The Celestial Dragon, Shield of Anuire and Sword of Heaven, is blessed with legion offspring; seven sons and nine daughters to be precise. In time some of his offspring founded their own Houses and begat progeny of their own. While important in their own right, none rose to the greatness that the 9^th daughter and the 7^th son did.

While many of the Dragon’s children were devout followers of Haelyn and led pious lives, there were many who followed different gods and alternate fates. It is believed that some of the other gods were not too pleased with Haelyn’s interaction with the mortal realm, and chose to subtly make their influence known in some of the Dragon’s children.

At least in the case of Moerdred the Black is this the case, for he betrayed his own father to the Shadow to gain power and immortality. The same goes for Sannaene, who gave herself to the Black Dragon for much the same reason. Yet other children had other fates, interesting in their own right, but not ultimately so damning. Take Elyasia for example, firstborn of the Dragon, who for some reason seemed touched by the Old Gods, and whose path brought her into conflict with the Order as often as not, but who cannot be called a Shadow-spawn.

The full tale of all the Children were not know to contemporary sources, nor were they available to scholars or bards of later ages either. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that even the Dragon knew, or cared about, the existence of all these children. Many of the Children were also unaware of the identity of their true father. The Book of the Dragon does mention the Celestial Dragon mating and begetting progeny, but it does not go into detail regarding any particular affair, and does even clearly omit facts (such as the existence and lineage of the Black Dragon).

Indeed, only some of the Children were known to the Order in their own time, and of those only a few were confirmed descendants of the Celestial Dragon. Most lived, and quite a few led great and remarkable lives, but they did so on their own accord, and had no direct interaction with the Dragon or the Order.

Not until Shaedan Draco became involved in the research of the Life of the Dragon (not something the Order would allow any non-member to delve too deeply into, and thus a field of research with very few practitioners), did the full truth become known. And even then it was a very long time before anyone outside a very select circle was let into the secrets of the Children of the Dragon…

Children of the Dragon

* Fallen, the champion of the Shadow

** Fallen, the consort of the Black Dragon

^ The unborn twins should have been born in 1543, but were reincarnated around 1753 HC. Nobody really knows who the firstborn of the pair is (this could be important, since the prophecies speak of the 9th daughter, and not the eight). Generally speaking, the Order assumes that Iliane the Empress is the 9^th daughter.