After Lord Veringard, a friend and ally of the dragons, died under unknown causes there was turmoil in the court. Since Veringard had no son, there was no heir. Therefore, his chief advisor, Marsibadd, a powerful and slightly mad mage, took the throne and promptly declared the First Races a plague on the land and demons for their use and control of the elements, a skill that human mages could not master. If the pure and righteous mages of the Order could not use the elements, then any who could was unrighteous and impure he reasoned. His armies began scouring the land, searching for the creatures that they told the people were the cause of the droughts and plagues that swept the land. Because these impure beings were allowed to live unhindered in their kingdom, the gods had turned their faces from them, Marsibadd told them. So young mages were taught to despise all of these creatures and young men who joined the army were taught to kill them without mercy. The irony of it was that as these armies went in search of the Races, they looted and pillaged towns, burning their already meager crops and adding to the problem.
But rumors circulated quickly among the dragons and the other peoples who made up the First Races. Rumors that said that Marsibadd was not just trying to purge the world of what he called abominations, he was also looking for something. The word something was always said in a lowered, ominous voice as though this something was so evil that even mentioning its name was risking the horror of whatever power it possessed. Lora herself had never put much stock in such murmurings, but others of her community had. However, most of the dragons simply were too busy struggling to survive to worry about Marsibadd�s ulterior motives.
The armies alone would have not bothered the dragons themselves (even though they were troublesome to the other Races) since arrows and swords could do them no harm, but mages traveled with each army. A required number of five must be with them at all times. For dragon-kind, and all of the proclaimed demons, this posed a problem. So, they called on their distant relatives, the fire-children, for aid.
These people often went by many names, fire-people, dragon-mages, fire-born, or the Order of the Flame which was especially popular among those who wished to separate themselves further from the human mages and their Orders. But, the name that most called them by and they have most called themselves was fire-mages. This was also the most fitting, considering that they are the only mages with any human features who can control fire, the most dangerous and difficult of the elements. Among those powers was also the ability to create illusions and create inorganic material and shape it to their will. Also, they could heal themselves and others. The first power they shared with the dragons and the last they shared with the humans. Empathy, however, or the ability to sense the emotions of another, and healing was only found among those who possessed the yellow eyes of the fire-mages. They also were had another gift completely unique to their race alone. When they sang, together or alone, the fire-mages could do one of three things depending on which song was sung. They had the power to uncover that which was hidden, place wards and protection spells, and control the minds of non-magical humans so long as they heard their song. This gift was called the Star Song since legend said that the Goddess of the Stars, Simione, gave that power and the powers of both empathy and healing to the first of the fire-mages since they are her most favored children. The Star Song was different, however, in that in order to obtain it, a fire-mage must travel to Simione�s temple when they are 17 and there they would be given the knowledge required to wield it.
For these reasons, the fire-children made the perfect helpers in such a huge undertaking as the building of Shavasta. They readily agreed, since they hated violence or killing of any kind and also, despite not being one of the First Races and therefore being more closely related to humans, they had always been friends with each of the four peoples. And so, a council of dragons and dragon-mages was called to decide on a site for the city. One of the lower peaks of Mt. Cornelius was chosen and work began. The Gates and walls were built first as a preventative measure against any venturous human who climbed the treacherous mountain. Fire-mages and dragons worked in concert to raise the walls. While a fire-mage created and shaped the limestone, weaving marble, gold, and silver through its make, a dragon stood behind him, embedding illusions into the raw material. Behind the dragon, a chorus of Star Singers weaved protection spells into the stone with their songs.
Soon, the wall was done and the illusions in place; from the outside, an outsider would only see a sheer face of rock, unable to be climbed or passed around, that rose up to disappear in the mist that shrouded the peak of the mountain.
The city itself was much easier to build since houses need not have so many spells for illusion and protection and the whole thing was completed within the year.
However, much changed during that year. Mages of the human Order began to wonder why they no longer could find any of the creatures that they had vowed to purge Tarin of. For the fire-mages had also been helping the other three Races to create their own havens against the storm of hatred. Those secret places hid their occupants so well that they all appeared to have simply vanished when mages knew that they had yet to destroy them all. Their wrath immediately turned to the fire-mages themselves. The droughts and disease was worse than ever and now with the dragons and other Races becoming a rare occurrence, the people needed another scapegoat. Or perhaps, some said, Marsibadd had exhausted all of his other resources to finding whatever he was looking for and now had narrowed the search to the only race other than humans to not be included in the First Races. But regardless of the reasons, they had turned on the only other Masters of the Elements: those who were fire-born.
Lora sighed as she thought of the horrors that were wrought on the dragons� staunch allies and faithful friends. They were killed and driven out of their homes and, since they had no love for violence as they felt all the hurt of their enemies through their empathy, they did nothing but flee and pray to Simione for guidance.
No one had suspected the hunt for the fire-mages to be easy. The only thing that distinguished them from the rest of the human race was their dragon wings, horns, and yellow eyes and all those things were easily hidden. The wings and horns could be retracted into the skin and their eyes were made to appear black by illusions. However, mages of the human Orders could sense illusions and those of the Order of the Dove were able to sense any creature with dragon blood.