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Shadowstorm's
final thoughts pounded almost painfully through the minds of all
dragons. Many held their claws against their earholes to block the
nonexistant sound or buried themselves farther into the soft earth to
avoid the wrath that was sure to come. As the last of his message
drifted off, all the dragons, good and evil alike, felt their heartbeat
slow and their blood run cold, slowly turning each to stone. Ancient
mothers watched their unhatched eggs and young hatchlings become
statues before succumbing to the Ban, the people of the inner shores
watched as the great red dragon GrinSkull, still fighting the chasing
avatars, began to lose his color and turn to a large grey statue and
crash into the Inner Sea, creating the island now known as the
Badlands, still called GrinSkull Isle by the elves though few remember
the stories that tell why. The ink-black storm and the three remaining
avatars disappeared as the stone dragon hit the waves. That was the
last time any of the chromatic or metallic dragon races ever graced the
surface or depths of the world. As well as the last time the avatars of
the gods were allowed upon the world by the overseer of the gods.
Only BurnClaw remained unaffected by the momentous events.
He continued to slumber unaware of the complete destruction of the race
of dragons and was, unknown to him and most others, the only dragon on
the planet for nearly two millenia. Until ShadowStorm announced he
would scatter his life-force into the realm and the shield that held
the rest of Realmspace at bay and become one with this plane until his
rebirth as a common resident of the world. He placed two greater gods
over the two pantheons. Shade and Shine, one to lead and maintain the
evil gods and the negative planes and one to control the gods of good
and the positive planes. He left for them instructions to remain off
the world using their templar-armies to affect the face of the planet
and to remember the lesson of the dragons, uncontrolled jealousy and
greed would be punish severely.
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Shadowstorm
also told those who attended him that the return of his twin souls
would be heralded by the awakening of BurnClaw, whose slumber was a
product of his magic and would fade until the world had healed from the
rampant wars and the Ban had lost enough power to safely allow the
dragon lifeforces to thrive.
When the gods felt his power rush into every atom on the
plane, the gods of the negative planes quickly allowed the remaining
dragons to return to the plane, who felt it must be safe due to the
existance of the elemental dragons. The gods of good hesitantly allowed
the dragons of life and light to return to the planet, after seeing the
evil dragons suffer no ill effects, to maintain the balance of power
upon the world. No mortal remembered BurnClaw, and only the gods knew
of his existance and the prophesy that gave his sleep such importance.
The dragons feared to seek him knowing the greatest god would return
and enforce his will again upon them. Only the disobiedient evil powers
sought the dragon and were compelled by the laws of the two greater
powers from actively seeking his resting place. Without being able to
send their spies and servants to find and destroy the dragon, they set
into motion certain events that would proceed the eventual search for
the red wyrm, and would insure their agents would be among those who
sought the dragon. Most importantly they chose these agents from among
those who would prefer the dragon die before he awoke and be torn apart
for the magical components of the ancient wyrms hide and body. Now the
dragon is sought by those who follow the powers of good and evil, each
for their own purpose though none know what realm splitting
repercusions their actions may incur. Should the overseer's word be
made false many believe he would never return, while many more believe
that would tear apart the very raveling of the plane and destroy them
all.
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