#there’s only one dragon with these colors on the site and he’s exalted so I either have to wait or breed him myself

[bumpscosity]

FINALLY found someone selling the accent I wanted to use for my virgil fandragon, the gears are in motion now I just need the dragon himself…

[siaku-fr]

i have a spare uhhhh. midnight/sapphire/pearl with arcane eyes if anyone’s looking for one

there are only 7 other non-exalted dragons with these colors on the site so it’s a bit rare I suppose? not sure how much to sell em for but ehhhhhh

so here he is:

gonna be holding onto the parents cause I want them to keep their names, and they have a pretty tight color range so I don’t want to just exalt them if someone else is looking to breed a similar dragon

I’m thinking about maybe geneing them and keeping them as a breeding pair? and like. eventually making a forum thread for em. but that’s a lot of work and it would be a long while before they’re ready (I have a bunch of other projects to work on >.> and on top of that I’m only intermittently active) so for now they’re just two plentiful breeds chilling in my hibden

[flightless-rising]

Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

[brax-was-here]

Scarlet Briar: The Seeds of Life Chapter 9

Written by: Braxxus

Chapter 9: Mysteries Are Meant to Be Solved

Sometimes it’s the little things that help us

Nafiona stood on a ridge overlooking the landscape that lay before her. The jungle was bathed in a haze of gold as she stared at the gleaming palace that lay far in the distance. They had stopped to rest for a moment near a set of stone ruins.

“What do you think this monolith is?” she heard Caelan ask behind her.

“I don’t know, but you would think the pact would figure out a way to shut off this annoying buzz in the air.” Another courtier complained.

“Ordhram…” Nafiona called for her subordinate.

“Yes, m’lady?” He walked up beside her.

“What do you make of that?” She gestured to the structure in the distance.

“It looks like…maybe a castle, m’lady.” He responded. “Seemingly made of gold by the way the jungle surrounded glows.”

“That is my thoughts as well. Do you think that which we seek would be there?” she questioned, her eyes narrowing.

Ordram pondered a moment. “It’s possible, m’lady. But would the jungle dragon build such a place?”

“Not in the short span he was awake.” She remarked.

“What is that!?” she heard one of her courtiers yell. She turned quickly with weapons drawn to see an ethereal figure clad in ornate gold armor floating before them.

“You are the same as the one who watches over the egg.” It spoke.

“The egg?” Nafiona muttered, looking at Ordhram, who returned her look just as confused. They turned their gaze back to the ethereal being.

“What are you?” Ordhram asked sternly, brandishing his sword.

“I am Dansha. Exalted protector of Tarir and the lands around it.” It replied, its voice stern.

“Dansha?” Caelan asked.

“What is Exalted?” Nafiona asked.

“We are the protectors and caretakers of Tarir and Glint’s legacy.”

“Glint’s legacy?” Nafiona gave the creature a curious look. “You mean the crystal dragon?”

“The scion of Kralkatorrik. She constructed the palace of Tarir and entrusted us to safeguard her legacy from those that would destroy it.”

“So, it’s an egg, not a seed?” Nafiona asked thoughtfully.

“That is correct.” Dansha answered. Nafiona looked at Ordhram with a slight mischievous smirk.

“Can we see the egg?” she asked turning back to the Exalted.

“You cannot. Only those deemed worthy to be the eggs protector may see the egg.”

“Oh? So how do we become its protector?” she smiled.

“A champion has already been chosen. No other may be chosen.” The Exalted replied.

“A champion? Interesting.” Nafiona pondered a moment. She looked at Ordhram. “What do you think?”

Ordhram looked at the palace in the distance. “It may be beneficial to our search to visit this place.” He suggested.

“Agreed.” She looked back at the floating entity. “Dansha? May we visit Tarir?”

“Of course. You will be allowed to see the city proper.”  He turned and started floating down the pathway before them.

Nafiona smiled at Ordhram. “Let’s go, shall we?”

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orla could see the buildings of Camp Resolve coming into view as the caravan lumbered across the sand. The sun beat down upon her as she sat chained to the carriage. She pondered what was in store for her once they arrived at the camp. Reaching the gate, the caravan stopped before entering. A group of Pact guards walked along the carriages checking the supply boxes.

“What do we have here?” a guard asked as he climbed over the railing into the carriage holding Orla.

“What does it look like? I’m being held prisoner against my will.” She snapped at him.

“A troublemaker that apparently stole some armor and weapons or something like that.” the Priory member answered from outside the carriage.

“I see. And I guess we’re to keep her here then. Another sylvari to add to the cave.”

“The cave?” she asked.

“Yep. Can’t seem to trust your kind after what you all did during the fighting. Apparently, we have to keep an eye on you until you’re deemed trustworthy again.” The guard said to her as he climbed back down. 

“Alright. Bring em in!” a voice shouted from the gate. The carriage lurched forward again. Orla watched the gate slowly pass by as the caravan entered the camp. The caravan was brought to rest in front of a larger storage building. Pact members started climbing over the carriages, removing supply boxes and materials. The Priory scholar that had always been with her carriage, climbed aboard and unlocked Orlas chains from the floor of the carriage.

“Let’s go.” She ordered. Another guard helped Orla down from the carriage.

“Take her in. We’ll get someone to take her to the cave after we get everything unloaded.”

“This cave doesn’t sound like a pleasant place.” Orla spouted as they walked her into the building.

“You’ll be at home with the rest of you sylvari.” The guard responded. She sat Orla in a chair and shackled her to a building support. “I would tell you to wait here, but I don’t think you’re going anywhere.” The guard said to her as she turned towards the door.

“Oh, you are just so funny.” Orla replied snidely. She tugged at the shackles, sighing deeply. She looked around the room full of supply crates, various metal items and random parts.

“The prisoner is in here?” someone asked from outside.

“Yes. I have her shackled to the building.” The guard responded, stepping aside. Another pact soldier, a tall dark-skinned human, entered and looked at Orla.

“A thief, huh. You don’t look like a thief. You look more like…a weed that grew in the street. Put her with the others.”

Orla’s face turned sour. “A weed. I’ll show you just how deadly a weed can be.” She muttered. The guard undid her shackles once again and walked her out.

“Scholar, or you, Whispers agent. Either of you.” The dark-skinned human shouted at a nearby group that were sorting through some of the boxes.

“Yes?” one of them turned to him.

“I want you two to accompany this soldier and her prisoner to the cave. Be quick about it. We have work to do.”

The priory member sighed. “Yes, sir.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m a little tired of these arrogant Vigil ordering us around.” The whispers agent spoke quietly.

“Me too.” The scholar replied as they moved towards the approaching guard with Orla in tow.

“Let’s go.” The scholar and whispers agent fell in behind Orla as the group moved to the entrance of the camp. They approached a large stone in a cliffside that Orla squinted at.

“That’s out of place.” She thought to herself. Another whispers agent appeared out of nowhere and bowed to the group. He turned and tapped on the boulder before disappearing from sight. The giant stone rolled slowly to the side, revealing a cave entrance.

“Take her inside with the others.” The scholar ordered. The agent grabbed Orla’s chains and walked her inside. The cave passage was dimly lit as they passed through. It opened into a large area littered with cots and other makeshift furniture. There were various sylvari about, some sleeping, others talking amongst themselves. Some looked towards Orla.

“Nightmare Court.” One spoke nearby. A hushed murmur went through the room.  

“What is going on here? What are you doing to them!?” Orla turned to the agent. “You keep us trapped here!?” Another agent appeared, holding a sword to Orla’s throat. She glared at him, taken aback that it was a sylvari.

“This is only temporary, courtier. We are only here until the pact is sure we are truly free from the dragon’s influence.” One of the sylvari spoke up. “We are not trapped here.”

“Hands up.” The agent said sternly. Orla put her hands up in front of her. The agent in one swift movement quickly unlatched the locking device keeping her hands shackled. The other did the same to the shackles around her ankles.

“Be warned.” The sylvari agent spoke quietly. “We are watching.” The two agents disappeared from site. Orla turned to look at the group before her.

“Come, courtier. In this room we are all the same. Come eat with us.”

Orla looked perturbed at the sylvari. “I won’t be staying here.” She muttered before resigning herself to join the others.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The jungle looks so pretty here!” Liathlas excitedly exclaimed as the trio moved through the brush. The entire area was bathed in a golden glow.

“The energy radiating from Tarir gives the jungle around it an aura.” Malyck explained. “But still, we should be cautious.”

“If the Nightmare Court came this way, do you think they would try to enter?” Liathlas asked, looking at Ceara.

“I was just wondering the same thing.” Ceara looked thoughtfully. “Malyck, what else is kept in Tarir other than the supposed dragon egg?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never entered. The few times I got close the doors were always sealed. Guarded by beings of energy.”

“Energy? What do you mean?”

“Energy. I’m not sure how to explain it. They float but have a head and arms like we do clad in a gold armor.”

“Interesting. I’d like to see these beings.”

Malyck suddenly raised his hand for them to stop. “Down! Now!” He whispered dropping to the dirt. They followed suit.

“What’s going on?” Ceara asked when suddenly an arrow penetrated the ground beside her.

“Get under cover now!” Malyck ordered. The group rushed through the brush as arrows flew passed them. They ducked behind some fallen trees and rocks, crouching down out of view. Malyck unholstered his pistol as Ceara unslung her rifle.

“What’s out there?” Ceara asked quietly.

“I’m not sure.” Malyck replied.

Ceara turned to Liathlas. “Stealth us, and let’s try to find out.” Liathlas cast a stealth field around them. The trio peered out from behind their cover, looking over the jungle.

“I’m not seeing anything.” Liathlas whispered.

“Me either, not yet anyway.” Ceara spoke.

“They are there. Whatever they are they are waiting for us to move.”

“What do we do?” Ceara asked as the stealth field faded.

“This will-“ Malyck suddenly turned a fired his pistol, striking a dark colored Itzel in the head, sending it falling backwards. Another landed on the log in front of them, brandishing two daggers. Ceara shot it with her rifle, knocking it back. Arrows started hitting the foliage and rocks near them.

“Go! Now!” The group started rushing through the brush. Their escape cut short as Malyck was tackled by another Itzel. They rolled across the ground, the Itzel pinning him down when they came to rest. Ceara turned to see the Itzel with its blade in the air about to strike Malyck when she charged it, knocking it to the ground. It rolled to its feet. Malyck fired a shot at it, hitting it in the torso as Ceara flipped her rifle around and swung it as hard as she could, hitting it in its chin knocking it backwards.

“Why didn’t you shoot it!?” Malyck asked angrily.

“Because I only have a couple rounds left and we might need them!”

Liathlas teleported backwards as another attacked her with its blade. She conjoured two illusions of herself that attacked the oncoming Itzel. It leapt at one, passing through it. Quickly it turned, only to be locked in place as a field of energy appeared at its feet. Her clones continued their attack as the trio heard the sound of a horn echo through the treetops. More Itzel dropped from the trees surrounding them.

