Trogdor was a man... maybe he was just a Dragon.
Once upon a time there was a Dragon. It is a dream I have, to weave a story from the fabric of earth and sky, to breathe in the sea and smoke and exhale it into a world of my own making. This would be the story I would tell you, about the great myth of the Dragon. But it is not my story. Time works in all things to wear away the walls between the old and the new, and so it is with the memories of the few who remember the wild world, the world of the spirits. So it was that in the quiet places in my mind I learned to walk the path of the spirits that still live, and the secrets and wisdom of the wild world. In these memories lay the story of how our world was created, and this is the story as it was told to me:
There is a life in the universe that moves behind every star in the sky and between every moment of time that passes. This is the life of creation as it continues to flow, growing like a river until it at last opens into the ocean. We are on that river now, but once we were just a drop of water that formed as dew the moment we came into being. We joined with the drops of other lives and formed a stream, flowing with the strength of all the lives joined with us until we at last come to the river. Our journey ends there, but our lives become part of the river, our path adding momentum to the rush and fury of the water until it is breathed into the sea, ending in calm and steady waves. When the rivers have ended the ocean is fed into the sky to fall again and new lives are made into new rivers. This is the great cycle, the magnificent design of creation.
To everything that begins comes an end; this world is no exception. Like a drop it is added to the stream, continuing on a great journey before reaching the sky to fall again. In the sky is the land of the Angels, the spirits who are entrusted with protecting the lives between the time of ending and the time of beginning. The ocean of life is the domain of the Dragon; he who sleeps, dreams, and watches as appointed guardian of those journeying between the time of beginning to the time of the end.
The dawn of the first world was a time of joy, when the great spirits of nature gave birth to the wild world and on it placed their works - creature, tree and stone. Here was born men, whose nature it was to tame the wild world, and make all things their own. The wisest of the great spirits gave their secrets to men, in the hopes that they would learn to create harmony among the living things. But the nature of man was not pure, and though many sought a peaceful existence with the world, many more still left it in ruin. And so the spirits of the men who were good were taken from the world and made Angels, who would decide the fate of all others. The Angels forsaw the doom of mankind as a great Darkness rising from the sea of Chaos from which came all things. The Darkness took root in the ruin of the world, guided by the will of men whose ambition and vanity was to destroy the work of the spirits and replace it with their own.
And from the hopes of the great spirits of nature came the Dragon, who was born to protect the world from the Darkness. In the time of unending twilight, the end of the first world, the Dragon woke as if from a dream, and saw the Darkness rising from the great sea of Chaos. Guided by destiny - as the protector of all that is good, the Dragon battled with the Darkness to save the world, and won. But the war was not without price. The Darkness had seeded the world with its poison, and slowly it began to die. As the beauty of that which he loved so dearly began to fade, the Dragon made a covenant with the Angels to bind his life forever with that of all life - to the world which was once innocent.
In the dusk of the first world the Dragon fell into a deep sleep and dreamed a great Dream, in which the world of men and beasts and gods and demons would flourish again, sprung from the ashes of the last. All this the Angels entrusted to the Dragon, but to a terrible cost. The Darkness which had torn apart the first world had been defeated but was not gone, for darkness is a part of creation and a part of life as surely as light. To save this world, the Dragon took the Darkness into himself, fated then and forever to battle with it until the end of time.
As long as men still hope to find a place among the great spirits, the Dragon will sleep - waking only to cleanse the Darkness with fire, so that the world can flourish again from the ashes. He will dream of the places where life will take root, the world where legends are born. He will never see its end, and the Angels and other great spirits will only be a shadow in his dreams. To the Dragon, as to all living things, there is only the struggle against the Darkness within him, the Darkness that could swallow him away from the world into emptiness... nothingness.
There is a life in the universe that moves behind every star in the sky and between every moment of time that passes. This is the life of creation as it continues to flow, growing like a river until it at last opens into the ocean. We are on that river now, but once we were just a drop of water that formed as dew the moment we came into being. We joined with the drops of other lives and formed a stream, flowing with the strength of all the lives joined with us until we at last come to the river. Our journey ends there, but our lives become part of the river, our path adding momentum to the rush and fury of the water until it is breathed into the sea, ending in calm and steady waves. When the rivers have ended the ocean is fed into the sky to fall again and new lives are made into new rivers. This is the great cycle, the magnificent design of creation.
To everything that begins comes an end; this world is no exception. Like a drop it is added to the stream, continuing on a great journey before reaching the sky to fall again. In the sky is the land of the Angels, the spirits who are entrusted with protecting the lives between the time of ending and the time of beginning. The ocean of life is the domain of the Dragon; he who sleeps, dreams, and watches as appointed guardian of those journeying between the time of beginning to the time of the end.
The dawn of the first world was a time of joy, when the great spirits of nature gave birth to the wild world and on it placed their works - creature, tree and stone. Here was born men, whose nature it was to tame the wild world, and make all things their own. The wisest of the great spirits gave their secrets to men, in the hopes that they would learn to create harmony among the living things. But the nature of man was not pure, and though many sought a peaceful existence with the world, many more still left it in ruin. And so the spirits of the men who were good were taken from the world and made Angels, who would decide the fate of all others. The Angels forsaw the doom of mankind as a great Darkness rising from the sea of Chaos from which came all things. The Darkness took root in the ruin of the world, guided by the will of men whose ambition and vanity was to destroy the work of the spirits and replace it with their own.
And from the hopes of the great spirits of nature came the Dragon, who was born to protect the world from the Darkness. In the time of unending twilight, the end of the first world, the Dragon woke as if from a dream, and saw the Darkness rising from the great sea of Chaos. Guided by destiny - as the protector of all that is good, the Dragon battled with the Darkness to save the world, and won. But the war was not without price. The Darkness had seeded the world with its poison, and slowly it began to die. As the beauty of that which he loved so dearly began to fade, the Dragon made a covenant with the Angels to bind his life forever with that of all life - to the world which was once innocent.
In the dusk of the first world the Dragon fell into a deep sleep and dreamed a great Dream, in which the world of men and beasts and gods and demons would flourish again, sprung from the ashes of the last. All this the Angels entrusted to the Dragon, but to a terrible cost. The Darkness which had torn apart the first world had been defeated but was not gone, for darkness is a part of creation and a part of life as surely as light. To save this world, the Dragon took the Darkness into himself, fated then and forever to battle with it until the end of time.
As long as men still hope to find a place among the great spirits, the Dragon will sleep - waking only to cleanse the Darkness with fire, so that the world can flourish again from the ashes. He will dream of the places where life will take root, the world where legends are born. He will never see its end, and the Angels and other great spirits will only be a shadow in his dreams. To the Dragon, as to all living things, there is only the struggle against the Darkness within him, the Darkness that could swallow him away from the world into emptiness... nothingness.