Garak
Garak was a dragonkin who was known to have destroyed a number of small settlements near the border of the Wilderness[1] during the Dragonkin Conflicts in the Fourth Age. A common misconception exists in which Garak was a particularly ferocious dragon; this is due to Archibald Malore's translations that standardised the poems describing it and being written as being a dragon.[2]
Camorra Shayzien, then a little-known heroine, slayed Garak, and it is this act that subsequently placed her among the most famous heroes of the period, such as Arrav and Robert the Strong.[3]
Draconic nature
A book titled The Truth Behind the Myth questions the reason in which the slaying of Garak (who is referred in the book as a dragon) was considered as Camorra's defining heroic feat, rather than her cooperation with Robert the Strong should be far more impressive, and presents some hypotheses to help explain why this is the case.[4]
The first hypothesis considers the fact that humans, at the time, did not have the means to protect themselves from dragonfire. This is debunked by the fact that no other dragon from the time period had gained the reputation that Garak has, and historical records would likely have other examples of ferocious dragons.[5]
The second hypothesis considers Garak to be an exceptionally intelligent dragon, who is notorious enough to have been given a name (that does not correspond with any known human language), and that it may have been able to control its instinctual rage that most other dragons, despite their developed brains, are incapable of controlling.[6] The author debunks this hypothesis as it hinges on the assumption that the dragon named itself, and it is just as likely that the language went extinct.
The last hypothesis considers that Garak may not have been a dragon at all.[7] Examining the original poems written on Camorra around 400 years after her death, refer to Garak as either a "fire serpent/reptile/snake" or a "fire bird/vulture", where the words of the original language have multiple meanings. While the author is not prepared to answer what Garak actually was, the descriptions of the original poems suggest that Garak was actually a dragonkin.
References
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