DRAKES LOOM LARGE IN THE MYTHS OF ATHAS.

Water Drake

Fire Drake

Air Drake

 Earth Drake

Though tales of them might scare children, few people believe these giant monsters exist. Those who find out the truth rarely survive the experience-the soft flesh of humanoids is drakes' favorite food.

LORE

Athasian drakes are enormous, fearsome predators having only animal intelligence and strong instincts. Each variety of drake is attuned to a specific element and has psionic control over that element, making its home in areas dominated by its associated element. Athasian drakes collect objects in their lairs or expand their territory, depending on the individual drake's nature. Although some hoards are valuable, drakes also amass trinkets or souvenirs that have no worth to anyone else. Air drakes maintain multiple lairs atop rocky spires or mesas and divide their few precious belongings among these lairs. 

ENCOUNTERS

Drakes use terrain to their advantage, and the setting for a battle with a drake can be as important as the monster. Precarious cliffs are a great setup for air drakes, volcanic fissures favor fire drakes, and unstable underground burrows make tricky settings for encounters with earth drakes.  Water drakes might appear anywhere precious reserves of water exist. Any location might also have been booby-trapped or fortified before the drake claimed it.

DRACONIC ORIGIN

According to the dragons, the first two gods were waters, one fresh and representing law, the other salt and representing chaos. Their mingling was mostly harmonious, and from their union came other gods. These new gods created Heaven, Hell, and the mortal realm in between. Then the firstborn of the waters, which called himself Dahak, took a mighty and terrible form and rampaged through Hell, making it a nightmare of devastation and suffering. This embittered the other gods toward him, but he cared little, and he ruled alone in his shadowy realm. When the salt water created six new metallic gods, Dahak named them, recast them into forms similar to his own, and hurled them to the Material Plane, where they shattered and became the first mortal dragons. These he hunted for sport.

The fresh water, Apsu, took the form of a radiant dragon and went to the material world to rally his mortal offspring. There were many great battles, with tremendous casualties on both sides, but eventually the dragons laid Dahak low. Dahak cried to his mother, the salt water, to save him, and she offered to heal the injured mortal dragons if they spared his life. Those who agreed exchanged goodness, love, and mercy for vengeance, wrath, and cruelty, replacing their shining metallic forms with dull chromatic hues. Then the dragons battled each other, and in the confusion, Dahak slipped away, and his chromatic followers fled after him. Apsu and the good dragons rested and healed, then searched for a world far from Dahak where they could know peace. Vengeful Dahak and his followers pursued them, and it seems Apsu and the metallic dragons have chosen Golarion as the place to make their stand.

Apsu is the god of dragons, glory, leadership, and peace. Lean and ancient, he is one of the two oldest beings in the universe, though he is still strong. All dragons respect him as their progenitor, though the evil ones do so grudgingly, and few good dragons worship him with the same vigor that lesser races do their gods.

Dahak is the god of destruction, dragons, evil, and treachery. Almost universally hated by both good and evil dragons, his offers of power and endless life still tempt a few evil dragons to his service. Covered in bony ridges, spikes, and horns, he bears many scars from his battles with Apsu, which still pain and enrage him.