#quenari

[santaeofficial]

Adventure Awaits + Quenaris Revealed!

Phenomenal job, Adventurers! We’re thrilled to announce that the official Santae Kickstarter has passed its $80k Stretch Goal.

Grab your friends, gear up, and get ready for Adventure. This milestone means we have unlocked the Adventure Party System!

As an Adventure Party, you and your friends will be able to embark on Collaborative quests! Work together to explore and overcome adventurous Challenges. As you conquer each adventure, you’ll improve your capabilities and even unlock Exclusive bonuses and rewards! Adventuring with a party will be a whole new cooperative way to explore the world of Santae.

Thank you so much for the Overwhelming support that has made all of the Kickstarter’s progress possible. The campaign is ending soon, so don’t miss your chance to make a pledge, get rewards, and help push toward even more stretch goal excitement!

Visit the Official Santae Kickstarter to help bring the world of Santae to life.

A Mystical Dragon of legend is soaring into Santae. We are absolutely overjoyed to reveal the beautiful finalized artwork of the new draconic pet, Quenaris!

With its gleaming scales and long, elegant body, the Quenaris will make both a beautiful and fearsome friend for any Adventurer bold enough to befriend one. Quenaris is infused with an aura of magic and ancient mystery. Will you make one your companion when this mystical dragon arrives?

The Quenaris was unlocked by a magnificent community effort. Thank you all for your support — you’re what makes it possible for us to bring even more magic to the world of Santae!

With Love and Gratitude,

-The Santae Team

[isaacathom]

actually uyeah im bored im gonna run it down. what specific Thing does naielle have with (pretty much) every member of her family that has her fucking wracke with guilt or smth

At a very basic level, a context - naielle comes from an elf napoleonic france, with some specific details that the usual max lifespan is closer to 500, and that the emperor has no heir and is like. 450. i wrote it down somewhere. doesn't matter. So naielle, being exiled from elf france, very early on made the assumption that she could Wait Out the collapse of it. That the emperor would die in, yknow, 50 years, the power vacuum would be contested by every general and cousin and random former nobleman, and the country would be ripped apart, nullifying her exile by technicality. this established,

Saroel - Naielle's grandmother, 495.

Naielle loves her grandmother. She's this wise and cunning lady, who survived the turmoil of Bonaparte's rise to power by making deals and using the family's noble fortune to buy favour. Her husband died in the post-rise period, and Saroel didn't. She bought the life of her and her children when her husband was accused of treason. She's clever.

Naielle has her engagement ring, a gold band designed to snugly fit under a wedding ring, a piece of jewellery older than the empire itself. Naielle used it as a blueprint to craft a pair to it, and matching wedding rings, with which to propose to her girlfriend Xistina.

If Naielle waits out the empire's demise, she'll never see her grandmother again. Never be able to tell her she was right when she told Naielle to be careful about her historical research, or show her the now complete wedding ring. She'll never get to hug her one last time and be enveloped in a stiff embrace that smells of old pines and old times, like the oils of the paintings and brass of the sculptures that make up the universities museums, of the motar that keeps its bricks together.

Laucian - Naielle's father, 333

Naielle is a daddy's girl. She's her father's son, without question or ambiguity. She's got his square chin, his broad nose, his golden eyes, his curly hair (albeit lighter than his - her mother got lucky with that). She's got his passion for history and all that came before, for the nebulous space of was and may have been.

For Naielle's 100th birthday, Laucian gave her a red ribbon. He's not from a noble background, rising from the peasantry with a father in the military and a mother a nursemaid. He has no heirlooms to grant. But the red ribbon, Naielle thinks, is just as meaningful as the engagement ring, because it's a connection to that paternal grandmother, Shana. She was a hard worker, stern with her charges and utterly doting on her own children, sneaking small things from the noble houses she served to give them. She wore her hair in intricate braids, which she taught Laucian and his brother how to do, and she tied them, always, with red ribbon. It was her favourite colour, she'd say.

