstrous creations. But they did not stop there. They sifted through the ruins and found underground passages and hidden caverns filled with dire laboratories and foul breeding pits—and they killed every dramojh they found. When they came upon the two dragons, each one under the rubble of the keep and near death, the greatest giant sorcerer, Vulcan, banished them to different corners of Aramesh and in doing so causes the land between the swamp and volcanic forest to become devoid of anything save powerful, vicious, and destructive magic. This rift in space became known as Vulcan’s Rift.

"With the elimination of the dramojh, what was once Arameth had become literally a new realm. A massive rebuilding effort, spearheaded by the giants, has helped the land recover. Generations of humans, elves, litorians, faen, and others have been born without ever having known the cruel yoke of the dramojh, or the darkness and fear that pervaded the land while they ruled. Three kingdoms now control the land. The first, and most powerful, is the human kingdom of Cironous. The second is the joint land of Giants and Dwarfs of the Uhren Empire, and the third is the loose Alliance of Delph, made of many smaller kingdoms situated north of the swamp, rift, and volcanoes. Many of the more powerful chromatic and all metallic dragons are considered extinct and all that remains are the blue, green, and white dragons and are more animalistic than before.”