The First Epoch

It is said that a great exodus brought dragon kind from another world to Toril. It is said that they came like locust and swept all other races aside, building a mighty empire that stretched from the Sword Coast all the way to the Moon Sea and beyond. Rumors speak of them not in terms of monster but rather as a mighty race, the Vraad. It is said that they escaped some cataclysm that destroyed their world and left them but shadows of their former selves. Little remains of the power of the Vraad, for now there is only the Dragon.

Now, in this time, the dragon Emperor has ruled for fourteen thousand years over a vast empire that covers most of the central realms from his palace in the Spine of the World Mountains. Hidden away in the primordial woods that cover nearly the entire realms the Elven court of Queen Elientorn encroaches on the boundaries of the Vraad Emperor. Deep beneath the Thunder Peaks the many kingdoms of the Dwarves are close to their zenith of power. Mankind is little more than stone age barbarians living in small tribes in the forest.

The empire of Khizaddulgur, the Golden Emperor, is dissimilar to all other empires before and since. The “lesser races” are left completely to their own devices so long as they not interfere with the dragons. There is no law. No semblance of order is imposed. As far as the dragons are concerned all other beings are simply irrelevant, except as a source of nourishment. There are no dragon cities. They live in huge subterranean complexes beneath mountains. One could traverse the entire empire and never encounter a dragon so long as you do not stray too close to one of their strongholds.