Shana died when Laucian was only 24. A child, in elf terms. He's worn a red ribbon ever since, 300 years, for longer than Shana was even alive, in her memory. And he hands this down to his daughter, who takes after him so strongly, and in whose smile he can undoubtedly see his mother's.

Naielle adores her father. She fears, down to the bone, that she has disappointed him. That in her exile she has perverted the passion they share for history, turned it into a reminder of the crushing weight of the empire. That she's ruined something.

She still wears the ribbon in honour of a woman she never met. She never learnt her braids.

Oriphira - Naielle's mother, 321

She didn't inherit any particular gift from her mother - Saroel's engagement ring was a joint gift, a blessing for such an item to skip a generation to find itself on Naielle's finger.

They haven't always been close. Oriphira inherited her own mother's preservative streak, an understanding that the family exists at a knife edge between imperial eradication and flourishing, and a single wrong move could damn them. She grew up in that tumultuous era. She would have watched her father die, or march to die, dragged from their home by imperial troops. She would have seen the pathetic graves for him and his brother, her beloved uncle, and known they should not lie there. That a family mauseleum lay open and expecting, and would recieve naught. That they were disgraced. That it was only Saroel's cunning which saved the life of her and her younger sibling.

Oriphira has seen her family's birthright, such that nobility can claim it, ripped from their grasping hands. She's clawed for every inch back. She's fought for the university Saroel used to buy their freedom. She's fought for the healers and medical practicioners to return to her town in the post-revolutionary period, as she watched her own child die of a preventable childhood infection, watched her sibling die of a stomach left to fester and rot without aid. She's seen the gods abandon that town, and she's filled that void.

She's a tough woman, and she is tough to love. Naielle does all the same. She may not have understood it then, the depths of the sacrifices her mother had made for them all, the agony she must have gone through with every child thereafter. The ingrained fear of heights, inherited in most of her children, after another fell from the roof.

But Naielle gets it now. Now that she fights in a war in a different land for its very existence, she finds that common ground. The two fight a war for their continued existence.

And Naielle imperilled it, didn't she? By raising imperial ire, a century after they last turned their baleful gaze Odelia-ward. By reminding that families like theirs, descendant from noble excess, can still be a threat.

She doesn't know what lengths her mother went to in order to keep them all safe after she left. She supposes the military service of her siblings may have shielded the family. But she knows her mother calculated the loss, and weighs that debt on Naielle's soul.

She wishes she could tell her she gets it, or thinks she does. That she understands the responsibility her mother is unjustly laden with. The blood on both their hands.

Aedelie - Naielle's older sister, 201

Naielle and Aedelie have almost a century in age between them, and its a very different dynamic than to any of their other siblings. Aedelie has to carry that torch, borne by Saroel and Oriphira, of being the responsible one. Being measured, and careful, and keeping everyone safe.

And Naielle always felt very safe. Her older sister was gentle and kind, a bulwark against anything that might hurt her. No monster under the bed would dare lay a finger on her when they knew Aedelie was never far, and even when Aedelie enlisted in the army she left her strength with them.

Aedelie's married, you know. She married a human man around 5 years ago, a fellow soldier in her cavalry unit. They have a little elf daughter, cherubic and giggly, just 2 years old with a wide toothy grin. Or so Naielle's been told.

If she waits out the collapse, she might never even meet her brother-in-law, a kind and soft-spoken man with a reflexes of an acrobat and hair like beach sand. She might never meet the man who makes her stern sister smile softly, with eyes that sparkle. A man whose duty, such that it is, is to protect Aedelie's life with his own.

Naielle is terrified for them both. War wages, and the Empire swings the proverbial club high overhead and demands blood, and her sister and brother-in-law must provide. None of them might see the two of them again. Forget the mortality of a human, anyone is mortal in the line of fire. And Naielle happens to know of a weapon, currently travelling by sea towards that firing line, and she fears what will happen when it goes off.

