The Dragonsayer

[Gratzerilasshis]

I figured the best place to gather my related artwork would be here.
As a start, here are the Dragonsayer poems that have appeared in the Cbox as of yet:


Return, you Queen Dragons Two
Heed the yearning of your people
In dismay they summon you
Without you their fate is feeble

***

The Queen Dragons may now stand vigil
Yet the world is amiss again
Devoid of life, this land lies still
Barely moves since summer began

***

World beware, what is to come
Childgils' legion, Stopped by none
Merely children may they be
Doom their games bring upon thee

[Gratzerilasshis]

I made this drawing recently:

Haella, goddess of fertility and birth, her sacred animal is the bear



(As she is a claimable character, may any differences between the picture and the character sheet description occur, the description should be considered correct, as I do not aim to limit the future character's appearance.)

[Gratzerilasshis]

Here is the full story of The Dragonsayer's birth, complete with the first poem:

Two from the Race of Men decided to leave behind their gray everyday lives in turn for the life of an adventurer, set their feet in a realm ruled by dragons. The world they saw was whole, the mountains and plains unscarred, forests and meadows intact, wildlife thriving... Yet something was missing. It felt like the very land was abandoned by Fate, left behind until it would slowly fade into lifeless silence.
One of them had wandered from realm to realm, he had seen worlds of empty silence. He now stopped, not wandering on but decided to attempt and bring Fate back to this world. He climbed peaks, and when he was above the lands, turned towards the sky, addressing the empty heavens he called out to the two lost rulers of the realm:

"Return, you Queen Dragons Two
Heed the yearning of your people
In dismay they summon you
Without you their fate is feeble"

[Gratzerilasshis]

With two friends of mine (one is a fellow player here on the forum), we roleplay a family. We decided to climb Dragon's Peak:
(This is not part of the forum's canon, but it's still a related work)


Three figures stood before the first of the three thousand steps leading up to the peak. The Black Bear of Daerkvalley, his wife and their daughter were planning to trek the path, with various amounts of enthusiasm.
"Do we really want to go all the way up there?" Asked the girl, apparently not too keen on the idea.
"Yes, but you'll see you will like it, when we get there." Her father assured. "But let's get going, it won't be a short trip, that's true."
At first the climb wasn't hard, rather it was monotonous, step after step until the path became steeper. But the steeper slope also meant that they ascended more quickly. There were parts where they had to help each other up, but eventually the path leveled out again. Forest surrounded them, and much to their annoyance a fog was also brewing.

A howl cut into the fog. That was the last thing they needed, and so typical that the wolves and the fog just had to come together.
"We should stay close so we don't…" The father said, stopping when he saw their daughter was already missing.
"Sweetheart, where are you?" His wife called out, but the only answer was some snarls somewhere around, definitely not their child.
"Defend me, you're the husband for a reason." The wife said as both of them drew swords, she a thin, light longsword, and he a long handled saber. They prepared for fight, and for the worst.
While she liked to show a simple mother, she was just as much a warrior as him. Even on their wedding eve their dance was with blades, in the first line of the defenders, fending off raiders.
With steel in hand, they followed the noises, and found both the wolves and their child. As shocking a sight as it was, she was playing with the beasts, throwing sticks for them to fetch. The father couldn't do anything but hold his forehead. She was the sweetest bane of parents.

After the two parents got over their near-heart attack state, the next challenge was continuing their way, leaving the now friendly (overly so, in the father's opinion) wolves behind.
Higher up the slopes mother and child decided in unison:
"Let's look for butterflies!"
They did find butterflies, but due to the temperature this high on the mountain in this time of the year… They were all frozen! Sure enough, this high everything was covered in snow, the peak was near. With some beautiful, though frozen stiff, butterflies in their possession they climbed the rest of the steps.

"You said there will be dragons. I can't see any." The girl said to his father with a pout.
"There are, you will soon see" He answered, then turned towards the sky. "Great Spirits, we come to you for a dragon for our family. Please give us one, as you see it most fit."



