dragoncalled | Welcome, New Scions.

Entry tags:

!introduction

Welcome, New Scions.

Here, There Be Dragons

New arrivals:
The dream you wake from is an unsettling one that feels like a memory. It sits out of place and too far forward in your mind, yet feels as real and clear as any other could be. It's the shadow of a massive creature blocking out the sun, skyline, or similar entity. A roar that shakes you to the core and and a feeling of dread and loss weighing heavy on you. Whatever the feeling or vision that comes across, it brings with it a sense that your world is no more.

A voice, reassuring and almost motherly in nature urges you gently to wake from your sleep. Rise from the ashes, little one, The voice calls in a whisper of wind and crackling fire, There is need of you, yet.

As the voice fades and the world of the waking returns to you, you are greeted with the sounds of faint bustling and the bounce of wooden wheels on stone or the sight of Upper Nuren's winding streets and open squares. A cloud passes by slowly near one of the stone pathway ledges and the sounds of nearby Touched and Remnants at work or leisure filter through the calm, cool air.

Whatever you had previously been wearing or carrying has been replaced. You might now find yourself garbed in a cloth tunic, pants or shorts, robe, dress or skirt, and sandals or boots if you wore clothing. A sash around your shoulders or a belt at your waist contains a small but weighted purse of gold coins, enough to acquire some materials, new clothing or food from the market and craftsmen in the city.

Current Scions:
Concern over the mild Winter has begun to spread through the city. The chill air should have come with the nearing end of the harvest, and so far the weather remains only pleasantly cool. The air barely passes the gentle cool of Autumn.

Nuren's citizens are spreading rumors that mountaintop ice and snow have begun to thaw, causing mudslides in the mountains. The thaw has displaced the Ice and mountain creatures, leaving them irritable and unpredictable. The sailors mention that the Frozen Shore has also begun to melt, and the waters around the Frozen Shore and the mountain areas have grown treacherous and unseasonably cold.

Throughout the city, activity springs to more vibrant life, with Scholars of the Cycle of Life and Scholars of Knowledge claiming that Benra has blessed the city again, bringing more Scions to help protect the great city. The rumors put the city's citizens into higher spirits, and music fills the cool air, spreading from Lower Nuren both up and down the mountain.

The Heart of Nuren

After waking, a pull starts from within your chest, growing stronger with each passing moment until it becomes the only focus. It tugs insistently once, then twice. A need to follow the pull curls around and through you, urging you toward a wide and torch lit staircase that leads down into the heart of the mountain. The steps are wide and sturdy, and the further down them you travel, the clearer the call becomes until you can almost hear it.

At the bottom of the steps, the large cavern beneath the city is revealed. The floor beneath your feet is warm to the touch, and the magic in the air calms your mind and fills you with a strange sense of safety and peace. No magic or harm can be done within the cavern. The cavern's floor is covered in circles of runes carved into the stone that surround small depressions in varying sizes, from a coffee cup's rim to that of a small circular table. Some of the depressions contain dormant dragon eggs of various colors, shapes and sizes. The runes surrounding them glow faintly with a magical light. Only the Scion who is bonded to the dragon within the egg can pass the runes.

Upper and Lower Nuren

Once you emerge from the cavern, the strange spell that fell over you fades. The bond between you and your egg or hatchling remains but your command of your own decisions and actions return and you are now free to explore, question and move about.

The streets of Upper Nuren are sparsely populated with Remnants, Touched and other scions with their eggs or dragons. Questioning any of the citizens leads to a variety of answers. You are a Scion of the Great Beasts. You were brought to the city from the ashes of time and space by the Great Phoenix known as Benra and the Great Serpent known as Mouros.

Pressing for more information will reveal that there are five Great Beasts. They are Benra the Phoenix, Chelba the Stone Giant, Renzu the Griffin, Mouros the Serpent, and Lysheu the Chimera. They are said to represent Mortality, Order, Knowledge, Time and Chaos.

You are in the great Mountain City known as Nuren, and its people are the last remaining vestige of civilization on this wild and dangerous planet. The Touched and the Remnants share an alliance and work together to keep the city protected and its citizens alive and fed. According to these citizens of Nuren, you are here to help them defend the city, unite the remaining races and restore balance to the elements.

Soon after the first Scions awake, the city begins to buzz with the news and gossip that more scions have arrived. The curious and braver citizens make their way to Upper Nuren to get a look, and the rumors spread like wildfire through the city that Benra has come again.

Outer Nuren

Although those rumors make their way to Outer Nuren, the citizens there show far less interest in making the long trek up to Upper Nuren. The unseasonably warm winter has done wonders for the fishing in the bay, and the docks are alive with intrepid fishermen and ship crews interested in making extra gold while the fishing is still good.

The taverns fill with activity and the markets are livelier than ever in the hopes of selling more of their wares and merchandise before Winter's chill catches up with the passing seasons.

Evening

When night settles on the city, the taverns, inns and squares fill with curious citizens hoping to meet the new Scions or catch a glimpse of the Scions they have already managed to glimpse a few times before. Food is offered freely, as well as blankets to guard against the cool night air.

