The Dragons of Fury

The Dragons of Fury

This is a story of Ra-Ghul and the Dragons of Fury, in part as witnessed by myself, in part as retold by Amon Thul of the Tyeduan clan Anekh-Sûn, and the furious Warlord of Cytheria, Kalgar Darthvord, his brother in arms by blood oath.

By the time our paths crossed, Amon Thul walked with his face and name hidden. His face was in shadow, his name - a whisper. Even if in time he relinquished this shadow, the name he was remembered by was Whisper, and the name that lived within him was that of Ra-Ghul.

"In the years when the enmity between Man and Elf was still strong in many of the southern lands, a god's name could be heard travelling with the northern wind..."

It culminated into the descendance of a fearsome visage of an androsphynx onto the forest floor of Tan Nanshi, in the roots of the elven city Le'Or, and unto the heart of His mortal seeker. - Who then stood up and walked on to spread His name in Southern Negaria. Whisper soon gathered many fearsome warriors in what became known as the Fury of Ra-Ghul.

With them by his side, he ventured forth to remake the Sword of Fury: One of many weapons wielded by Ra-Ghul in His life as a mortal and broken in a battle lost in the mists of time, now a beacon for His faithful in the south.

It was assembled, at long last, in a temple hidden in the Crescetoria mountain for ages uncounted until seen in the auguries of the shamaness Sable Witt. The Sword was awakened after a furious battle between Whisper and the temple's ageless priest. -- All of this, before the eyes of the dragon statues in the Temple of Fury, above the Firefly Valley. -- But those statues were the images of something greater.

Life and Heritage of Ra-Ghul

Legend goes that during the agelong battle of the Nine against the Negerai, Mikon descended one evening upon the northernmost shore of Avlis, to rest and recover. He came not alone but in the company of several hundred Mikonators -- proud, tall, gray-winged humanoids of His creation, -- whom He swore to protect the remaining nature spirits from the demons who hunted them as food. On the morrow, the God rose to battle and did not return.

The Mikonators remained at the side of the nature spirits faithfully and in time intertwined with them, producing offspring who were mortal and wingless, but had inherited their parents' divine spark and were beings of force and beauty. These were the original spirit-kin, and for many years they remained the masters of the Frozen North, as hunters, remaining ever close to their spirit forefathers.

While spirit-kin may still remain in Tyedu, those who name themselves "spirit-kin" in present day carry human blood as much as spirit-kin blood, if not more. But these bonds only occured by the time when the young Kurathene Empire reached the Frozen Frontier, and humans made contact with the nature spirits' descendants.

One such human woman had come unto the lands of the spirit-kin Benteak-Kune. She was accepted for she looked not unlike them, tall and beautiful. She conceived a child from one of the tribe's warriors. The boy born to those two, Ra-Ghul, showed extraordinary physical strength and exceeding prowess in combat as he grew, solely relying on sheer ferociousness.

But Ra-Ghul's strength was not contained to displays of muscle, unhindered by armour, as was the way of the spirit-kin: His drive was contageous and it pulled the likes of him, others who bore spirit-kin blood mixed with human blood, proving themselves no lesser than the fullblooded spirit-kin. Ra-Ghul and his band of comrades became known across the spirit-kin lands, attracting more, quickly growing to the hundreds.

It is said that Ra-Ghul has eventually united almost all the tribes of Tyedu and in the height of the Age of Immortals, gave them an edge against the ambitions of the expanding Kurathene Empire over the Frozen North. Ra-Ghul's followers took after his rites prior to entering battle, which in time transformed into rites of worship to Ra-Ghul's way and Ra-Ghul himself.

Those were rites of evoking primal fury, rites of bloodlust -- but Ra-Ghul was also known for a lust for life. Stories depict him as a black-haired man of towering stature and matching girth, with a dancing grace in his step and a thirsty gleam in his eyes. Predominant among story-tellers is the view that Ra-Ghul has ascended to godhood upon a great feast following a thunderous victory. He now welcomes His warriors onto the Great Feast in His Halls, in the Lands of Eternal Battle - Ysgard.

The Dragons of Fury

Many stories remain of the feats of Ra-Ghul in life. One of them goes thus: At the pinnacle of his power, when he became an immortal, Ra-Ghul challenged four old coal dragons. The dragons had long ravaged the northern fringes of the Galdosian mountains, leaving entire settlements in carnage and ruin. If they were driven by hunger, it was a hunger for destruction. Ra-Ghul challenged them alone, and he hunted them down to a narrow gourge in the mountains, where he found himself attacked by three of them at once.

