The Dragon War

The Dragon War was a war that pitted the dragons against all of the other races on Valnaria. The war lasted several decades and only ended with the direct intervention of the gods. The end of the Dragon War marked the end of the First Age and the beginning of the Second Age.

Background
For most of the First Age the dragons had ruled Valnaria. Some of the Dragons were kind, benevolent, and even tried to help the other races; most were evil and took great pleasure in tormenting the other races. One day, a Red Dragon named Grimvartrias was taking exceptional pleasure in tormenting a human warrior/prince named Cadowyn. Cadowyn, tired of the constant bullying of the Dragons, lashed out. The stories vary: Cadowyn wounded/maimed/disfigured/killed Grimvartrias with a rock/arrow/spear/sword/axe. Whatever really happened will never be known but the Dragons were outraged by the audacity of this puny human – the war was on.

The War and Resolution
The Dragons made no distinction between human, elf, dwarf, gnome, or orc – all of the races of Valnaria suddenly found themselves at war with the Dragons. It has been speculated that, had the Dragons made a distinction between the races, they could have wiped out the humans and maintained their authority. Instead, a terrible war was waged across the entire world that lasted for decades. Finally, the gods realized that they could no longer ignore the situation and decided to intervene to resolve the war. The gods decided that power was to be shared equally by all of the races. The Dragons were given the skies, the Dwarves were given the mountains, the Elves were given the forests, and the Humans were given the plains. The Gnomes were overlooked in all of this – which was fine by them. The Orcs then realized that they had been just as much a part of the war as the others (in fact, they had fought the Dragons alongside the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans) but had been given no place of their own. They demanded that they be given the mountains, but the Dwarves refused to give up their land. They then demanded the forests but the Elves were not willing to share their homes with the Orcs. Not knowing what else to do, the gods gave the Orcs the shadows.

The end of the Dragon War marks the end of the First Age and the start of the Second Age.