Forgotten Realins

^dvancecf Du Table of Contents Chapter 1: Reference 2 Chapter 8: Hunter's Guide 80 Chapter 2: Geography 34 Chapter 9: Miscellaneous Information 84 Chapter 3: Dragon Psychology 39 Adventures Chapter 4: Role-Playing Dragons 46 The Millennium Dragon (C.S.) 90 Chapter 5: Dragon Hall of Fame 56 Invitation to a Robbery (C.K.) 100 Chapter 6: New Dragon Species 64 The Servants of the Verdant Cloud (J.T.). .109 Chapter 7: Magicll 73 Draco Holy Wars (W.T.) 120llkl Credits: lReference Material Design: Nigel Findley Adventure DesignSample: Christopher fileKubasik, Carl Sargent, John Terra, William Tracy Editing: Mike Breault Project Coordination: Anne Brown, Bruce Heard Proofreading: Anne Brown, Bill Connors Color Art: Brom, David Dorman, Keith Parkinson Black and White Art: Terry Dykstra, Fred Fields, Robin Raab, Valerie Valusek, Karl Waller Graphic Design: Roy Parker, Stephanie Tabat Typography: Angelika Lokotz, Gaye O'Keefe Keylining: Paul Hanchette Cartography: Steve Beck ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS, DRAGON, SPELLJAMMER, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. °1990 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. This product is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. POB 756 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 U.S.A. United Kingdom TSR, Inc. 9297XXX1501 PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION ISBN 0-88038-876-5 Chapter 1: Reference Terminology other, score upon score, they bent have been scribed with great preci- their breath against the body of sion.) This combination of lan- Several new Asgorath, and the skies rang with guage and script explains the terms are re- their lamentations. Only one of the difficulties and delays involved in quired before Spawn of Asgorath withheld his translating the tome. one can con- breath. Instead, he pulled a shard From its content and the mythic veniently talk of the Crystal Sun from the flesh of forms used, it is obvious to about dragons. Asgorath, and used it to draw scholars that the Book of the World Throughout blood from his own flesh, and this is an example of holy literature— this book, the blood fell upon the face of the that is, it once was at the center of word dracoforms is used to refer to World. a body of religious beliefs. The na- dragons and their obvious kin. "As before, there was movement ture of some of those beliefs can be (Thus a wyvern is a dracoform, as where the blood fell, but the crea- inferred from the myths contained is a gold dragon.) The word dra- tures that came forth from this in the Book, but there is insuffi- conic is used as the adjective for blood were not of the pure red. Col- cient cultural context to confi- matters relating to dragons ored like the products of the World dently analyze the belief structure. ("things draconic"). they were, like the unliving (For example, it is not known metals. And the Renegade raised whether the creation myths are Draconic Origins his voice, and his voice was a trum- symbolic or intended to be taken pet: 'I too have Created.' as absolute truth.) ". The World was still flat, here before the beginning of Time, be- "The form of Asgorath began to The sheer volume of mythic ma- fore Asgorath the World-Shaper stir, as the Renegade knew it must. terial within the Book, and the rel- folded the cloth of existence into The Renegade spread his wings atively organized chronological its final form. The World was flat, and flew, and the Spawn of the and contextual structure used and above it hung the Crystal Sun Renegade followed him into the throughout, imply that it origi- that Zotha had wrought before farthest reaches of the world." nated from a fairly sophisticated Asgorath cast him down. Asgorath culture. This is paradoxical, since soared above the World and looked —from the "Book of the World" no cultures of sufficient sophistica- down upon it, and she saw that it tion apparently ever arose in was good. Excerpted from The Origin Asram. The possibility cannot be Myths—ASample Treatise bfiley Dunkelzahn overlooked that the Book was "And so Asgorath bent her form ofCandlekeep, 1354 DR transported from elsewhere and around the Crystal Sun, and abandoned in Asram, but that the- touched her breath to it. And the Perhaps surprisingly, there are ory also has its problems. There is Crystal Sun burst into fragments very few origin myths that relate no modern culture that contains that pierced the flesh of Asgorath, directly