The Dragon Army

The Dragon Armies

During the early stages of the Age of Despair, Takhisis still seethed at being defeated by Huma and those dragonriders who effectively wielded dragonlances against her long ago. She hatched a plan where she would ally her chromatic dragons with human riders, and form vast armies to conquer Ansalon once and for all. Thus the concept of the Dragonarmies were born. She set about waking her sleeping dragons and telling them to wait for the day when she would choose generals to lead her armies. In 332 AC, a warrior known as Tashana Ashara discovers Takhisis and swears to join her banner. This one warrior would soon become the driving factor behind the formation of the Dragonarmies themselves. In these early days under Ashara, she saw Takhisis' faithful create the draconians, who also swore to serve in her armies. Ashara founded and led the formative forces, whilst continually recruiting warriors and dragons for her armies. In a short time, five armies comprised the Dragonarmies: Red, Blue, Green, Black and White. In a few short years the Dragonarmies were a sizable force, and Takhisis declared that her chosen generals were to lead each force. The general of each army was known as a Dragon Highlord, answerable only to Takhisis herself.

Takhisis nominated several champions, who would become the first Dragon Highlords to support each army. Some of the Highlords were replaced in the years before the war, and even fiercer warlords stepped into their positions of power. Each chief Highlord also had a number of Highmasters, who served as their lieutenants and aides. The Highmasters often led each army's wing division, as well as commanding in a Highlord's absence. The Highmasters were also responsible for controlling and bonding with the chromatic dragons in each army, as well as directing ground troops.

Dragonarmy Organisation

The Dragonarmies were a massive joining of many different races, therefore having any kind of universal ranking structure proved to be rather difficult. Instead the Dragonarmies implemented a standard hierarchy near the top of the armies, and the lower rank and file consisted of standard mercenary rankings.

All soldiers reported to their unit officers, each unit officer reported to their regiment commander, who in turn reported to their army commander. The army commander would then report to their Dragon Highmaster, who answered directly to their Dragon Highlord. The exception in the reporting structure were the fewmasters. These special agents reported directly to the Highlord on important business, and did not need to answer to higher-ranked officers, other than the Highlords themselves. All Dragonarmies had only one Dragon Highlord at any given time, who ruled as head of the entire Dragonarmy. In each Dragonarmy there was also anywhere from one to five Dragon Highmasters, and usually a handful of army commanders, who controlled different sections of the armies.