Dawn Age

The Dawn Age, or the Age of Dawn' was a time on Toril when dragons took an interest in the lesser races squabblings and taught them to build cities and armies, making them civilized. The metallic dragons admired a certain amount of selflessness in the lesser races such as the elves, and dwarves and the young races of humans, gnomes, and halflings. So they took pity on the weaker races and helped lead and protect them. Alternately, The chromatic dragons saw those more malleable less intelligent races that seeked only there own advancement and they forced them into building loose knit society and trained them into armies and they made fortified castles for there new masters to live in and bask on there hordes taken from the weak. Thus is how civilization was obtained.