Quenaris - Naielle's older twin brother, 122

What can you say about a twin that isn't obvious? Peas in a pod, identical up until their mid 30s when he shot up like a stalk and left her a few inches shorter. The two know each other better than anyone else, Naielle is certain. She knew his adult name long before he told anyone, and he hers. She is him, and he is her, and they're two halves of a great whole.

Quenaris knew something was wrong, didn't he? That Naielle was lying when she said she had everything under control. That Naielle was hiding something, sparking like a fire in a cave, desperately being smothered. He saw the glitter in her eyes and knew it wasn't emotion that shone through, even if he couldn't identify the source.

She told him everything was fine. She didn't apologise for lying when it became clear it wasn't. That the situation had spiralled out of her control, that her warlock pact - a grave illegality as it stood - had shown her things she shouldn't see, and sent a beacon to the empire to observe.

He knew she lied. And she couldn't apologise, because to stay and do so would have seen her treason identified and laid bare before the Empire's vast apparatus. It would see her killed. She had to flee.

It ate her alive, it truly did. She didn't know how much he knew, how much he held against her.

She was lucky enough to see him, for only a few minutes. To hold him tight, as though by a hug they might be one and whole, and to cry, and tell him she was sorry. That he accepted her hug, and shed tears of his own, is enough for her.

It would still hurt if she never saw him again. Less, maybe, now that she knows he misses her too. Or more, to have given him a glimmer of hope that things might be normal in the future. She's scared of facing his ghost centuries from now.

Mariela - Naielle's younger sister, 110

Where do you even start?

These sisters have never been close. Each claims the other is irresponsible, too easily distracted, too something. There's always something wrong. Naielle isn't patriotic enough, Mariela is too patriotic. Naielle is too wrapped up in her books and shit that happened centuries ago, and Mariela is too concerned with her magic and the things that will happened soon, months and years in the future.

They're similar, and very different.

Naielle had no particular feeling towards her sister when she was forced to flee. To never see her again would hurt, but not as much as with others, a feeling tempered by the knowledge that Mariela would have some snide remark or another on her return. She lied to Mariela, but Mariela wouldn't care, would she? Naielle can't fathom the idea that Mariela cared either way, beyond that Naielle had embarrassed them.

Then Naielle came back, briefly, briefly, just to marry her fiance, and got roped into capturing Mariela.

What's Mariela been doing? Well, she'd taken what remained of Naielle's notes, on old histories and the magic so thusly entwined, and turned it into a weapon. A different weapon entirely, one worse than most others, and which Mariela saw simply as a tool. Naielle was a fool, she said, to focus on the historical implications of her research, and not to use its practical benefits. Look what lies in our grasp - the power to unravel reality!

Naielle was furious. She took Mariela as a prisoner of war.

And then her patron took her as a warlock.

It was not willing - Mariela made no deal, was offered no bargain she could stomach. Her will was superseded, Naielle's consent to the idea assumed, and her body made to channel magic it rejected.

Naielle did this. She did not know it would happen, had not even considered the possibility, wanted none of it. Mariela will probably never believe her.

It doesn't matter what Naielle thinks of Mariela's original ideas, her plans to turn utter destruction into a military tactic. It doesn't matter the differences of their personalities, that the two don't get along. Naielle did this. She forced this on her sister, intentionally or not, and she intends to make it right.

She expects she'll never right her initial mistake, the pact that brought her into exile in the first place. She fears she'll not right this. But it's in her power to do so, and whether Mariela wants her there or not, Naielle will fix it. Naielle would betray almost anyone to fix what she's done, burn most any bridge, because it almost isn't about Mariela anymore. It's a proxy for every mistake she's ever made, every harm she's brought, a way to try and make up for the life she ruined for herself by ever doing this.

If all goes well, Mariela will go home. Naielle can only hope she understands how much that means.

