MANY DRAGONS ACHIEVE a certain level of fame or infamy for terrorizing a local populace and demanding or seizing its wealth. These relationships, between a dragon and a fearful region, are the subjects of countless stories told in scores of inns. Many dragons are content to make a name for themselves in just a township or two. But others have larger plans. Andraemos's ambitions began at a young age. Legend tells that he was one of four hatchlings in a brood, but he outlived each of his Siblings, stealing their food behind the back of their mother. It wasn't long before he had learned everything he thought he could from his parent and set off into his harsh desert home to make his own way. But Andraemos wasn't done with his mother yet. She had seen the quiet ambition in his eyes and knew about the theft of food that enabled him to grow strong at the expense of his Siblings. Such is the way of the desert, she knew, so she let it lie. But before Andraemos could escape her desert territory, she decided she did not relish the thought of a competitor dragon especially one so hungry for power lairing near her. She attacked, so the stories say, and caught the young dragon by surprise. But Andraemos was cleverer than even his mother had given him credit for being, and when their battIe led into a narrow ravine filled with fragile, towering spires of rock, Andraemos finally found his advantage. He spun in mid-flight and fired a blast of fire at a precarious boulder perched atop a delicate spire of stone. The spire splintered and collapsed, and with perfect timing, the boulder fell on Andraemos's mother, crushing her skull and driving her body to the ravine floor below.

The brass dragon Andraemos rules a large swath of the desert. His domain is bordered on several sides by trade routes. He collects tribute from several of the towns on these routes, content to claim their money rather than destroy them outright. Andraemos has established himself as a powerful force to be reckoned with in the region. During a scouting trip around his territory, he noticed a group of desert nomads. They were in the process of capturing a caravan that had been passing through the area, and Andraemos was captivated by their fighting style, which involved redirecting an enemy's attacks against the enemy and its allies. Curious about their presence, Andraemos landed and demanded that they give him the tribute he deserved as master of the desert. But the bandits-a group of eladrin were unimpressed. They had recently come to the desert through a portal from the Feywild, and they had braved many dangers to make it to Andraemos's desert. Confronted with the dragon, they were prepared to die trying to survive. Thinking quickly, the dragon recognized the value in employing the services of the clever and morally ambiguous eladrin, and their partnership endures to this day. Calling them the Sand Knives, he began to use them to enforce his will across the region. The eladrin have brought in more of their kind from the Feywild portal-which Andraemos now controls-and his territory has expanded tremendously. The dragon has cowed a large tribe of goblins into a truce. Andraemos eventually plans to bring the goblins under his rule, but he is content to let them bribe him with tribute until he feels secure enough in his enlarged territory to destroy their leaders and take over leadership of the tribe. Perhaps the dragon's biggest coup, however, was the capture of the desert city of Kashtaph. A corrupt merchant elected from an even more corrupt council ran the city. When this Icadera female human named AzrilIlIaenon sent her eldest daughter to woo the son of a prince in a neighboring city state, Andraemos's eladrin brigands captured her. In exchange for sparing her daughter's life, Andraemos wanted the city gates  opened to his eladrin and the names and addresses of ​each member of the merchant council. A bloody night followed AzriI's capitulation to the dragon's demands, and the woman now rules the city ​in Andraemos's name, sending him a healthy cut of all the city's lucrative business ventures. Most of the citizens have no clue that their city is now run by a dragon, and Andraemos prefers it that way for now. It is whispered that Andraemos's mother once captured one of the fabled Broken Blades of Banatruul. He discovered the artifact in her hoard years after her death. He has sent his Sand Knives out into the world over many years, trying to find the matching blade, and rumor has it that one of them recently returned with it after being away for nearly three years.