Lore - Dragons & Athancs
Dragons are all immensely powerful creatures of god-like power; even the weakest of them is a match for the mightiest of armies. But while their physical forms may evoke awe and dread there is another aspect unique to all dragons that makes them truly exceptional and deadly: their Athanc, and the blight it causes.
Dragon Attributes
Dragon Blight
Existing outside the natural order the very existence of the dragons is anathema to nature, and this fact is best expressed through what mortals refer to as "blight". Blight is a warped energy radiated by all dragons into the land around them. The effects of dragon blight on the land are both incalculable and devastating. In even scant quantities the taint of blight can corrupt virtually anything over time, poisoning rivers, eating away stone, and corroding metal. Living things are even more susceptible to blight as its mutagenic properties can twist and mutate them into grotesque mockeries of their former selves. Worst of all, many of these unnatural changes can be permanent; even minor cosmetic damage can take years, if not generations to undo. Thus while a dragon's physical form may be nigh-unstoppable it is through its blight that a dragon truly leaves its mark, as over time everything in the vicinity of a dragon's lair will eventually fall victim to its influence, becoming warped and twisted in body and mind.
Athancs
Both the strength of a dragon's physical form and the corrupting influence of its blight are made possible by one thing: it's athanc. A dragon's athanc is a crystallized soulstone which contains its essence, its soul, its very identity. Though it is no mean feat it is possible for a dragon to be slain, but as long as the athanc endures so too does the dragon, and over time its flesh will regenerate and the dragon will be reborn again to terrorize the mortal world. Fortunately, for the dragons, no one knows how to destroy an athanc, though many have tried, and attempts to hide or seal away dragons' athancs have met with... limited success, but more on that later.
Dragon History
For many ages, even since before the creation of the Iron Kingdoms, Toruk the Dragonfather was the only dragon. However, for reasons unknown to anyone but himself, he decided to create a brood of lesser dragons to rule over. He divided his athanc into smaller pieces, saving the largest chunk for himself, and from these new athancs grew his progeny, the lesser dragons. Unfortunately for Toruk his offspring did not simply bow meekly before their progenitor; each dragon developed its own personality and with it its own desire to dominate those around it. Thus did Toruk's offspring rebel against their creator. Toruk, being the most powerful of the dragons still, slew several of his offspring outright, consuming their athancs so that they may be rejoined with his own. The rest of the dragons fled and hid, and from that time on all dragons have sought to find and consume one another, for when one dragon slays another and consumes its athanc the victor absorbs the essence of the slain, strengthening the athanc of the victor as the two crystals fuse into one. Toruk, in turn, seeks to find and destroy the rest of his wayward progeny and undo the mistake he made all those eons ago, and the dragons have been at war with one another ever since.
See also the various timeline articles for more details about historic events.
Dragons
Toruk & Everblight
Refer to Lore - Toruk and Lore - Everblight respectively.
Blighterghast
The leader of the alliance of dragons against Toruk, second only to Toruk himself in strength. Aided by the alliance has successfully forced Toruk in to exile off the mainland on more than one occasion. During the last engagement after Toruk absorbed the athanc of Charsaug in conjunction with Pyromalfic's fall to Everblight the balance of power tilted heavily towards Toruk. The alliance of dragons was threatened with extinction until Blighterghast absorbed the athanc of Nidboros, gaining it by way of a deal with the human and Nyss mortals that were fighting over possession of the body of Nidboros. This tilted the favor towards the alliance of Blighterghast and he was able to deal an unprecedented level of injury to Toruk.
Nidoboros
Nidboros was the first dragon to successfully rebel against Toruk. Although ultimately defeated, he demonstrated that Toruk was not invincible. His athanc and body was hidden from the dragons by Zevanna Agha until Krueger the Stormlord used it in a plot to expose the presence of Everblight. The athanc was ultimately absorbed by Blighterghast, while the forces of Everblight utilized the remains of the body for new blighted creations.