Avatar: The Last Airbender had a fantastical world that became all the more fantastical with the introduction of dragons to its lore. However, by the time the series revealed that the mythical creatures were not so mythical after all, they were nearly extinct. By the time of The Legend of Korra, they were barely seen at all, and although fans knew that generations of Firebenders hunting them down explained their extinction, they could never quite know how severe the consequences of those dragon hunts were.
But Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game released a core book recently that delves into the lore of Avatar and reveals just how important dragons were to the world before they vanished. It may just be one of the most mythic parts of Avatar's history, and now fans finally know what it is.
Dragons were always part of the Avatar lore seldom explored. Seen briefly during the time of the first Avatar, Wan, they were understood to be integral to teaching Firebenders the art of wielding fire in the form of a martial art. During Fire Lord Sozin's reign in the Era of Roku, the practice of hunting dragons down became so widespread that the species became nearly extinct. Although Aang had a brief run-in with one dragon while protecting its egg from hunters, they were thought to be entirely gone before he rediscovered Ran and Shaw alongside Zuko. Zuko then appeared in The Legend of Korra with a new dragon, Druk, and beyond that, the series contained little more information about them.
However, Avatar Legends offers an extended look at the history of dragons in each Era, both fleshing out the information already present in the lore and revealing new tidbits for fans to go crazy over. In the core book, the practice of hunting dragons is most explored during the Era of Roku, where it's said that Sozin believed slaying a dragon granted a Firebender immense power. The Fire Lord partly pushed the Dragon Hunts as a political maneuver after he felt his support waning, but the nobility of the Fire Nation embraced the new sport voraciously. The result is that many dragons either went into hiding or began striking back, and perhaps even more negatively, the hunts threatened the delicate balance between humans and the Spirit World.
Spirits were said to haunt the areas where a dragon was slain, and the problem became so great that efforts were made to ease their suffering. With Sozin's political status was threatened by the idea that the Dragon Hunts were harmful to the natural order, the Fire Lord deployed a propaganda campaign to portray the spiritual experts seeking to solve the spiritual unrest as the actual cause of the unrest itself.
A vicious cycle began as the numbers of dragons waned over the years, with the dragons themselves and the spirits who honored them attacking the human world. The onset of the Hundred Year War only further upset the delicate spiritual balance, and the near extinction of the dragons showed just how far-reaching the disharmony of the Avatar world became. It was only with the conclusion of the war and Fire Lord Zuko's ascension that the healing process could begin.
Although little was known about Zuko's dragon Druk seen in The Legend of Korra, the core book reveals that Zuko discovered his faithful companion during his 20s. Ran, Shaw and Druk remain the only dragons known to exist in the Era of Korra, but relief and protection efforts on the part of the Fire Nation seeking to make up for its past mistakes seeks out any survivors in the hope of fostering the return of the species to the world.
It just may be one of the coolest parts of Avatar history, and it was not until Avatar Legends that it could be appreciated in any detail. The TTRPG from Magpie Games creates new opportunities for fans to explore that history for themselves, although it will take future Avatar stories to tell if the species truly can survive on into future eras.
