Kanathrax

Kanathrax the Vile was a red dragon who had terrorized Ohma for centuries by the time the Empire of Rannica came to power. He is widely regarded as the most famous dragon in history, because he nearly conquered the entire Empire. After a campaign of tyranny, he was finally killed by the hero Thereus.

Biography
While no one is exactly sure when Kanathrax was born, it is generally accepted that he had reached the Ancient age category by the time he began his attempt to overthrow Rannica, placing his year of birth at around 1500-1300 LE. He made many claims that are unsubstantiated and unprovable; for example, he claimed that when he was a young adult he had killed an entire army of frost giants in Ysgard and defiled all of their women. He also said that it was not Forgeborn that wiped out the gnomes, but him, and he hoarded all the treasures of their people.

Fact and fiction become much clearer in the year 512 LE. Kanathrax, in human form, led a revolt with the native barbarians of Ysgard. Led by a dragon, the barbarians were nearly unstoppable. Over a period of four years, by bloody battle, the barbarians had regained much of their homeland. Then, with no warning, Kanathrax turned on his followers; he ate their leader, Viggnar the White, and incinerated nearly fifty soldiers during the Battle of Mount Sorrow. This marked a new period for the Ysgurs; an era of slavery to Kanathrax the Vile.

The fighting never stopped, though. Now slaves, the Ysgurs were forced to continue their expansionist war. In 503 LE, the Ysgurs and the Rannicans made a secret alliance. They would end all hostilities toward one another; Ysgard would be a sovereign nation, and Rannica would be safe from the attacks of the barbarians.

Kanathrax was betrayed during the Battle of Serenity that same year. With both armies fighting back against him, he retreated to his home in Ilkomheim, the tallest mountain in Ysgard. There he stayed for the next four years until an enterprising young hero from Rannica, the mighty Thereus, took it upon himself to slay the beast that had terrorized his people for so long. He returned after a year and a half, carrying with him one of Kanathrax's claws as proof that the beast was dead. Thereus' pockets were filled to the brim with gold and treasure won from the beast's lair. He claimed that the piles of gold that Kanathrax hoarded were nearly as tall as the dragon himself, but when the team was sent to claim the treasure, they couldn't find any of it.

To this day, no one knows what became of the dragon's hoard. It has been the subject of many heroic quests over the years, but no one has ever been able to come up with the mountains of treasure Thereus had described.