Mellark

Mellark, (original name unknown,) was one of the Tyrants that were created by the Golden One in the First Age. After coming to the conclusion that the Golden One would be sentencing his race to permanent hybernation due to their inefficiency at helping other species on the planet, Mellark set about some means to be resurrected if such an event were to happen. Mellark is creditted with the creation of the Dragon Race, and generally went around causing chaos for the majority of the Second Age, to the extent that he was coined the First Great Enemy, (the second one being the Shadow Tyrant himself.)

As previously mentioned, Mellark figured out that he, along with the entirety of his species, were to be sealed away deep within the ground, perhaps forever. With this knowledge, he went around setting up secret ways for him to come back to power- whether this was some form of machine, some magic that allowed him to keep his conscience, the seperation of soul from body, or any other theory is often debated. However, what is known is that at some stage, Mellark regained control of his thoughts and his body and freed himself of the tomb he had been sealed in. Wishing to take revenge on his creator for such mistreatment of his race, Mellark went about trying to recreate his own race onmasse throughout the rest of the First Age.

During his many experiments, Mellark came to the conclusion that he simply could not recreate his race. Creating a Tyrant from scratch was impossible, he found, and therefore went on to experimenting with lizards. Though he could shape them into many different species, none were even close to what he had planned. He did make a minor breakthrough in that by fusing his own lifeforce with the egg of one of these creatures, a formidable offspring was formed with a lot of magical potency. Mellark is known to have used a snake, a frog and a lizard in this time to create his more well-known disciples.

Yet all efforts were in vain. Trying to create anything from his own blood or his lifeforce only made pale copies. Trying to morph other creatures into Tyrants simply made large, psychotic creations with little magical capabilities. Placing his life force in these creatures gave them intelligence and some magical capabilites, yet nothing above the common mortal. Although placing his life force into their eggs seemed to be the most successful idea to date, it still fell flat of what he needed. He had even acquired another Tyrant, and had killed it and seperated it piece by piece to learn the secrets of it's races anatomy, knowing that simply awakening the Tyrants wouldn't be enough, for they would alone not be powerful enough to face the entity known as the Golden One.

Therefore, after many centuries of study, Mellark finally decided to lure out ReptileMonarch Czar, who was lord to all reptillian creatures. So he released the Wyrms, creatures that were once snakes yet had been mutilated significantly by Mellark so that they were gargantuan. Mellark knew that Czar existed in Pier-Haveral, therefore only by creating a new reptillian species would he be lead out, for this would puzzle the Beast King greatly. And so out came Czar, and he was siezed by Mellark and taken deep into the bowels of the earth to be experimented on.

For a time, Mellark made Czar breed with the various reptiles that Mellark kept contained in his lair, and when that number grew thin, he bred Czar with many of the monstrosities that Mellark had created. Still, the list of failures grew on. Finally, Mellark, using his foul magic, forced Czar to conceive an egg with no other partner, and Mellark pumped his own lifeforce into this egg. The result was Drahk-Kuhn, Forefather of Dragons, Despoiler of the Land, Abomination unto this earth. Drahk-Kuhn posessed great power, perhaps outweighing that of Mellark himself, and contained great intelligence too. A side affect due to the crossbreeding lead to Drahk-Kuhn being gargantuan in size, so that it could even make a mouse out of the Helkraken.

Due to this size, however, Mellark felt that Drahk-Kuhn would be ineffective with it's magical ability, for it would simply overlook the many dangers it would face. Therefore Mellark decided to make avatars for Drahk-Kuhn to place it's magic into, so that Drahk-Kuhn could share it's magical abilities out equally into an army and decimate the lands. Breeding Drahk-Kuhn with the Wyrms gave the result of these avatars- the Greater Dragons. The breeding of Greater Dragons with Drahk-Kuhn lead to the development of Elder Dragons, so named for their purer magical capabilities. And Greater Dragons, upon breeding with themselves, produced the Lesser Dragons which are more commonly known throughout the lands.

Mellark made many observations during this period, which left him furious. He noted immediately that Lesser Dragons weren't the next stage in the evolution of the Tyrants- they were a vastly inferior race. Little intelligent, they depended mostly on raw brutality. The Lesser Dragons could breed ammongst themselves, the Greater Dragons or Drahk-Kuhn, yet the offspring were the same- more Lesser Dragons.

Greater Dragons were a slightly greater success. They posessed intelligence and greater magical capabilities, yet the fact that they could not produce more members of their own species was a great disappointment. Mellark knew it would take more than these to win the battle for Raeltir. Elder Dragons were greater still than these, posessing a super-human intelligence and could perfectly manipulate magic, and grew stronger with age, yet could not reproduce at all.

Finally, Mellark allowed Czar and Drahk-Kuhn to breed, and the Dragon King, Mehtmar, was produced- like the Lesser Dragons in outlook, yet stronger, with great intelligence and three beastial-heads. Yet it was deemed no greater than the Greater Dragons. Realising that his mistreatment of Drahk-Kuhn was leading to her being unstable, Mellark sealed her away for his own protection, and yet also to preserve her, for he perceived he may have uses for her yet.

At this stage, he released the Lesser Dragons and Mehtmar, deeming them failures, yet they caused much havock upon the world. Noticing the ammount of destruction which they brought, and noting also that the Golden One had not intervened, Mellark went on to release many more of his monstrosities onto the world. It was upon the release of the Elder Dragons did Mellark finally reveal himself to the world, and a grand war begun.