The end of the warlords came in the form of the great beings who had until that time lived in solitude away from the workings of their lesser brethren: The Dragons of Beuath.  Like the Four, the dragon had also watched on with disgust as the lesser races made war upon each other and slaughtered themslves by the thousands.  Unlike the Four, the dragons took it upon themselves to make right the horrible tragedy of the world.

 

Like a tide of destructive force, the dragons descended upon the lesser races.  Reistant to magic, possessing spells to equal all but the most powerful clerics and mages, and with hides that only the most powerful of magic weapons could pierce, the dragons easily wrested control and dispatched the warlords.

 

From that point the dragons ruled Beuath, the oldest and most powerful wyrms dividing the lands amongst themselves.  The lesser races were little better than slaves, and initial rebellion was easily destroyed.

 

Near the middle of the Fifth Age, a great Arkian wyrm named Kiymanikisserith began to slowly usurp control from his kin, his own territory growing as they were forced from their own lands or destroyed.  Known as Kiym the Black by the lesser races, Kiymanikisserith not only stole the hoards of his kin and added them to his own, but demanded a tribute of young men and maidens every month; these victims were to be of those with arcane talent or other mystic ability.  Through dark and foul magics he stole the life forces form these sacrifices and added them to his own, swelling in size and power beyond that of any dragon alive.

 

At his height of power Kiymanikisserith is said to have blotted out the skies with his great bulk, and his scales were as black and deep as the night sky as a result of the foul necromancy that unnaturally sustained him.  His hunger for power was insatiable, and over the course of a century he had slain all of the elder dragons powerful enough to oppose him.  With the elders slain, the younger dragons cowered under Kiymanikisserith's rule, and for another century Beuath was eclipsed by a darkness.

 

Kiymanikisserith disappeared suddenly after a century of rule, and left no trace of himself behind.  Even his hoard mysteriously disappeared, though it is believed to have been looted by younger dragons shortly after his disappearance.  Afterwards a story began circulation pertaining to Kiymanikisserith's disappearance, and soon it became a part of Beuath folklore.

 

The story is as follows:

 

A young sorceress who had managed to avoid being selected for sacrifice began a long trek across the Arkian Waste to find the hidden lair of Kiymanikisserith.  Young though she was, she possessed great magical power and survived on her magic alone.  When she reached the lair of the great dragon, Kiymanikisserith was so surprised that a mortal had managed to find his abode that he engaged the sorceress in conversation.

 

The sorceress revealed that she had come for one reason and one reason only: to end Kiymanikisserith's rule forever.  Such a proclamation amused the dragon so greatly that his laughter shook the very earth beneath them.  When he had recovered, Kiymanikisserith decided to amuse himself further with the sorceress and propose a wager: the two of them would compete in a contest of the sorceress's choice, and the loser would be destroyed.

 

No sooner had the sorceress agreed than Kiymanikisserith wove his magic about them both.  So confident was the dragon in his own ability that he saw no harm in allowing himself to be bound in such a way, and such was his downfall.  The sorceress declared the contest be one of wits, and for three days the two of them battled with words.

 

Finally, on the sunset of the third day, the sorceress asked this riddle;

 

 

Kiymanikisserith, for all his vaunted ability and power, could bring nothing to mind that fit the riddle.  He knew he had lost, and even as the power of his own magic devoured him Kiymanikisserith brought down the roof of his lair upon himself and the sorceress in an attempt to exact final revenge.

 

The irony of the tale is that What came to Kiymanikisserith's mind was indeed the answer: Nothing.  The tale became a legend, and is used to the present day as a lesson to children not to be overconfident and to be aware of the strengths of others.

 

With Kiymanikisserith gone and the elder dragons slain, new hope was given to the lesser races.  Rallied by this hope and armed with magicarms and armor forged in secret, the lesser races fought back against their draconic tyrants.  Though many directly assaulted the dragons, many more endorsed a tactic that drove a spike of fear into the hearts of dragons all over the world.  While some brave souls acted as decoys to draw the dragons out of their lairs, others sneaked inside and destroyed nests and eggs.  Wyrmlings were slaughtered without mercy, and soon the dragons found themselves driven back int the far reaches of the world from which they had originally descended upon Beuath.

 

Still the lesser races continued their attacks, determined to exact revenge for an Age of slavery, and even the great power of the dragons was in danger of being wiped out in the face of overwhelming numbers.  Even as the lesser races made their final plans, the Four decided that they would no longer stand aside and ignore the Material Plane.  They scattered the armies with their power and decreed that the dragons would inhabit domains far ebyond the habitations of the lesser races.  To slay a dragon in cold blood would be to invite ten millennia of torment upon any soul, and for a dragon to seek to conquer would result in the same.

 

The Four laid down an edict tht no longer would Beuath be ruled my church or man; Instead, the peoples of the Lands would form their own governments under the guidance of the churches.  In this way the churches would guide the direction of their Lands, but the people would possess the power to override the mandate of the church if it was their will.  They declared that the Age of Dragons was over and so began the Age of Peace.