“Well, this is…this doesn’t look good for our team.” Ceara said matter of factly.

“What do you want with us?” Malyck hollered.

“You are trespassing on our territory.” One of the Itzel remarked.

“We are just passing through. Nothing more.” He added.

“Then you wi-“ The Itzel was cut short as a spear pierced the back of his head.

“You will not harm these people this day.” The group turned to see a group of large froglike creatures moving quickly through the brush towards them. Some brandishing spears, some with bows, and others with giant Warhammer-like weapons.

“Nuhock!” Malyck shouted. He turned and shot one of the Itzel.

“This is our land, Nuhock!” One of the Itzel shouted. Arrows launched as some of the Itzel turned to attack the lumbering group. Ceara dodged a spear as one Itzel lunged at her, smashing the butt of her rifle against the side of its head. It screamed in rage as it relentlessly attacked her, a flurry of melee attacks putting her on the defensive.  The Itzel slashed at her, the tip of spear slicing her abdomen. She felt her blood start to run as an arrow from a nuhock bow pierced the Itzel’s knee, causing it to lurch in pain. With a mighty swing of her rifle, she hit the creature in the jaw, knocking it away.

Liathlas created as many clones of herself as she could. So many that even her allies couldn’t tell which was the real mesmer. They attacked every Itzel within sight as she placed fields at their feet, looking them in place. One Itzel appeared out of nowhere behind her, grabbing her by the neck. It attempted to drive its dagger into her throat, but she teleported out of its grasp.

“Not this time!” She hollered. The Itzel turned to her voice, just in time to see the end of her staff meeting one of its large eyes. She sent a charge of eldritch energy through the staff, paralyzing the creature as it yelped in pain, before it dropped to the ground. She turned her attention to Ceara, who she could see was bleeding from her stomach.

“Cea-“ Liathlas we cut off by a searing pain in her back as she felt a sharp blade plunge into it.

Malyck took aim at the Itzel that had just driven its dagger between Liathlas shoulders. Pulling the trigger, he shot the creature in the back of the head, causing it to fall forward knocking Liathlas to the ground.

“Your friends need to learn better fighting techniques.” One of the giant frog creatures rumbled as he swung his giant hammer, smashing an Itzel to the ground.

“Not the proper time for this discussion.” Malyck growled as he dodged a spear being thrust by one of the Itzel. He grabbed the haft and used the frog creature’s momentum to pull it towards him. He shoved his pistol in its large mouth and pulled the trigger, sending the back of the Itzel’s head flying in a spray of blood and brain matter.

“Brothers, sisters. We must retreat!” One of the Itzel shouted. A horn echoed once again through the treetops and the remaining Itzel leapt away, disappearing from sight. The giant nuhock formed a ring around the sylvari.

“We must tend to your friends.” One of the nuhock spoke. “Search the trees for the bracium moss.” He ordered the others. A few of the massive creatures broke from the circle and started searching through the brush, pulling up clumps of moss and dirt. They returned briefly. Gingerly, the giant dressed Ceara’s wound placing the moss across the cut, and firmly holding it in place. Ceara winced at the stinging pain she felt as the plant was pressed into her abdomen.

“Bite down on this.” Another nuhock spoke softly to Liathlas as it held a small branch in front of her. “It will help as we remove the blade from your body.” Liathlas bit down and grimaced. She felt the nuhock grab the hilt of the dagger.

“Now.” It spoke. It pulled the knife out quickly. Liathlas yelped as the pain shot through her body. She spit the branch out as she felt her own blood running down her back. She gasped as she felt the moss being applied to her wound, the sharp stinging pain as it was being held firmly to her back. “You must rest and let the moss do its work.” The nuhock spoke.

“We don’t have time.” Ceara winced again at the sting in her stomach. “We have to get south…as fast as possible.”

“I do not think you are in any condition to travel, lest your wounds will not heal.”

“Give it time to do its work.” Malyck said to her.

“But Nafiona…she-“

“We’ll get there.” Malyck cut her off. “The nuhock ha-

“Well, that’s rather rude.” She spouted. He glared at her, drawing a deep breath.

“As I was saying, the nuhock have ways of getting through the jungle much faster than over land.”

“And how do we do that?”

“The jungle provides.” One of the nuhock spoke, as it dressed Liathlas wound.

“We have burrows through the jungle floor that can take us out of harm’s way.” Said another.

“Well, that would have been handy to have sooner!” Ceara spat.

“Ceara…shush.” Liathlas spoke quietly. “They are trying to help.”

“Can you take us south, to the dragon’s domain?” Malyck asked them.

The nuhock fell silent, looking at each other. “We have burrows that lead to the south, yes.”

“Excellent!” Liathlas whooped. Her excitement was cut short when she looked at Ceara. Ceara’s face was turned away, looking at the ground. A solemn look had befallen her.

Ceara’s chest had tightened at the thought of travelling into Mordremoth’s lair. Her heart started racing as memories floated through her mind. She breathed in deep as she closed her eyes.

“Focus.” She whispered to herself. “Calm yourself.” She felt a hand gently grab her arm. She slowly opened her eyes to see Liathlas looking at her.

“We’re here.” She said softly.

“I can do this.” Ceara whispered. She drew a long breath. She looked at the nuhock standing nearby. “Let’s go.”

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This palace is absolutely stunning!” one of Nafiona’s courtiers voice shrieked as they entered through a giant set of golden doors.

“This city represents Glint’s majesty. Used to protect the artifacts that will help keep Tyria’s future peaceful and protected from the dragons.” Dansha spoke as he glided through the hallways.

“How did this place survive Mordremoth?” Another courtier asked.

“The battles were fierce and took a toll on us all. Some of us had to sacrifice ourselves to keep the city safe. Thanks to our allies, we were able to fend off the dragon’s minions during the war.”

“You mean the Pact.” Nafiona stated.

“Correct.” Dansha led them to an open chamber that glistened as the sun shone through an opening in the ceiling. Some members of the Durmond Priory were in the room, studying various etchings and markings on the walls.

“I will admit that this palace is very impressive, indeed.” Nafiona remarked, watching the Priory members. “May we see more of this place?”

“Of course.” The Exalted started floating towards a hallway.

“So, what is Glint’s legacy exactly.” Nafiona questioned.

“The preservation of Tyria and its people by replacing the elder dragons with beings that are less volatile, but still capable of maintaining the balance of magic in Tyria.”

“Less volatile beings?”

“Correct.”

“And what would these beings be?”

“Her scions.”

“Scions? You mean her children?”

“Yes.”

“That would explain the talk of the dragon egg.” Nafiona looked at Ordhram, who returned her gaze.

“The egg is one half of the most important part of Glint’s legacy.” Dansha continued.

“And what is the other half?”

“Her first scion. The dragon known as Vlast. He unfortunately has disappeared.”

“Vlast?” Nafiona pondered on the name. “I do not know that one.” She muttered. The group entered into a large circular courtyard that was open to the jungle above. It was filled with other Exalted. Some standing guard, others going about their way. There were Pact members also in the area, studying artifacts and mulling over papers.  

“This is the central courtyard of the city. Duty calls and I must leave you. You can access much of the city from this area. Please feel free to explore.” Dansha disappeared in a small flash of light.

“Well, he was rather pleasant.” Nafiona turned to Ordhram. “What do you think?”

“This dragon egg seems to be particularly important.” He remarked. “Are you thinking of trying to take it?”

“The thought had crossed my mind.” Nafiona whispered, looking over the courtyard. “We would have to find where they are keeping it. It may take some time.” She paused a moment, looking over her group. “Not to mention we would be severely outmatched here if things went wrong. We don’t know what these beings are capable of, nor how many of the Pact are here. Plus, this “champion” whoever that might be.”

“And the guardian of the egg, whoever it may be.” Ordhram added. Nafiona nodded in agreement. “M’lady, it might be best to save this for another day and we focus on your prize. And there is still the possibility of Scarlet Briar out there.”

Nafiona sneered at the thought. “I’m sure the Pact has already dealt with her.” Her voice sour. “Ordhram, do you think they might have some knowledge of the seed here?”

“If this was built for this ‘Glint’s Legacy’, I would not think there is anything of Mordremoth here.”

Nafiona nodded her agreement.

“M’lady, do we have time to explore?” one of her courtiers asked.

“Perhaps another day. We should be off. Time is of the essence.” She called to her courtiers.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Not exactly the most pleasant way to travel.” Ceara muttered as she splashed water on her face. While using the nuhock burrow was somewhat faster, being in an enclosed space with a group of giant frog-like creatures did not do wonders for her nose.

“It could have been worse.” Liathlas noted. Liathlas stepped into the small spring near the burrow they had exited. “Eeesh!” she yelped.

“It is a little cold but refreshing none the less.” Ceara stepped in as well. “How’s your wound?” she asked as she slowly sat, the cool spring water was relieving against the wound in her stomach.  

“It’s sore. If we get attacked again, I don’t know how I will be able to fight. Whatever this moss is, does seem to be helping.”

“Indeed. It’s something I’ll have to take back with me and study sometime.” Ceara washed the water over her shoulders slowly as she stared at her reflection. Her thoughts drifted to the visions she had experienced.

“Ceara?” Liathlas asked. Ceara snapped back to the present.

“Yes?”

“You were somewhere else, weren’t you?”

“I was.”

“What are we going to do when we find the seed?”

Ceara thought for a moment. Various scenarios played out through her mind. “Take it home to study? Take it to the Grove? Plant it somewhere so I can have my own Pale Tree?”

“I don’t know.” She finally answered. Liathlas was taken aback at the response.

“You don’t know?” Liathlas giggled.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because you are usually five steps ahead everyone else with alternate plans ready just in case.”

“Well, it’s not every day that something like this happens. I came here looking for something, and now I’m looking for something else.”

“And what were you looking for?”

“The possible existence of another Pale Tree…and…him.” Ceara turned her gaze to Malyck, who was conferring with the nuhock nearby.

“Even with the jungle dragon perished, its domain is a dangerous place. Still filled with mordrem.” The nuhock told Malyck. “Our burrows can take you as far as the ruins, but you will have to travel on foot the rest of the journey.”

“We understand. We’ll have to take the risk to retrieve what we are after.”

“The sun sets. We should camp here for the night. This spring and the cave are a secluded place. The mordrem do not come here.”

Malyck nodded his agreement. “Thank you for your help.”

“The jungle provides.”

Malyck turned and walked to the edge of the water. He knelt down and looked at the two women facing him. “We’re camping in the cave tonight. The nuhock say this place is secluded enough that the mordrem never come here.”

“That’s a relief but what about food? Those pact food bricks are rather tasteless.” Ceara asked.

“I do agree with that.” Malyck replied. “A real meal would be nice to have.”

“What do the nuhock eat?” Liathlas inquired.

Malyck slowly turned to look at the giants nearby, his stomach turned at the thought of eating large insects. “I think…” He turned back to her. “I think we’re better off with the food bars.”

