Start of the Dragonless Age

   During the young age of civilization, many dragons roamed the world and were able to dominate much of the continent. The budding civilizations, rightly believing they could and would be wiped out by the wyrms, prayed to their gods for deliverance and protection from the dragons. The gods answered in the form of Dragon-Bane weapons and the teachings of the Dragonslayers. Then, during the Gathering, the once a decade meeting of evil and neutral dragons at the base of the Jaw Range, where the first dragon was said to be born and the many powerful wyrms had erected a monolithic structure topped with a statue of the FirstWyrm. They saw the balance of power shift away from their control and losing many of their number to the pesky creatures, the dragons of the Gathering, led by GrinSkull and his red dragon allies, declared war on the cities of the ancients and even the elves, dwarves and humans of the roaming tribes.
   After a terrible decade of destruction and death, all involved races stood near extinction. At the next Gathering, GrinSkull congratulated the remaining dragons on their near total success, only to be interupted by the avatars of the gods of the elves, dwarves, and humans, as well as the most powerful archmage of the Ancients. Saying they would rain fire on the world until it was pounded to ashes should the dragons succeed, the avatars forced the dragons to bargain. There the Treaty was struck. It required the dragons allow the humans, elves and dwarves to survive and that the gods recall many of the dragonslaying weapons they had created. In an almost separate treaty, the dragons and ancients agreed to dissolve the war. The ancients had enough magical prowess to seek and slay dragons even in their lairs, while several of their cities had fallen to more than one dedicated dragon siege.
   Several decades passed and the wounds of the many races healed and their numbers regrew. Knowing the humanoids would eventually choke them out by numbers alone, even as the ancient race sped towards decline, GrinSkull and his allies decided to begin anew. The dwarves had discovered vicious and wild creatures known as goblins and hobgoblins, as the elves found a similar race, though larger, known as the orcs. The dragons, by scouring the continent noticed the orcs had cousins who had bred with the giant races and were called ogres. The dragons had taken an interest in all these creatures from the moment of their discovery since the orcs and ogres had a respect for the dragons that went well into reverance and the goblinoids had a fear of them that approached worship.
   While the humanoid races were trying to eliminate these threats, the dragons had been secretly breeding and caring for them, as well as transplanting several tribes to the locale of the FirstWyrm Stone where they thrived and set up a shamanistic priesthood which centered around the FirstWyrm Temple as it became known to the orcish "priests."
   The elves and dwarves secured several victories against the gobinoids and had enlisted the help of humanity to finish off the destructive intruders. As the hosts marched into the Wild Region where the greenskins had been forced to retreat, they fell victim to a trap. Where the remnants of the broken hordes should have been was a vast army of the cruel races, put together and armed by the dragons of GrinSkull's Temple. When the gods saw the trick and the beginning of the eradication of those who marched against the amassed horde, they understood instantly what the dragons had planned and knew the collective humanoid host was no match for the horde. Seeing the only large defensive force of the humans, elves and dwarves about to be destroyed, which would open the entire continent to the control of the dragons, they acted. The avatars of the three gods came down with a bolt of lightning, along with the avatars of those gods who owed them fealty, only to be set upon by the massed dragons.

   GrinSkull had gained enough power in his years of quiet planning to be a true threat to the might of the gods. Faced with his dragon army, the gods were in as much danger as the small beings they protected. Should their avatars be destroyed only the great three had enough power to create a new body and return to battle with any rapidity. But such action would require enough power to set them at a disadvantage against the evil gods with whom they perpetually battled.
   ShadowStorm had been enraged. The dragons were his creation. All were descendants of the FirstWyrm, a neutral dragon he had hatched from an egg-shaped stone. He had placed no god over them. He had left them to roam and rule undisturbed, unchallenged, and unfettered by his or any other's control. Now they threatened to destroy his creation and launch his carefully crafted world into chaos. ShadowStorm scattered the armies across the continent, returning most to their homes, leaving only the dragons and avatars to finish their battle. ShadowStorm began empowering the three gods from his own strength while removing their allied powers to their planes. With the tide of battle obviously changing many dragons fled the battle and some wise few abandoned the plane.
   The dragons of good, namely those of the metallic races, were aware of the battle and the introduction of the greatest power in the pantheon to the fray. Many of these dragons also left the plane or were called home by recently returned lesser powers. The dragons of evil who fled to the outerplanes became the death and dark dragons of the current age, while the good dragons who lived in the positive material planes became the current dragons of life and light. The lack of substantial dragon population for nearly two millenia allowed the eventual evolution of certain powerful elementals into the dragons of earth, air, fire and water that roam the lands today.
   After returning the battle to only those directly involved and witnessing enough of a dragon exodus to insure their survival, ShadowStorm appeared above the battle in the form of an ink-black storm with midnight blue lightning racing across it's surface. Nearly all of the remaining dragons fled at the sight of the motionless storm, and even the gods paused in battle to look upon the rare sight. Only GrinSkull and his most powerful and dedicated captains continued to fight the three avatars. ShadowStorm's thoughts boomed through the minds of all aware dragons on the planet and the avatars who continued to attack the dragons. The fear of the strange and powerful storm finally caused the dragons, including GrinSkull, to move the fight farther and farther from it's position, no distance could escape the thoughts of the great god.
   "You, who I created to be unchallenged in the realm, have disturbed the great balance I created and through your own viscious jealousy have brought your own time to an end. This world can no longer support your existance, nor can the peoples allow your continued interferance to disturb their developement. You will cause your own complete extinction and dishonor my precious gift of near eternal life. You no longer deserve the honor of living upon this world. Your greed has been your undoing and now you will suffer. I ban you from this world. Any dragon on this world at this moment has forfieted their existance. Any who try to enter until this world is healed will also suffer for your insolence. Never will you have unchallenged superiority over the creatures of this world, nor will you ever truly be safe again. As for those who turned against my disciples and sought godly power for their own, your blood will run cold until your flesh has turned to stone. Only one dragon deserves to remain, only he has proven his loyalty to his word and his reverance for the honor of life I have bestowed upon you all."