#i'd rather spend my energy describing what goes on in a pact partners' shared mindspace lmao

[satohqbanana]

Dragonmage Pact Notes

Here's a couple of notes on lore and unexplored plot threads in Dragonmage Pact. Spoilers about the story ahead!

On the Incarnates

The incarnates of the original Chief Goddess and her nymph daughters think of each other as sisters. Regardless of her age, the goddess incarnate will still act as their leader.

When reincarnated, the incarnate will start out as a small child knows little about her role. She merely trusts on her guts and instinctively bond with someone she regards as strong to make them her guardian. Older incarnates extensively care for and assist younger incarnates until they "mature" and magically acquire the knowledge of their identity and powers.

An incarnate may have multiple guardians, but the incarnates more often prefer to only have one guardian at a time. An incarnate and her guardian does not necessarily carry out a friendship or even a romance. (Feel free to imagine what exactly is the deal between Rhen and Dameon, Talia and Devin, Mel and Spook, Stella and Edward, Ingrid and Boyle, and Iya and Ean in this fic.)

Also if you want to know who is what, Rhen is the incarnate of compassion, Talia wisdom, Mel luck, Stella love, Ingrid wickedness, and Myst hope. And of course, Iya is the goddess incarnate.

On Pacts

Pacts are magical contracts that offers life and power to those who make them. A pact can be made between two or more people, and involves having the contractees' souls merge as one. A pact takes what is most precious to the contractee as the price.

Regardless of whether what is most precious to the contractee is a physical object, another person, or a concept, the pact price affects the contractee's body in a way that will change the way they interact with this most precious thing.

The degree to which the souls merge vary from pact to pact. While I never got to talk about this much, Rhen and Lars' merged soul is fully integrated, while Te'ijal and Galahad's isn't.

Because Te'ijal and Galahad's merged soul isn't fully integrated, and they have been pact partners for longer, they are able to use their pact benefits powers, namely super speed for Te'ijal and super strength for Galahad.

And because Rhen and Lars' merged soul is fully integrated, they cannot do much if they disagree with each other. And because they are new pact partners, they kept mourning for what they lost, ended up frustrating each other, and failed to notice their new abilities until later on.

Whether Rhen made the pact because Ahriman's forces did a half-hearted job of "killing" her, or because she instinctively knew she would be the last incarnate of the era, or because she simply wanted to see Dameon again, I honestly do not know.

On Plot Threads

Smaller details such as Lars curling up next to dragon Rhen when they sleep, dragon Rhen very dragging Lars around to where she needs him to be, and Lars and Rhen having to deal with being seen as a dragon master and his pet didn't make it to the summary post, but it's something I think about.

Galahad has a full blessed armor from head to toe and it comes with a helmet. On the day his King banished him, he had come before the throne without his helmet on and was escorted away dropping said helmet behind. Hence, Galahad's head is the only part of him that's vulnerable to attacks.

I never got to talk about this as well because it wasn't too important in the big picture, but Lars in this AU travelled the world to escape his overbearing mother. His hometown is located in a country facing an economic crisis, in which owning slaves has become popular so people can cut labor costs. As such, he doesn't mind harming others to get what he wants or needs. In fact, he even enjoys the act of torturing people so he can distract himself from his situation. Along his journey with Rhen, he learned that his hometown was besieged, but he decided to ignore this news in favor of honing his abilities. Besides, he's in too deep aiding the incarnates' mission and he's too proud to back down.

There was no space for me to discuss this too, but Ean was an elf from the Vale and became in charge of recruiting people into the resistance force. Uthar's supposedly part of that army, but he wasn't important enough and I was throwing around too many names at this point in the story. I've no idea if he survived or not. As for Ean, he definitely physically aged a little bit.

Also, while Lars regained his speech, his voice is very hoarse and it actually hurts him to speak a lot, just like how Rhen is no longer fully nymph-like. It doesn't bother Lars too much, though; he's gotten used to being quiet, and the only other person patient enough to seriously consider his opinions is someone he already shares his mindspace with.

As for the ending, I like to think Dameon lives and Rhen and Lars keep him around, and that a new religion dedicated to the entity Rhen and Lars is has been established.