By Zyla (@zylaeth)
The First Time-Dragon
A lost piece of lore sheds light on the events that led to the birth of the first time-dragon.
Once upon a time, there was a benevolent dragon who ruled over a magical kingdom. The dragon ruled over its subjects with love and compassion, tending to their every need while providing protection from anything that may harm them. The kingdom sprawled throughout the earth and witnessed prosperity none of our time could imagine. Until one day, entities from beyond the stars rain down from above invading said kingdom. These entities come from beyond the Veil and seek to claim the kingdom for their own unknown purpose. The realm was seeing a degree of havoc and destruction never before seen in any recorded history as these entities were adept in warfare far too foreign for the mortals of this realm. The dragon in all its wisdom understood that even with the greatest of effort, its kingdom and people stood on the path of extinction.
Out of devotion and desperation, it delved into the most forbidden ruins of the Precursor’s remnant. There, the dragon discovers ancient grimoires that hold the knowledge of Chronomancy, an outlawed school of magic dealing with manipulation of time streams. The Precursor once used such magic to preserve plant seeds in an event earth no longer habitable. But the dragon had different plans for such power, weaponizing it against its enemies. The dragon began its studies using every bit of magical knowledge that it had acquired throughout its life and was finally able to harness the power of time manipulation before the annihilation of its kingdom.
With this ability, the dragon started to influence the temporal order every time its army lost a battle. Turning back time and trying different approaches and strategies to counter the waves upon waves of these entities from beyond. The constant use of such ability proved to be a massive burden to reality which leads to the fabric slowly unraveling. Artifacts and creatures from different eras started to spill onto the realm in various locations. Animals that were supposed to be extinct were sighted and ancient structures started appearing in places where their former civilization once stood. Magic started to show signs of degradation in potency and fluctuated in intensity. Floating countries that use magic to float came crashing down like fallen stars. But the dragon held steadfast as total victory was on the horizon.
Bloodline, the divine blood vessels that permeate existence and provide magic to the realm began to scream in pain due to this disturbance. With how intimately intertwined it is with reality, enraptured vessels will cause a complete collapse of reality. Myzreth, the Mother of Magic and Progenitor of the Bloodline unleashes her wrath upon the dragon. For its hubris, the dragon was trapped in an endless time cycle where it would bear witness the day its kingdom fell and beloved subjects slaughtered. Each loop brings new and more horrible vistas of reality. The Mad Goddess then proceeded to take her own life, taking the Bloodline with her. The veins that carried her blood and spread throughout the realm now cease to flow. It is unknown whether this was her intention but the result was clear, reality became stable once more as the magic that distorted it was no longer present. This opens the curtain to the Age of Steel, an era where mortals no longer have access to magic and had to rely on metals for their daily struggles.
After two millennia of silence, Myzreth suddenly returned from the void in all her glory. She restored the Bloodline thus bringing arcane magic back to the realm. Along with her return came a new decree, the prohibition of powerful magic involving time. As a result, powerful beings of the realm lose their abilities to gaze into the depth of history and to peer into the unknown future. They were only able to catch a glimpse of the near past and future but nothing further. Her return left many questions to ponder. Did she truly die in her sacrifice? If not, had she always been present, watching over the realm? Did she foresee the dragon’s actions and its consequences on reality? What is her ultimate goal? These are questions that may never be answered as we all had been warned, trying to understand the Mad Goddess’s will is to invite madness upon oneself.
As for the dragon, it lays before the goddess. Its heart and mind now broken into million pieces, pleading to be released from its eternal torment. In a rare moment of lucidity, Myzreth offered a deal. She offered to break the dragon free from the time loop in exchange for the dragon’s loyalty which the dragon eagerly accepted. The dragon was freed from its prison but at a terrible cost for the goddess wasn’t as benevolent as it did. The Mad Goddess pierced into the fabric of reality and erased the dragon’s very existence, its kingdom, and people along with its enemies from the realm. Any records of these subjects were removed from existence. The dragon was given a new name, Chronuth, and became the first of its kind as a time dragon. It is tasked with guarding the temporal order, to punish any beings from tampering with the march of time.
— Lazcht