For two days and three nights the battle echoed, relentless, with Ra-Ghul showing no sign of exhaustion until on the third dawn's break the three dragons surrendered to him and begged for their lives. It is said that Ra-Ghul granted them this wish but he swore them to his command, and upon his ascension to godhood they remained as living vessels of his will on Avlis, the Dragons of Fury.

The fourth of the coal dragons, however, had hidden and watched the battle from aside. He fled upon his brethren's defeat and had not been seen, nor heard of for centuries.

Obsidiakara

Whisper had taken it as his holy quest to bring the cowardly dragon to the challenge that he had once run away from. In a way, finding this dragon was no smaller feat for Whisper, than fighting him. I was by his side in his search, following him through barren windswept mountains and lofty library halls alike. A bonechilling picture was slowly forming before our eyes:

The old coal had hidden in the Underdark, and found himself cornered to fight for his life by a large group of Sereg'wethrin. They gave many victims but in the end subdued him by magic. Thus the dragon knew the exact opposite of Ra-Ghul's freedom, for he was enchained and forced to enchanted sleep, trapped in a nightmare for centuries. But where?

That was what we hasted to find out. Some of those we met on the way would gladly steer us on, - such as a Llamassu scholar who had hasted for days on end until finding us in Derome Delem's great library; Others had their own agenda, and could not be trusted - such as Illithid slave traders from the depths of the Underdark.

Ra-Ghul's will was with us in many ways. Whether directly, as a terrible daemon of ice, conjured at the Blue Order's Visimontium tower nethers where I performed a Scrying, - or indirectly, as the tribe of Fire Giants whom Whisper persuaded to join the Fury and fight against those who had subjected a being of freedom to such terrible fate.

   

Our search had led us to the fringes of the Underdark, beneath the city of Nanshi Urbaz, towards the southern end of the Deglos mountains. The group who ventured forth, led by Whisper, included Sable Witt, Dero Nefzen, Rai'indra and Varan of the Fury of Ra-Ghul, as well as Kayla the Bear, Shayra Thornberry of Berryn, Fealith Anifail of Hurine and myself.

We arrived at the passage to the crypt caverns of Nanshi Urbaz, where we were met by an alarmed party of Deglosian military. They had risen to the news of a large force of Fire Giants entering the crypts only hours prior. Those Giants had to be the allies Whisper had called to battle. The soldiers let us pass through, with a warning of even greater danger ahead.

In my memory, the descent through the crypt is shrouded in nightmarish haze. Whether by the dark magic of the Sereg'wethrin or otherwise, the dead had risen and among them were masters of lifescouring energies. And then, there were the Sereg'wethrin themselves. The giants had given many victims by the time we came in. Much like them, the warriors I walked with carried a force of no less formidable potential -- Life's Fury.

Through a whirpool of blood, scream of iron and flesh, eerie lightning and boneshattering thunder, dark tunnel after dark tunnel we moved on. The lowermost chamber contained a magically sealed passage. It delayed us but not by much. -- As far as my skills as a wizard were concerned, I had come prepared.

At our strength's end we had yet to face the dreadful golem creations of the Sereg'wethrin, the last two guardians of a narrow bridge stretching through the cavern we had entered. And there he was: Beyond a rock wall and a towering gate, a towering dragon, asleep.

It fell on me to undo the spell and I had to rest my hand against the dragon's heart whilst so doing. It has to be among the most taxing challenges in my life. As the spell threads unravelled, I felt the dragon's heart beat faster, and stronger, until the dragon rose to consciousness and opened his eyes.

I slowly stepped back, as Whisper stepped forward, proclaiming that the time had finally come for the dragon to face Ra-Ghul's challenge. Ra-Ghul had ascended, thus the dragon was to face His mortal champion in battle: The High Fury Templar Whisper himself. The dragon was proud but also cunning -- rather than meet the High Templar tooth and claw, he hurled treacherous magic, and soon had felled his challenger.

At this, the Fury rose as one, followed by their allies. By prayer's blessing Whisper was back to his feet, and together they drained the dragon from blood and breath. Yet this was not over, not at all over. Not even upon his passage unto the Abyss could the dragon hide from his challenger, for Whisper and the Fury followed him there also.

This was not my fight to witness, but what I do know is that this coal dragon, Obsidiakara, was made to see Ra-Ghul's freedom and embraced it in his dark heart. He was returned to the mortal realm, to rise again in the skies of Avlis as a Dragon of Fury.

