"
...I owed your mother a debt." The great dragon says at last, watching as you chew your way deeper into the delicious food. There is a lot of it here, but if you are to ever grow as big as the red dragon next to you, lots of food will be required. "
She did a service for me once, and as I had not returned it by the point of her death, I continue to owe her still. This is what it means to be the King, little one - debts must always be repaid, and insults must always be avenged. Never forget this."
There is a meaning and significance to those words that escapes you right now, but you can tell just from Daralathxyl's tone just how important the principle is, and so you take a break from stuffing your maw with food to wiggle your head up and down in enthusiastic agreement.
"
Good. Now, I will raise you, teach you what it means to be a dragon, see to it that you grow strong and wise enough to survive outside my lair. Then you will leave, for my debt will be discharged." The Great Wyrm proclaims. "
Now, finish your meal, and then we will begin."
-/-
The first thing that Daralathxyl chooses to teach you is the origin of the world.
"
In the beginning," he says in his deep and rumbling voice, "
there was only water. Pure water, which was smooth and orderly, and the salt water, which was rough and chaotic. They mingled together in harmony, and from their union came many children. These beings, imbued with great power and might due to their primordial heritage, called themselves 'gods'."
"
The gods looked upon the world, which was at this time nothing more than water, and desired more. They created new life and gave shape to the void around them, splitting apart the planes and siring entire pantheons of their own, each according to their own designs. You can see the influence of the gods in the world today - it is why dragons such as you and I desire wealth and power, in echo of the motives that first drove the gods to create more than what they had."
You chirp inquisitively, curious about these 'gods' and what they might be like, but Daralathxyl just chuckles. "
Patience, little one. There is much to learn, but it must be done in proper order."
"
The firstborn of the waters was named Dahak, and in him the fires of avarice and ambition burned stronger than any other. Eventually his desires drove him to take on a great and terrible form and rampage through the land that we now call Hell, making it a place of wickedness and suffering. He slaughtered all the creations of the other gods he could find there, embittering them towards him, and when he was satisfied he claimed that shadowy realm for his own, there to rule for eternity."
"
Then the time came when the waters sought to create six new children, imbuing them with even greater strength than that of their firstborn child. To Dahak, this was an unimaginable insult, and driven by jealously and rage he turned on his kin, hunting them down and shattering them into myriad tiny pieces. These pieces, these fragments of divinity, fell to the mortal realm and became the first dragons."
You cannot help but chirp in amazement. Does that make you a tiny piece of a god?
Awesome.
"
Any other creature would have been content with such a victory, but Dahak was not yet done. Taking his war-form once again he followed the shattered remains of his victims to the mortal realm, and there hunted them for sport. No mere fragment of divinity could stand against the Firstborn in all his strength, and the early dragons fled and died in great numbers."
"
Eventually, the waters could no longer stand to see their children so tormented and abused. The pure waters wrought for themselves a body, taking the name Apsu, and on wings of light descended to the mortal realm to heal and lead their draconic children against Dahak. Many great battles were fought, and many dragons were wounded and slain, but eventually Dahak was defeated and cast down."
"
It was then that we were betrayed."
There is a building sense of rage in the Great Wyrm's voice now, and you cannot help but shy away from him as he continues the story. Daralathxyl probably wouldn't hit you
deliberately, but he is so very large and strong, and even an accidental hit would probably hurt a
lot.
"
Wounded and on the verge of death, Dahak cried out to his mother, the salt water, to save him. The salt water agreed, and made an offer to the dragons - she would heal their injuries, if only they would help Dahak to escape. Most refused, unwilling to see their foe go free, but eventually one agreed - a Gold."
You squeak in surprise. A gold dragon, like you are?
"
Yes, little one, a gold. History does not recall the name he bore, but when he agreed to the bargain the waters changed him. His wounds were healed, yes, but the waters did not stop there. The waters changed him, twisting his body and soul and placing some small fragment of Dahak's burning flames into his breast. His golden scales faded and vanished, and he became the first of my kind - Nerothroc, the first Red Dragon."
You chirp in understanding. So
that is why Daralathxyl thinks of you as kin, even despite your different colours.
"
Indeed, little one. The connection between golds like you and reds like me goes back to the very dawn of history. So much of who and what we are was decided then - those dragons who stayed with Apsu were the other metallics; brass, bronze, copper and silver. Those who took the deal offered by the salt water - who would later name itself Tiamet - became the chromatics; black, blue, green and white. They learned from her treachery, and even to this day we hate and fight Dahak as our ancestors did, but such wisdom was not in time to prevent the False Wyrm from escaping his fate."
