The First Age

(Also known as the Age of Dragons, and the Age of Gold)

"First among the mortal races were the Dragons, children of Xanadu. The Dragons ruled when the world was young and they were peaceful and good. They discovered many things of beauty and magical power, but they also found the Dark Path, the road of magic that leads to greed and the desire for power. Many of the Dragons were curious and followed the Dark Path, and they were seduced by it and became twisted and greedy and cruel. They carried their greed with them even beyond death, becoming the spirits who live in the darkness and speak to mortals hoping to seduce them. When the Dragons who were still good saw this, they were saddened for they knew that their race was doomed. So, they looked to another race to be their successors, and they taught what they knew, and what they had been, to the Elves, whom they loved as their children, and forbade to them the Dark Path so that they might be protected. And the race of the children of Xanadu was sundered, and thus passed the Age of Gold".

 -- Hieronomous Haynes, Sage of Carzala, 784 WK.