[@Shadow Dragon]

"You must remember that were Polybius alive, he'd be something on the order of 4,000 years old by now. How to explain it? About 10,000 years ago, the dracon species was created by a cabal of mages and dragons. About 9,000 years ago, this cabal- including long-lived members, new recruits, and descendants of the originals- lost control of our species when most of the cabal died in a war between its members. About 8,000 years ago, the dracons mostly lived under the rule of dragons or as tribes. The dragons were defeated about 7,000 years ago- and these are all very rough dates, off by easily a century or so" Ophion clarified. 

"Anyway, the first serious independent dracon states were ruled directly by warlords or mages. In the former, rulership was determined by whichever part of the state's army was able to gain command. Hereditary rule was unknown and leadership was either elective or determined by a bloody war at the end of the previous ruler's reign, which almost always coincided with the end of his life, which was usually through a lost duel to the death or an outright assassination. But this is supposed to be about the mage-kings. Right. Sorry for going off-track. The earliest truly independent and civilized dracons realms were run by mages, usually sorcerers whose power ran in their veins, as wizards who have to study magic were a rarity. There wasn't much in the way of education or literacy back then. These mage-kings were considerably weaker as mages than similarly powerful archmages today, and our knowledge of magic is vastly more advanced. This isn't a case of ancient magic being more powerful or anything." 

Ophion paused for a moment to try to determine which way was the correct one to take in order to proceed. Not seeing any clear signs, he continued his explanation. "But what the mage-kings lacked in power- at least by today's standards- they made up for in resources. As rulers, no magic project they wanted to commit to would go unfunded, as long as there was money in the realm's treasury sufficient to pay for it. This meant that large-scale, exotic, and megalomaniac magical projects were the order of the day in those realms. That's one of the reason why their rule declined, besides the rise of wizards and mage's guilds. Not only were these things too expensive, but without laws or budgetary restrictions, these projects could become very dangerous. Now, I don't know the finer details of what Polybius did in his day, but he was one of the greatest mages of his time, and one of the few dracon sorcerers who would be comparable to our best today. He's not alive now, but he [i]is[/i] undead."