Xorvintaal

Xorvintaal, sometimes referred to as The Great Game or just The Game, was a game dragons used in ancient times as a proxy for open warfare.

Rules
Dragons who played xorvintaal were called taaldarax. A dragon's head servant was known as his or her lovac, and his or her other servants were known as dokaal. Xorvintaal was like a chess game, as players had to defeat their opponents with strategy instead of combat. Dragons who played xorvintaal were warned that, in the case of gem or metallic wyrms, they possibly would have to undertake actions contrary to their nature.

There were hundreds of rules, called Precepts. Brimstone said that to read the entire codex of rules would take a few years, and even Tchazzar admitted he didn't fully understand all the rules. The most important rule was that "to gain, first you must lose"; thus all taaldarax lost what magic they had in order to play the game. Another rule forbade players from acting against each other directly; instead they must use their servants against their opponents. The rules did not forbid combat in all circumstances, however; if a challenge for combat was issued and both players agreed, the taaldarax could battle one another, and their servants were bound to fight as well.

Points were scored based on conquest or by killing key opponents, although players also scored points by showing great skills of subterfuge, daring or renown. Points scored in the game were used to determine the pecking order of dragons.

History
During the Time of Dragons, wyrms of the age feared that if dragons continued battling each other, as they had since their race was born, they would eventually face extinction. In time, they came up with a solution: Instead of battling each other, dominance among them would be established by status. To determine this, they developed the xorvintaal. After the first Rage of Dragons, however, dragons lost knowledge about the game.

The vampiric smoke drake Brimstone rediscovered the game's rules in the ruins where Sammaster was killed after the last Rage of Dragons, in 1373 DR. He brought them to Dracowyr in Murghôm in 1479 DR, convincing many chromatic dragons and a few gem and metallic dragons to participate. Brimstone set himself up as the referee and scorekeeper. Brimstone's xorvintaal was dedicated to the goddess Tiamat ; its ultimate goals were to determine who became the emperor of dragonkind and to dominate all the nations in the Alamber Sea vicinity.

After the Battle of Luthcheq, Tchazzar's death and Alasklerbanbastos' destruction, the leaders of the Brotherhood of the Griffon, as well as several dragons and dragonborn knights from Tymanther, traveled to Dracowyr to confront Brimstone and forced him to cancel the magic that bound wyrms to the game. Brimstone claimed that the game was just a ruse to allow him to eliminate the most powerful dragons around the Sea of Fallen Stars.