On Dragons pt 1: The Great Game
Dragons live long lives constantly growing in power and intelligence. They are territorial and extremely competitive creatures, but unable to completely control their instincts. Two dragons cannot meet without one forcing the other to submit, which it will rarely if ever truly do. Dragons, even the youngest wyrmling, knows their place in the world; they stand above all except possibly a deity, depending on the deity. Dragons are so terribly jealous that they cannot allow a peer inside their territory. Obviously, most mortals are not considered peers. Dragons think of mortals in their territory more like pets, working animals, herd animals, or even pests. Depending on the dragon of course. Since most dragons count mortals as a form of property they are coveted.
The first day of the world the first 40 dragons all woke up together. Legend says that they were the most brilliant and colorful dragons ever to exist. No two scales the same color until their first molt. They all molted together. When the molting ended each one came forth with only one solid color. Each of the 40 was different though. There were 13 metallic dragons, 13 chromatic dragons, 13 gem dragons, and 1 shadow dragon. They quickly grew jealous of each other and separated drastically.
After growing out of their wyrmling phase, but before the Great Game, the first 40 dragons lived very isolated lives. They communicated on occasion. Quickly these communications turned into bragging sessions. They never met in person, as each one was too suspicious to allow another into their territory. Instead they communicated through their mortals or through magic.
In the year 32 Upadhriti, the first shadow dragon, killed Bharat, the first brass dragon. Bharat bragged about some artwork his mortals created. Upadhriti wanted it. She swooped in, killed Bharat, killed his mortals, and took the prize. Her standing rose quickly. This didn't cut down on the bragging at all, but did ensure that they became more careful about the details. Just 5 years later, in 37, Upadhriti killed Deepak the first Onyx dragon. She wanted his gold, but never found where he hid it and thus did not rise much in standing.
In the year 40 something unthinkable happened, Vishaka the Mercury died at the hands of a mortal. Sachi the Silver lived nearby. She used two of her mortal mages to track down where Vishaka stored her prized possessions. Sachi took them as her own happy for the windfall. Later Sharma the Green discovered that the bows used to kill Vishaka were enchanted by mages from near where Sachi dwelt. Sharma shared his knowledge and the dragon world reeled
Mortals existed as property. Dragons considered a mortal the property of whoever's territory they were in. But what if another dragon sent their mortal into your territory? This question sparked no small amount of fear. Sachi's standing greatly rose. Now that dragons realized these creatures could be a sneaky way for one dragon to invade another's territory their treatment changed. Over the next few decades this rapidly led to many mortal deaths. But the dragons discovered creatures who did kill their rightful owners, and thus proved the fact that other dragons sent them. This led to the Great Game.
The Great Game is a system that peers use to track their progress against the world. Possessions and achievements are the two may ways to gain repute. The communication channels developed to impart this are deep and wide. What dragons count as assets can vary, but often times appearances are as good if not better than reality. Achievements can be even more difficult to track, especially subtle achievements. Even the youngest wyrmling is considered a peer, though often times they also remain assets to their parents from some years.
