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xelessarx -> (DF) the Travel Journal of Loremaster Zereth (9/29/2016 17:57:57)
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Here is where I will put things that I like to imagine in DF's Lore.
Breaker of the Chains
You can not know what life puts in front of you. And neither you can prevent it. Luckily, life favoured me when I wanted to explore the south of the Land of Dragons, beyond Kaer Sierra, and it let me record the salvation of the cultures there.
The land beyond Kaer Sierra is commonly called Baalash-Kurud by its inhabitants, which has a close meaning to "Barren Lands" in our tongue (The ancient language they use when naming the land is almost completely forgotten by the common folk. Yet, it still continues to be taught in some academies.). The name comes from the drought that overwhelms the land. There are places on the land that not a single raindrop has fallen for the whole year. The only exception to that drought is around the River Darielle that flows through the land and pours to its eastern coast. Therefore, all the settlements are located around the river, where the water can easily be found.
I also encountered some people, (These people were generally shamans or clerics) who calls the land Kurud-il-Drathin. Not to be confused with the name of our continent, Kurud-il-Drathin means "Land of the Dragon". The name is derived from a sole dragon, the Great Earth Dragon, who lives in a den inside the huge Mount Kholm, which is on the southest region of Barren Lands, near the western shore. Apparently, the locals think that they are properties of Great Dragon Athonos and they present the dragon a tenth of their food as an offering twice a year, on the day when the day and night becomes equal. According to the sayings of the locals, Mount Kholm is so huge that it's peak is much above the clouds. I had intended to explore the mountain but there had to be changes in my plans because of Yalla's invasion on the capital Kuruthu. Yalla was the sinister Druid who had the magical ability of binding the people to herself so that she can command them. But let's put her aside for now. I will tell about her greed and the havoc she brought later.
What I found most astounding about il-Drathins (What locals call themselves, the Dragon's, emphasizing that they are Athonos' properties.) was the variety of races that lived together. There were humans, moglins, earth elves and lots of species I had never seen in my life before like ohvens, cadillos, nymphias and mareiths. They were all living in the same settlements and there was no segregation between the races. What I also noticed was that their hospitality was more than usual. I had expected them to be tougher as they live in a biome which has hard conditions.
Most striking part of their culture was how they saw the "Life". According to them, Athonos was a representation of the God who had weaved the whole universe with a pattern. That pattern was deciding on the future of all living beings and it was shaping their lives. Every single person was a thread of that enormous pattern.
Il-Drathins also had a systematical magical knowledge which they taught to their descendants who are willing to learn the magic and use it for the good. They have shaped the magic in a quite different way than we did, so it looked like a completely different thing rather than magic when I first saw a human child doing magic to bring shiny sparkles to night sky. It felt like the child was caring for the magic he casted and the magic he casted was caring for him.
The experts on the magic are called simply "Shaman". The Chief Shaman of Kuruthu, Moglin Roden, told me a lot about the magic and the history of Barren Lands. Although they have a huge accumulation of magical knowledge, hundreds of years ago, they knew "the magic". He tells that the magic they are able to do right now is only a "shadow" of the magic their ascendants were able to do. Back at those times, the magic users were called "Druids" instead of shamans. Although their magic generally being just about living things, druids could do impossible things with magic. They used the magic to travel far distances, they used it to grow trees without any need for water. They could even make prophecies which always came true.
What brought their era to an end was also a prophecy. According to what the Chief Shaman says, the prophecy told them the world was going to be destroyed if they didn't stop the progression of their magic. Maybe it was because of the unbelievable masses of the mana they could hold. Maybe not... But what they decided to do was quite peculiar. They scattered all across the Barren Lands and created themselves caves in which they can have a slumber that would last thousands of years. There was only one druid who rejected the slumber, but in the end, she was forced to do so by the others. That was Yalla, a nymphia, who woke way before the others would, probably because it was not her own magic which made her sleep.
It had not been long since Yalla had waken up. Not much information was left about her but her greed and anger had always been used by parents to scare their children when needed. When she woke up, she was mad at the other druids, mad at il-Drathins, mad at everything... The very first thing she had done was seeking all the druids and killing them in their slumbers. Then she started raiding villages and corrupting the minds of the people with an ancient and long forgotten magic. Soon she grew hungry for power and control. She built an army of brainwashed il-Drathin's in just one year.
And when I was staying there in Kuruthu for the sixth night of my journey in Barren Lands, suddenly a huge army appeared of nowhere, just before the gates of Kuruthu. That was unbelievable. One second I was having a conversation with Moglin Roden and the next there was a chaos of screams and battlecries. I and Moglin Roden, climbed the myppetree of Shaman Council, a tree that is strengthened with magic to grow more than usual, to see the gates from above.
Now I can not be sure if that was a miracle or it was the Pattern which weaved my thread to make me record this incident. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. But surely, it was horrifying. And at the same time, breath taking...
It was just when we arrived at the top of the tree that Moglin Roden pointed the human woman breaking through the fighting il-Drathins, towards Yalla who is watching the battle from a distance. I learnt about the woman after the battle. The shamans told me about the big part she had in the prophecies. She was The One Who Bathed In Fire, Destroyer Of The Six Witches, Dragon's Chosen, The Wurmslayer, Savior Of The River, The Heroine Of Kuruthu, the prophecized Breaker Of The Chains... Her real name was forgotten behind her countless titles.
And she confronted Yalla there. Yalla was so arrogant that she underestimated the woman. Yalla casted a spell just before the woman rushed into her and closed the gap. The woman was simply unaffected by the spell. I had not seen anything that strange before, the green cloud that was made of magic "curled" around the heroine without touching her. She reached Yalla and thrusted her sword into Yalla's heart without waiting for a second. The cloud grasped her body only later. They both fell upon the ground, giving their last breaths, as it was also prophecized. She had gone for her own death, knowing the prophecy and without any hesitation.
That brought the end of the battle. The chains of Yalla were finally broken. Some of her minions had serious brain damage and some were as healthy as before they were corrupted. But il-Drathin was once again a whole.
But the most fascinating of all, was the little and beautiful sapling with blood red leafs, which grew where the Heroine and Yalla's bodies had fallen.
-Loremaster Zereth
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