Curse of the Garnet Dragon, David Nix II [top 10 non fiction books of all time txt] 📗

The first and last mortal war occurred between dragons and mortals several millenniums ago. The mortal races were growing larger in number as time passed. Their advancements in technology allowing them longer lifespans. With their advancements they could now take care of themselves, and cure most illnesses that usually killed them. At first the advancements in technology were a good thing, because it allowed the mortals to gather food significantly faster and provided them with an abundant supply of resources. Also, they weren't a threat to the Dragon species at the time. Occassionally, the mortals would lose some of their flocks to the dragons and become frustrated. However, without the dragons help, the mortals never would have found most of their advancements because they were created using materials or reagents that the dragons shared with them from around the world.

Over time, the mortals began to develop weapons of warfare that started to show destructive properties. When they advanced their weaponry to where they could build their first ballista, the dragons were amused by the giant arrows that it shot. The mortals would slaughter thousands of their own kind of the simplest of things that meant absolutely nothing to the dragons, who stayed out of the conflict. Some mortals became irritated that the dragons would not help them in the cause and started a rebellion against them. As time went on, the rebellion fought harder and harder to gather followers and technology that would help them destroy the dragons. It took them hundreds of years to find anything that could even penetrate a dragons scales. When they started to use the material it was devastating at first because the dragons were caught offguard by the new advancement made by the mortals.

The mortals had continued their research into warfare and created weapons that resemble modern day missile launchers that damaged their scales and occasionally, when they were weak enough, would penetrate their scales and leave large gaping wounds that would become infected by the fragmented metal alloys that were used to make the missiles. The rebels took full control over the advantage they had obtained from the weapon and started to slaughter some of the dragons. It was later discovered that the weapon was created by the side that was allied to the Dragons, which infuriated the Dragon Lords. Eventually, the Dragon Lords decided that the mortal's weapon research was going too far, too fast. The constant development of technology by the mortals not only caused harm to them but to their children as well. The pollution caused by the creation of the weapons damaged the upper atmosphere that the dragons inhabited. The pollution was toxic to newborn hatchlings and would kill them in under a week with absolutely no way of stopping it.

The Dragon Lords decided to discuss the matter with the mortal races, to help prevent any more harm from coming to their children. The Dragon Lords brought the matter before the leaders of the mortal races and sought a way to fix their problem. The mortals dwelled on the matter for a few weeks and came to no resolve. As time went on they tried to fix the problem and could not. They eventually gave up altogether, leaving the Dragon Lords to deal with the problem themselves.

The Dragon Council met with the Mortals at a secure compound in the central of Vestom. There they began a discussion on the environmental damage caused by the constant experimentation the Mortals were doing. The Mortals were not amused by the Dragons constant interference. The Mortal leaders told the Dragon Council to stay out of their territory and to leave them in peace or else they would have a war on their hands. The Dragon Council informed the Mortals that all of their enviornmental damage was dangerous for both of their species. The Mortals would hear none of it and left the meeting with no further comments on the matter. The Dragon Council became suspicious of the Mortals and what they were planning, they had already lost too many of their kind to just ignore the matter.

The dragon lords discovered the Mortals were plannning to destroy them by killing their children, and they were furious. The dragon lords gathered together after they discovered the Mortals plans, and their children were already dying at the hands of the mortals. They discussed what they would do about the Mortals experiments since they were becoming far too dangerous to be left alone. After discussing for many weeks rather or not they should destroy the mortals facilities or wipe them off the face of the planet completely, they decided they would try one more time to get the mortals to cease their research or else they would have no choice but to destroy them.

The Mortals once again met and refused the Dragon Council's offer and told the dragons that they would not be threatened by their kind. If they dared to attack, they would annihilate every last one of their kind. The dragons gathered their broods together and used their combined force to attack the mortals before they could bring them to the brink of extinction. The whole of Vestom, the world shared by mortals and dragons alike, was on the brink of total annihilation as war began, one side would remain victorious in the end, the other would perish from the world.

The mortal races fought long and hard as they attempted to slaughter all of the dragons on Vestom, and claim the land for themselves. The dragon broods pushed harder every day, burning mortal cities to the ground, leaving none alive. The destruction caused by the war slowly terraformed the planet into a land that only dragons could possibly survive in. The land began to burn in the west, barren of all life, the once beautiful landscape was completely destroyed. Forests began to grow and cover the entire Eastern plains. While in the South, volcanoes began to erupt and lava began to flow throughout the land. The Northern lands were covered in snow and ice, turning the earthy land to a hardened sapphire landscape, white with snow.

One millennium later, the dragon broods were growing ever faster after the annihilation of the mortal races. The dragon broods split into different portions of the world. The Amethyst Dragons claiming the largest for themselves while the others fought over who would claim the rest of the land. Each of the dragon lords, the strongest champions of all of the dragon broods, separated from the others and took their broods with them to claim their lands for their broods and crush any who dared challenge them. These events caused terrible losses on all sides, and many broods perished altogether.

The Dragon Kingdom was in complete chaos as the dragon broods fought, over territory and food, to survive. The Dragons only eat a full meal about once a month, yet the food supply is very limited. After the Mortal war most of the food supply was killed off. The food source they had was repopulating slowly, but food remained scarce as their broods continued to grow and require more food. Some of the creatures they used to feed on were evolving to try and attack the dragons as well, some gaining a poisonous spit that was corrosive to the dragon's scales. Some of the broods had captured their prey and corralled them in a safe haven deep in their land that would speed up their re-population due to the lack of predators in the area. Each Dragon brood owned different sections of Vestom and fought to keep control of what they had as well as the hunting grounds nearby.

The Obsidian dragons owned the West, the Garnet dragons owned the South, the Emerald dragons the East, and the Sapphire dragons the North. However, the Amethyst dragons owned a vast expanse of land directly in the center of all of the broods and had the strongest fighters of all the dragon broods due to the harsh conditions of their environment. As each day passed more dragons were slaughtered mercilessly as each brood fought to gain control over territory to survive. The land had natural resources, the most precious being hellstone which was very rare but it was the only material that took major heat and wear to penetrate. Hellstone armor was the most valuable item any of the brood warriors could own and they cherished every piece, constantly trying to improve their armor to gain an advantage in combat.

The Obsidian dragons decided that it was time to bring peace between the Dragon broods and end the centuries of war. They took a peace convoy to each of the leaders of the dragon broods proposing a treaty between all of their kind. King Gusteria discussed how they could all live together in harmony and share their lands together. They could share the resources they find to build their lairs and share the natural resources they have in their territories to advance all of their broods. All except one of the dragon broods were easily persuaded. The Amethyst dragon king, Brakle, thought his brood was the strongest and deserved the most land. He did not see the point in giving way to share all of the land between the broods, because he had the strongest dragon army out of all of the broods. The other brood leaders, Delama (Queen of the Sapphire Dragons), Santriva (Queen of the Garnet Dragons), and Fallow (King of the Emerald Dragons) were all prepared to join together to end the centuries of war and start a new era of peace and prosperity.

When the Dragon Lords came together to decide the fate of their world and the future of their species, the Amethyst Dragon King decided to attack the other broods while they were distracted at the peace summit. The Dragon Lords in attendance were furious at Lord Gusteria for distracting them from their broods and Gusteria turned to them and said, "Why should our broods continue to suffer because of one King and his greed for power. With our combined forces we could annihilate him and any who stand against us, else risk extinction by our own greed." The other Lords glared at him at first, still full of rage. They talked with each other for a brief moment