The Dragonmaster

By: Sobremus Posted on: April 26, 2005

"It is therefore decreed, by order of Lord Proteus, that humanity shall inhabit the land of Ceylon on the continent of Sapience."

A few scoffs from the crowd to my left escaped the throats of my more… proud brethren.

"And furthermore, there shall be no dominion taken over any of humanity by any aldar, lest they give express consent."

This got that crowd truly riled up at that point, with screaming and mocking and rioting. "Those bastard children are meant only to serve! They are worth nothing more!" were only a few of the cries I heard.

I shook my head and walked away from the pulpit, ready to continue my studies from the previous day. It was then that my brother crossed my path. "Neth, can you believe that? Proteus must be out of his mind!"

"Lord Proteus does as he pleases. While we may not agree, his decisions are his own, and as such, are final, brother."

"No way am I going to let a bunch of bastard children run around unchecked. I've got to do something before they completely ruin our world."

With a disparaging hand, I waved him off, more important matters on my mind. With a brisk pace, I jogged back to my abode, where I began to write in my scroll on peer manipulation. I browsed through the many tomes and papers on the floor of my dwelling, searching through papers on domination dictated from Lord Shaitan, a manual on deception by Lord Twilight, and tomes of bewitching and enchanting melodies from Lord Scarlatti.

I do not know how many days it was that I poured over those writings as I scribbled notes on a scroll of my own. Eventually, I was disturbed by a knock at my door. I opened the door, to find no one there, but a scroll encased at my door. I opened up the case to see only a light scroll, a letter, actually:

Let it be known that a Great Council of the Aldar shall be convened, and all interested shall meet at the Caves of Sorrow immediately.

Good, I thought to myself. A formal meeting with the rest of the Aldar should be quite interesting…

Seven years transpired as I helped to gather our entire fellow Aldar to the Caves of Sorrow. Finally…

"The Great Council of the Aldar has convened for the discussion of the Elder God's and humanity. Who shall begin?"

A few people began light discussion upon divinity, birth rights, and bastard children. I myself sat back, disappointed in the idiocy of the subject. My fellows sat around me, equally disappointed but eager to speak with others about our magical and architectural arts. Finally, I noticed a heated argument between my brother and another influential Aldar.

"Dekalb! We cannot allow ourselves to be taken back by these pathetic creatures! We are the rightful heirs to Creation!"

"Han-Silnar, I can understand your fury to a point, but openly supporting a rebellion against the Elder Gods is asking for destruction. We must support Them, for They are our Creators."

Their debate raged back and forth, with support for both factions on either side. I, of course, sought battle in neither realm, calling out, "I, for one, shall support neither in any war. All I want is peace. I just want to research magic and build great towers and buildings. Doesn't that sound a lot better?"

A moment of silence… then the arguing erupted into an explosion of voices flying back and forth. Fully aggravated, I stood from my seat and marched out the door. To my satisfaction, my closest friends followed close behind me, nodding to me and easing my rage. I nodded in return, and led our journey back home.

We passed by young forests, only a few hundred years in existence, as well as timeless bodies of water, each holding marvels of their own. Being sound naturalists, we were all thrilled to be able to stop and take in all of these natural wonders. Unsurprisingly, the trip home actually took about three times as long as the trip there for all the stops we made to investigate.

But finally we did catch glimpse of our tower, the Ancient Library of Scarlatti, filled with poetic, historic, and philosophical works from all of the Elder gods. I remember how proud we were after first building it, and how we were more than happy to accept the published works of the Elder gods as a reward for our hard work. It has been, and always will be, considered the greatest day of my life… for the rest of it is filled with agony.

Upon closer inspection, that is to say, taking a few steps, many of our mouths were dropped in astonishment, for, rather than seeing the great banner of our home, we saw a tattered flag, marred by scorch marks and torn into ribbons, clearly not the work of nature. As we neared the actual village, more horrible scenes of destruction plagued us as we witnessed the charred remains of our once great village. Many of us fell to our knees and wept. I merely walked, in a daze, really, toward the tower, my arms outstretched, as if I were a human mother ready to embrace a hurt child.

