In the ancient history of Dalmir, the two powers Tylan and Dos came to a great war that ended with both powers decending into civil war. The fighting in Dos was brutal and bloody - none more so than the fighting in the province of Dehrait. The fighting was so bloody, that with the weak fabric of time and space on Dalmir, the first RIFTS formed there, unleashing a black scaled serpent with night black wings, claws of jet, and eyes red as a Calam tree's needles. This was Dalmir's first ever dragon.

      For 75 years this dragon corrupted the minds of the Dehraitians and made them truly believe that he was in fact a God called Calmanshequatesa. In the end he led the Dehraitian people in a massive campaign of expansion that brought half the known world under the banners of Dehrait. Thast is until a lone knight of Tylan, a rogue, took it upon himself to seek out and destroy the Dragon of Dehrait. This man's name was Talnas Shaquela - ancestor to none other than Mahelian Shaquela. This began the tradition of the Dragonguard.

      When first created as a title, one essentially had to be a a Tylanian Knight, who had gone rogue to abandon any hope for life or self indulgence, with the goal of simply slaying a dragon or dragons as it later turned out to be. All for the porpose of protecting the people of Dalmir from the tyranny of those dragons who would enslave them, confuse them, and lead them astray. Once Talnas had established a Kingdom for himself, cutting a small niche from the eastern edge of Tylan he called Capos, he began to cultivate and encourage such selfless acts among his men and women at arms. From them, eventually, dozens would rise to the occasion, but only six others would step forth and undertake the quest to slay one of the dark and vile dragons of Dehrait and return victorious. Seven Dragonguards in total there then were, and from them was born a new knight's order, the order of the Dragonguard. This new order was founded on the time honoured principles of the Tylanian knights, following many of the same training techniques these would, but would also involve training to instill the same selflessness that brought about the original Dragonguard. These Dragonguards would be fanatically loyal to the Royal family, the Shaquela, with only slightly lesser dedication to the the noble families of Zacúlea, the Eutunea, the Oroónoa, the Zetomaea, the Torumasas, the Tetetoma, and finally with a deep sense of loyalty to the Kingdom of Capos. Later the grandson heir of Talnas, Colosnian, would introduce the Dalmirian fighting form of Lieu-Ta to the training of the Dragonguard.

      Nearly two millenia would pass before the fifth generation successor to Talnas, Etonas, would be crowned High King of Dalmir. Under his rule the Dragonguard evolved into an elite branch of the Dalmirian Empire's military, but it's traditions have remained as a solid foundation to this elite order in the several millenia that followed this. When the plane shift occurred that severed contact between Dalmir and Earth, about 60 Dragonguards were stranded on Earth, along with Queen Mahelian Shaquela, high Queen of Dalmir, and Queen of Desert Star. Of those sixty individuals - only two are decended from the original seven Dragonguard, Queen Mahelian Shaquela herself is the 10th generation successor to Talnas Shaquela, and a Captain in the N.O.M.A.D. Military named Taka Zacúlea is decended of the second of the original Dragonguards.

      Please note that Dragonguards are NOT dragon-haters. At the time of the original Dragonguards very few dragons had arrived on Dalmir, and of those, most were particularly wicked and vile. Centuries later a small handful of dragons, apparently rivals of those who were assisting Dehrait, arrived and made themselves quite useful to the Tylanians and Caposnians. The Dragonguard beliefs basically indicate that one should be unselfish, and drop all of the worldly cares of a normal individual, to perform a seemingly insurmountable task for the betterment of all. That is the epitomy of Dragonguard philosophy. It just so happened that these first insurmountable tasks happened to be the slaying of dragons.

      Developed two generations after Talnas slew Calmanshequatesa, Lieu-Ta was adopted as the primary combat training of the Dragonguard. In practice Lieu-Ta almost looks like a dance with a great deal of whirling, high kicks, and sharp fast snap movements of the arms and legs. All of these traits also are combined with the natural ability and flexibility of the Dalmirian Race. Non-Dalmirians CAN, in theory, learn Leiu-Ta, but it is nowhere near as effective due to the rigid bone structure in other races.