Dragon

During the Age of Ancients, the Dragons were the everlasting rulers of the World until the Lords rose from the Dark and challenged them. The result was a catastrophic war that destroyed much of the World. In the end, the Dragons were vanquished and the World began a new era known as the Age of Fire.

Age of Ancients
Not much is known about the World at this time; only that the World was unformed and shrouded by fog, filled with grey crags and arch-trees, and that the immortal Dragons held dominion over land and sea.

War of Fire
With the advent of the First Flame, the Lords challenged the Dragons for dominion of the World. During the war, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight used his powerful bolts, peeling their stone scales; the Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos wove great firestorms; Nito, the First of the Dead unleashed a miasma of death and disease; and Seath the Scaleless, who sought the immortal scales of the dragons, betrayed his own kind.

Age of Fire
The aftermath of the war made the lands barren and lifeless. But despite all this, the Lords and the Humans rebuilt the World and brought the Age of Fire, a golden era of the new world. While the Ancient Dragons appear to be all but extinct, the race has many descendants, some greater and some lesser.

Plot
The Chosen Undead may encounter many distant ancestors and remnants of the Dragons throughout Lordran and Oolacile. The same is true for the Bearer of the Curse in Drangleic.

The Hellkite Dragon encountered in Undead Burg is, in actuality, a Drake. Drakes are seen as undeveloped imitators of the dragons, but are likely their distant kin. Wyverns may also be of similar origin to the Hellkite Dragon and are found in the Valley of the Drakes.

The area boss of the Depths is the Gaping Dragon, a distant, warped descendant of the everlasting dragons.

In Ash Lake, the Stone Dragon, a descendant of the ancient dragons, initiates the player into the Path of the Dragon Covenant. Domhnall of Zena shares a rumor that the Stone Dragon is not a descendant and is instead, a surviving Ancient Dragon.

Undead Dragons, scattered throughout the land, are corpses of the Ancient Dragons that maintain some spark of life within their rotten form and can be occasionally stumbled upon as minibosses.

Crossbreed Priscilla of the Painted World of Ariamis, is a Dragon Crossbreed bastard child.

Seath the Scaleless, the albino dragon, allied with Lord Gwyn and turned upon the Ancient Dragons; for this he was awarded Dukedom and given a fragment of a great soul.

One-eyed Black Dragon Kalameet may be encountered as an optional boss in the Royal Wood area of Oolacile and is the last of the Ancient Dragons.

The Guardian Dragon residing in a cage in Aldia's Keep, is one of Aldia's creations and guards the way to the Dragon Aerie.

The Ancient Dragon residing in the Dragon Shrine is said by the Emerald Herald to have watched over the world for "aeons". However, the veracity of this is doubtful, and he is more likely a creation of Lord Aldia or a Dragon survivor, Aldia attempted to recreate the dragons using giant souls.

Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon is similar in appearance and attack style to Kalameet. He drops a true dragon soul, making him an ancient dragon or descendant thereof.