“Ugh.” Ceara’s face turned sour. “I was hoping for something real.” She sighed lightly as she her thoughts drifted to the vision again. She glanced at Liathlas, who was washing herself. “Do you think any other trees exist?”

Liathlas stopped for a moment, pondering the thought. “It’s possible, I believe. The jungle is vast. There could be many trees like mother. Or…she could be the only one. But you said you had a vision about a seed. If it were planted, it could grow into another tree.” Liathlas looked at Malyck. He was staring at the water; a somber look crossed his face.

“We must find it before the Nightmare Court does.” Malyck spoke softly, rising to his feet. Ceara and Liathlas nodded in agreement. “We have a long trek ahead of us tomorrow. The dragon’s domain will be very hostile towards us.” He stood, taking a deep breath, before heading towards the cave entrance.

“He told me what happened to his tree and his people.” Liathlas spoke quietly as Ceara watched Malyck disappear into the cave. “He said Mordremoth killed his tree and turned his people into mordrem. Now he searches the jungle for anyone that may have escaped, hoping to gather them and take them to the Grove.”

“Because of me.” Ceara blamed herself silently, her thoughts turning to the recent past.

The duo finished bathing. “He is very honor driven, it seems.” Liathlas mentioned as she climbed out of the spring.

“Just like Amaranda described.” Ceara replied as she stood. “She called him an enigma, a sylvari without a Dream.” She climbed out of the water. “Though the mystery around him seems to be vanishing.”

“Mysteries are meant to be solved, are they not?”

A slight smile grew across Ceara’s face. “Most of them, yes. But we should be cautious with some. They might not give us an answer we wish to find.” She spoke solemnly.

Liathlas knew what Ceara was talking about. She could tell by the tone of her voice, her smile betrayed her actual thoughts. They gathered their things and set off for the cave.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Sitting on a stone slab by herself, Orla glared at the other sylvari in the cave. Her thoughts drifted over the events of the past few days.

“I should have just killed that Amaranda.” She thought, her bottom lip twisted in disgust. “I wouldn’t be stuck here. Then I could have just easily made my way back to the arbor.” Her thoughts were cut short by the approach of a stealthed individual.

“If you’ve come to kill me, you’re going to have a tough time of it.” Her voice raised. A sylvari in Whispers garb appeared beside her.

“I’m not here to kill you, courtier.” It knelt down a few feet in front of her. “What drew you to nightmare?”

Orla smirked. “Heh, why do you ask, dreamer? Do you feel the pull?”

“I do not. But I sometimes wonder what causes some of our kindred to take such a dark path in life?”

“Dreamer, you are so naïve. The Pale Tree has blinded you to the truth, and you refuse to see it.”

“Is it because you want to be ‘free’? Free from the Pale Tree?”

“Free from the words of a long dead centaur. Why should we be bound by some laws meant to keep us in line? Nightmare has shown me the way out. Has given me a way out. I don’t follow the words of some stone tablet.”

“By joining a group led by Faolain and Cadryn? To be their pawns in their war against the Pale Mother?”

“They would lead us to freedom.”

“Would they?”

“Your days are ending, Dreamer. We will prevail. You will all see the truth.”

“I can see that you are lost.” He stood. “One day, I hope you find your way.” He disappeared from sight.

“Ugh, I need to get out of here. These dreamers are going to make me vomit.” Orla muttered to herself. She scanned around the dimly lit cavern.  “The washroom has a hole in the ceiling.” She thought to herself. Which I’m sure it’s guarded by those Whispers. But If I’m quick enough…I might be able to outpace them.” She quickly moved to the wash area. A yellow skinned sylvari was rinsing himself off in the spring water. He paused noticing her.

“Uh, nice evening for a wash.” He haphazardly spoke.

“Silence, dreamer.” She leapt in the spring after him.

“What are you doing!?” he yelped.

“Getting out of this cave and away from your ilk.” She quickly started climbing the rock face, the cold water flowing over her, giving her a chill. “Almost there.” She thought to herself. Reaching the opening in the ceiling, she peeked out. The light cool breeze in the evening air blew past her. Looking around, she saw no one, but she knew she was not alone.

“I know you’re here, Whispers. You won’t stop me.” She spoke aloud. Noticing movement among the rocks, she quickly darted away. An agent appeared in front of her, who she shoulder charged, causing both of them to tumble into the sand. Orla quickly got to her feet as she searched for the agent. Another appeared behind her, knocking her legs out from under her.

“Cease this senselessness now and return to the cave and we won’t be forced to harm you. The asuran agent said as he stood a few feet from her.

“I’m not staying here. You can’t keep me here.”

“Then you leave us no cho-“ Orla charged the asura, who disappeared as she ran by. She kept running. She quickly reached the edge of the cliff face overlooking Camp Resolve.

“You’re trapped. Return to the cave immediately.” She heard a voice behind her.

“Heh. Maybe another day, Whispers.” She leapt over the edge.

“Is she crazy!?” another agent gasped.

Running to the edge, they could see Orla making her way down the cliffwall.

“How does she…Do you think…”

“A former agent turned courtier?” Another asked watching as she leapt to a small pillar. She turned and waved at them before disappearing from sight.

[fang-fr]

Dulce!

DULCE! One of the very first dragons I bought on the site! Strap in because this is a bit of a long story (apologies to my own fictional character for deadnaming her):

So originally, Dulce was pink/obsidian/coral and I named her (at the time "him") "Gumball" after Prince Gumball from Adventure Time, bc I had this rule back then that all my dragons HAD to be named after existing fictional characters. Well...the years went by, new colors were introduced, new genes released, and I fell out of love with this dragon. BUT I didn't want to exalt her because she was my only level 25 mage. So I decided she needed a makeover. I scattered her, put some fresh clothes on her, and tried to think of a new name because she was no longer pink AT ALL lol. As I was looking at her, I thought she didn't seem like a "he" to me anymore, so I changed that too. I think I looked up female names related to sweetness and candy, and picked one that was both familiar to me and suited her.

TL;DR: it means "sweet" or "candy" in Spanish & her old name was a type of candy, so it seemed fitting

[bnha-dumpster]

stooloudarts replied to your post “do any of y’all play flight rising? i’m dead and wanna talk about...”

What's the game about? Is it mobile?

you’ve activated my trap card

flight rising isn’t a mobile app, unfortunately. i’d love for there to be a mobile app but tbh i’m already amazed and thankful of the flight rising devs for all the content they make. 

it’s on a site! the gist of it is that you create a hoard of dragons, breed them, fight with them in the coliseum- i really can’t do the game justice. the devs have made a wonderful game and the community is amazing. the artwork is fuckin fabulous and it’s so much fun! here’s some of my dragons bc i love them!!! under the cut bc it’ll seem like spam to some of y’all

this is hyltwyn!! she’s one of my progenitor dragons! basically, the first dragon of your hoard. after choosing your elemental flight, you get to have one custom dragon- pick one of the four common breeds, choose their gender, their primary and secondary colors. (hyltwyn is a female guardian!! i love her.) then your other dragon is a randomized dragon of the same breed but the other gender. i gave her a tertiary gene and she’s got an accent on with some apparel. my gal,,,,,

kyrsswyn!! she’s one of the few nocturnes i have! i’m not a big fan of the nocturne breed, it’s just my preference. but kyrsswyn???? she’s my lovely crimson daughter.

himalsyn is one of my 4 coatl dragons! i really love the pose for male coatl dragons so 3 of the 4 are male. he’s one of the first dragons i got from the auction house and i haven’t changed his genes or colors at all! he’s good as he is. never gonna exalt or auction him.

bluomsyn is a gaoler! he’s one of the two ancient dragon breeds that flight rising has. gaolers were released around june of 2019 and they’re amazing! ancient breeds can have genes that break the lineart of the dragon- modern breeds don’t have genes, skins or accents that break the lineart. bluomsyn is one of my favorite gaolers tbh

this is dornnwyn, the other ancient breed! banescales were released in in december and everyone got two eggs to hatch! of course, the banescales only have basic genes when you hatch those two eggs. banescales have cool designs and i can’t wait to add some genes to dornnwyn!! i’m debating on getting a color scroll and seeing if i can get another combination i like more.

[mobian-fr]

I had a person ask me if I’d sell Eternity to them.

That’s like 5 people now who have asked me for him. I thought it was weird that people always ask about this same dragon, so I looked into it and,

turns out he’s one of only 2 dragons on the site with that color scheme. And the only one who hasn’t been exalted. So that’s neat.

[sangombra-2]

A Friendly PSA

Before we begin, a disclaimer: We are in NO way trying to tell anyone what to do with their dragon! This is a hopeful outreach to the person who ends up winning the triple cyan g1 from the raffle. The G1 community can be harsh, and we’re hoping to prevent them (in the instance it goes to someone who isn’t familiar with g1s) from being scammed or unintentionally losing out on the absolute mountain of money they would be able to make off this dragon. (if they choose to sell) 

Which brings us to our first tip...

Don’t: Scatter him!

Trust us, he’ll only turn out ugly. If you’re not interested in his genes or breed, try different combos in the Scrying Workshop! You never know, you might find something you like! Or if you flat out don’t want him, consider auctioning him off! Triple color gen1s can go for a massive amount of cash! Usually around 50kg, but this guy is special. 

Matching eyes, triple cyan, first Roundsey dragon on site. He’ll easily go for 70kg+ if you find the right buyer. 

Don’t: EXALT HIM

He’s too good for the deities to get their grubby little hands on. But in all seriousness, you’ll get virtually nothing from exalting him, unless you’re into throwing money away. If you’re just not that into him, look into selling! I promise it’ll be worth your while!

Don’t: Breed him

Gen1s don’t have parents themselves, what makes you think they’d be good at being one? Jokes aside, I know this is a topic a lot of people take personally. I’m here to tell you that breeding a gen1 only decreases it’s resale value. This isn’t a personal opinion of mine, it is a fact of the market. I know there are people who still buy bred gen1s, and while he would still get you a good chunk of dragon cash after being bred regardless, he could sell for so much more! 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All that being said, remember: This is your dragon. We are not telling you what you can or cannot do with it. No one is allowed to do so, and if you get pms telling you otherwise, or someone harassing you over this dragon, please report and block them. This post is meant as a general guideline delivered in a cute manner, in hopes that if a newbie or someone who is unfamiliar with the market doesn’t end up losing out on all the money they could have if they end up choosing to sell him in the future. 

If you win him and plan on keeping him forever, then I would 100% suggest finding him a triple blue range mate and making pretty babies with matching eyes! Those can also rake in the cash for people who are into that sort of thing! 

You do what you want with your dragon, and I hope that he makes whoever wins him either extremely happy or filthy rich and extremely happy! 

This message is brought to you by myself and Kavalkade, who is the artist of the cute little ridge gifs in this post. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to pm me, or even pop into the G1 Discord chat! (Pm me for an invitation link!)