Yivien - Naielle's younger brother, 104

Probably the person for whom Naielle has the least consideration, a fact that would invariably infuriate the poor boy. The two have somewhat less in common than Naielle to Mariela, but do have one key thing - their academic focus. While Naielle is a historian, Yivien is an architect, and spent much of his youth fighting for their father's attention, to little success. Naielle was his daughter, following in his footsteps - Yivien's achievements weren't as important.

If Naielle was honest, and looked critically at herself, she would concede that Yivien is the smarter sibling. His grades are better, his grasp of abstract fundamentals stronger, he's quicker on the draw. It isn't fair, she reckons, that she was given that attention. The boy earned it, or ought have done.

She would struggle to tell him that. She doesn't think its pride - she never said she was the smartest sibling. What she struggles with is the idea that she needs to correct it, when surely, that burden lies with her parents for not acknowledging him better when she was around. Did she hog their attention? She isn't sure.

But as days grow darker, and doom grows nearer, she wonders if she should have said it anyway. Care or not, guilty or otherwise, he deserved their attention, and it was denied him. And she's responsible, in some capacity. Shouldn't she have tried to fix it? To say she was sorry?

The longer it goes, the more she thinks maybe she means it sincerely this time.

Xistina - Naielle's wife, 135

God, what could she say to her that she hasn't said already? Her most dearly beloved, a part of her soul, the keeper of her heart in turmoil. They've known each other nearly a century, and Naielle can only hope for centuries more.

Xistina wasn't in the country when Naielle went into exile. She was on business, sailing the sea, plying wares and doing trade under the gleaming sun. She would not hear news for months, till she landed in a bustling port and spotted no beaming face amidst the crowd, no-one all but ready to leap aboard before a gangplank was ever lowered. Naielle didn't know what she'd heard. She wished, dearly, that Xistina could have heard it from her.

She doesn't know what Xistina knew. She doesn't know if her fiancee saw the stars in her eyes and saw the meaning behind them. She spent years in dread. At least her siblings, her family, heard of the matter directly, that she'd had a feeble chance to defend herself in the hours before she fled. Xistina knew naught, and could learn less, and Naielle could not reach out for fear of potential consequence. Her fiance could not be party to treason. Her distance would keep her safe.

Her fiancee knew more than she thought, had an ear to the ground and the sea, and loved her still. She wore Saroel's ring proudly as a token of their love, and kept it in care over the decades.

Xistina knows it all, now. Naielle travelled across the planes to see her, to know her truly, all secrets bared on both sides. Pirate and Warlock, Traitor and Traitor. Let the empire declare their treason in love if they wish, for she has it.

And it scares her to think she might let it go. That, having come so close, having even successfully married her after decades apart, that they might lose it all. And that it will be Naielle's fault in totality. Her fault for her treason, her fault for leaving for the distant lands, and her fault for not staying when she had the chance. Who better could have ferried a wanter criminal than a rebel corsair? Where else could Naielle find that kind of safety? And yet she left, for she felt a duty to a war that still wages, and she knows there's a chance she will never return. That she will have given her wife - her wife! - false hope of a future together, of merry centuries in a free Sylvian land, or aboard a ship in the glittering sky, where no mortal government dared tread.

She fears she's given her wife a lie, and did not know it when she spoke.

[santae-salt]

...wait. so the dragon minimals aren't in herding anymore. so if you want a quenaris you either have to have gotten them during the event or buy them for 800,000sp+ in usershops now?? can someone tell me if im missing something

☁️

[feckyeslife]

Santae: a Pet Site in BETA

I've been spending a chunk of precious free time on this planet playing a new up and coming pet site. I miss the easy, nostalgic days of being bad at Neopets or the slightly later days of being bad at Flight Rising.

Unlike Neopets, you can have a ton of pets. You start off with 12 slots and can unlock more with in-game items. They've already got 31 different species and about 20 colors (shimmer dusts) that they can be customized with! Pets can be named almost anything, though if you chose a name that hasn't been given yet, they're given a little "first edition" badge.

