Once there had been a great king who had united his lands, calling the kingdom Albion. But that changed when he died; the lords that lived under him revolted, refusing to be ruled by his wife. She struggled for many years to keep them under her protection, but a few managed to slip away.
Fast forward a couple of hundred years, and the lords that had slipped away felt that they had a right to the kingdom's throne. All but six noble families had joined them in this quest. The six, as they are known today, became the Knights. They struggled will all their might against the attacking forces.
Alas, there was little they could do to prevent Camelot falling. It was weak, and easily destroyed. The ruins lie there to this day. The city was evacuated, the people running to the safe haven that the Pendragons had built hundreds of years past. They fell back, retreating fast.
But, there were a few in each house that knew the ways of war would change if they could create a beast so terrible it would destroy anyone who crossed it. The six scientists slaved day and night over the genetic material needed to create the great beasts.
Each one had made theirs slightly different, changing one line of DNA by adding their own.
The first dragon hatched, breathing flame. He was ruby red and belonged to a man by the name of Pendragon, and his majesty has stayed in the bloodline ever since. This dragon was bonded to the boy, destined to become King.
The second hatched, with the ability to control water. It drew all the liquid from the air around it and formed a small pool in its egg. Its creator was the only one that could get close to it. She was bonded to a woman, a woman with the sea in her eyes and the salt in her lungs.
The third was made with the ability to control the earth. A great earthquake was felt around the world when it was hatched. This dragon was bonded to a man with great affinity to nature, a hermit who lived in the caves of what is now known as Camelot.
The fourth could control the skies; it was born blinded like its creator. Neither saw, but through its owner this dragon learnt to navigate by smell and touch alone. It had no need for sight, at all.
The fifth was hatched a day later than the others, looking like a small lizard. Less than an hour later, it had devoured most of the metal in the room it had been caged in. This was the metal dragon, bonded to a blacksmith.
The last dragon was deemed a failure, but kept by the owner for several years after the others had hatched. No one knew what happened to it. While the other creators grew old and died, taking their dragon-kin with them, the last one never aged. Not for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Each of the six Dragon Lords used their dragon's powers as well as they knew how. The Fire-Lord became king, the Water-Lord became a sea dweller, the Earth-Lord reshaped the world, the Sky-Lord cleared the skies of the black clouds that covered them, the Metal-Lord manned the forge at Camelot.
The families descended from these great men are called the Nobles and they guard the lands of the Pendragon kingdom. Each son giving his life to the protection of the people, each daughter using her wit to teach the children in the villages.