[magicalusuki]

progen dragon sharing, inspired by a post by @goannafr that ive had in my drafts since may 12th of this year! wow i am good at being late

varsha- custom progen

so the colors i chose for varsha.... well, i didnt choose them. which is fully. i was in school in the middle of a movie in health class, and id snuck onto my phone and made an fr account because the registration window was about to close and i was going to be busy the rest of the time it was open, or maybe i was just too impatient.

i didnt realize you could even change the colors of the dragon- i just chose the breed and my flight (wind), and actually moved to ice almost immediately after because wind was such an impulse decision. 

i actually hated her colors once i realized that i could have picked them myself, because i would have probably made a seafoam/rose dragon. but now i love her. it might have been cool if she at least had a different blue for the wings, so if i could remake her (and assume she got the same tert) i would give her storm wings. it brings out that gray tert in a really cool way and just makes her a biiit more interesting. i mean, look at that! it look great with her apparel, too.

i chose to make her a fae, because i though that they were cute. i didnt like any of the other starter breeds when i joined because i was a coward. i wanted the cutesiest dragons ever, which is funny considering now varsha is super badass

i had like... the vaguest clue of what fr was, because i was in the neopets community and a ton of the blogs i followed were into it, but i didnt really understand it in depth. fun fact! my original username was twinkling. 

exaltation

so when i first joined fr, from what i remember we had... very few tert options. i believe we had basic, crackle, underbelly and circuit? and with varsha’s tert being grey, and yukienne’s being denim... basically nothing looked even slightly decent.

on top of this, i really wasnt in the forums or community much at all- so i wasnt aware that maybe exalting your progens wasnt a great plan, and how special they can be. and i certainly wasnt thinking about future genes. i mean, its been 5 years and STILL the best tert for varsha is stained and i dont particularly love any i have for yukienne!  ive grown to like stained on varsha, but for real. even irishim couldnt save that grey tert, and i used to be OBSESSED with irishim

.im not against geneing yukienne fully and i have a few options planned, but denim is not.... its not an easy color to work with, which sucks because sky and violet work together so well, and then you have this random greenish-grayish blue. why. which is why he is not gened at all because oh my god. please fr give me something that makes denim purpley ill die for you

this is his current most likely scry but im still... not sold... at least sky is one of my favorite colors on site! hes still a pretty lucky random progen all things considered, i know some people were truly cursed. they also have a pretty okay range, so thats nice! i brought these guys back as quick as possible and was so excited i got the option so do so.

lore and clan roles

in the end, exaltation gave my progens a lot of character- although i was so upset about having done it for literal years, lol. my clan lore felt super weak up until bringing them back.

varsha is clan leader, but im undecided about yukiennes role- all i know is that he did essentially abandon varsha in exaltation and didnt actually fight to earn his right back to this plane, and she resents him for that. i can imagine they did talk initially about him rising up the politcal ladder rather than being involved in the war itself, and i imagine initially he was actually quite gentle and perhaps a bit skittish- she had more pity for him then, and understood he wouldnt fare as well. maybe she even thought it would help his confidence. but seeing him live a bejeweled life as she fought endlessly.... well, thats just not great. on top of it, he sees himself as responsible for their return, not acknowledging varshas efforts, and he does this despite the fact that there was no evidence of it.  so yukienne likely doesnt do much in the clan, and i imagine varshas bodyguard- nevara- keeps an eye on him until or if varsha decides hes trustworthy to help. in the end, he doesnt especially want to do things for the clan anyways- he doesnt feel the dedication that varsha does, and though varsha doesnt realize it hes worn himself. hes tired of lies and a political lifestyle, and i dont imagine hes as confident as he might come off- its likely more a force of habit, and in saying it was because of him they got home, he just more than anything wants validation that his suffering was just as painful and he worked just as hard as varsha. but she really cant see that. in her eyes, hes still sitting on a pedestal, lying and spoiled rotten. even if now hes just lost and tired more than anything else.

varsha obviously is very strong willed and stubborn, and sometimes has difficulty empathizing with others- particularly those she perceives as having caused her harm. shes not especially friendly, and a bit paranoid. still she cares a lot about others, particularly her clan members who she views as her responsibility, and so she pushes away her own feelings best she can. shes more prone to trust those from wind than from any other flight, and is working on her distrust of those from ice. 

she has a close bond to nevara due to her wind heritage and time spend together on the battlefield, and trusts her deeply. she also deeply trusts aer, the very dragon that first found her and yukienne, and the only from the clan at the time that did not know of her exaltation until it was too late. she appreciates the effort on her behalf to keep the clan in order and understands aer was also very hurt by what her clan members had done, and is glad to have someone from that time who had missed her. 

varsha also finds amaryllis sort of cute and charming.the wind heritage probably helps yet again in this case, but even beyond that, she appreciates someone so unfit for the role trying their very hardest to play leader to keep their clan together in her absence. she sees her somewhat like a little sibling, despite not having a large gap in age.

since mako worked so close to both amyrllis and aer during her absence, she was one of the first ice flight members in their clan that she warmed to. with her optimistic and free spirited attitude, and the fact that shes still willing to work in a political position (unlike amaryllis, who was happy to retire) she helps to balance out varshas negative views of people and also is very useful in giving intel and helping create strong bonds between their clan and others, since varsha... would probably never do so on her own, but does see the necessity.

yukienne, at this point, lives a fairly solitary lifestyle. being rejected by the person he admires most as well as feeling he betrayed and failed her, he sees himself unworthy of deeper relationships. at the same time, he is stubborn and unwilling to discuss and feels he doesnt deserve sympathy or to explain his side. all interactions and relationships he has are shallow. at the very least, he is genuinely very proud of his appearance, so thats probably the one thing he has actual confidence in.

[theonyxpath]

The above is Page 4 of the ongoing Trinity Continuum: Aberrant web comic You Are Not Alone that we started last week after a teasing build up of the cover. Long-time fans will recognize the character who comes together from vines and plant tendrils as Antaeus, who was one of the most powerful members of Team Tomorrow – at least in the first edition.

He may still be all that, or maybe not, but that’s why we’re doing the web comic as we are – to let everyone get acquainted with the world and characters of Trinity Continuum: Aberrant.

I have followed a few web comics these past few years (although right now I’m only following Stand Still, Stay Silent; a beautifully illustrated Scandinavian post-apocalyptic exploration epic – google it, it’s fantastic), and I think there’s a lot of value to them as a creator, so this very specific use as a lead-in to the new TC: Aberrant and its Kickstarter is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we could do with the format.

For now though, we’re really interested in hearing how merging the sequential story with a sequential release set-up that will start to run at the same time as the Kickstarter will work for folks. We think the web comic format is excellent (especially with veteran writer Paul Jenkins nailing the feeling of the setting, and with the multi-talented Doug Stambaugh doing the art), but most importantly, do you?

Tell us what you think as the story develops – it doesn’t matter if you never checked out Aberrant before, or if you already know who Dr. Duke Rollo is – please let us know here or in the comments of the web comic!

And who knows? If this Trinity Continuum: Aberrant web-comic works out, maybe we’ll use the format to create more sequential storytelling projects – a new Exalted 3rd comic series of short comics like from 2nd Edition, or new “Tribebook style” werewolf comics, or something for Scion or Pugmire like nothing we’ve ever done before.

There are a lot of possibilities to explore!

V5 Chicago By Night art by Felipe Gaona

Now, you might have noticed that buried up there was a mention of the Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter. It’s true, it’s going to start next week!

Just like our latest Kickstarters, we have the text completed, our Storypath experts (yes, we actually have some now that our creators have been able to pore over the Scion, Trinity Continuum, Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and They Came From Beneath the Sea! core books!) have reviewed and revised the rules sections, and we have a smattering of the art ready.

We’ll have amazing Reward Tiers: some with just the TC: Aberrant book, some with the Trinity Continuum Core book as well, and definitely the sorts of upper level rewards our backers just can’t get enough of! Plus lots of PDF packages that include first edition projects, and Stretch Goals for a staggering array of different sorts of added rewards – all themed to reflect and enhance that specific Aberrant take on the super-hero genre.

Aberrant, first edition, was both a labor of love and a nightmare of frenzied creation for me, personally, and for both those reasons I’m hugely excited about this new edition. As a very long-time comic book fan (I started collecting Marvel comics just as the cover price changed to 25 cents an issue, if you can believe that!) and a guy who did a graphic novel as his Masters Degree thesis, I was filled with ideas for how to bring a new look to comic book TTRPGs.

Not all of those visual ideas panned-out, some because we reached too far out of the TTRPG comfort zone, but most because in order to make them work we needed the original developer, the graphic designer (who also had designed the look for the Aeon books), and myself to all work together to take the writing into the different kinds of layouts and visuals needed that worked with both the Trinity series and the specifics of the comic book genre.

Unfortunately, both those other gentlemen left the project (and at least one of them left WW entirely for a while) before the book was finished.

M20 Book of the Fallen art by Oliver Specht

Basically, I had a pile of text to sub-divide as best I could into the sorts of sections that worked with the visuals. In comic book terms, I had the script and the art, but needed to combine them, but without the writer or original artist around to help tweak the two elements so they’d work together for maximum impact.

So I’d handle my Art Director and department head duties through most of the day, and then settle in and do the book layout (and coloring, and lettering, and logos, etc) into the night so that we’d get the book out on time. While I’d have really liked to make some alterations to the text, I just didn’t have the time to change it so much as to take the chunks and rearrange them.

That’s why I’m in the credits page as Art Director, and Ron Thompson is there for Layout – Ron was my White Wolf alias, and I used him when having my name in the credits too many times just looked like a bit too much me. To me, at least.

I tell you all that, so that I can tell you that this edition, Trinity Continuum: Aberrant, was not created that way at all. Or I should say, the love and excitement is still there, and not just from myself, but the creation process has been a full-team press of very dedicated creators.

From the early “big picture” talks between Impish Ian Watson and myself, to the continued “how are we going to do this?” conferences with me, Ian, Eddy Webb as Storypath games overseer, and Steve Kenson (who is THE guru of super-heroic TTRPGs) where we set up the details and changes to the setting, all the way through the confabs I had with Mirthful Mike Chaney as we picked through possible artists, this has been a fantastic team effort.

And we didn’t need to rush through any of the parts to get us here!

Finally, and in a totally different direction, here’s a teaser ad for ANOTHER cool thing happening next week in July. Keep an eye out on the Slarecian Vault community content page for a titanic (see what I did there) series of inter-connected releases that work together as an epic campaign!

And that’s it. So, so…

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Starting next week, on Tuesday July 2nd at 2pm EDT, the Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter will blast its super-powered way into our lives!

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Onyx Pathcast art by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features an in-depth discussion with Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew taking a long look at harassment – a difficult subject that affects gamers and creators alike: what it is and how to deal with it!: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

The Onyx Path News returns tomorrow with a live edition on our YouTube channel at 15:00 BST! Be there for talk of new releases and project updates, as well as our next Kickstarter!

