In the beginning the world serpent was a creature without differentiation- no life or death, no good or evil, no law or chaos. This displeased the great serpent and They displaced various aspects of Their form to form the world. The World Serpent took a piece of Themselves that wished only to Give and separated it from the part that wished only to take and hungered for power. And They gave the former part form and the name of kindness. And this form became sun and moon which brought light to the night and day. And the World Serpent took Their urge to action and dynamism and separated it from their urge to inaction and lethargy. And They gave the former part and form and the name of Life. And this became apart from the World Serpent as it acted and changed itself. And the World Serpent watched as all the madness and calamity of life sprung up around it with the light of the sun and moon to guide it. But with these aspects of the World Serpent separated the Great Beast ceased to be whole and so it split into two aspects. One became the Goodly Serpent Protector, giver of light and life, and so They became the father and mother of all Good Dragons. But this left another aspect, unnamed and unitilized by the World Serpent which had now ceased to be whole. This unnamed part, dark and hungering and resourceful, squatted in the depths of darkness and watched with envious eyes the endless calamity and ecstasy of life. Appalled at its unnamed state the aspect decided it would create it’s own name and so become the origin of its own power. And this aspect became so powerful in its self naming superiority that it overcame and destroyed the Giving aspect of the World Serpent. And so this piece, which named itself Tlomnyr, became the Mother and Father of all evil dragons. Tlomnyr emerged from darkness and swooped across the realms of Life, decimating everything it could find and consuming it to grow ever stronger. Nothing the forces of life could muster stood a chance at destroying Tlomnyr, for They were the master of death and therefore unphased by it. The guardians of life lamented that, even should they find a way to slay Tlomnyr, it would only be returned to death, the dominion over which it alone held sway, and would soon return. All hope seemed lost.
But one day Tlomnyr swooped across a village on the way to a larger city and was prepared to smite it until They saw a large mass of Black smoke emerging from the edge of it. Curious, the great beast swooped down to investigate the dark smoke, but found her impeccable eyes somehow couldn’t penetrate it. Unbeknownst to her, Gnollkor, powerful wizard and believed ancestor to all modern men and elves, was concealed amongst the dark smoke. But she did not take this opportunity to try and attack Tlomnyr, a venture she knew foolish, but rather spoke politely to alert the monsters attention to her presence.
-Who goes there? The Dragon God bellowed, Show yourself and I shall reward you with a more quick and painless death!
-Ah! Said the voice, that I cannot do, for you see, I am a voice that will not cry, for I am a sole that cannot die, what am I?
The Dragon was so fascinated at the prospect of a worthy adversary truly incapable of death that They sat down and began to puzzle over the conundrum for many days. And this gave the legions of Gods and Mortals at last enough time to regroup their forces and ambush the beast just sat there muttering to itself in the forest. For the wisdom Gnollkor had which holds true even today, a true Dragon can never resist a riddle.