Morenth landed on the ground, bringing up a large cloud of dust that choked the nearby dwarves. The red dragon gestured with one hand towards the dwarf child.
"Let the little one go and tell me what manner of Dragon you are." She hissed.
The sun broke out amidst the rain and a band of colors quickly scoured the sky against the dark cloud. It was a beautiful sight for the being to withhold. It calmly and quaintly walked out of the maw of the cavern it had taken shelter within. The falling skies had quickly faded and the arc of color started to disappear. At that moment, it came to the realization that it needed the rains for sustenance, as it started to feel itself become less maleable again. The winds were calm, yet it still felt itself churning about on the inside.
Just as it came up the hill, it ran down the slope towards the waterfront. It stepped on a large boulder portruding from the surface and lept off of the tip and towards the sea. The air swirling around it turned it into a faint haze as it came closer to the waves. Once it touched the surface of the sea, the water behind came crashing down like the rainstorms and reconstructed itself beneath the water.
It felt at home once again. No longer did it need the sustaining storms that floated above the lands. There was more than enough sustenance for the being to hold itself together. This presented a posing problem for it, though. It realized that it could not leave the seas, otherwise it would become weak again as it did moments ago. It poked its head out of the water and took one long look at the shoreline. There were other places to be seen, yet it had so much to do. It needed to explore the inner landscape, but it was restricted due to its innate disadvantage of requiring a source of sustenance.
It contemplated , trying to figure out a way around that issue. It gave one hard look at the shoreline, then at the landscape, and then looked up the skies. It noticed that the clouds weren't just restricted to moving in one direction-- they had moved in whichever way the winds were. It took some time to figure out an astute plan, and then went underneath the waves. Its essence glowed brighter and parts of it flung out from its body and formed a small spherical ball of bright light. The murky water made the light dim, but it could still be seen.
The ball transformed once it reached a turning point-- small tentacles of light fanned out from either side of the source and started to grow even smaller tentacle-like portrusions from one side of the large portrusions. The source then expanded and it soon became covered in more portrusions that lined its body with a sheen coating. The portrusions flatten against the new body and a long, triangular nose stuck out of the face of the body. Large eyes grew from behind the new being's maw and had grown long legs with hooked toes. Its legs were covered with portrusions that looked like flat plates.
It was happy out the other being's creation, and swam right up to the being. It smiled and took one hand up to the being's head. As if it knew of the other being's existence, the creature brought its head to the being's hand. It brushed its hand against the creature's body, its soft skin soaking in and spitting out water as the new being filled itself with new life. It wobbled around the waves, trying to get a sense of its orientation. The being held on and comforted the giant-winged creature.
It opened its mouth, but it wasn't able to produce sounds. Bubbles emerged and covered its face. It smiled at its own silliness and soon mounted on the giant winged creature. The creature first flapped its long wings through the water-- its first attempt to move had failed, but then it flattened its wings even more. The second attempt sped it through the water without effort and soon breached the surface, where it spread its wings across the open air and let loose a beckoning call across the shoreline. The call bounced off the landscape and travelled across the immediate sea-- ever so slightly hearing the faint echo of its same scream. It shot up into the air and flew straight toward the clouds, with the humanoid clinging tightly on the winged creature's coat. The coat had hardened into a semi-maleable sheen of ice and dust as it reached the edge of the stormclouds and headed towards the center of the mainland at astonishing speeds.
The winged creature soon slowed itself down, as it coasted along the wind-draped clouds. It used its wings to its full potential, gliding along rivers of thermals and absorbed some of the moisture within. The being still held on tightly, while still looking toward the land below. There was so much to be seen. It knew not where to begin.
Large pillars of rock could be seen on the horizon, some spewing dark clouds of smog. Were those the sources of the storms? It had to know. The being got the winged creature's attention and pointed towards the pillars. The creature responded by changing its direction toward the dark smoke, hoping that they'd find the anwers to their questions.
3pp -- Create Exarch (Skreiasku, the Sea Hawk): A mighty bird forged from the heart of Lenauti, she is the primary mount of the god of the sea and enables Lena to travel amongst the world using the stormclouds as her vessel of travel.
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Cantorix staggered back, dumbfounded. A crimson dragon? Were they a corruption of his own kin, colored with the blood of The Wounded God? Too many things were coming together, here, and now. Suprise was chipping away at his discipline.