Matthew Dawkins has been uploading all the games of ours he’s been running lately, and is coming to the conclusion of the Scarred Lands actual play he ran for Red Moon Roleplaying! Here are links to the next two episodes: https://youtu.be/wKuyrVRB1EY and https://youtu.be/KxZzkpDmV-c

Travis Legge’s Scarred Lands actual play also continues apace here with Myths & Matchmakers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmiXCaSrrCIjmCJQQ7oLwLNahmDbdn_2J There are few people who know Scarred Lands like him!

Not leaving the Scarred Lands, we also have Devil’s Luck Gaming who continue their costumed actual play: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING

And it must be a Scarred Lands kind of a month, because Caffeinated Conquests continue to blunder through the Gauntlet of Spiragos here: https://youtu.be/ygamfg9yBak

Now venturing into the Chronicles of Darkness, we present Occultists Anonymous‘ latest episode of the Mage: The Awakening 2E chronicle they’re running (and they’ve been very impressed with Signs of Sorcery): Episode 23: Giant Problems Songbird speaks with the Supernal being he has summoned, Wyrd makes an important phone call, and the cabal feels mighty defensive! https://youtu.be/vjarpxda1Po

Episode 24: Nosey Neighbors Following the phone call to the cabal’s new “friend”, Atratus and Wyrd discuss and plan defenses, while Songbird goes to the gym to blow off some steam. Splitting the party…https://youtu.be/WBTzpXoNQnw

And swooping over to the world of Exalted, the Story Told Podcast continue their Dragon-Blooded actual play here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-episode-8-a-journey-begins Eight episodes in and the adventure is really kicking off!

Roll the Role recently concluded their fantastic actual play of Trinity Continuum: Aeon, which is viewable on both their YouTube and Twitch channels, linked below:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvGGHFXrqTyBA2wSCCbJbRcm7XoZh_cVk www.twitch.tv/rolltherole Please do give them your support! 

And the Keeper of the Archive (a more ominous name than the Gentleman Gamer) has just started their breakdown of Scion Second Edition over on their channel, so check out part one! https://youtu.be/q2qUE0pJID4

Lots of Onyx Path content for you today!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we have two new creatures for Exalted 3rd‘s Hundred Devils Night Parade, as well as Dragon-Blooded digital wallpaper at DriveThruRPG, and Exalted Chibi style stickers at our RedBubble store!

CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con: August 1st – 4th Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon) Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Manuscript Approval

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Editing

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Post-Editing Development

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Scion Ready-Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle

Dark Eras 2 – More finals in and going to WW for approval.

M20 Book of the Fallen

VtR Spilled Blood – Art from A and M in, waiting on the rest.

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Sketches coming in.

Trinity Continuum Aberrant – KS Sketches and finals coming in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars

They Came From Beneath the Sea – Getting it going.

TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

In Layout

V5: Chicago – Starting NPCs chapter…

Trinity Core

Trinity Aeon

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel 

Proofing

WtF Shunned by the Moon – 2nd proof.

DR: E – proof back from Eddy

Aeon Aexpansion

C20 Cup of Dreams – This week.

Ex 3 Monthlies – At WW for approval

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe shipping to Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – Shipped to Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Printing.

The Realm – PoD files uploaded.

Trinity Core Screen – Printing.

TC Aeon Screen – Printing.

C20 Player’s Guide – PoD proofs ordered.

Geist 2e – Need to input Errata.

Book of Oblivion – Putting in errata.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs ordered.

Scion Jumpstart – Gathering errata from Backer PDFs.

Scion Ready-Made Characters – Gathering errata from Backer PDFs.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

OK- so when I don’t have something specific to put here, I go to Wikipedia and look up the date and see who is born/died or any great events on this date. Today there was this:

637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.

Now as is, this might be interesting particularly for Neall and the Scion community. Except I read it as the Battle of Moria, and for a minute I wanted to know which one, and was that the battle where Thorin got his Oakenshield appellation?

[clya-lyren]

You see this boy? He is the only one on site, even those exalted! Don’t believe me? Check! He’s fire, Cerise, Amethyst and a Gen 1 :P He’s got super matchy colors too. Don’t you want a one of a kind dragon??? 

I hope so, cause he’s got an auction HERE

[whiteclericmaris]

Day 43

Rank your dragons in order of most loved/lavished by you. (At least 10 if you have more)

#10

Birthday Dragon. One of the 3 times I get a Gem gene for a dragon but also I actually love that she is Green/Red primary as it fits a sort of lore regarding my first 2 Gen 1 hatches that are also greenish/reddish complementary colors. (Basically a mercenary group with a chef).

#9

The Thundercrack Gen 1 project I did in honor of the person who introduced me to FR. Her apparel plan isn't set I just have her as the Nightfall Starsilk owner but had to take the wingdrapes out because she looked off with them.

#8

I just... really love her colors. They stick out a lot in my lair from all the keepers I have. She even has art with the skin but not the apparel because well I just don't prioritize dress/apparel plans.

#7

An oldie that came bred but one of the first I leveled to 25 on my own. I also just love how his apparel blends/meshes with his colors.

#6

(Pink therapy dragon I regened to make real)

#5

An oldie that I also leveled to 25 on my own and one of my first. I even bought him the skin when I slowly started to become active again. Apparel plan is still a wip but I'm not sure what else to add as it looks like everything is covered (just pants but not that much of a biggie without them).

#4

(Expensive pink therapy dragon named after Whirlpool Galaxies) I got her art this week before I even gened her because it was cute too.

#3

She's had the apparel for years along with the familiars since it looked matchy with her color scheme and then back in May-June I bought her the Starfall Skin and now she is my wishlist dragon because of that skin. I'm so happy I kept her even if lineage is wack.

#2

He has more art than my customizable progen (even if on purpose because I was unsure what to give my other Progen).

He also came in purple so I thought that was cool since it looked matchy with my customizable one (although I'm starting to realize after seeing some players complain about their randoms that I was a part of the "lucky" spectrum.)

Mismatched breeding from the early days but I still love them even with the tert.

#1

(This shouldn't come as a surprise)

I spent way too much gems on her already. I didn't know what I was doing when I made an account since it was just player saying they had Welcome Week back when registration to the site was limited during certain weeks.

I've said it before but her primary and secondary are based on the Arcane Banner colors that looked matchy (because I can!) Whereas Magenta because I liked it better than say Fuchsia or the more matchy Bubblegum to sort of "pop out" more.

Tert was just "they look the same no matter which color I give them compared to primary and secondary". I was thinking more pink but.. I love blue. Let's be different at least and add blue. "Hey Azure sounds like a fancy blue to have. Azure it is!"

Like Erskine lineage is wack in some cases from my early days (and I kinda do not understand "not breeding your progen cultures because that was the first thing I did + they're your progens so they are clanbound meaning you can only exalt and not sell them, like I understand other gen 1s hatched from unhatched eggs but... progens... aren't going anywhere anyway).

[whiteclericmaris]

This is Fluffalbuns (gotta rename her soon), she is my Progenitor Dragon that I made on site almost 3 years ago starting July. While some players sometimes exalt their progen I could never do that because it took a lot of time deciding her colors. She is co founder of the lair even though she technically owned it and with the help of my random progen that wanted a Lair they started building and expanding. In her info I put the current objectives as reminder and since she is the leader it fits.

This is TwilightCloud. I don't have his lore set but basically he was mad when he first joined the clan (since I bought him in Auction House non gen 1). He would growl often craving adventure which would be Coli but he needed 2 dragons to explore with him (because Coli format party of 3). As he started exploring with both Fluffalbuns and a Coatl he soften up a bit and started viewing them as companions.

He's snarky though and leaves some off handed comments that come of as jokes. He gets into arguments a lot with a Light Ridgeback I have (because he a farm a dragon) and they usually are back and forth with each other but he remains some composure.

And this... this is Brightshine Jubilee 2019 Celebration. (I buy a Dragon usually based on genes [non gen 1 because not only pricier but most ask for gems and since the game would glitch on me that I couldn't do fairgrounds I couldn't earn gold for genes] for the elemental weeks [except Night of the Nocturne and Plague Week because poison is not an aesthetic for me]. They are all fully gened so I don't have to do the work.

I did not have a male tundra in my lair and that had me OCD so I got him along with a male wildclaw (can't say the same about Gaoler though because I kinda want to wait to be done with achievements and since they are pricier than modern breeds and I'm sure by that time a lot of breeding would be done for variety in AH.)

I'm only missing one apparel piece for him but that's in Joxar's spare inventory crate so I gotta wait for it to begin.

dragon therapy pls

I’m feeling super shitty and anxious about… nothing right now ;;

could you share your dragons with me? Your favorite ones or your calming ones or your special ones. My heart is just beating really fast and I feel like I’m about to cry?????

[curlicuecal]

Flight Rising infoshare

@onceuponymous wrote:

Hi!  I haven’t been on Flight Rising as much lately because my shitty internet connection makes it frustrating, but I’ll probably come into another phase of going to the site multiple times a day soon.  (I’m super upset I missed the entire shadow festival, especially because that’s MY CLAN’s element).  My username there is the same as it is here: Onceuponymous.  I can’t afford more room in my lair but I really don’t want to exalt/sell any of my babies.  I have way more familiars than is prudent.   I only wrote actual lore for two of my dragons: Genevieve (battle mum whose children keep reminding her to focus on healing please) and Eustace, the alchemist who feels weird about melting all this stuff down but also wants to Make Everything.  I haven’t written it out, but I gave Carrie a Bleak Birdskull Headdress, which the infobox says is cursed, and slowly gave her blackened accessories and Gembond.  During the arcane festival, I “exorcised” her with the runes gene and gave her a bunch of scars.  Someday, I will actually write that story out.

I started off trying to theme name my dragons with old-people names (Genevieve, Harold, Jacqueline) but quickly gave that up because Shortcake looked so much like a strawberry dessert, and Adeline reminded me of a DC comics character, and so on.  I have kind of a rule that I’ll name and raise to level three hatchlings before I exalt them.  Sometimes I get stumped for names, so a set of red and black Skydancers all got named after volcanos, and some guardians with plant crackle got the fanciest word on the wikipedia page for blackberries (Domoic, as in domoic acid) or the scientific name for orange slime mold, Acrasidae.  My sibling Casey is to blame for the one named RickGhastly, a purple ghostly looking Pearlcatcher.

Tundras and Skydancers are my favorite breed, and I love the poison genes because a) I can brew them and gift them to friends and b) colors!

Do you have any system for names?  I noticed Hal and Kurloz, and I can only assume UltraBarney is referencing everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur, but a lot of your dragon names sound like they’d fit in a high fantasy novel.

I spent like 3 days being all uptight-panicky ‘oh no i must pick the PERFECT name for each dragon’ and then I decided that was a recipe for unhappiness, so now I’m a lot more off-the-cuff.

Been doing some latin, been doing a lot of actual-word-based names (Stormcloud, Riptide, Sunscatter). The homestuck is creeping in, as it does everywhere.  

