Sons Born of Dragon Lords

Orjan Ruttenborg Svendsen

The Dragon Lords

Ten there were, in the court at the Crown of the World. Mother killed the dragon lords, this we all know, but to think that they are gone and forgotten is folly: Their influence remains strong enough even now, emerging in their descendants as the mark of the old saurian god-kings.

1) Hō-ō, Fire of Heaven
The Mesozoic King, whose majesty was matched only by his pride.

Raiment: Scales like the sunset, feathers as bright as the dawn, eyes of noontide
Breath: Primal solar fire
Aspect: The rage of kings, unquenchable conquest, eyes only for glory days.


2) Qe, Golden One
The haughty god-queen, consort of Hō-ō. The first of felines, by common tradition.

Raiment: Alabaster scales, honeygold plumage.
Breath: Shimmering radiance
Aspect: Superiority and dominion, elegance and cruelty


3) Stvryzon, Cold-Blooded
Unmoved by the politics of the court, he loathed all equally and without ceasing.

Raiment: Shards of glacier blue, auroral fins
Breath: The cold that rots
Aspect: Causeless hatred, immovable conservatism, slow degradation unto death


4) Bennig-Ba, Eye of Eternity
The oracle; a male-female who would speak in riddles and deny the court's purpose through enigma.

Raiment: Scarlet eyes patterned on silver scales.
Breath: Breaker of minds
Aspect: To gaze off the edge of the abyss, and see there truth.


5) Enesh-Kal, Keeper of the Sands
The up-and-comer, the desert-hatched, the self-made lord.

Raiment: Sculpted waves of glass
Breath: Lightning upon dry air
Aspect: The dissonance of inside and out, the unexpected new


6) Va Sin Dahl, Sleeper
Emerging from the lands of dream only on occasion, to give silly and ill-informed opinions.

Raiment: Soft purples pinks, and blues, skin like silk pillows
Breath: Thundering voice
Aspect: The disconnection of the dreamer, misplaced innocence


7) Aunoom, Voice in the Deep
At the base of the mountain there was a bottomless lake, and here did Aunoom live.

Raiment: Vast feathered gill-fans, biolominescent flanks
Breath: Black-and-white hyperpressure fumarole
Aspect: The silence of primordial waters; chaotic undercurrent of deep time


8) Nai-Nom, Steel-Faced
The enforcer, the vizier, chosen confidante and old confederate of the king

Raiment: Layered plates of burnished steel; mane of blackened iron quills.
Breath: An iron tooth, spit at speed
Aspect: Glory through violence and victory through injury; denial-of-life


9) Xebal, Devourer
Gluttonous and glutinous, a perennial mocker and hypocrite; could never be pinned to a position.

Raiment: Mud-brown and moss-green, mottled and peeling
Breath: Bone shards and offal
Aspect: Singularity of self, encompassing greed, false kowtowing


10) Raan, Above the Stars
Distant and silent, alighting upon the world only rarely and saying nothing of what he saw beyond.

Raiment: Vantablack and points of light
Breath: Stellar radiation
Aspect: The great mystery

Dragons Today

In the way that there are still finches at my birdfeeder, echoes of the true dragons creatures survived into the present day: wyrms, wyverns, drakes, sea serpents, rocs, thunderbirds, terror birds, phoenixes, isolated pockets of surviving saurians, and so on. None of these creatures can reach the majesty of their ancient sires nor their power or size. The few that have the potential for speech and higher thought carve little kingships for themselves out in the wilds or find themselves at the heads of guilds and banks.

The more pressing danger are the men who call themselves dragons. Men who believe they are owed the world, and have no qualms about taking it for themselves. They show no allegiance to the gods, reverence for the Folk, nor sympathy for their fellow man.

Many of them are allied with Hell, in full knowledge of the inevitable betrayal. They lose no sleep over it. They don't lose sleep over anything they do.

The Eleventh Dragon

There is one Lord remaining, exiled from the Crown of the World long before all of this happened. He waits sleeping far beneath the land and seas. If he were ever to wake, he would devour the Holocene world and make solid his claim of kingship.

The secret cultists of the Eleventh Dragon are by all reckoning the most dangerous individuals in the world.