Vangerdahast

Vangerdahast is a character in the fantasy setting of the Forgotten Realms, and is perhaps the greatest mage to have ever taken up the mantle of Mage Royal. For decades he controlled the Kingdom of Cormyr, in fact if not in title. While the king would fight the wars and sit on the throne, Vangerdahast would keep the court in order and keep control of the various factions who wished to dethrone the King. He was the overall leader of the defenses of Cormyr and only the king could command him. His title of Mage Royal allowed him control over the two main military factions of Cormyr, the knights known as the Purple Dragons and the mages and wizards of the War Wizards. He could also to a large extent control the Harpers who reside in the kingdom. He was trained by Elminster and therefore knows spells and magics far beyond the average wizard.

Elminster's Daughter
In the book Elminster's Daughter, he had retired from being Mage Royal and has retreated into a hidden Sanctum so that he could devise a new ultimate defense for the kingdom (The demise of the previous ultimate defense taking place during the events of the novel "Beyond the High Road"), for he wanted the kingdom to be truly safe long after he had passed away. The only practical solution was to insure that the protection would not be a purely magical defense, (which might draw arcanists eager to learn the Mage Royal's secrets) by the binding of Dragons who would slumber in stasis until they were needed, at which point they could be summoned using key words/phrases and certain gestures using certain objects that only the reigning monarchs and Elminster would know.

When a Song Dragon named Joysil Ambrur found out about the Dragon binding spell being made, she considered it too risky to allow anyone to develop the spell on the off chance that it be stolen and used to enslave the whole of the Dragon race. She confronted Vangerdahast who swiftly defeated her and could have killed her but chose not to since he felt he had done too much killing in his life already. When a rogue War Wizard blasted Vangerdahast with a powerful spell it momentarily shook Vangerdahast, allowing the dragon to break free. Joysil proceeded to ask why the wizard had not slain her and when he explained why her heart softened. But still realizing the risk she chose to flee to gather fully a dozen other dragons to kill the wizard.

At the same time, word had leaked of his experimentation and a Master Red Wizard of Thay named Darkspells had gathered a small army of other Red Wizards and had launched an attack on the kingdom in hopes of distracting the War Wizards and Purple Dragons while he stole the spells of binding. Hearing about Vangerdahast's plan, a group of revolutionaries had launched an assault on the Castle Cormyr and the Royal family in the hopes of slaying them, further adding to the confusion.

When the Dragon host arrived and saw the Red Wizards they realized that those Wizards might be able to figure out the spells and proceeded to eat, burn and crush the Red Wizards who, after losing most of their force, proceeded to run screaming from the battlefield that was Cormyr.

The Dragons then went to Vangerdahast's Sanctum and confronted him, who informed them that he had realized the risk involved in the binding spell and had chained the spells to himself so that when he died the spells and all his notes would be instantly destroyed. Seeing this Joysil told the other dragons to go off and divide her hoard amongst them and that she would take care of the problem. She revealed that she had talked to Vangerdahast's old mentor Elminster and he had a solution. That Vangerdahast become a dragon himself to help defend the realm and then Joysil proceeded to say that she would be his Consort and that they would wait in stasis together. Through Elminster's magic (with the aid of Mystra of course) Vangerdahast was turned into a dragon (unknown type) and the two dragons were bound to the kingdom, awaiting in stasis to be called back to defend the Kingdom of Cormyr.