“Wyrm” is a catchall term used across the Prime Plane to describe wingless, serpentine draconic creatures—long, scaled beasts that slither through stone and sand rather than soar through sky. While their name and outward appearance evoke comparisons to dragons, these creatures are wholly distinct from Lesser Dragons and Wyverns, both in physiology and origin. Wyrms are not True Dragon, but cursed descendants of what once were—their legacy tangled with the calamities of The Riftfire Rebellion.
Origins & History
The Wyrms trace their lineage to the time of the Riftfire Rebellion, a cataclysmic uprising during the waning years of the Second Age. During this era, a schism formed among the True Dragons who once held dominion over the elemental realms and and their progeny—elvenkind. During this uprising, a vast majority of the True Dragon that remained after The Planar Rapture were either slain or cursed to primal beasts like Wyverns, Wyrms, and Lesser Dragons.
Notably, the Terran Drake were cast into the earth, their wings ripped away and their essence malformed by forbidden Earth-Rifting rituals used by the Njordir. They were cursed to forever crawl through the roots and bones of the world as wyrms—never to touch the sky again.
These cursed lineages would later evolve into distinct sub-species of Wyrm, each adapting to the subterranean biomes of Osira/Tolria's many realms. The first wyrms appeared across Spine of the World, the The Sands of Serrakhan, and even in The Atlan Ocean, spreading slowly as they burrowed deep into the world’s mantle.
Physiology & Behavior
Wyrms are typically elongated and serpentine, with hardened, overlapping scales ranging from matte obsidian to sandstone gold. Unlike dragons, they bear no wings or forelimbs, though some species retain vestigial claw-nubs or armored carapaces.
Wyrms rely on their acute tremorsense, capable of detecting the subtlest shifts in pressure or vibration across miles of terrain. This sense allows them to expertly navigate the deepest reaches of the earth, strike with lethal precision from below, and locate prey long before it sees them coming.
They are burrowers by nature, able to bore through stone, silt, and even hardened bedrock with slow, grinding movements of their plated bodies. Their cavernous lairs often stretch for leagues and contain countless side-tunnels used to trap intruders or hatch their young. Wyrms are egg-layers, and while broods are typically spawned in isolated underground nurseries, they are fiercely protected by the matriarch of the lair.
Though reclusive and solitary by default, some Wyrm species—particularly those of larger or more aggressive lineage—have been known to congregate during geomantic upheaval or environmental disasters, possibly a remnant of their ancient draconic instincts.
Legacy
Though rare and largely reclused from modern civilization, Wyrms persist beneath the worlds crust, reminders of an ancient sin and a forgotten civil war between dragons and elves. Few scholars dare to study them up close, and fewer still survive to record their findings. Their presence in myth is more widespread than in reality—used in handwives tales to scare children, prayers to ward travelers, or as omens of natural disasters to come.
Some believe that the Wyrms hold secrets to ancient draconic power lost in the Second Age, and that buried deep within the world lie their dormant elders—creatures not merely cursed, but waiting.