The night sky fills with beautiful displays of magic from the Fire, Light and Energy Mages, the Osaaru equivalent of fireworks, though far quieter. Several Scholars in bright and colorful robes can be found approaching the new scions and older ones alike, offering to tell them more about the city, Osaaru and the Great Beasts. Mages of similar garb guide scions to the cavern homes, and help where they can in making the scions more comfortable.

Small comforts of food, pillows, decorative crafts and other small tokens are offered to visible Scions by the citizens of Nuren in hopes of earning their favor and friendship.

Notes

Please direct Introduction questions to the Plotting Post Q&A
As a Reminder: Bahemait is not one of the Great Beasts openly discussed or mentioned by the Citizens of Nuren who believe the Great Dragon is little more than an old legend.

We would also like to emphasize that the Spirit energy within every resurrected character is required to use all magic in Osaaru, even that which is brought from their own world. The drain of powerful or excessive use of magic will lead to exhaustion.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"True," Glory allows grudgingly, "It's just... weird. I guess it'd be like if you showed up somewhere and all of the scavengers - uh. All the humans were mute and weren't quite as smart as you were used to. It's a bit unnerving. Like looking in a mirror, but the glass is distorted."

It's going to take her a little bit to get used to it.

"I think I'd like that kind of world. Humans are a pain in the ass." He allows himself a fond thought of such a world. Maybe he could get some peace and quiet for once. Alas, that was not this world. "Understandable though. Everyone has something to get used to here."

"Aren't you a human, too?" Glory sounds curious. The way he said that seemed to imply that he wasn't or that he at least didn't consider himself like the rest of them.

"You sound like you don't exactly identify with them," she continues, trying to explain her logic in a side-steppy manner, "You sound more like a dragon than a human when you talk about them like that."

Now that's an amusing thought. She doesn't really know him all that well, but she can sort of imagine him as a SeaWing, like Tsunami - bossy and grumpy. She stifles a laugh at the thought and then waits expectantly for an answer.

Sync shrugs a little. "By how I react to things physically and what I was made to look like, I'm human. But I'm not made of the same stuff as the humans from the world I came from. I'm a replica."

He answers fairly easily, not overly bothered by the question. While most of the time he considers himself human, occasionally he doesn't and it's mostly when he's looking down on humans as a whole.

"A... replica?" Glory sounds a little confused. She leans down to give him a quick sniff, as if she might discover that he smells different from the other humans. It's strange, almost like someone has told her that they're just an imitation dragon.

"You look like flesh and blood, just like the rest of them. What makes you different?"

Sorry for the intrusive questions.

He smells pretty human, and all around it's nearly impossible to tell that he wasn't without a magical sense of some kind. The Seventh fonon was remarkable at its ability to mimic things.

To answer her question, he draws a small knife from his belt, and lightly runs it across the palm of his hand. Gale squawks her displeasure of seeing Sync hurt himself, making him hush her softly. It bleeds only a little, but after a moment, the blood suddenly begins to glow softly and dissolves into a small magic cloud that disperses on the wind. "On Auldrant, humans are made of flesh and blood, along with various elemental energies. Unlike them, I'm only made of one kind that's entirely mimicking everything else, the flesh and blood included," Sync explains, putting the knife away.

Glory watches with curiousity (and a little bit of alarm, because he looks like he's about to hurt himself. Her gaze sharpens when the blood flow suddenly stops, glows, and then vanishes like a bunch of dandelion seeds thrown into the breeze. That's... freaky. She gives him a closer look, making a low 'hmm' noise at the back of her throat.

"So... you're actually made entirely of some sort of energy? Can you actually be hurt?" She bites back some rather more intrusive questions. As much as she'd like to ask them, it wouldn't really help anything.

"Pretty much." He's distracted from the second question for a moment as Gale attempts to use her magic to heal his hand. It has only a little success, but she seems happier about it. Sync is a little amused, patting her head gently.

"I can still be hurt. I still feel pain and all that when something manages to injure me, and anything that will kill a human will kill me."

"Oh. That seems like it would just draw unnecessary attention, then..." Glory frowns. She can't imagine how distracting it would be to bleed glowy dust everywhere if she got hurt. Then again, healing that quickly has its advantages.

"Are there a lot of humans like you? Made out of other stuff?"

It's such a weird thing to think about.

"Did an animus make you, for that matter?"

Sync shrugs a little. "There's a fair amount now, but it's not exactly a thing people look favourably upon, seeing clones of people they cared about." It was complicated, to put it lightly.

"Probably not, since I've never heard of that term before." Animus was a strange word, and not one that Sync had ever heard before.

"An animus is a dragon that possesses some sort of magical power. He or she can enchant things and make powerful artifacts... but using that power drains a bit of their soul each time," Glory sounds a bit grim when she speaks on this topic, "So if they're not very careful or sparing, they'll end up going insane. It's... not a very pleasant topic, honestly."