Cantorix's stance immedietly shifted. His wings were held open, defensively, and he faced her sideways, allowing his tail to stand between this dragon and himself. As it moved, a few of the dwarves were knocked flat on their backs and the heavy cart was sent flying into a nearby ditch. He felt his blood heating in his body, eager. Her demand angered him. He had never spared a craterspawn yet and he was not going to start today.
"Little One?! This... This-flightless warped spawn of Azgo?! Never. Craterspawn, like all servitors of the Blood Crowned, deserves death. If you seek him, you will have to pry him from me!"
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
Morenth spat a ball of fire into some nearby stones, sending them flying and knocking over some more dwarves.
"YOU? You speak to me of Craterspawn? I, who have lost my mate, my sons, and most of my kin to defeat them and send them back to their forsaken home? You DARE accuse me of seeking to protect one? Open your eyes, you fool. This is no Craterspawn. This is..."
She reached out and grabbed a comatose dwarf and eyed it curiously. Smaller than a human, stocky like a Galeb Duhr, certainly not an Agni'Vohda... something new... but not reeking of the corruption of the Craterspawn.
"Breath in, Dragon. Do you smell the corruption? No? Now. Explanations. Where were you when the Volcano blew?"
The air around the two beings began to become heavier and more dense as they neared the pillars of rock. The being realized that they weren't just solitary peaks-- at the crest of the horizon, it saw that it was a chain of jagged peaks. The majority of them were completely barren, while only a few of them were spewing the smog. Even then, that was enough to make a huge impact on the air above and within the clouds. At first it seemed like the air became cooler, but a change in windspeed quickly turned that prospect around and the air became warm. The winged creature was also having trouble navigating the air current and soon, before it could even grab a bead on its orientation, it spun out of control as it reached a vortex of hot and cold air.
The two were sucked into a whirling funnel of varying air masses within the cloud-- being tossed around like ragdolls. The next moment, they were flung out of the cloud. The winged creature was plummeting toward the toothy maw of the mountains below. The being, knowing that the avian was semi- unconscious, smashed a closed fist on the creature's head and snapped it back awake. The creature continued to hurtle towards the ground, and as it was about to hit, it spread its large wings and caught a massive wave of air. The sudden surge of air caused the creature to quickly reverse its direction of travel with the being barely hanging on for dear life. The creature soon leveled itself out and coasted along the canyons and ravines of the mountain landscape.
The being blew a heavy sigh of relief, and said to itself never to do that again. The creature seemed to acknowledge the being's words, despite them not being spoken. As they continued to fly amongst the chain of mountains, the being noticed that either side of the chains had levelled out into low-lying valleys. On the left, the valley had continued all the way to the edge of the sea where it had come from-- to the right, the valley had came up to another set of mountains, although they seemed to have formed a ring around a raised level surface. The points of the mountaintops seemed to resemble a crown. It smiled at the thought.
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A strong shudder went down the whole of his spine. He could feel his muscles tensing, and his eyes scanned over her body for weakness, old wounds, blind spots. His blood bounced around inside him. He felt a deep longing... Death...
No! No, no. Discipline, Cantorix. Resist the blood... His thoughts trailed off into the dark corners of his mind.
"Your kin? And what of mine?! From the first of our days we swore vengence! We hunted them, purged them! It was we who scattered the legions! We followed them into the depths of the underground, so unrelenting are we! And how many of us died for our duty?! Thousands! Tens of Thousands! This land is tained with OUR blood, our triumph over Azgo!"
"And do you trust only in scent? Azgo adapts, endures, and so do his creations! They may not always reek of taint. But perhaps... Perhaps this is no craterspawn. Perhaps."
And what did she mean by "Volcano"? What was a volcano?
"I know of no 'volcano', whatever that is. I know ashen forests and the canals of the deep. I know of the oceans' edge and the frosted north. And I know of The Fused God's floating palace. We do not venture into the lowlands."
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
She settled down onto her hind legs as the other dragon appeared to calm down.
"Truly? You do not know of the birthplace of our race? The Eternal Volcano of Agni where we were born from the eminations of the Great DragonOrb? Where the Craterspawn struck and fought and died in the millions, dragging our kin along with them?