I seem to gravitate towards Mirrors like crazy, and I’m also very fond of the Coatl design.

UltraBarney is my randomly assigned progenitor.  I told my brother he could choose the name, and the dragon did indeed wind up named after the kids’ TV show.  (He...  looks like a muppet.  It’s strange and amusing.   The doofy creature.)

[changeling-fae]

This is my large headcanon about Clan Lavellan in my DA ‘verse that I was finally able to more or less get out of my head. I’m surprisingly proud of this although it took me awhile to write. 

I would like to thank @vir-ghilani for reading over it first and offering suggestions.

If I could, I’d make pretty banners for each section but I don’t have that talent so the above is the best I could do so, sorry it’s not more polished looking.

Feel free to ask questions!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                          Clan Lavellan Master Post

Index:

1.  ��  Codex

2.     History

3.     Region

4.     Diet

5.     Religious Practices

6.     Hanal’dirthara

7.     Seers and Oracles

8.     Magic

9.     Material Culture

10.   Folklore

11.  Relationships

                                        Codex Entry: Clan Lavellan

Clan Lavellan is one of the few Clans of the Dalish who thrive in the dangerous and dark swamp forest of the Korcari Wilds. They have lived in the wilds since the Towers Age, being one of the last great houses to leave during the Chantry’s Exalted March of Halamshiral.

House Lavellan had been dedicated to discovering the lost magics of Arlathan and many of their members were gifted with Dreaming abilities, specifically Seers and Oracles. It is perhaps unsurprising then that they ended up settling in the Wilds, living alongside the Chasind folk who’s hedge witch matriarchs have similar gifts.

Indeed, Clan Lavellan even learned the ways of Shapeshifting from these Witch of the Wilds and have had a unique peaceful alliance that is rarely seen with elves and humans.

The Veil being as thin as it is in the Wilds is likely the reason the Clan produces so many mages and with less of a fear from the Chantry’s Templars they are able to remain in the Clan, only being sent to other Clans who are in dire need.

These mage members who are not to become Keeper apprentices are still taught the writings and if not dedicated to another apprenticeship will form special groups with some hunters known as Hanal’dirthara who specifically search for lost lore and bring it back to the Clan to study. Mages in the Clan who are born with any Seer abilities are typically apprenticed to the Keeper as it is a rare gift, often skipping generations and never in strong numbers.

Between the desire for knowledge and the intricacies of the fog covered swamp that they live in, it is said that “A Lavellan always finds the path”.

-        Excerpt taken from a First’s lesson learning of various Clans

                                          Clan Lavellan’s History

The original Lavellan House of Halamshiral was a house specifically dedicated to finding the lost magics of Arlathan and a fair number of its members were Dreamers, specifically with the Seer/Oracle subset of the ability.

When the Chantry declared an Exalted March, their house was one of the last to leave the Dales, desperately trying to preserve what little lore they had recovered. Many were unfortunately slayed by the armies, the greatest massacre occurring when the Chantry’s army burned their temple to the ground with hundreds inside.

The survivors followed the few surviving High Priests with what little artifacts and recorded knowledge they had with them and fled south, brimming the border of the Arbor Wilds. Parts of the Chantry’s army still hunted them but were mysteriously killed within the Arbor Wilds.

Some members wished to stay within the forest for its protection believing perhaps the gods heard them but the High Priests who were Seers felt that their presence was not wanted and that they should move on.

They finally settled in the Frostback Basin but life was difficult thanks to the hostile Alamarri tribes who weren’t keen on sharing land with precious resources. Eventually they moved further east and into the Swamp-Forest where humans known as the Chasind were less hostile but where wildlife was more dangerous and the Veil incredibly thin.

There was finally a sense of peace amongst the elves, not having to fight the humans and they were able to focus on adapting to their new environment. The gift of Seerhood was still passed down through the newer generations which aided them in survival and allowed them to recover surrounding lost lore of their people, creating the first members of the Hanal’dirthara.

A new challenge appeared when at the beginning of the Black Age werewolves appeared, threatening both them and the humans in the surrounding areas. It was here where Clan Lavellan picked up the practice of having wolf companions for protection. The Red Wolves that thrived in the swamp became close partners to Clan Lavellan and often warned them of potential attacks. This bond stayed all the way into modern times and the wolves are considered as much as a friend as the halla.

The werewolf epidemic still took its fair share of casualties not just from the beasts but from the humans just north of the wilds who went in slaughtering both Dalish and Chasind alike. By this point the Clan had respect for the strange witch, Asha’bellanar and the Keeper at the time approached her for aid where he was taught how to manipulate the natural fog, for a price, but it is unknown what the price was by today’s Clan.

He shared this knowledge to all the mages of his Clan and they used the fog to manipulate their surroundings for protection.  They mostly used it to hide but they will also use it for the rare times the humans from the north, such as Templars, try and attack them.

In 7:92 Storm, Keeper Deshanna was born to the Istimaethoriel Clan in the Nahashin Marshes.

In 8:14 Blessed, Deshanna fell in love with Teinen Lavellan, Lavellan’s Hearthmaster, during the Arlathvhen and there was almost a Clan dispute because the Istimaethoriel Clan produced few mages. After a lot of deliberation and negotiation Lavellan sent 5 of their young mages to Istimaethoriel in exchange for Deshanna who was Istimaethoriel’s Second.

In 8:34 Blessed, Deshanna became Keeper after the previous Keeper and First died by a Templar attack when they were taken by surprise returning from the Arlathvhen. The Clan did not yet have a Second and a fair number of mages had been sent to other Clans that year.

In 8:96 Blessed, some members found the young King Maric and a young Loghain Mac Tir and brought them to Asha’bellanar.

In 9:20 Dragon, future Inquisitor Tsura Lavellan was born.

In 9:30 Dragon, the darkspawn started to erupt from the Korcari Wilds and a raid took 24 of its members, the First included. The Clan made a hard decision and left south into the Sunless Lands, migrating with some Chasind tribes, and lived there for 4 years. These years were known as the Annar’banalarla (Years of No Home) as they wandered the frozen tundra.

The Clan’s Second Tsura, who was raised to First and the future Inquisitor, was gifted with Seer abilities and with the strong leadership of Keeper Deshanna, they were able to eke out a living for the Clan. The magic the mages in Clan Lavellan use is water based thanks to living in a Swamp and they were able to adapt to the snow-covered land.

It 9:34 Dragon, they were able to return but some of their old settlement sites could not be returned to thanks to Blight corruption.

In 9:40 Dragon, Tsura had a vision about the Conclave and felt she had to go witness it and Keeper Deshanna gave her blessing, sending Tsura and two hunters with her to observe. Unfortunately, the two hunters died in the blast.

                                                          Region

The Korcari Wilds is a vast Swamp Forest in the southern part of Ferelden. The trees are incredibly tall and covered in hanging moss, and it is impossible for sunlight to ever hit the thickest parts of the Wilds.

The outer edges where the sun does hit never gets any brighter than dusk light and between that and the continuous fog, the Wilds can only be navigated by those familiar with it.

The temperature ranges from chilly to downright hot (59 F – 95 F is what swamps typically range in) and the waters rise to the point of flooding in the summer whereas in the winter they recede a great deal. This cycle has caused Clan Lavellan to have an interesting relationship with their Halla and Harts who migrate to more solid land in the summer and return to the Clan during the end of autumn.

The Halla in the Wilds are smaller than their northern cousins and their horns are much shorter to prevent from getting tangled in hanging moss. The Harts are often found in outer edges and are a plum color to blend with the low lighting.

When the waters are high in the summer and the Halla/Harts are gone the Clan’s Aravels are turned into makeshift boats and the Clan spends that time almost exclusively on the water and in the tree branches directly above. The aravels are tied to trees and the clan will use rope hammocks in the branches above for sleeping.

The wolves that live in the Clan won’t migrate as far as the Halla/Harts but will roam the closest borders to the Clan that they are able and many of the hunters will check upon them throughout the summer.

Other creatures that live in the area are giant spiders, giant swamp crabs, giant salamanders, giant catfish, werewolves, deer, gurguts, bogfishers, leeches, various aquatic species, birds, and insects.

Giant Spiders have actually taken an interesting role in the Clan’s society, namely that in their depictions of Sylaise she has spider like qualities and features. Weaving has become one of Lavellan’s greatest expressions of art, creating beautiful tapestries, shawls, and baskets as a result.

They use the spider silk in medicine and for wounds and spider venom is called Sylaise’ Fire, which is used in hunting or medicine.

The Veil is so thin that the Fade leaks through and the deeper parts of the swamp have spirits often possessing trees and animals. The Clan will pay their respects to benevolent Spirits each time they pass, similar to the Avvar and Chasind, while the hunters and warriors keep an ever-watchful eye out for malevolent ones, usually possessed corpses in the water. They use the word Spirit interchangeably and very rarely call spirits Demons.

In the heart of the swamp where it is darkest and foggiest, the oldest tree resides and is considered sacred to the Clan. It is known as Din’adahl (Tree of the Dead) and it is where they carry the ashes of those they lost. Because dead bodies don’t decompose in the Korcari Wilds and with the weak Veil, the Clan took up cremation for their dead. By adding the ashes to the tree they help strengthen it and believe it makes the forest stronger, protecting them in turn. Over time their vallaslin for Falon’Din has evolved to look more like the tree. 

The Din’adahl houses thousands of spirits within itself, originally trapped but over time evolving into something else. The tree is where all mages of the Clan gain their staves, each stave housing a spirit. The mages creates their own stave and carries it for the rest of their lives. Upon their death the stave is reabsorbed into the tree and the spirit returned. This partnership is considered sacred.

There is also a creature known by the Clan as the Harelbanal’ras (Shadow Trick) that has walked the Wilds even before the Chasind. It appears as a tall man-like being with a deer skull as its head and its body is a grotesque combination of roots and branches that look like muscle tendons found in skinned bodies. It also has a rib bones from its victims that it replaces with new bones periodically.

It is usually the Keeper who deals with the creature when seeking passage through certain sections but every member knows the words to say to keep it from attacking. The creature will sing them a line and they must respond with the right verse, and in some cases the Keeper offers the creature an apple that only grows in the Wilds and every mage carries apple seeds to grow should they get isolated (such as the Hanal’dirthara).

                                                          Diet

The Clan relies heavily on fish, insect life, amphibians, and occasionally birds and the Clan spends much of their time surrounded or during the summer on water and so they are expert fisherman. Nets are their primary source of hunting and even Dalish children as young as 6-7 can weave their own in a short amount of time.  

Leeches are a real problem in the swamp and so Clan members who must walk through the water eat special bitter black berries that keep the leeches from biting most of the time. The gatherers of the Clan are often looking for these berries wherever they go.

Giant crabs are usually what’s hunted specifically by the hunters and the carapace is used for other things like tools and bowls.

Every member of the Clan learns to use their other senses to survive in the fog and learn not to trust their eyes but this is especially true for Hunters who are taught to fight even blindfolded and can shoot anything that they can’t necessarily see.