Daralathxyl lowers his enormous head to study you closely, his bright golden eyes almost as large as your torso. "
This is what we are, little one - fragments of a murdered god, bound in mortal flesh. Even diminished as we are, we remain the wisest and mightiest of all living things, and any fool who seeks to claim otherwise is either ignorant of the truth or attempting to insult you. Both are worthy of fire and death."
You nod in understanding and, evidently satisfied, Daralathxyl raises his head back up and settles back into a more comfortable resting position.
"
So, now you know what you are. Next step - who you are. You will need to choose a name for yourself, little one, and it must be befitting of your mighty heritage. Choose wisely."
You should now pick a name for yourself. Most Dragons pick something suitably grandiose - Daralathxyl literally translates as 'Great and Terrible One' - but the choice is largely up to you (I reserve veto rights over anything too ridiculous.) You also need to pick whether you are male or female - this has no mechanical impact, and honestly even the roleplaying impact is largely going to be confined to times when you aren't in Draconic form.
What is your name?
[ ] Write in
Are you male or female?
[ ] Write in
-/-
You had thought it frustrating not to know the names of many of the things that you could see and hear, to lack the words to describe the concepts bubbling around inside your mind, but as it turns out things are
even worse than that.
Most things have
more than one word to describe them!
This, Daralathxyl explains, is the result of something known as 'language'. There are the words that the Dragons use for everything, and then there are the words that everyone else uses. Confusingly, this isn't even broken down by species. You can understand why different species would have different words for things - after all, they might think and act in entirely different ways to one another, and that's before you get down to the differing physical capabilities between many of them - but for some bizarre reason even those living things which are part of the same species and live close together use different words for the same things.
There must be a reason for it, but Daralathxyl simply does not care, and when you try to ask him about it he shrugs your questions off as being largely meaningless. It is infuriating, but you have learned already that pressing the older dragon on something he does not care to speak about is useless at best and dangerous at worst.
You have been taught Draconic as a basic language. Now you have the option to learn additional languages - at the very least you will learn two additional ones, and you can choose to learn up to ten in total (plus Draconic). These will be taught to you either by Daralathxyl or tutors that he brings in for that purpose.
Your choices include:
- Abyssal (Demons and other chaotic evil outsiders)
- Aquan (Aquatic and water-base creatures)
- Auran (flying creatures, air-based creatures)
- Celestial (angels and other good outsiders)
- Common (humans and the core races from Races)
- Dwarven (dwarves)
- Elven (elves, half-elves)
- Giant (cyclopses, ettins, giants, ogres, trolls)
- Gnome (gnomes)
- Goblin (bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins)
- Ignan (fire-based creatures)
- Infernal (devils and other lawful evil outsiders)
- Orc (orcs, half-orcs)
- Sylvan (centaurs, fey creatures, plant creatures, unicorns)
- Terran (earth-based creatures)
- Undercommon (drow, duergar, morlocks, svirfneblin)
How many languages do you wish to learn, and which ones? Please note - if you wish to learn more than two additional languages, you will need to assign an equivalent number of points to the Linguistics skill in the following vote.
[ ] Write in
-/-
It is some time before you come to understand that, when Daralathxyl says the word 'hoard', he is referring to
anything which he considers to belong to him... and that he does not stop at inanimate objects.
In the outer limits of the layer, there are several lavishly appointed and luxuriously comfortable chambers that can only be accessed from the outside. Within can be found those members of the dragon's hoard which cannot easily survive exposure to the kinds of temperatures and pressure found in the rest of the lair. The majority are what the dragon refers to as 'elves' - tall and slender humanoids with pointed ears and strange mono-colour eyes - but there are examples of many different species held within, all of them strange yet pleasing to the eye.
It is to these creatures that Daralathyxl entrusts you when he himself finds better uses for his time, and it is from them that you learn the most over the months and years of your early life. Every now and then additional members are added to the hoard, dropped off by the dragon as his whim and fancy take him, and while few indeed are entirely happy with their new circumstances all are wise enough to understand that there is little they can do about it.
You have sixty four points of skills to assign, reflecting your initial education and maturation as you grow from a wyrmling to a very young dragon.
Your choices of skills can be found
here, and a maximum of eight points can be assigned to any given skill.
Please allocate your points appropriately.
[ ] Write in allocation
I will be using your skill choices to help flesh out some of the members of Daralathxyl's hoard, which will feature in future updates as plot hooks and catalysts for character development on your part. Most of these I will do myself. However, if you have any particular ideas for interesting NPCs that you would like to see portrayed/plot hooks you'd be interested in following up on in the future, feel free to suggest them here. I'm only looking for a few sentences in the majority of cases, which I can reference when writing future updates.
[ ] Write in suggested captives/tutors.