I certainly do not recognize this Fused God's palace. I certainly have never seen one colored as you are before. And if you helped to defeat the Craterspawn, then you have my thanks, for those of Crimson were nearly destroyed before the victory was won. But there are more things in the world than Craterspawn. There are Humans and Nix and the noble Agni'Vohda, who fought by our side. And this," she waved the dwarf she was still holding, [colo=red]"is no Craterspawn."[/color]
"No, it is you who is ignorant of the dragonkind's origin. We were forged by Azgo, doubtlessly for some sinister purpose, and we escaped his tainted touch. And we flew out from his... place, The Godcrater. His blood is with us, and that blood bears some of his memories, and his wrath."
But how did she think differently? No lessons of this history was taught to the Ebon. They felt it, knew it as they grew. They heard his whispered promises in their minds. They saw shadows of the Godcrater in their mind's eye. And the essence of acid always filtered in their nostrils. No dragon could be ignorant of this.
"We are dragonkin, born of darkness to fight the darkness. And we are no slaves."
Cantorix loosened his grasp on the dwarven child. He gave a meaningful glance at the dwarven refugees, or what was left of them. He was not sure if he was speaking to her or to himself.
"But there are no others. There are craterspawn and there are dragons. Night and Day. Black and White. The hunted and the hunters..."
"But you say there are others? Other... things? Things still locked in war? When we scouted the lowlands, there were only few craterspawn. The wilds were teeming with them, and so we followed them into the mountains and the north. This... this is... important. The moot must be called. It must."
Cantorix prepared himself for flight.
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
Much time had passed. Zebus who had sat by that beach for the longest time, just thinking faded from view. The shadow of death passing from the world. Where once death visited, life returns. Barren and scorched landscapes over time start to teem with life once again as balance sought to right itself. Life begins anew.
In the Great Beyond, Zebus steps out of the shadows. Stepping in front of Marcus, a throne appears behind him. It is time I turn to my duties here. See what you can out in the world below. With those very vague directions, Marcus leaves the twisting nether that is the Great Beyond and enters the world below. Order goes to seek its place in the world.
2 AP Nourish: As Zebus leaves the world, he pulls his shadowy pall with him. Death is less common as people are finding food, both plants and animals, to be more plentiful. The destroyed lands, burned and destroyed are slowly starting to come back to life also.
As Zebus, bows out for now, he sends Marcus out into the world. To do what, not even he knows.
I am both selfish and chaotic. I value self-gratification and control; I want to have things my way, preferably now. At best, I'm entertaining and surprising; at worst, I'm hedonistic and violent.
Timmy arrived in town carrying the head of the dire wolf he had slain. Upon noticing the blood and dirt covered white fur of their local hunter limbing into town, the townsfolk rushed over to him, offering what help they could and congratulating him on a job well done.
The compliments on how fierce and mighty a hunter he had grown to be seemed a little ironic, considering most of the townsfolk stood at least half a foot taller then him.
As he expetced, his sisters eventually pushed past the crowd to get to him, the eldest of his sisters Lynda grabbed him and dragged back to the cottage for "Medical Attention" which usually hurt more then the injuries he sustained in the first place.
---
"Hold still, this might sting a little"
She told him, dabbing the cotton wool on his cuts. It did always sting. a lot. But Timmy had grown used to this pain and lay still, sucking air through his teeth.
"Why do you do this to yourself timmy? You don't have to prove yourself to anyone"
Everytime one of his sisters took care of him like this, a conversation of this nature would arise sooner or later.
"I've told you time and time again, I want to know where I came from, who my parents were, what my real Clan name is"
The conversation, as it often did, grew into an argument. The conflict concluded with his sister Lynda screaming that he wasn't greatful towrds his family and never truly loved them, before storming out. Timmy was left alone to his thoughts. Timmy knew that years back the Nix ventured out into the world for the first time in centuries, the second time they had ever left their home. They had wandered the lands in packs, greeting the other races and making trades where possible. The Nix did not possess much beyond what they needed; Food, Water, simple clothing. As such, the trades were rare, but they hapened.
After this, many of the Nix returned to The Crown once again, but to this day the occasional indidivual or pack can be seen roaming around the areas closer to the crown.
His adoptive parents and sisters told him they found home alone that nearby forest, no parents or clan in sight. Their mother had recently lost a child in birth, a son. He would have been their only son, but the gods cruelly snatchd him from them. Having just lost a son, they couldn't bare to leave him in the wild to die, so they took him in. Or least that's how the story goes, Timmy was far too young to remember any of this.