"Ah. In that case, definitely not. I'm identical to the person I'm copied from, and have some of their abilities, but that's only things they gave me. Everything else is entirely my own." Sync isn't entirely sure he would say he had a soul, really, but then, what was a soul? Some idea of being who you truly were. If that was the case, was someone as empty as him possessing of one? Too deep a question for him to really care about answering.

"That's still really weird. Being an identical copy, I mean. Even children aren't exact copies of their parents," Glory pauses as she realizes she might have said something a bit offensive. She makes a little 'hrm' sound and then presses on.

"Not that I think you're weird, just that copying someone isn't exactly... normal."

There's an amused look on his face as she pauses, having realised the same thing. He's not offended by it really, that would require more caring about what people think of him than Sync normally has.

"It's not normal, no, but I get to live with it." At least here none of the others were around to compare him to. Little miracles. Sync shrugs. "It's not like I asked to be born, after all." There's a tiny bit of bitterness in his voice at that. He really does wish he hadn't been, most of the time.

"Well, neither did I, but I'm glad I was. Even if they did call me a lazy RainWing for most of my life," Glory sniffs, "Don't let what they told you were define you. I mean, look at me - I was 'just' the replacement and now I'm queen of two tribes!"

It's meant to be encouraging. And maybe a touch sardonic.

His curiosity is piqued, but at the same time his own self-loathing rears its head, glancing away a little. "They didn't need to tell me, I knew. I was made as a replacement, but I wasn't good enough to be it, so they threw me out. I'll always be trash because of it. At least if you were a replacement, you succeeded at it."

The words do register, but Sync can't really believe them. He knows he's a failure, and will always be one. That will never change.

Glory snorts and leans down to eyeball him, up close and personal, "Succeeded? Not at what they wanted me to do. I succeeded at what I and my friends wanted to do. No, I wasn't supposed to succeed. I was a useless, lazy RainWing. I was supposed to be a SkyWing. I wasn't good for anything but sitting around a looking pretty. That's what my guardians told me. Repeatedly. Every day of my life, until we escaped. They wanted to kill me at the end, because I wasn't the 'right one'. I was going to be trash - nothing but a corpse."

She reaches out with a talon and nudges him in a friendly manner, "If nothing else, try to succeed to spite them."

Strangely enough, he's kind of not bothered by having a large creature up close to him. She's a good bit bigger than Arietta's monsters, but it's a similar enough feeling that he doesn't flinch or shy away. Gale warbles at the much bigger dragon as she gets closer, as if agreeing with her.

"I can't succeed at what they wanted, they had another replica who took the place of our original. The best I could do was prove that even though I'm trash, I still have the skills to be a soldier. It's what purpose I was given, when I survived what they did." Even though his tone is still kind of bitter, there's a degree of pride near the end of his words. Sync is rather proud of his abilities, of being the feared God-General he was made into. And it was enough, until now.

"Survival is a good place to start. You're more than what they wanted you for. And you're not a failure or trash because of them," Glory replies fiercely. She has a lot of feelings on people who take advantage of their charges. Mostly because not so long ago she was one of those people being taken advantage of and abused.

"I certainly think you are, anyway."

Glory is not going to stop until she gets through to him. Probably.

"You'd be the only one," he comments idly. It was going to take a lot to convince him that he wasn't a worthless waste of space, unfortunately. "I've accepted what I am." Being something more was for those who were actual people, not replicas with no right to exist.

Glory huffs softly (which is much louder, because she's a dragon) and decides to leave it. He's not going to get over it with one pep talk.

"Well, you're somewhere new. You could always change it..."

Just a suggestion, Sync.

"Why?"

The question is genuine. Being who and what he is is what Sync knows. He hates it, but there's no real desire to change in him because he believes it will always be true. "I know some of it has changed with being a Scion and having to look after Gale, but aside from that, I'm still who I am."

"Yeah, but who you are doesn't have to be defined by the jerks who made you or whatever," Glory shoots back. She understands where he's coming from. Or she thinks she does, anyway. It's just a touch frustrating to her - she was able to get out from under that cloud and she wants to help him do that too.

"You can't let them affect your whole life."

Sync watches her evenly, giving nothing away of what he's thinking. Gale chirps her agreement; while she doesn't really understand what's going on, she does realise Glory is trying to help Sync, and that she approves of.

"I doubt who I am will ever change...my last life saw that, this one is probably going to be no different in the end." He doesn't really want to change. He knows who he is. But perhaps she has a point in that some aspects of it don't apply. It's not like the Fon Master is here after all. He's just another person, rather than a replica. It doesn't change who he is, but perhaps there will be less times he's reminded of it. Sync could appreciate that. "But we'll see, I suppose."

At least he's thinking on it?

"Well, better than not thinking. As tempting as it is, it really doesn't help with anything. Especially when not thinking means lying around and sleeping in the sun all day..."

Which is an oddly specific thing to mention, but Glory has had interesting experiences with people who prefer not to think too hard about things. She shakes her head (and then her wings, giving herself a bit of a stretch).

"I think I'm going to stretch my wings a bit. Go for a good fly."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Welcome, New Scions.

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