The 'mortal' world IS the dragon world. It isn't actually the result of the god, spirit, and essence worlds colliding with each other and making something new--although that is probably where hell comes from- -but acctually it is a result of them all colliding with (being summoned to?) the dragon world. This is why dragon-kin can do impossible magic in the inner world, it is their world, made by their magic.
This is why Orlanth had to kill a dragon to find a place to live, the gods were not so much living happily on the spike, as huddled in those places that dragons didn't control. Orlanth changed part of that with his dragon slaying.
Of course, some people learned to live with the dragons, either directly (kralori), or indirectly (Hsunchen). This is why animists are so wide spread, they learned to live around the dragons. Theists are in those areas where they eliminated the dragons. I'm not quite sure how the westerners pulled it off, but notice that the original brithini land was an island way off at the edge of things? I think lost was the story of how they found land for themselves. Probably none of this would have been possible if some of the land hadn't tended to become theist, animist, or essential, weakening the dragons there.
It is just possible that the runes are really representations of the various dragons somehow, and that talents are really a calling upon draconic powers, in some very indirect and weak way.
As I said, pure speculation on my part.
--Bryan
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