Chapter 8

He found there had been ten major cities, but now only nine remained. The missing city was on a small island to the north called Kho Rhon'ah and Uriel could only glean that something had happened to it during the Great Wars. Interspersed between the cities were a number of villages, mostly of an agrarian nature.

He learned about the socio-economic structures of the cities and that each had distinct inhabitants and thus personalities. He was shocked to find that several cities, Qyntes'ah and Fhon Dhawz in particular, were very segregated. The racial/ethnic difficulties here centered on humans, elves, dwarfs and halflings, with the most serious conflict between the elves and dwarfs. Seven centuries before, the two fought each other in the StoneWood Wars. Nothing much was resolved, though there remained much tension between the two races even until today, as was exhibited by Qelharre and Wyxotte.

More than five hundred years ago was the FireHunt. This was the impetus for FireQueen's pact with Qhen Ennyjhenne, High Witch of the Moons at the time. It was precipitated by the elves who thought wood sacred and the dragons who were fire breathers and admittedly had torched a few trees in their time. Therefore the conflict. But many felt (not surprisingly the dwarfs among them) their vengeance against the great reptiles was due to having to settle for a draw in the not too distant StoneWood Wars. It was a fierce and bloody struggle with much destruction. But in the end most of the dragons were driven from Khaballe, finding homes in distant lands.

It was during the FireHunt that Mhelynycyn gained recognition among the people of Khaballe as a cruel and ruthless DragonHunter. The populace, looking for heroes against these supposed savage beasts, propelled him to popularity. So much so that he was able to position himself as a viable candidate for the throne which he eventually won (or took).