A free being, Obsidiakara sought his own quarry but he -- and his sons -- often joined the Fury in their fights, notably in the mountains Geritri and Crescetoria in 2191 for the final onslaught against the demon armies of Kuthos surrounding Visimontium, as retold by Ashanar and Eldrea of the Bardic Academy.

Obsidiakara answered my call to join Visimontium and Deglos in our struggle against mind-slavers, between 2225 and 2230. With several other coal dragons he was to join the aerial fight against the fortresses which the Illithid had torn from the ground and hurled to the skies, from where they rained destruction upon the land.

The Visimontium's chronicles tell of victory over the Illithid, but the aftermath had been bitter:

"The Robes of the Dragon Teeth, the fabled magi dragon riders, found the Illithid fortresses to be guarded by a score of enthralled dragons. The Dragons of Ra-Ghul's Fury, who had time and again aided Visimontium, rose to aid their enslaved brethren but fell or were ensnared themselves."

Obsidiakara was among those who survived, only to once more taste the worst slavery imaginable. In Scrying, I saw him in chains, yet was soon shut out, unable to tell where to seek for him, or what fate awaited him.

But I will not stop looking for him for as long as I breathe.

Signed,
Miriel Hana
Sentinel and Chronicler of Visimontium

---

Afterword

This is a reference summary of an older record which has since been lost, dedicated to Julian Montfort, warrior of the Fury of Ra-Ghul and Sentinel of Visimontium. The original record was not much more detailed, in no small part after the fact that it was I who wrote it, rather than a warrior of the Fury.

Odd as it might sound, most of my time with Whisper was spent around a forge or seeking for ores in dangerous mountain regions. This unusual man shyed not from hard work, and was the first quartermaster to the Visimontium Arms and Armour hall -- a duty now passed on to me.

He was able to destroy but he was also able to create, and he was remembered for things greater than what his hands could make out of metal, gemstone, or the alchemical elements. Together with Kalgar, Whisper had a home built for the Fury of Ra-Ghul in the south: The Halls of Fury, near the western opening of Mayer Pass of M'Chek.

Above all, Whisper was a man who kept to his word.

Much as his brethren in faith, he lived his life to the fullest. To those who would oppose the gifts of life, he showed no mercy: He vowed to make himself a throne from the torn out spines of Evrak's followers, and I saw them fall to his Sword by the scores.

Different as we were, the eve of our first meeting -- half a century ago -- seamlessly drew into night as we spoke of each other's lifepaths in earnesty, and recognized each other's struggles in life, both against the world and against shadows inside. On the morrow, we bonded in a blood rite as brother and sister in arms.

This was a shock for Whisper's blood brother of old, Kalgar, who recognized me as the spouse of a man whom he counted amongst his enemies - Amand Xilo. Yet Kalgar was willing to get to know me by my deeds, and so was Whisper's childhood friend Shadow, the shamaness Sable Witt, and many others.

Thus began an amazing journey for me: I walked beside the warriors of the Fury of Ra-Ghul as their chronicler. For me, a scholar attuned to the intrigue of Visimontium, it was a breath of fresh air: To know no shadow of doubt as I beheld those fiery souls.

But if I cannot add more details of Obsidiakara's path with the Fury, it is for that same reason: A warrior of Ra-Ghul will almost always act on what he or she feels. Their words will match their thoughts, and their deeds will match their words.

There were those among the Fury who could not accept my presence and considered me an outsider, a weakness in the shadow of their leader Whisper. This animosity grew until one day I was attacked by one of them before Whisper's eyes.

His solution to this rising strife was to sever the blood bond we shared. Whisper did so against my will, then he left the south and was never seen again. It was not for me to judge his decision, although I will say that the Fury lost much.

Sable Wit took the challenge and became the next High Fury Templar. I on my part I went through a challenge of my own.

I felt that I had to clear my name, to let it be known once and for all that what called me to the Fury was my awe at their ways and their deeds, which I had hoped to preserve as written history. I appealed before Ra-Ghul Himself.

Resht of Ra-Ghul, the priest in His Crescetoria temple, sent me on a path to be walked in spirit, a path which he warned me could as well be a path of no return. I entered Ra-Ghul's domain, and I was questioned and tested by the powers that haunted this space.

I have, evidently, survived this journey. I carried a spark from the fires of Ra-Ghul's weaponsmiths, across the Astral. It has remained in my hand as a dagger: Small at a glance, yet nothing is small if it is touched by Life's Fury.

--Miriel Hana
January 2133
Visimontium