Due to their recent emergence into Ganedan's public eye, not much is known about dragonkin or their spiritual beliefs. Fortunately, during my travels, I was allowed to study one of their most fundamental religious texts and discovered that they have a very rich and interesting belief system.
Excerpted and translated from the Ach'ellikhan, the dragonkin Book of Creation:
"At the dawn of time, Amur, the mighty World Dragon, released a gout of molten fire into the void. She took this primordial flame and shaped it with her claws, then cooled it with a gentle fanning of her wings. Onto this chunk of untested clay, she breathed the very stuff of life, giving rise to countless lesser divinities who each represented a different aspect of Amur's being. Emulating their creator, these dragon spirits in turn created as well, spawning all manner of plants and beasts throughout the land."
Dragonkin female
"As an explosion of vitality raced across the face of the newborn world, one creation rose above the rest. These creatures were of the purest form, so like their maker that they were almost divine themselves. Amur divided these special beings into two groups and gave them dominion over the entirety of the brimming, chaotic wilds between them. One group claimed the open skies and peaks as their territory, while the other took to the teeming jungles, where life flourished thickest, and made it their own."
"Over the many millennia that followed, the world continued to change of its own accord. The jungles slowly receded until they dominated only a corner of the world while the multitude of great peaks that had been thrust forth at the dawn of creation wore down such that only the highest of them continued to touch the sky. The different peoples evolved apart in this time, each becoming better suited to its chosen domain." |
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"Those who ruled the peaks dwindled in number, but grew larger and stronger, with huge wingspans and deadly talons. Meanwhile, we ground-dwellers flourished and practiced the intricacies of weapons and magic, forging ourselves into unparalleled hunters of the jungle. We had grown so different from the sky-bound dragons; we named ourselves dragonkin and formed our own clans in honor of the great dragon spirits."
Dragonkin male
Dragonkin worship a series of great dragon spirits who are believed to infuse everything in the world around them. Thus all things, from the smallest seedling to the greatest mountain peak, are representations of dragonkin divinities. While there are many spirits in dragonkin culture of varying importance, only a select few are considered universally dominant and worshipped with any kind of true following.
As the identity of the child divinity who gave rise to the dragonkin is never actually mentioned in the Ach'ellikhan, each of these dominant spirits has amassed its own following of believers. Their clans have formed individual communities that are greatly shaped and influenced by the force that their specific patron represents. Members of the clan of the War Dragon can seem very different from members of the Rune Dragon clan, but, despite such widespread difference of opinion, there is little conflict over the issue of hierarchy as all greater divinities are generally revered with equality. Only the World Dragon, Amur, commands more respect than any of her children.
- Kitterwen, Chief Historian of Ignilly University |
