Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-11296535-20130914180002/@comment-4514669-20140119015443

Presumably he was murdered or killed himself some time after his madness set in. It is not beyond belief that a mad dragon imprisoned beneath a castle, isolated for aeons, might put himself out of his misery or kill himself sheerly by accident. Nor is it unrealistic that one of the guards sent to clean up after and feed an ancient and insane dragon might run him through and then tell the Jarl "Yeah, he got old." He remains dead because his head is mounted above the throne, separated from his body.