Dragons of Tirenia: The Golden Horde and the Last Gold Dragon

Not all of the gold dragons are dead.

At the fall of the Auromian Empire, the last surviving gold dragons fled Tirenia for distant lands. Tirenia is often myopic in its focus, and so their survival went unnoticed. Over time, the Golden Emperor unified Tataria. Tataria is wrongly dismissed as a backwards, barbaric land by the Tirenians, and so this went unnoticed. The Golden Emperor then brought his Tatarian horsemen to bear against far-distant Cataia. There was a brief hiccup in the trade of silks, but when the silk trade resumed, the Tirenians paid it no notice. Eventually a Vanzenian trader, Niccolo Defusah, travelled to the court of the Golden Emperor, where he was given many rich gifts and told the Emperor all about his home. Defusah has since returned home, but few have noticed the threat implicit in the story of his travels - of course a foreign court would mimic Tirenian dragon iconography!

The Golden Horde is mustering. The Emperor's bodyguards, a legion of half-dragons that he himself sired by his concubines, will ride by his side as he returns home to reclaim what is his. The dragons of Tirenia are mighty, but they are consumed by their own intrigues. They have no idea what is soon coming for them...

Image result for chen rong gold dragon
Art: Detail from 'Nine Dragons.' Chen Rong, 1244.

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