So what do you do? Well, the core of it is item collection for your user profile and to feed/add to your individual pets' collections. You build this by gathering at the different collection areas, fishing at fishing spots, cooking gourmet meals, and herding to find minimals (the little creatures you can put next to your pets). There's also buying and selling from the NPC and user shops to get the exact items that you need to fulfill NPC Quests.

The site team is hard at work in this beta putting out new content. In the past months during beta, we have gone through multiple events for the fall and winter, including unlocking in-game ways to tame exclusive pets (the noodle dragon Quenaris, the fun-loving Luffin, and right now we're questing to tame the stunning Xyren). In addition, there's fun seasonal equipment for your human avatars as well as food or books to give to your pets.

The site is working on building out its lore with fun NPC characters. Some are in the process of being re-designed, and others are still being introduced. These characters include queer identities (and you can designate your pets' genders as more than just male/female too!) which gives ME a lot of joy.

The site has a lot of potential and a lot of positivity. The userbase loves to dote on new joiners if you link up with Discord-- the forums are slowly growing but need a little more development to bring them up to the same level of functionality as more modern forums. The staff is responsive to questions and feedback. We've seen tons of QOL updates along with new items and features over time.

Any of the items are short term, whether in the cash shop or from the seasonal events, will roll back around to be available again. The timeframe may be a few months or the next year, but it's clear the staff appreciate that FOMO isn't what they want to rely on for user engagement.

Speaking of the cash shop, anything available there is ALSO available within an in-game currency shop as well. So you can either pay to support the site or you can grind the in-game activities to earn the same items. It definitely takes commitment, but the alternative option is appreciated!

Overall, it's fun to get to play a low-stakes, friendly pet site game again. There is a referral period until Feburary 15th so if you'd like to join you can through my link here. Hope to see you there!!

[a-smart-ass]

Dragon age veilguard thoughts:

Im jealous of my companions.

What do you mean my rook isnt the specialistist babygirl??

You get to be a cool antivan crow, but also there's a cooler antivan crow with you and he has a demon inside him and he can fly.

You get to be a grey warden, but there's a cooler grey warden with a PET GRIFFON

Wanna be a quenary ?? TOO BAD YOU CANT BREATH FIRE THOUGH

Oh youre a dwarf? Well not like the one that CAN USE MAGIC AND IS CONNECTED TO THE ANCIENT TITANS

[lordbrosca]

more on accents in dragon age:

why does seggrit have an american accent?  so far, it seems like only dwarves have them. seggrit is the sole exception, and there’s nothing that suggests he grew up on orzammar. if anything, he seems fereldan, which means he should have a british accent, but he does not.

[lordbrosca]

by the way: this is @harikondabolu , a desi comedian from queens!! this specific take is from his special "warn your relatives", which i'd highly recommend watching if you have a netflix. support desi artists.

[pizzbiscuit]

Quenary Academy - Clay Art Cream Cake Decoration DEMO - Advanced 3

Quenary Academy – Clay Art Cream Cake Decoration DEMO – Advanced 3

Quenary Academy – Clay Art Cream Cake Decoration DEMO – Advanced 3 (more…)

[madameinquisitor]

i love her

[santaeofficial]

Bond with the Legendary Quenaris!

The way to the Lair is clear, Adventurers! If you have gathered all 12 Quenaris Orbs and placed them on the pedestals at Ascendants Shrine, you're now able to venture deep into the Forgotten Cavern and bond with a legendary dragon of your own.

Once you have reached the Lair of the Quenaris, pour a shimmer dust of the color of your choice into the waters to determine which color of Quenaris will emerge -- and which you will then have to befriend!

Then, a Quenaris will appear in the Lair for you to attempt to form the bond with! First need to show that you are worthy of its loyalty by turning in 12 dragon Minimals that you have tamed. These Minimals will leave you to remain in the Lair -- but they will help you win the trust of the secretive dragon!