Breaking me from my daze was a ghastly sound! Sending a deathly chill up my spine, it seemed like a shriek combined with a scream and intensified greatly. Gathering our faculties, we turned to find the source: a pair of black, winged creatures, circling our great tower, and eyeing us all with hunger. Anger boiled in my blood.

"You!" I boomed. "You have wrought your final havoc! Exterminate the beasts!" I cried aloud.

Sharing many sentiments, my fellow Aldar hurled balls of magic and bolts of lightning at the creatures, prompting them to lash out at us with a surprise: a stream of acid spewing forth from their mouth and burning all it touched. Obviously, we all adjusted for this. As the creatures flew down to challenge us more closely, we prepared our tight defenses. Wielding more powerful magic this time, we returned the attack of one of the beasts, searing its eyes shut. From there we were able to subdue it with our combined bolts of lightning and explosions of magical energy and fire. Luckily, as we began to exhaust our magical resources, the other creature fled, taking to the sky, and flying quickly away. All of us exhausted, we fell to the ground and slept.

I awoke with the sun burning on my face. Struggling to my feet, my entire body felt stiff. I looked around me, a few were already sitting up, some of us still unconscious, a handful of us dead. "Are most of us ok?" I asked, dazingly. A few groans and waves were my only responses. "Alright, let's get up, folks. We're going to find those creatures."

Luckily, or unluckily perhaps, we heard the keening pierce the sky again. This time, to our horror, three of the creatures had swooped down on us. With great resilience, my comrades and I sprouted a stout defensive shield while our remaining allies were still awakening. What a sight to behold as they open their eyes! But still, they quickly rose to their feet and began chanting and preparing spells. As the creatures quickly tore down our shields, our group split into three to combat these threats. As my group and I fended off the blue creature, another took on the black from before, and the other the red.

As the creatures tore at us with breaths of ice, acid, and fire, I noticed my student, Al-Telth, had his creature transfixed, in a daze. Chanting and mesmerizing the creature, I realized he was dominating it, as I had taught him! "Well done, Al-Telth, you have learned well. You two, do as your brother has done. These creatures shall be ours."

Within a few moments, all three of the creatures had been subdued and tranquilized. "Well done, my students. All of us, have shown great bravery, resolve, and resilience today. I suspect there are more of these creatures, and I have the intentions to harness their powers. Are you all with me?" A solemn nod from my allies filled the air with vindication. "Let us go."

With that, we all mounted upon a creature of our choice. I strode atop the blue one myself, and we set out in the sky in search of the haven of these monsters. Finding it was much simpler than we thought. Rising above the mountains, we saw, just over the range was a gigantic crater, with a path strewn behind it. Growing over it was a lush forest, tapering off into rolling grassland. Filling this expansive area were hundreds of these fell beasts, each ranging in color and size.

"There is our enemy," I said. "Let us go."

Our group swooped down into an attack formation, the dragons clawing at each other in mortal combat. In the meanwhile, my faction and I began working to tame the beasts. One by one, the creatures turned on one another, until, out of the confusion rose the greatest of all of them. Coated in an opalescent pearl coat, its white scales reflected light in all directions. All of the creatures seemed to make way for it as it approached our group. To everyone's surprise, the creature spoke!

"We dragons do not serve you creatures! Be gone, or be destroyed."

Each of my comrades jumped out one by one in order to attempt to bind and manipulate the dragon, each trying to gain favour over his mind. Naturally, one by one, they were swatted aback, sent sprawling across the ground like a play thing. Such was my time. This creature would belong to me.

