A most peculiar characteristic of some dragons is their hoarding of precious metals, gems and objects. These beasts collect without discrimination all manner of valuable items, with no thought for taste or style. This behavior is curious, because they hide this treasure deep in the earth, in caves and fissures, and guard it fiercely. There seems no reason to their collection, for what would a dragon buy or sell? Furthermore they seem to obtain no pleasure from the beauty of the items, and may damage many of them in the hoarding and piling. Neither do they collect items by type or value, and it is often found priceless treasures heaped together with platted coper bowls and glass trinkets. Although tales of dragon hoards are legendary, and found throughout the globe, most dragons do not hoard anything, preferring to instead wrack destruction and havoc across the land.
A widely held theory is that dragons hoard treasure only at a great age, after ravaging and destroying for many centuries, thus the number of hoards would be small, as most dragons would have been killed before they reached the age of hoarding. It is certainly true that many dragons are slain, either by brave men or by other dragons, for no dragon can stand the sight of another dragon, but must surely seek it out and either destroy it or be destroyed.This theory is interesting, but because it is not known how old dragons may grow, or even how to tell the age of a dragon, it may never be confirmed or denied.
Dragon Hordes are often quite large, and contain unbelievable wealth. This is easily amassed by the dragon over centuries, and is frequently augmented by items of value brought by would-be slayers, hoping to increase their power over the dragon. Because the dragon brings so much death and destruction to the land, dragon hordes are often viewed as cursed. No solid evidence has been found that any treasure in a dragon hoard is cursed, except for a poision chalice found in the hoard of Black Destruction, but it is believed to have had magical properties prior to its placement in the hoard.