to dragons. One of the few even the vaguest mythological or and her blood fell on the World. is a tome known as the Book of the symbolic echoes of the Book's con- Where the drops fell, the Powers of World. Only one copy of this book tent. Judging from the oxidation of the World and the Powers of the has ever been found—and that in the Book's metal pages, the speci- Crystal Sun came together, and the land of Asram, about 100 years men under examination was prob- the Spawn of Asgorath came forth ago. The language of the book is ably no more than 500 years old. upon the face of the World. Thorass—more correctly, an even In that time, it seems unlikely that "Red, they were, red that would more archaic form of Thorass than an entire religio-mythic tradition later depart from its purity. But most samples of this language— would vanish from Toril. But that here before the beginning of Time, but the script used is a simplified seems to be the case here. (The their red was the pure red of the runic form. (No doubt the selection wild speculations that the Book of shattered Crystal Sun. They of runic script was necessitated by the World did not arise in Tbril at spread their wings and took to the the construction of the book: it all are discounted by most reputa- skies, circling around the still, cold consists of 300 sheets of thin, flexi- ble scholars.) form of Asgorath. One after an- ble metal onto which the runes The Book provides a fascinating Chapter 1: Reference origin myth relating to dragon- close a correlation—can Asgorath diverged from kind. From a close reading of the be Tiamat and the Renegade be the great apes text, it becomes obvious that Bahamut? a little more Asgorath the World-Shaper is a An interesting speculation has than 17,000 dragon. The implication—that a recently arisen. It has long been years ago.) It is dragon created the universe, and thought that the Book of the World obvious, then, that dragons were the first crea- represents a body of human, demi- that the hu- tures to exist—is quite fascinating. human, or humanoid myth. Is this manoid races A further point arises from the sen- a short-sighted and humanocen- once dwelt in a tence that reads, "And so tric assumption? The key features world without Asgorath bent her form around the of the origin myth—sacrifice, be- dragons as we know them. Crystal Sun, and touched her trayal, and rebirth—are common How does that fit in with several breath to it." In the original to almost every humanoid ethos, ancient elvish myths—particu- Thorass, the word "breath"—nor- but in all of those myth-bodies the larly the Parwiccan Cycle—that mally used as a singular or un- central characters are anthropo- deal with "dragons" and countable noun in this context- morphic. In other words, human- "wyrms"? The key phrase is has been given a plural suffix oid myth-builders create gods in "dragons as we know them." It is ("breaths"). Is this meant to imply their own image. In the myth pre- our contention that the creatures that Asgorath is a multi-headed sented in the Book of the World, described in the Parwiccan Cycle dragon? there is not a single humanoid are not true dragons, but dragon The text is clearer when it comes character. precursors. Our evidence indicates to the "Spawn of Asgorath." There Might not the Book of the World that these "pre-dragons" were can be no doubt that these crea- present an origin myth that was considerably smaller than modern tures are red uragons. The follow- originally developed by dragons— specimens, with little or none of ing sentences hint that this probably red dragons—them- the daunting array of powers religion holds the red dragon as selves? At a later date, humanoids shown by true dragons. In addi- the most important species of adopted the myth, and incorpo- tion, it seems obvious that these dragon. All others would "later de- rated it into the Book—for the creatures were not sentient; in part from ... purity." Book of the World is obviously a fact, they probably had no more When the Renegade ("bahmat" humanoid artifact. than animal intelligence, and in the original Thorass) duplicates DragonSamples have neve filer been hence the most borderline form of the actions of Asgorath, the drag- thought to be great mythogra- self-awareness. Thus, the "dragons that arise are "not of the pure phers. Does this statement tell us ons" that figure so centrally in the red," but rather "colored .

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