Dragon (Total War)

Dragons are primordial beings that naturally arose on the world of Hyrule during its Age of Myth and the Realm of Twilight long before.

History
Dragons, along with the Maku Trees, differ from the other beings of Hyrule in that they naturally arose without the influence of the Goddesses and their servants, or the Druthulidi. They formed as natural manifestations of the concept of chaos and change, growing and spreading across the primordial surface of Hyrule. The role of dragons could be compared to that of "gut bacteria," beings that form a symbiotic relationship with the world, bringing change by devouring old life and encouraging new life. The dragons utterly ruled both the primordial age of the Realm of Twilight and Hyrule's Age of Myth, constantly devouring and reshaping the world.

In the Realm of Twilight, the dragons, known as Dark Dragons, were aquatic beings adapted to the water world, archpredators and lords of its ecosystem until the world's natural processes began to end and the oceans dry. The surviving Dark Dragons retreated to a deep abyssal rift, which eventually became exposed, with its remaining waters frozen into vast canyons of ice. They came to rule over the various beings driven east into the Nether Rifts by the expansion of the Twili, such as Shadow Bulblins.

The Hyrulean Age of Dragons ended with the coming of the First Sages and Oracles, whom destroyed or drove the Dragons of Hyrule into hiding to bring forth order and civilization. Some of the weaker dragons, whom were the scavengers and runts of their kind, survived, aligning themselves with the First Sages or otherwise hiding in depth the earth. One dragon known as Valoo became a servant of the Goddesses, becoming the god figure of the Rito, while others such as Gleeok survived in the depths of the Great Sea.

Volvagians, formerly the smallest and weakest of all dragons, aligned with Maphaeus, First Sage of Fire, with one of the greatest of their kind, Dakkon, being selected as her successor as Second Sage of Fire.

The Volvagians lived in the magma caverns deep below Death Mountain until 645 BG, when the Gorons and their Lizalfos allies dug too deep and released them into the upper caverns that they inhabited, and eventually the surface world. While the runts of their kind, the Volvagians were as gods to the mortal beings of Hyrule, and quickly enslaved the Gorons, whom were betrayed by their Lizalfos allies, whom came to revere the serpentine dragons as gods. For over 500 years the Volvagians and their Lizalfos slavemasters ruled over the Death Mountain Range, working the Gorons to death in mines while extorting other mortals for tribute. It was their fateful decision to ally with the Moblin Warlord Ganon in 0 AG against the Kingdom of Hyrule that led to Hylian-backed Goron rebellion that finally toppled their empire. Dakkon was slain and succeeded as Sage by the Goron King Darunia, and the remaining Volvagians fled to the hot, remote corners of the world, some traveling with their former Lizalfos servants to Faron Woods, while others sought refuge in the Gerudo Desert, eventually allying with the Gerudo for vengeance against the Hylians during the Gerudo Wars.