Rolan

Taken from a quick post on /r/worldbuilding.

Rolan the scholar and his dragon companion/adopted daughter Tolandaruu used to do it. Rolan used to be a simple, self proclaimed scholar in the town of Ulma. In the town, he spent his days reading at the local library and would steal books to continue his research. Rolan wasn't so much a historian, but an occultist. He was fascinated with magic and rituals, which was nearly "dead" in his time.

At some point, Rolan discovered an ancient spell-book in recently uncovered ruins dating back to Pre-Flood times. He couldn't read the book, but he managed to cross-reference the symbols with other, translated works of near by Post-Flood eras. It was a rough process that took decades, but he finally managed to translate the book. Many of the spells were immensely powerful, but mundane. Spells like causing beams of light to destroy an entire standing army or smiting a tribe. Rolan was a peace loving man, so he felt deep disappointment.

However, the book wasn't just a tome of spells, deep into the book he found a history of the people who lived their. They called themselves the Vilzonian Peoples, a once thriving global culture. He learned how they were once, long, long ago in contact with these beings called the Lohan, who themselves claimed that they built a supermachine that created and maintains all life on the planet millions of years ago; and that it is failing.

Rolan convinced the king of Ulma to let him translate the rest of the books they uncovered. He found a massive history of not just the Vilzonians but other Pre-Flood cultures, which were all thought to just be stone aged peoples. He and Tolandaruu essentially filled in a seemingly blank part of Amenian history. However, their was one thing they could not figure out, and that was their fate. Whatever happened to the Vilzonians is a mystery to this day.

Well, sort of. Rolan and Tolandaruu discovered their fate near the end of Rolan's life. They had transcended past their mortal forms to the land above the sky, a land where not even the Goddess Destiny could follow. Nearing his death, Rolan performed the same ritual they documented so well in their books and became one with them.

Tolandaruu would go on and live a hundred years alone, learning various spells from the Vilzonian text such as the art of shapeshifting. At some point she tried to save Ulma from getting destroyed by another dragon. She was successful in killing the dragon but not saving the village, which burned in complete blaze. She managed to save a few survivors and raise the children in her human guise. In this guise she would also spread the knowledge of the Vilzonians and other cultures to those who Rolan could not reach. After her children died (almost all of old age), she performed the same ritual as Rolan and transcended to the land above the sky.