Accessing my magical lyre, I began reciting a melody I had remembered from Scarlatti's ballads. "Ahm na-mehd el bihm ahr deh oa zhi mai…" The dragon stopped it's rampage and looked at me for a moment. As I plucked the needed chords on my lyre, the creature shook his head, as if trying to get the melody out of his ears. "Eehl kehm toh marah sau tol ha geh ha…" With perfect pronunciation and flawless tune, the creature was soon under my grasp as I saw the furor in his eyes lighten and his demeanor change from abhorration to adoration. With a majority of the dragons under our control, we were finally able to rest and relax.

For several years, we studied magic with the dragons, refining our processes and learning about the more natural arts. In a random moment, an oracle of our group, I feel bad now for I cannot recall his name, approached me, saying, "The War of Humanity is at hand! The Elders have been challenged!"

"You mean to say that Han-Silnar has actually gone through with his plan?"

"I don't even think it was his! He was being manipulated!"

Silently I thought to myself. I knew what must be done. "Gather up the dragons and their riders. We are going off to war."

As quickly as I had given the order, all of the dragons assembled, lining up one by one, with my great dragon at the lead. And, one by one, each creature was mounted with one of our own, armed with our bows and our sorcery. The time of the Elders' destruction would not be now.

"Riders! Follow me! To Nishnatoba we ride!"

Our creatures flew for days at a time, not one of us sleeping as we traveled with great haste across planes and into the realm where the War of Humanity had been waging already. As we rose over the final summit before the valley where the combat was taking place, we could see a perilous vision. The Elder gods were behind a wall of magic, many of their allies dead or dying as strange and wonderful creatures fought amongst themselves.

"This is it," I said. "Let's go."

A glorious keening was heard across the field as our dragons all cried out at once. The entire battlefield froze as we swooped down upon the field. Each side was apprehensive about us, and rightfully so. We removed all doubt, however, when one of our dragons unleashed a breath of fire, obliterating several crystal-like creatures. Several at a time, our dragons would tear apart the formations of what seemed to be the most terrifying creations imaginable.

Behind us, the gods had taken down their wall and began a counter attack. The enemy fell even more quickly, and their forces were on the run. Then… I saw him. My brother was also fleeing, but I would not let him escape. My dragon hovered over him, buffeting with his wings until Han-Silnar could do naught but fall to the ground in weakness. We landed, and I walked up to my brother, victorious over him.

Silnar cowered at my feet, crying, "Oh, Han-Tolneth! You… my brother…"

Defeated, Han-Silnar hung his head in shame as I bound him and led him back to the camp. As the rest of the creatures were being destroyed, though a certain horror had given many of my allies a rough time, I reflected upon my ignorance and regretted the fact that I had not supported the Elders in the first place. Perhaps, all of this could've been averted…

Having returned to the service of my Lords and Ladies, I was appointed as a member of the tribunal that would decide the fate of my brother and his "allies." I was relatively silent, until my brother came up into question. "He should serve the Jade Empress," I said flatly. Surprisingly, the rest of the Elders agreed that Lorielan would extract a greater punishment upon him than we were willing to.

So it was that the War of Humanity was ceased and the Aldar were able to serve their Elders once again. But I was not content only doing what I had. Gathering what remaining Aldar were left, we all called upon our magic to erect the Garden, in which the gods still dwell. Then, having not outdone ourselves, we constructed the great Amphitheatre, still a favoured gathering place of the Elders.

For our services, many Aldar were allowed solace on a separate plane of our own, but I, and many like me, were not content to merely quit. Still panged by guilt, I offered my life in servitude of the Elder gods. That day, I became the head of what is now known as the Celani, servants of the Elder gods. Furthermore, I was known as the "dragonmaster," and I was charged with the task of allowing for great mortal heroes to be a vessel for a spirit of the great dragons that soared over Nishnatoba, in order to combat the evil dragons that now wandered the land of Sapience without their master to guide them. It was from that point on that I became one step below the Elders. I was practically one of them, but still, not quite. In service, I am Han-Tolneth, Head of the Celani, Dragonmaster.