A Long Time Ago
No one knows how there came to be dragons and humans on Dirt, what quirk of evolution created both quadrupeds and hexapods; dragons have six limbs including the wings. But then, ideas such as natural selection have yet to emerge on Dirt.
Dirt is a primitive world that has suffered many disasters, both natural and ones created by its human residents. The population is small and spread out, and the world has not seen the same continual advances as we have in our own history. At its most advanced it probably resembled Egypt at its height; lots of big building projects but some pretty dodgy understanding about the world around them. At its worst, it more resembled early Anglo-Saxon; indeed, for most of the population, that is probably where it has stayed for millennia.
Many of the myths tend to use similar themes when it comes to dragons, callistons (vast land-based versions of the dragons), and humans. They often claim that one or other of the species originated on a different world, magical or real, and arrived here in some mystical fashion. This has sometimes created conflict between the groups. Oran Helting, a mystic who lived two thousand years before the first series, believed that humans arrived first and so had a better claim than dragons. Although he seems to have had good relations with dragons, many who followed him have used his obscure writings as an excuse to drive out the dragons. Others believe that the Great Oeling, the earliest single-god belief, plucked both humans and dragons from somewhere and brought them on a beam of light down onto the mountain Meindir Gydaynis on the Isle of Taken.
More recent and, perhaps, more thoughtful and knowledgeable minds, have realised that all species are native to Dirt and there are no gods or magic involved. They believe that the species first developed on the distant continent of Angyn, and then, in some fashion, both humans and dragons travelled to the continents of Orl-Earde (now called Bind) and Dwy-Earde (now called The Prelates or Preland). Angyn is around two thousand leagues in a straight line from either of the other continents, and the currents of the Missing Sea are treacherous, so humans must have been carried by the dragons. It does not take a great leap of imagination to see that the two intelligent species must have been friendly; forcing a creature the size of a cottage to do anything is probably not going to get you very far, so you need to be on their good side.
Next: Growing Apart »