Once you have demonstrated your friendliness, it is time to attempt to form a bond with the Quenaris by giving it more Quenaris Orbs. The Orbs will float around and orbit the Quenaris until the bond is formed -- and the exact number you will need to win the Quenaris' companionship may vary.

When you successfully bond with the Quenaris, you'll have the choice to leave the Lair with a brand-new dragon companion -- or with a Divine Quenaris Figurine imbued with magic capable of transforming one of your existing pets into a legendary dragon.

Once you have bonded with the Quenaris and left the Lair, the Forgotten Caverns will vanish behind you. To bond with another Quenaris, you will need to locate all 12 Orbs again and repeat the process.

Legendary dragons are finally returning to the skies of Santae after centuries! Will you befriend a magnificent Quenaris today and create a lifelong bond with your very own Quenaris?

[isaacathom]

oh i wanna draw naielle hugging her brother or fiancee real bad actually

[santae-salt]

The Quenaris newspost originally said you 'had a chance' to tame a Quenaris and a 'chance to take one home' after getting all the orbs and minimals. They changed it after a user asked in discord and it was revealed that the chance wording was a goddamn flavor text choice. So.

☁️

[santaeofficial]

Plushie Palooza Begins: Quenaris Plushies Arrive!

Adventurers can expect loads of new plushies to be added to the Plushie Machine prize pool between now and 15th of December, 2024, 23:59 SST! Every two days a new batch of plushies will be added to the Plushie Machine.

A new batch of plushies will be added to the Plushie Machine and experience heavily boosted rates for approximately 48 hours. Boosted rates will cycle at 20:00 SST every second day!

To Celebrate the bounty of sanDust and Plushie Palooza, Vespera is stocking Plushie Machine Tokens at the sanDust Shop for 350sanDust each! She is only offering this deal for the duration of plushie palooza!.

[santaeofficial]

The Secret At Skybound Outlook

Vespera and River returned to Halo Haven as quickly as they could. When they arrived, they rushed with Orion to Ascendants Shrine. They could finally place the final Orb -- and see what secrets the magic of the shrine would reveal!

"It is time," Scholar Orion said, nodding at Vespera.

"Here we go!" Vespera reached out and carefully placed the final Quenaris Orb onto its glowing pedestal. Like all the others, it fit perfectly.

The faint magical hum in the air intensified as all the Quenaris Orbs flared with light. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, a great sparkling whirl of energy engulfed the shrine. Scholar Orion threw up an arm to shade his face, and Vespera squeezed her eyes shut. The surge of magical energy was too bright to look at!

When they opened their eyes, only a few sparkles of magical energy remained -- but something had changed!

The path leading to the edge of the Outlook now connected to a sturdy wooden bridge. On the other side, an entirely new island had appeared! A craggy mountain was suspended in midair, with two dark cave entrances yawning in its side.

"Incredible!' Scholar Orion exclaimed. "It's just as the illustration we were examining predicted -- an island was hiding here after all!"

Vespera approached the edge of the Outlook and paused for a moment with her hand on the arch in front of the bridge. She gazed deep into the caves across the way, brimming with excitement. What was waiting to be discovered within? "Let's go in! We have to go look."

Together, Vespera and Orion crossed the bridge and entered the cool shadows of the Forgotten Cavern.

They proceeded cautiously through the darkness, but before long a deep violet glow helped illuminate the cavern's interior. Crystals embedded in the walls emitted the mystical light. Vespera and Orion followed the sound of water through the cave's twists and turns. Eventually, they found the source of the noise: a chamber with soaring ceilings, enclosing a luminous pool!

Lush plants crowded the shore of the deep pool, unlike any flora Vespera had seen before. Deep in the waters, strange fish were visible as shimmering silhouettes. The cave was home to a rich, beautiful, and totally unknown ecosystem!

"This is beautiful!" Vespera remarked, turning in a slow circle to admire the whole chamber. "I'm sure there are all kinds of new things to Gather here."

