The Secret Craft of Dracology

History of the Craft

The Flaemish Landfall

At the end of the fourth century of the modern era, the Flaems, descendants of the Followers of the Flame from Old Alphatia who had wandered through the planes for fourteen centuries, arrived in the Highlands and settled in the region. They immediately began exploring their new homeland, discovering the existence of the dragons living in the mountains. They were awed by the power of red and gold dragons, who were able to breathe fire more powerful then the Flaems' own fiery spells.

The Flaemish Wizards started creating a collection of magic spells and arcane rituals, with the purpose of imitating the powers of these dragons, protecting themselves from their attacks, and controlling them for their own purposes. In time, this became the basis of the body of knowledge of Dracology.

Dragonwars

During the following centuries, the Flaems and the dragons waged a cold war and competed over the Radiance. The dragons had already discovered Radiance when the Flaems arrived, but they refrained from using it, for they feared its corrupting power, after one of them, a particularly power-hungry green, had been transformed in a horrible undead creature.

The Flaems, on the other hand, were drawn to the Radiance by their innate attraction for magic, and quickly gathered many clues, which led them to believe that the dragons owned the key of a great magical power. Therefore, they tried to capture as many dragons as possible, to exact from them the prized knowledge.

The war was always fought by the dragons through mercenaries, especially humanoids, or through intrigue, espionage and assassination. More than once, draconic emissaries were able to persuade greedy Khans of Ethengar to raid the Flaemish territory, or to trick some hotheaded Flaemish Duke to invade the Sea of Grass.

The Flaems responded with dragon-hunts, which were costly in terms of men and money, and rarely ended with the capture of a dragon. In the end, some dragons were killed, and so were many of the top Flaemish wizards. The dragons grew tired of the continuous threat of the Flaems, but could never agree on wiping them out, and simply retreated to unreachable mountains.

This happened also because many younger dragons were not aware of Radiance, and the older ones had noticed that the Flaems were not able to advance much in their research. The dragons decided to leave the humans to their devices, and to send only a few spies to report on the Flaems' magical progresses, and eventually to murder those wizards who went too far.

During these years, Dracology was formalized as a Secret Craft among the Flaems, and there were many High Masters, though few lasted long, either murdered by the dragons or killed in a duel by one of their own ambitious Dragon Masters.

In the end, the ducal family of the Van Agts prevailed, establishing a line of High Masters destined to last for a one hundred and fifty years.

Arrival of the Colonists

When the Thyatian colonists arrived, the Flaemish Duke Rodolfus Van Agt, High Master of Dracology, was one of the few Flaems to befriend them, to the point that he had his daughter Louise marry the Hattian leader Herr Joachim von Drachenfels. Duke Rodolfus and his son Willem Van Agt went so far as to share their Secret Craft with Herr Helmut von Drachenfels, Herr Joachim's cousin and magist.

The dragons, worried by the possibility that the knowledge of Dracology would spread too much, persuaded the more racist Flaems, particularly the Flaemish Fire Wizards, that Dracology had been tainted by the sharing of knowledge with the Hattians, and so it was no longer worthy of much academic attention. The dragons had also led the Flaems to believe that Dracology had always been an inferior form of magic, because it was not based on the purest strength of Elemental Fire, and that it was polluted by the passage through an intermediate race, the dragons, who are clearly inferior to the mighty Flaems. The dragons heavily used their polymorph abilities and mind-controlling spells to carefully spread these ideas, and they found a good ear among the racist Flaems.

Due to this subtle influence, the Flaem wizards were deterred from pursuing the study of Dracology, and focused their study on Fire Elementalism alone. The death of Louise von Drachenfels and Willem Van Agt, and the sudden hostility between Hattians and Flaems contributed to the success of the ultimate plan of the dragons.

The Drachenfels line, however, through Herr Helmut's sons, improved its knowledge and shared it with Alphatian wizards and Erewan elves for common defense against the Flaems in the ensuing wars.

The Forty Years War

In the Forty Years War, the Hattian Dracologists, lead by prominent members of the Drachenfels family, made their debut on the battlefield. They had a good success, giving an important contribution to the early victories of Halzunthram.

Later, when the Thyatians, elves and Flaems rebelled against Halzunthram, the Dracologists' ranks dwindled dangerously, and this was relevant in the decision to switch side, as the surviving Dracologists told the Count Wilhelm von Drachenfels that they were not willing to fight anymore, since their order's survival was at risk.

It was by the same reason that the Hattians shared Dracology with their Alphatian allies, who later on leaked this knowledge to the elves. These Alphatians and mixed Alphatian-Hattian families, like the Wolfen family, died out in the later conflicts among the Alphatian factions for Vortram's succession.

The Craft proved to be quite popular among the Erewan elves, as it adapted well to the fighter-wizard style of combat, and gave an edge to the elves hailing from lesser clans, who had little hope to raise far in their native Secret Craft of Cryptomancy, where the ruling clan tightly controlled the access to the higher circles of power.

The Recent Years

The von Drachenfels remained in control of the Secret Craft of Dracology until the death of Prinz Friedrich von Drachenfels, whose heirs had as much magical aptitude as the stones of Schloß Ritterburg. The position of High Master remained vacant for a time , until Herr Kaspar von Graustein, the Baron of Adlerturm and heir of another ancient Hattian family, reached the Fifth Circle of Power. Unfortunately, Herr Kaspar was already quite old, and died within a few years, taking with him many of the secrets of Dracology.

A few years later, an ambitious Dracologist from Klantyre, Lord Conan McDougall, Count of Glenargyll, achieved High Mastery of Dragons. High Master Conan was a Red Dragon Master, and had discovered the possibility to attaining the status of an Immortal being. Unable to see the risks of such an endeavor, Lord Conan transformed into the Pearl Dragon, but was immediately discovered and challenged by the true Pearl. Conan was a formidable wizard, but he was not strong enough to defeat the Immortal Dragon, who destroyed him.

The news of High Master's death by a powerful draconic creature from beyond the Planes spread like fire among the Secret Craft. The Dracologists of the higher circles became fearful of achieving too much power and attracting the attention of extraplanar beings, and another interregnum ensued.

The next High Master of Dracology was the greatest Aalbanese wizard of all time, Herr Johann von Drachenfels. From his time on, the von Drachenfels have always kept the High Mastery in their hands.

Members of the Craft

High Masters of Dracology

Since the foundation of the Craft around AC 450, there were many Flaemish Dracologists claiming to be the High Master of Dracology, but their rulership was frequently contested by lesser dragon masters and by dragons themselves. Few High Masters were able to keep their positions for significant amounts of time.

Famous Dracologists of the Past

Louise van Agt. The daughter of the Flaemish Duke of Aalban and High Master of Dracology, Rodolfus van Agt, was a powerful Dragon Master in her own right. She was a Ruby Dracologist and she married Herr Joachim von Drachenfels, leader of the Hattian settlers to the Highlands. Louise was instrumental in teaching the Flaemish traditions of Dracology to the already famous dragon-hunting family of the von Drachenfels.

Gavril Kviepoly, Baron of Palatinsk. The last, and perhaps the least, of a long line of scholarly Boldavian wizards, Gavril could not live up to familyhis vampiric status, he was immediately exterminated. 

Recent and Present Members

Author: Giampaolo Agosta