Prologue: A Faith Forgotten

 

Early in the First Age, an ancient kingdom of Men known as the Esconil were threatened by a fearsome Creature of Darkness. The exact nature of this beast is no longer remembered, but it is known that the creature's name was Grekh, and the Men of this kingdom were nearly defeated by it and a fierce army of Orcs and Goblins that it led.  In their hour of greatest need, Ilúvatar blessed the Esconil with the appearance of a mighty Silver Dragon who swept down from the Eastern sky at dawn in a magnificent shower of light. Grekh and the Silver Dragon battled one another across the land for eight days and eight nights. On the dawning of the ninth day the Silver Dragon cast the Creature of Darkness over the edge of a great chasm and into an icy river where it perished.

 

The Silver Dragon returned to the Esconil to help them fight back the Goblins and Orcs who had followed Grekh and were still threatening them. The Silver Dragon revealed himself to be one of the Maiar, a lesser Ainur sent by Ilúvatar to protect his faithful. But rather than teaching the Esconil to fight the Goblin and Orc invaders directly, the Silver Dragon taught them to sing some of the ancient songs of power to mend both the body and spirit, while demoralizing and striking fear into their foes. The Goblins and Orcs fled, and the Esconil were once again free.

 

The Esconil begged the Silver Dragon to remain and continue to guide them, but the Silver Dragon insisted that he was no longer needed. He did offer them a promise, though – when the day came that the Men of this land were once again in dire need, he would return to them and once again lead them to victory against the forces of Darkness. He challenged the Esconil to remain ever vigilant and prepared for when this day would arrive, so they could quickly take up arms and be ready to fight alongside him when he made his triumphant return. And so, to keep themselves ready for this day the Esconil formed a kinship of their mightiest warriors which they named Light of the Silver Dragon.

 

After the Silver Dragon departed, the Men of the land wrote songs and poems about the Dragon and the battle they fought against the Creature of Darkness and his evil forces. The tales were passed down from generation to generation, but through the millennia they changed from an actual account of past events into mere myth and legend. The Light of the Silver Dragon went from a fellowship of devout warriors keeping ready for battle to a simple band of bards and minstrels passing on fanciful stories of larger-than-life heroes from ancient days and the charming, but quite ridiculous, notion of a noble dragon that led them.