Chapter 1: ONE WORLD AMONG MANY The Dragon Kings were unified in their function as caretakers That function gave them the absolute and unblemished allegiance of Khitus’s peoples Once in power, the Dragon Kings became caretakers of their fragile world and its young cultures History credits no single figure with that concept or with gathering consensus to make it a reality Regardless, soon after their near-concurrent rise as the planet’s most magically astute mortals, the Dragon Kings divided the world geographically and, in unison, assumed the mantle of responsibility The Dragon Kings allowed their subject peoples to learn and grow at their own pace, like parents watching children strive and sometimes stumble For the most part, they allowed each kingdom to rule itself and each people to make its own decisions The Dragon Kings primarily stepped in to depose despots and quell prolonged, destructive wars The former they allowed to attain power and show themselves to be despicable, self-serving rulers before striking them down This was their terrifying lesson to those who allowed such ascendance The Dragon Kings allowed prolonged conflicts as a means of carrying out state policy, only drawing unnecessarily destructive campaigns under the shadows of their powerful wings before entire peoples or civilizations were wiped from Khitus’s face Is it any wonder those of the Classic Age revered the Dragon Kings so, or that they are sorely missed and held in such reverence today? By removing despotism and genocide from their world, they nurtured the young Khitan civilizations as surely as a gardener nurtures her plants, and with as much care They offered guidance to the ambitious and counsel to the wise, but had little direct involvement in peoples’ lives They walked among their peoples at times, visiting and encouraging but intervening rarely, even reluctantly, in common or state affairs Their relationship was one of reciprocated love The Dragon Kings truly loved their people, and it pained them deeply to see their children ever falter The Classic Age Khitus flourished beneath the guidance of the Dragon Kings Unfettered by the worst their own natures might unleash on one another, every sapient race prospered, especially with regard to intellectual pursuits like the arts, literature, architecture and philosophy Curiosity and reason impelled people in the Classic Age, not the darker drives of fear or pain Twilight of the Gods The ancient gods faced a world that no longer needed them, its people rejecting both their tyranny and that of their priests The gods served no purpose and no one, as none served those gods any longer Temples fell into ruin or served new, more positive purposes for their peoples Under the Dragon Kings’ tutelage, mortal worshipers no longer feared the darkness, for they carried candles of reason wherever they went to light their paths Those few ancient gods that retained their power dared not visit it upon Khitus or its people, as legends tell of at least one god falling prey to the wrath of one or more Dragon Kings The ancient gods abandoned Khitus for the distant, wandering planets short centuries after the rise of the Dragon Kings Civilization’s Rise Races and tribes fanned out across the world-garden, taking root in verdant vales and green prairies all around the globe Pachyaur—intelligent, six-limbed mammoths—found league and kin with the elephants and their colossadant cousins they encountered in the warmest, wettest equatorial regions Human tribes—the Attites, Chindi, Makadan, and others—spread across the land on every continent The Penmai likewise made