"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

I had not planned to write about dragons when I first picked up a pen and began to scribble down stories. I grew up with the belief that anything fantasy had to be bad and should be avoided at all costs. Times have changed since then...

Nightshade was not the first of Oleander's kingdoms in which dragons first appeared - writing wise. See, Nightshade is the oldest of the seven kingdoms and the dragons lived there first, but when the dragons first came to me I did not know this. They first came to me for another of the world's series and later I learned more of them.

The dragons were the first of the created beings, next followed by the Druids and then the elves. Writing fantasy, there are no set rules that must be adhered to per say, but I decided to keep to the older ideas of what dragons were for this world. Therefore, my dragons are ancient, wise, and extremely prideful. Their pride is their greatest weakness as they cannot see beyond it at times and therefore miss important clues which could have hurried along the Blade Boys' quest.

The dragons are not immortal but do live longer than any of the other beings. This is one of those pro and con situations. Because of long life they sometimes foresee a coming disaster because of the repeat of history. However, this also makes them shortsighted and they tend to focus on how often man falls in different generations and makes them less inclined to help as they see humans as weak, flighty, foolish, and creatures they believe will not last long as their weakness will lead to their extinction.

This is not to say that dragons have always been aloof from humans and left them to their fate. During the early days of Nightshade the human race was not united in any way or form. Their kingdom was dark and full of fear, and the dragons remained on their mountain and left them to their fate. The Druids interacted more with humans at first, until they turned to black magic. One Druid say the danger of this and left them, becoming the first wizard. It was he who helped establish a high king upon the throne and convinced the dragons that men were strong and going to remain one of the lasting races. All of this led to a great war, the first which men took part in, and which the other races all came together to aid them.

Before the war the sword which had been given to the high king was lost. Therefore, on his coronation day a gift was presented to him - a sword unlike any other before it. The dragon king gave one of his scales to form the blade, the elves gave their finest metals for the hilt as well as being the ones to inscribe on the blade words of a blessing. The wizards gave their magic, and it was the dwarves who formed the blade in their forge, using dragon fire to heat it. The gift was only ever meant to be used by the high kings, the most noble of all the kings who would ever rule. The magic and the blessing would ensure that no one unworthy would ever be able to wield the blade.

The sword was a sign of peace and unity not only between the humans and the seven kingdoms, but also the other races - the dragons, elves, wizards, and dwarves. It stayed with the high kings for centuries, in a way lending wisdom to their reigns.

It finally came to the last high king of Oleander, a youth named Derek. He was like his elders, noble and wise, but he was younger than any of them had been when he took the throne. And he faced a time of great evil. Which goes back to the dragons.

The dragon king had two younger brothers. The middle brother served the king as dragon siblings were meant to do, but the youngest wanted to rule in his elder brother's place. More than that, he wanted to rule over all the races. Of course, he knew to do this he would have to find a way to take the blade from Derek.

The dragon prince's first move toward conquest was to attempt to kill the dragon king; he failed but the poison weakened the king and the middle brother feared he would die and devoted himself day and night to trying to heal him. The youngest brother, knowing that he had been found out, fled to a land which was not considered part of the kingdoms. It was a dark land at the edge of the sea, a place called Rhododendron, sometimes just called the Dark Country. Away from his brothers, the dragon prince took steps to take the sword from Derek - (side note. All dragons can shape shift into human form but few do it as they feel this demeans them. The dragon prince was one who did it when it was to his advantage.)

The dragon prince sent an army against Derek, but this time the dragons did not come to the high king's aid. The dragon king was too weak to fight, and the middle brother too concerned about him to honor the old promise of their alliance.

During the final battle Derek faced the dragon prince's greatest general. Derek defeated the general but was mortally wounded in the fight. He died on the battlefield, collapsing on top of the ancient sword.

Derek died heirless. He was also an orphan king, therefore he left no one behind who could take the throne. Moments before he took his last breath he was found by his page. The page saw that the sword, made from a dragon sale, had broken in two when Derek had fallen. And, as he watched, the sword vanished. Derek told him that whoever found and reforged the blade would be his heir and would rule Nightshade.

The dragons, on hearing what had happened, did not take any blame of it but decided that the sword breaking just proved how weak men were. They completely abandoned them, doing nothing as the united kingdom of Nightshade divided over many years, turning into separate states ruled by feuding lords.

In their pride they forgot the blessing and the magic placed on the sword; that no one other than a worthy heir of the high kings would ever be able to wield the blade.

So there you have it, a brief history of the dragons and the role they played in setting the stage for The Broken Blade.