"It is," Orion agreed. "But one thing perplexes me. This is supposed to be the cave of the Quenaris -- the Shrine, and the illustrations from earlier make that seem clear. But I see no sign of any Quenaris here. I don't even see traces of any dragon Minimals."

"Let's keep exploring!" Vespera said. "We can invite the Adventurers here to investigate. Surely together we can find the rest of this place's secrets."

[santaeofficial]

Adventure Awaits: Hunt for New Quenaris Orbs, Santae’s First Random Events and a Trophy Revealed!

Community Event: Continue Collecting The Quenaris Orbs

Three new pillars are glowing at Ascendants Shrine, and that means three new orbs are now waiting to be discovered around Santae!

One can be found in the depths of the Abyssal Lake. The Abyssal Monster might be able to dredge one from the depths from you -- but with the right fishing and gathering equipment, you may also be lucky enough to discover one there for yourself.

Another has found its way into the hands of many friendly faces around Santae. If you complete Quests for any quest-giving NPC, there is a small chance you will receive an Orb as a reward.

As for the last -- random chance may just need to be on your side! Good luck!

Commemorate Your Quest With The Event Trophy!

If you participate at any point during the Quenaris Orb community event -- from taming dragon Minimals to collecting Orbs and beyond -- you'll receive a gorgeous event Trophy to commemorate the experience once the event concludes. Take part in the adventure today to make sure you'll receive this beautiful reminder of the magical Quenaris mystery on your profile!

This trophy will not retire so if you do not get an opportunity to earn it during this event, there will be future opportunities to acquire it

( Read the full news post here! )

[santaeofficial]

The Quest For The Orbs Begins

Vespera and Scholar Orion were examining every corner of Ascendants Shrine. They both had returned regularly to the ancient monument over the last several days. Orion had inspected the Shrine many times before, but ever since Vespera's arrival there was a strong sense of imminent discovery in the air. Both felt like the dragon Minimal influx was a sign of change.

Now that they were confident they had examined every nook and cranny of the Shrine, there was just one obvious test left to try. Vespera lifted the Dragon Orb sent by Silvershade and placed it delicately into the depression atop one of the Shrine's pillars.

The Orb fit perfectly. As soon as it settled into its proper place, the Shrine suddenly seemed to hum with magic. A soft glow began to emanate from the Dragon Orb as a swirl of energy began to circle overhead. The Shrine had been activated!

Vespera and Orion stood next to the Shrine's first pillar, watching the magic swirl. Dozens of dragon Minimals soaring overhead cast circling shadows over the shrine and the cluster of pillars.

"This is incredible!" Scholar Orion said. "The Orbs are certainly what we need to delve deeper into the secrets of this place. But I believe we are agreed," Orion continued, "that no more Dragon Orbs are hidden here at the Shrine."

"Right," Vespera agreed. "We've been so thorough -- I can't imagine where they would be hiding. I'm confident that we should extend the search."

"This first Orb was discovered by your friend Silvershade, correct?" Orion asked.

"Yes," Vespera confirmed. "They said a dragon Minimal they tamed was holding it."

Both Orion and Vespera turned their gazes upward, at the flocks of dragons swooping back and forth overhead.

"Hmm," Scholar Orion hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps the rest of the Orbs are also in the possession of these dragon Minimals. But there are so many..." he sighed. "We'd have to get extremely lucky to tame exactly the right one."

A slow grin crept across Vespera's face as an idea dawned on her. "You're right -- but we don't have to get lucky. My Adventurer friends can help! If they all work together to tame dragons, we could check a great number of them. Far more than you and I could examine alone."

"Excellent!" Orion cried. "You're right -- more investigators will dramatically increase the likelihood that something useful is learned from this endeavor."

"And that's not all," Vespera went on, excited. "That dragon Minimal must have gotten this first Orb from somewhere. The more we learn about these dragons by taming them, the more likely it is we can discover where they're coming from in the first place. Even if the dragons don't have any more Orbs themselves -- their home might."