How The Spirits granted our wish, written by Brinzer

At the arrival of the trio on the mountain top, the curious eye of the spirits fixed itself upon them. This was strange, wasn’t it? Never before had they granted more than one egg at a time, or one egg to more than one person. Being such a strange situation, they agreed unanimously that a simply breeze and random egg appearing wouldn’t be suitable for this situation. With a small thundering, the clouds grouped themselves so as to appear as a dragon’s head with glowing yellow eyes that seemed to have no source. It gazed upon the family standing in the clearing intently, knowing their purpose without it having to be stated. They wanted a family dragon, how cute. Never before had something like this happened in their knowledge, and certainly not by any one of them. However, this man was worthy, as was this woman. And the child, well she seemed to have merit. Very well, their wish would be granted.

Without a single word, the dragon head in the clouds nodded and emanated a low rumbling, not in warning, but this was their method of creation. On a normal basis, they would simply model a beast off the essence of the rider who requested it. But this dragon could not work as a regular one would. It would not be tied to a single one of them. It would be purely independent, and must be created from scratch. And the idea of it ever becoming just a pet was laughable. Any attempt to demean it to that would grant them one runaway dragon, never to be seen again. After a few minutes of the loud rumbling which reverberated all around them, it died down, and down from a nearby cloud floated a baby dragon. It flapped its now useless wings, but it did not fall by gravity or its own admission, and so no harm would come to it upon falling. It reached the ground in front of the fathers feet and gave a little hiccup.

Upon noticing the three who would soon become its caretakers, the tiny beast narrowed its eyes and puffed itself up, trying to appear tough. As tough as an infant creature could be. It tried to belch out a flame, but being so young, it barely emitted a wisp of smoke. Frowning in disappointment, it decided upon another tactic, and hopped through the snow over to the mothers leg. Its claws were not yet sharp, and so it was able to climb the woman’s leg and crawl up her arm without piercing the skin, until it alighted on her shoulder. It rather liked this perch. The small beast stretched out its neck towards the smaller human, sniffing at it and poking its nose testingly to her cheek. The moment it got near her, the child gave a squeal of delight and reached for the new companion, and his reaction was to balk for a second before extending his face to tentatively nuzzle in to the child’s small palm, though as small as he was it was still bigger than his head. He was easily able to sense the innate friendliness and innocence of the child. One that appealed to him as his friend. So with a little squeak of happiness, the tiny creature crawled in to the little girls arms, curling itself up against her and making little content rumbles in its tummy, and in his mind she was now claimed as his own.

[Gratzerilasshis]

Some art:

This brooch and ring is made in my style of Rennrahkash, kingdom of Gratzerilasshis Merakhid.

The materials used are iron, wood, simple stones and some brass, materials more likely found in Massacre Mountains.

[Gratzerilasshis]

This piece is polished brass, depicting Ghassan in his serpent form.

[Gratzerilasshis]

More trinkets:

This pendant is also of Rennrahkash style, made of wood, and brass droplets.

Know what? Once my plot reaches the point that Rennrahkash has craftsmen, these trinkets will be available IC for characters.

[Ghassan]

Some tales of old will follow, the first of which is also the riddle anyone will have to solve if trying their luck with the sword Ghasenead (in thread "Ghasenead" found in Massacre Mountains)

Ranurten Ghese
Tale of Ghese

In a far away land, in a far away time, stood the city of Ghese. Once thriving and prosperous, it was now besieged by hordes of risen dead. The archpriest presented to the king of Ghese a blessed sword, saying:
"There is but one way to end this menace threatening us all. The dead follow their own king. He is strenghtened by our losses and has to be slain by this blessed sword, or his armies leave nothing from our home."
The king of Ghese took the sword and headed to clash with the armies of the dead. He slew dozens of the unholy enemy and called out for the King of the Dead countless times but there was no-one who faced him in one on one duel. While the king battled with the armies of the dead, an ailment, some say a curse, appeared amongst the citizens of Ghese. The victims faded away until they were but shadows of themselves, alive but vacantly staring in front of themselves, not reacting to the world around them.
Whit every one living dead the king slew, he felt more alive, stronger, more confident of his eventual victory. But with every one he slew, one more citizen succumbed to the curse.
With no-one heeding the king's challenge, he decided to track down where the living dead came from, and confront them at their own home. Soon he found his destination, a castle of black stone, with doors of ebony. No soul stood guard in the entire castle, his entry seemed too easy. He walked up to the great ebony doors, and knowing he would find the King of the Dead inside, he entered.
The doors led to his very throne room at the castle of Ghese.