There are wild apples the Clan as well as Chasind use in their wine. The wine is famous outside the wilds but the technique on creating the wine is known only to the inhabitants of the Wilds. The apples by themselves are as deadly as Nightshade and must go through a difficult process for safe consumption. 

It is not uncommon for Orlesians to try and learn the secret but they have had no success.

                                              Religious Practices

The Clan believes in the Creators just as any Dalish but there has been an evolution to how they’re perceived that deviates from even their closest cousins in the Brecillian Forest.

Falon’Din, Dirthamen, and Sylaise have taken up stronger roles in their society and generally only the Keeper wears Falon’Din’s vallaslin on their face. The weakened Veil and constant fog has made the Wilds very similar to the Fade itself and so the Keeper as the Clan’s guide wears his markings which have evolved to look like the Din’adahl, symbolizing that they carry the weight of all that is lost and must guide the living forward.

The other mages in the Clan will either wear Dirthamen or Sylaise’ markings depending on their role in the Clan and the only non-mages who wear Dirthamen’s are the hunters who are part of the Hanal’dirthara.

When a member gains their vallaslin they must perform a task specific to that Creator. Those who are to become Keeper must perform all the tasks of every Creator.

Future Keepers who wish to gain their vallaslin must venture to the Din’adahl and consume a specially crafted concoction made from the flower known as Fen’harel’s Footsteps, a dangerous plant that’s normally deadly poisonous to consume.

Under normal circumstances the flower causes madness and eventual death but for the ritual, the current Keeper and Hearthmaster/mistress create a mild diluted dose that causes hallucinations followed by a temporary coma.

The young First/Second must lie under the tree and slip into this coma where they have to wander the Fade and learn one thing from the spirits of the tree. It can be anything, whether about themselves or something about the Wilds. If they learn nothing by the time the poison leaves their body, then they are not ready and must wait another year.

During this vulnerable time, the most experienced members of the Hanal’dirthara watch over their hidden form to protect them from predators (or in the extremely rare event of demonic possession).

Once the future Keeper awakens with their new-found knowledge they must tell the current Keeper what they learned and the Keeper will tell them their own learned secret from when they had to do the ritual. This ritual is done only after successfully performing all the other tasks for each Creator.

Those who have Sylaise’ markings are the healers, birthers, cooks, and weavers of the Clan. To gain her vallaslin they must weave a tapestry that depicts the cycle of life before the day ends. Those who are apprenticed to become the next Hearthmaster/mistress must also take the venom of the venomous spiders that live in the Wilds into their bodies and not get sick at all. These particular apprentices have been slowly dosed with the venom over the years and have developed an immunity to the venom over time.

Those who take Dirthamen’s markings are to become part of the Hanal’dirthara and they must venture to a sacred site with their partner (always a mage and a hunter) where two spirits dwell. These two spirits will tell them two separate things, a lie and a truth, and the two elves must determine which is which and return to the Keeper who knows the answer. If they get it wrong, they must wait a year until they can try again.

This task is to prove they can work together and that they can’t be easily deceived.

All hunters who are not to become a Hanal’dirthara bear Andruil’s vallaslin and must hunt in a team and bring three creatures that will bring the most bounty to the Clan without taxing the environment.

Ghilan’nain’s members must successfully bond with ever Halla/Hart in the Clan and the future Herdmaster/mistress must learn to speak the language of beasts (Ranger ability).

June’s members must create a weapon from dead bark and not have it break. Future Craftmaster/mistresses must also infuse it with Fade-touched material successfully.

Those who bear Elgar’nan’s markings are the warriors and defense of the Clan and they must create successful barriers that the Keeper, select Hunters, and some wolves will test against.

And finally, those who bear Mythal’s markings are the members who teach and raise the children of the Clan and who focus on the day to day tasks. Their task is to use a portion of the Clan’s resources successfully and manage to keep enough for the next day. The apprenticed Storyteller must also successfully remember and repeat every story of the Clan orally to the Keeper.

The First is also required to dance in every religious ceremony and only the First will play Fen’harel in performances, often adding their own interpretation to the dance so every generation is a little different.

Gaining their vallaslin is when they also gain their true name. This name can only be known by members in the Clan (or intimate partners if from outside) and thus everyone has a common name based around their true to be used around outsiders.

For example, Tsura is her common name but her true name is Tarensa’sulrasana and as a child her name was only Tarensa.

                                                 Hanal’dirthara

Mages who don’t leave the Clan who don’t become Keeper or Hearthkeepers and specific non-mages who are trained like Hunters become members of the Hanal’dirthara, a group centered solely on finding and recovering lost lore. They are always paired into two per group, one mage and one hunter, and this bond stays throughout their lives.

This group leaves the Clan through various parts of the year and travel to new areas searching for artifacts to bring back to the Clan to study. Because it’s dangerous for mages outside of the Clan, when traveling, the mage will shapeshift into a bird, usually a hawk or an owl, and this helps the pair travel through more populated areas safely (mostly).

Since new knowledge gets gathered often, the Clan has a very open minded view on their history, knowing that anything they learn can be contradicted by the next finding so they instead focus on all the similarities found.

Currently there are 13 pairs in the Clan.

                                               Seers and Oracles

The first High Priests of Lavellan were Dreamers who could see the past and future and who were the first leaders of the eventual Clan Lavellan. It is more common than in any Clan alive today for a child to be born with the gift, although it is getting less and less frequent every generation.

Clan Lavellan carries a tome that has every account written from mages with the gift born after and if a child is born with the gift then they are generally raised to become the next Keeper.

Visions of the past occur more frequently and are generally triggered in areas where the Veil is weak. Unlike Dreamers who must go to sleep to see Spirits reenact history, the Seer can see it while awake, although they do end up in a trance like state. In severe cases a memory can “possess” the Seer for a brief moment and the mage would feel whatever the individuals in the memory felt.

Visions of the future are much more complex and can be seen awake or sleeping. Either way, the vision presents itself in symbols much like a dream does and the Seer must interpret it themselves.

If they happen to see a future vision while awake then they will sometimes end up speaking in riddles, especially if it “possesses” them.

For example, Inquisitor Tsura Lavellan had a vision about the Conclave where she saw a large burning sun being eclipsed by darkness while she falls into the Void only to be saved by a spear on a chain going through her left hand and wrapping around her body, the chain being pulled up by a large wolf with multiple eyes.

She’s had Dread Wolf symbolism throughout her life, including her test to gain her vallaslin, and knew she had to meet her visions to discover what they meant.

Seers are extremely sensitive to the Veil, Spirits, and magical artifacts; anything with a magical fingerprint as it were.

                                                           Magic

Every Dalish Clan has Keeper magic that is influenced by the environment that they live in and for Clan Lavellan their magic involves water and wood. Mages in the Clan are able to control water in all its forms and use it for various things needed.

Since they are surrounded by water they only need to manipulate what’s around them which helps conserve their mana. Should they travel to someplace like a desert, they would need to expend more mana to call water forward.

Clan Lavellan’s mages are all talented shapeshifters too, taught the moment their magic shows itself in childhood. The older the mage, the more forms they generally have since they practice one form at a time and shapeshifting is a difficult school to master.

Mages who rarely come to the Clan from other Clans (like Deshanna) are not as fluid in their transformations and generally know less forms even if they are older since shifting is easier to learn as children.

Overall magic is used sporadically and only when needed in dangerous situations, otherwise they use other means to do the things they need to do in the Clan.

                                                 Material Culture

Clan Lavellan is known for their tapestries, baskets, and jewelry that they will trade with other Clans in the Brecillan Forest or occasionally with villages closest to the Wilds, usually before winter when they need more supplies for the cold.

Their tapestries are large and hang from the trees where they are camped, creating a vibrant and colorful setting. Each tapestry has its own story, either about Dalish belief or even just everyday stories felt by the individual weaver.

They use special bugs and flowers found only in the Wilds to create the colors used and a technique that allows the color to capture light, which is needed given the dim setting the Clan lives in. The only tapestries allowed to be sold are ones that have no religious or personal attachments tied to it.

Their tapestries found outside of the Clan are so rare that one can occasionally find counterfeits in Orlais being sold in a market but any Clan member can figure out a fake a mile away.

The tapestries and drapes found in Skyhold were created by Clan Lavellan as a source of pride.  

Some musical instruments are also created using the resources only found in the Wilds, a forked pipe flute being a favorite creation.

Many of their celebrations and ceremonies involve costumes and masks that the dancers must create for themselves.

Everyday items are created from bones and the carapaces from hunted Giant Crabs, while hanging moss is used for any number of things. Dalish children in particular love to play with dolls made from the moss.

                                                       Folklore

Many of Clan Lavellan’s folklore revolves around a protagonist solving some sort of mystery or outsmarting a tricky Spirit and sad tales of star-crossed lovers. Tales include (all of which I’ll write in detail on a later date):

The Halla and the Hunter

The Dalish Girl and the Werewolf

The Spirit and the Butterfly (a sad tale)

The Dalish Boy and the Catfish

                                                   Relationships

Clan Lavellan has anywhere between 200 – 300 members and the camp is split into sections, the center being the largest which holds the Keeper, the H/hahrens, the various apprentices, the healers, and the children.

The middle ring holds the everyday members focused on day to day work and crafts.

The outer ring of sections holds the Hunters and Warriors where they keep an ever-vigilant eye on their surroundings to watch for danger.

Every section is connected in the above trees with rope that is used to travel and converse with members, especially in the flooded summertime.

The Keeper spends the majority of the time watching for Spirits, discussing with the Hahrens, performing religious rites, and training young mages.

Once the First is old enough (usually 13-14) they take on the tasks of acting as a middle man between the Clan and the Keeper and develop their diplomatic skills. They are also still trained in all the Keeper tasks while preparing for when they will get their vallaslin since they must perform every basic skill for every Creator.

Hahrens train their apprentices while hahrens (the elderly) help raise the young children since parents have any number of duties depending on what they’re dedicated to. Once children reach the age of 8 they are taught basic skills that every Clan member should know, though 6-7-year old’s will generally already know how to make their own fishing nets.

Once the child reaches 10-11 they are to decide which Creator they will dedicate their skills to, Firsts and Seconds being the exception.

It is at the age of 15-16 when a Child takes their vallaslin and becomes an adult, future Hearthkeepers being the exception and taking their vallaslin at 17-18 to solidify their immunity to the spider venom used.

Only the Keeper, Hearthkeeper, and their apprentices remain in the main camp throughout their lives.

The Herdmaster/mistress will move between all three sections throughout the seasons.

Due to the extremely weak Veil, members of Clan Lavellan generally live a long time and many make it well into their 100’s (Keeper Deshanna is 148 at the start of Inquisition and the oldest member is 160) and since elves do not go through menopause it is common to have huge generation gaps between even parent and child (Tsura’s father was well into his 50’s when he died and was Deshanna’s youngest child out of 5).