The Occasional Nix would pass through town, so they asked questions of how to raise the cub, what he'd eat and drink, how to entertain him, whether he'd grow to be a seven foot monster; The usual parenting questions.
When a Nix explained to them how Nix gain their names based on their Clan name and the atributes of the indidivual, his surname was changed. Keeping in line with Nix tradition, his surname was an altered version of their family name of Tailsworth. He instead became Timmy Bushytail, obviously referncing the fluffy tail that hung three feet below him. As they all matured, it became apparent that this wasn't the kind of name the Nix had in mind but the name was already long set in stone, so it stuck.
Both his "parents" were long gone now and only his sisters remained. With mum and dad gone, he began to wonder what his real parents had been like and why he had been abadoned. He also wondered what his real clan name was. He really needed to replace his current surname, soon as possible.
Everytime a Nix passed thorugh town he would pester and interview them for hours about their race, the customs, the traditions, what the crown was like and anything that came to mind. It was obviously the Nix's pride somewhat biased what they said, but the crown sounded to be a truly wonderous place. He knew to get there and learn about his true identity though, he would need to play by their rules and be able to survive in the crown.
So he began to hunt. At just sixteen years of age, he was already the most deadly hunter in the village, but would he be able to match the Nix hunters? Would he even be able to take down the beats that lived in the crown? He didn't know, but as long as he kept breathing he knew he would not give in.
Timmy drowsed off to sleep, dreaming of meeting his ancenstors and joining them in a pure, simple way of life. One day, he hoped to reach an agreement where he could spend half of his time with his adoptive family and half the time with the clan that sired him. As he woke up for the next day and steeled himself to face the next hunt, that dream drove him forward.
---
2AP - Command Nix - Migration
Over the years, the Nix have spread themselves thorughout the continent and returned to the crown. What cultural, economic and political effects this has had on the groups under each gods control is up to them. Nowadays, Nix live mainly in the crown once again, but can also be found around the crown and anywhere else in the world. However, the Nix are still more common to find near the crown, and their groups more populated.
1 AP - Nourish Nix
The Nix have been doing very well as a race and have thrived in numbers, mainly as a result of conquering their fears of the outside world and returning with various goods from the lands beyond the crown.
Nix Culture Entry
Religion
The Nix worship the primal spirits almost exclusively. They do not care much for the other gods, simply seeing them only as pawns to the Primal Spirits in the end. They do however, feel more strongly about the gods more connected to nature such as Pruinus and Leaf. Their more passionate attitude towards gods such as Leaf and Pruinus can differ and often occupy the two opposite ends of the extreme, either believing that they are faithful towards the Primal Spirits and act upon their will. The other extreme is that they usurp the Primal Spirits and use their power for their own gain. The Crown is divided into different clans who conform to one of the two viewpoints. The two different groups often debate and argue over the matter, but their differences never turn to violence. The Nix do not fight amongst themselves, as to an extent they trust nobody other then their own kind.
Nix Jobs/Roles
Around the age of 15, a Nix is given a role within the clan based on their talents. Nix do not normally seek or train for one of these jobs. They simply wait and see what job is given to them. They believe the primal spirits decide what each talents and skills each Nix shall inherit, so they do not wish to be given any job, but gladly accept what is given to them.
Diet
The Nix are carnvious and eat meat exclusively. However, a strict set of rules exists defining what meat each nix can eat, as the majority of the animals they hunt and eat are the very animals that they descended from. Nix are generally allowed to eat any meat except that from the animal in which they descended. Bear Nix do not eat bear meat, Wolf Nix do not eat wolf meat and so on. It is also very poor manners to eat meat of another animal in front of a Nix who descended from that animal. For example, it is poor manners to eat the meat of Snow Leopards in the presence of a Snow Leopard Nix. This rule does have a contradiction however. Nix can hunt animals of their Origin and offer them to another as a gift. This is considered a great honour and it would be incredibly rude to not eat the meat in this case, as that would be an insult to the effort of the individual who went to hunt the animal and would mean the creature's death was meaningless.
At large festivals where meat of all kinds will be consumed by all kinds of Nix, a Representative from each Nix origin will stood and give a small speech that contains his/her permission for all the others to eat the meat of their ancestral animals.