The king now knew who he had to slay to free his people. But do you?

[Gratzerilasshis]

Tou aleb daratten yrt - als ranur
The eleven warriors of flame - first tale

In the dawn of ages, in the age of dawns, legends tell of a mighty blade that was forged to honor nature. It would strengthen itself with elements of nature that it meets. But to wait for the hero worthy to wield it, it was set into stone on a high mountain peak. This is the tale of the hero destined as it's master.

On rich plains surrounded by the arc of Rennrahkashkretyl, the All-slay Mountains, among meadows stood a town. Neither the walls, nor the name of the town remain now, past many ages, but in that time the town thrived.
But one day a roaring shadow soared past across the sky above the town, and every flame, be it that of a hearth or even a small candle, rose up, grew in both size and heat. The fright was great as many flames spread and grew into fires. The people ran to wells and returned with buckets of water to put out the fires, but a roar was heard and even the water caught fire and it burned as if it was oil.
Chaos and panic broke out and the people fled, but then the storm of fire shaped into many forms of creatures, and chased and hunted down many, and not even the innocent was spared.
The few remaining survivors fled out to the fields, but the fire chased them on, for it spread through the rich fields of wheat and always followed them. The few who lived reached a rocky hill where nothing could catch fire and watched from afar as a dragon settled among the stone walls that now glowed a dark red from the heat.
Yrtifakash Daunceilasshis has arrived, who mastered fire so greatly that he could command it to come alive at his will.

But among the survivors Loh was brave and vengeful. He gathered ten more men and they swore an oath to revenge the fallen and slay the beast. But while their hearts were strong, their arms by themselves were no match for the dragon's might.
They didn't have weapons or armor either, and had to wait eleven days until the dragon of fire left the searing ruins and headed towards his next prey.
The Eleven entered the still hot town, headed towards the forge, but could only find that all steel melted and pooled into puddles of molten metal. But Loh brought water from the well, which was still steaming but it didn't burn now with the dragon gone, poured it on the puddles, and made shields out of the oddly shaped plates that were formed this way. Most of the original guards of the town fell in the fray, their equipment melted onto them, but the Eleven found in the guardhouse some spare weapons and old hauberks of mail.
Fard, who was a blacksmith and a priest of fire, took the weapons and armours to a still burning dragonfire and improved them to a usable quality. He also found a searing hot crampon in a scorched wall, and smithed it into a spear. Some believe the tip of that spear is still red hot even to this day.

The Eleven gathered then, vowed brotherhood, and thus the Aleb Daratten Yrt, the Eleven Warriors of Flame became the company of fighters that legends remembered through ages. And they elected Loh as their leader, the bravest who united them on this quest. And as they uttered their vow, a great lightning thundered above, as if sealing their bond, and a thunderstorm brewed and smothered the fires of the town.
On the twelfth day after the attack the remaining townsfolk braved back to the ruins, but they could not find the Eleven Warriors anywhere by then.


The story continues
_____
IC notes:
- The name "Loh" is likely not the actual name of the hero of the story, as it simply means "Hero"
- In the ancient language in which the story was first told, the word "Elt" means both "He" and "She", therefore while here "He" is used, nothing determines whether the hero was male or female
- Similarly, the name "Fard" means "Blacksmith", and is likely more of a replacement name, not the actual name of the person. This fashion can be observed with the other members of the Eleven Warriors as well.

- Rennrahkashkretyl -> All-slay Mountains (renn - all, rahkash - slayer, kretyl - mountain range), an ancient name of the range now known as Massacre Mountains

- Yrtifakash Daunceilasshis - Firesayer Doom-Most-Comer