The Broodmother

The Broodmother is a quasi-religous figure in dragon lore, who is believed to be the mother of all dragons. Though all dragons worship the One King as their lord and creator, there is also a deep reverence surrounding the great Broodmother.

According to dragon beliefs, the One King created the Broodmother as His daughter, and she in turn gave birth to all dragons. If true, this would mean that all dragons are related and therefore part of the same flight, which is used by some as an argument against rivalry or war between flights.

As the One King created the Broodmother, he imbued her with the secrets of the universe that she might pass down to all dragons, and ordered her to make all her children good stewards of that knowledge. In this way, the Broodmother became the moral authority in the dragon belief system.

Dragon Religon

Dragons are monotheistic in the sence that they believe the One King is the only true god. The Broodmother is not considered a diety, but is essentially worshipped in place of the One King, who is considered the god of humans. It is a distinction that is sometimes unclear, and creates a great deal of confusion for humans attempting to understand the dragon belief system.

There is no organizational structure to the dragon's religion, no 'dragon bible', though there are considered to be a series of teachings handed down by the Broodmother. These teachings have been preserved as oral tradition, though some of them may have been written down in the dragons' written language.

The veneration of the Broodmother essentially ended with the Fall of Roads, when the flights fractured. Before the fall, there were no Fallen Dragons, there had never been a war between flights, and no dragon had ever harmed another. In a very real sense, the dragons lost their goddess then. Some flights would continue to revere her and pass down her teachings, but with each generation it became more and more uncommon, and many of the Broodmother's teachings are considered lost. Unannounced to the dragons, however, a complete copy, translated into Standard rests in the Library of Arindell.

Dragon Creation Story

In the begining, there was The Broodmother. She was without direction or shape, with no form to call her own. So the One King came to her and touched her head, and gave her the form of the dragon. He told her that she was to become an emissary, a common thread to link all beings.

There were no other dragons then, so the One King blessed The Broodmother with 12 eggs. She cared for them for 1000 nights, keeping them warm and tending to them as a mother should. On the morning after the 1000th night, 11 of the eggs hatched.

The Broodmother raised her young as a dragon should, and taught them to fly. All 11 of her children were male, and when they came of age, she saw that they had no mates. So she went to a volcano and drew out six measures of fire, and crafted them into six red female dragons, made in her own image. She then flew to a great stone mountain, and with a mighty roar, shook loose four measures of stone. These were carved into four black female dragons. Finally, the Broodmother flew high into the sky and spread both of her wings wide apart, and scooped up two measures of wind. These she could not control, their shape was beyond her power to mold, so she spoke to the One King and asked him to help. He made the shape flow into the form of two blue female dragons, and the Broodmother returned to her cave to to present her sons with their mates.

Existence

It is unclear as to whether or not the Broodmother did exist, though it is widely regarded as a matter of faith. Because a dragon lives forever , it is possible that she never died. However, she would be almost as old as time itself.