The Clan does raises children communally and every child is treated fairly with mage children especially protected and raised with strong convictions.

Given the high ratio of mages being born in the Clan compared to others, it is quite common to find a Lavellan mage sent to other Clans, many Keepers or healers.

Tsura’s Aunt and Deshanna’s daughter for example, is the Keeper to Clan Surainen up near Wycome.

Because of these things, Clan Lavellan is considered highly respected amongst the Dalish  although there is a bit of a political shift when Tsura becomes the leader of the Inquisition and some Clans fear Chantry assimilation.

[hitodama89]

I saw this interesting looking ask meme about Flight Rising stuff, but instead of using it as it was actually intended I just answer all the questions without anyone having to send me asks.

           Ask me things!        

Basics

Dragonhome - What’s the meaning behind your username?

hitodama89 is just the name I use everywhere I go.

Sea of a Thousand Currents - Why did you join Flight Rising?

I had some friends who had already joined and they seemed to have good time, so I just jumped in, too!

The Ashfall Waste - What’s your favorite part of the site?

Bestiary and collecting familiars.

The Windswept Plateau - Have you gotten friends of yours to join FR?

My brother and mother, hahah! Neither of them are all that active, though.

The Southern Icefield - What’s your favorite flight?

Water. <3

The Tangled Wood - What’s your favorite FR deity?

I would love it if the deities were a bit more active part of the game... But as it is I like Arcanist a lot.

The Scarred Wasteland - When did you join Flight Rising?

2014-10-13

The Sunbeam Ruins - What’s your favorite lair aesthetic (doesn’t have to be your own)?

I freaking love Egyptian looking dragons! =0 Haven’t seen a whole lair full of them yet, though.

The Shifting Expanse - Do you exalt a lot of dragons or do you keep them?

I exalt a lot. That is right now my main income in the game.

The Viridian Labyrinth - Do you have a favorite familiar?

Psywurm!

Starfall Isles - Favorite piece of trivia you learned on the site?

I love the idea of Podid Town. =‘‘‘D It is mentioned in one of Tomo’s trivia questions.

Lore

Earthshaker - What role(s) do your progens play in your lore (if they do at all)?

They are the dragons that formed the clan.

Tidelord - Does the element of your dragons’ eyes matter to you in lore?

Well, it just means that they were born in the respective flight’s area.

Flamecaller - How do you determine jobs for the dragons in your clan?

I just think what would suit their looks and possible nature.

Windsinger - Does your clan interact with other users’ clans and does that impact lore?

Nowadays not too much. When I first started I got quite a lot of dragons from my friends and those dragons have a few sentences worth of lore about their origin.

Icewarden - Does FR’s official site lore play into your own?

I try to keep it in mind when designing stuff for dragons.

Shadowbinder - Do you have any lore about how your dragons view exalting? If so what is it?

It is a religious event where the exalted dragon is physically send to serve under the clan’s deity. Usually it is a great honor, but I have some dragons that don’t see it solely as a good thing.

Plaguebringer - Do you keep lore if a dragon already has it or do you change it to fit your clan?

I keep it in some form.

Lightweaver - What’s the story behind your clan?

There isn’t really one. =‘) My progens met each other, hung out together for a while and decided to form a new clan.

Stormcatcher - What catches your eye in other people’s lore?

I am pretty lazy at reading long stories and stuff. I like it when things are clear and compact and don’t contradict official lore too much.

Gladekeeper - Do your dragons’ names follow any themes/patterns and if so does that play into their lore?

It depends on who named them. If it was someone outside my clan the name can be anything, but dragons born within the clan usually have names that doesn’t mean anything irl. Certain families also have their own themes.

Arcanist - Do you like writing lore or reading it more?

Reading, I guess. Writing tends to be a pain in the ass.

The Beastclans - Is there an antagonist in your lore? If so, who?

Not really. My clan haven’t had any incidents with Shade and they don’t have enemy clans or anything.

Breeds

Fae - Who’s your random progen?

Marus.

Mirror - Who’s the progen you made?

Carran.

Guardian - What’s your favorite starter breed?

Guardians, but I really do like them all.

Tundra - What’s your favorite breed?

Pearlcathers. Though I tend to handle their nature a bit differently than what has been written about them in the official article.

Pearlcatcher - Is there a breed you like the pose of one gender over the other?

Many, actually, one of them being Imperials. The pose of female Imperial is pretty but a bit difficult to work with.

Ridgeback - What’s one breed you could never go without having in your lair?

Guardians and Pearlcathers.

Snapper - Is there a breed you like the hatchlings better than the adults, and if so what breed?

Not really. Hatchlings are cute and I would even love to have some permababies, but there isn’t really anything that would look a lot better as hatchling than as adult.

Spiral - Do you make breeding pairs for a specific outcome?

Very rarely. Usually I just buy individual dragons and at some point realize that some of them would produce nice babies together.

Skydancer - Do you like to make mates match?

Once again very rarely.

Bogsneak - How often do you impulse buy dragons?

Never really. I am darn picky with my dragons which isn’t all that good considering how poor I am, too, hahah. That’s why my lair is so tiny.

Imperial - What’s one breed you just don’t like for whatever reason?

I know it’s a cliche but Snappers. They are okay and I would never wish to see them for example disappear from the site, but they just are a bit too non-dragon looking for my taste.

Nocturne - Do you collect gen 1s?

Nah. Still poor af.

Coatl - Which dragon breed has your favorite lore, regardless of how much you like/dislike how they look?

Guardians.

Wildclaw - Do breeding cooldowns frustrate you?

No! I’m a patient person.

Flights

Light - What flight did you choose and why?

Water, because that’s my favorite element.

Earth - Do you have flight ambassadors? Why or why not?

No. Tbh I find them pretty boring as nearly every clan tends to have those.

Shadow - If you could change flights for a single day and go back to your own after, what would you switch to and why?

I would love to visit Plague to see what the heck they do to make their dom pushes so devastating. =‘D

Plague - What region of Sorneith is your favorite?

I love the nature of Windswept Plateau.

Water - Do you want your dragons’ eyes to match their colors, and if so does that impact what dragons you keep/breed?

It is not something I require from my dragons, but of course in some cases (Spirals and their huge eyes) it might affect my decisions.

Ice - What’s your favorite flight aesthetic (if you have one)?

Thiiiis was asked already.

Fire - What are your thoughts on dom pushes?

They are cool communal events! Too bad Water is pretty bad at them. => But we try our best!

Arcane - What’s your favorite thing about your flight?

I have never met a single rude or otherwise annoying person in Water.

Nature - Do you like finding newbies in your flight?

Naah; why would I..?

Wind - If you were to summarize each flight into three words, what words would you use for which flight?

Ggggh too much work.

Lightning - What’s your favorite familiar from your flight?

Maybe Seaweed Scavenger.

Customization

Primary - What are your favorite gene combinations on dragons (primary, secondary, and tertiary)? Share your faves!

Poison or Ripple, Toxin or Peregrine and Smoke or Runes.

Secondary - What’s your proudest gene project, if you have one?

Maybe Uppo. He has gone through way too many genes but now he is finally perfect.

Tertiary - If you have a dragon with poorly mixing colors, what is your preferred tertiary gene to try and compensate?

I just leave tertiary to basic if I can’t make it work at all.

Apparel - Do you prefer to dress your dragons for their roles or what you think looks best on them?

A mixture of both.

Accent - Have you ever seen an accent/skinscent/skin that you wished existed for another breed or gender?

Hmm, don’t at least remember.

Skinscent - What is your favorite skin, accent, or skinscent?

Accent: Magic Erosion. It just makes Lienn so pretty.

Skin - What’s your least favorite skin, accent, or skinscent?

Some trypophobic things that make my skin (haha) crawl. Haven’t taken down their names because why would I?

Original color wheel - List your top five favorite colors and why.

Teal, robin, abyss, pistachio aaand any blue/green. But what “why”? =‘D I just like them, that’s all there is.

Color wheel expansion - What’s your favorite gene and color combination (i.e. orca glimmer)? Share a dragon with that combo!

Haven’t spend too much time thinking stuff like this, but abyss Crystal is pretty badass.

Scrying Workshop - What is your dream dragon?

Don’t have one. It’s better for poor to not dream too big. =‘D

Trading and Socializing

Forums - What’s your favorite forum game and why?

Doodle the dragon above. It made me draw last year more than anything else.

Coliseum - Do you like to do coliseum?

Well, no, but I do it anyway when I need to.

Fairgrounds - What’s your favorite Fairgrounds game?

I hate them all. XD Or yes they are alright, but there is so little variation that you have to grind all of the games long enough to make you hate them if you plan on getting anything out of them.

Auction House - We’ve all done it, what one thing did you not notice a misclick while selling that still haunts you to this day?

I sold one of the Fox Rat familiars for treasure instead of gems. It still hurts.

Marketplace - Are you saving up for any big purchases right now?

For once no, I’m not!

Crossroads - Do you ever check in on dragons you’ve sold to see how they’re doing?

Yes I do. =D More often than you would think.

Dominance - Have you ever bought fodder, only to get attached and keep it?

Yup!

Trading Post - Have you made friends through or because of FR?

Naah. I’m not good at making friends.

Festivals and Events

Crystalline Gala - Do you like to participate in the holidays?

Of course! Gotta hoard me some new items.

Trickmurk Circus - Do you hoard elemental currency after the events are over or do you sell it off?

Neither, I just stack away the stuff I have and use it next year.

Mistral Jamboree - If you have elemental reps, do you dress them in their element’s holiday apparel?

-

Wavecrest Saturnalia - What’s your favorite elemental familiar?

Maybe Fire Sprite just because it was such an achievement to even get one of them.

Greenskeeper Gathering - Have you ever gotten an elemental egg?

A couple times. Never hatched one though, as I have pretty rotten luck.

Brightshine Jubilee - What was the first elemental holiday you ever participated in?

Riot of Rot. Back then I thought it was Riot OR Rot.

Thundercrack Carnivale - Are there events that you participate in on FR outside of the official festivals and events (secret Santa, trick or treat, etc)?

Yeah I took part in Secret Santa last Christmas!

Flameforger’s Festival - What do you do to prepare for an event?

Rest from Coliseum so I have what it takes to grind there during the festival.

Starfall Celebration - What’s your favorite elemental holiday?

Our own WaveSat.

Riot of Rot - Do you have any retired items or familiars that you want to come back for a holiday?

All the first year big apparels! I have no idea why they were so perfect but nearly everything after them have been pretty unusable for me. Also Light Sprite, haha.

Rockbreaker’s Ceremony - Does your flight do anything to prepare for events, if so what and do you participate in that?

During the already mentioned WaveSat we do some stuff, and I try to help as much as I can (which isn’t a lot though).

Week of Welcome - What do you think of the change in registration windows?

Good that the site can handle regular windows now!

Night of the Nocturne - What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever gotten in an event?

I won some boss familiar in a raffle once. It was the best.