Dragon Tribes of Arrar

Player: Kerrus
Game: Ascension Isle
Traits: Arete Draconic, Wyrm Pacts, Wyrmspeakers, Flight of Wind. (Possibly Army of Gold)

Prehistory

As far as the Arrar remember from their verbal histories, and the memories of the great Wyrms, their culture predates the cataclysm. That said, written records only go back so far. Some fifty years after the formation of the Empire, a profusion of the driakin lines saw many illegitimate children- unclaimed or unknown by their draconic parent, and unwanted by society in the face of the more 'pure' bloodlines. Outcast in their own homes, these people wandered the empire, searching for a place to call their own. The Arrar welcomed them with open arms.

Since that time, the Arrar has grown from a motley collection of tribes into a proper nation, later becoming a satrapy under the governance of the high dragon speaker of the first great Wyrm. But even as an official province of the empire, the driakin lines of the Arrar grew and multiplied year in and year out. Eventually six major lines were established, families that maintained and manifested each a specific set of draconic traits. When an individual from such a line entered a pact with a great wyrm, such abilities were magnified, the blood of the wyrm bringing slumbering magic to life. This became the basis of the Arrar's military and spiritual power in the coming years, as the wyrmpact was the only reliable way to awaken such traits.

Modernity

In the ensuing time since the destruction of the capital, and the death of the last of the true dragon Emperors, the tribes of Arrar have begun working towards a new future. As those entrusted with the care of the great Wyrms descended of the Ascendant Dragons of storied myth, the tribes of Arrar have always held themselves aloof and apart from their countrymen, following their own variant of the Arete Draconic. But as each of the great Wyrms raised their voices to the sky in mourning for the death of the Emperor and his Pact Mate, the Speakers of Arrar knew that the world had changed- and like any predator in a changing environment, they too must change- or die.

But before change can take place, a being must know itself. For too long, the tribes of Arrar had been insular, tending only to their own needs- and only interacting with the outside world when called upon to do so by obligation or honour. As the Speakers for the Great Wyrms took stock of their people, they saw much that needed change- and more still that needed reaffirmation.

Oaths and obligations were reaffirmed, debts were paid, and the people of Arrar came together under one banner, just as they would in times of war. But unlike times of war, this unity was born out of faith- not honour. Faith in a future yet unclaimed, but one that could be within their grasp, if only they had the resolve to seize it.

The Pact

By their very nature, Wyrms are an apex predator with little in the way of competition, however they also run the gamut from intellect to sociability. Early in life, a Wyrm will choose or imprint upon an individual- usually their parent- and from that individual take what will become the model of the individual they will grow to be.

In the wild, this results in successive generations becoming incredibly strong predators who know every detail of their hunting grounds thanks to successive generations of learning and inheriting knowledge from their parent. However with the advent of civilization, Wyrms have gained other options beyond imprinting on the parent. Now they can imprint on wise sages, studied intellectuals, or other paragons of their race- but that is only a small part of it. With the integration of the feykind into society, new outlooks, ideals, and concepts become available to them. Many Wyrms imprint on young men and women of the tribes, who become speakers and teachers for their bonded Wyrm, passing on their knowledge to the impressionable young mind, while gaining political and tribal standing and power.

This system was established some hundred and fifty years after the cataclysm, though the feykind have an oral tradition that claims to put the initial formation of their society some time before the Cataclysm. Ultimately, the system provided benefits for all those involved, save one:

Mortals are frail, weak things, vulnerable to malady or even the mildest of injuries. Wyrms, on the other hand, are powerful and imperious- and learned early on that to lose the mortal one has imprinted on is terrible and potentially disastrous, if the Wyrm in question is young enough. For decades, Wyrm scholars searched their own histories for a solution, but none was found save that sharing in the bloodline of the ancestors, the true Wyrms of eld, those known to some as the Ascendant Wyrms, could grant immense power to the bearer of that bloodline.

In the year 357 AF, a powerful mage- perhaps the strongest that the Arrar had ever produced- crafted a spell to forge a bond between his Wyrm companion and himself. They shared blood and magic, and he spoke the words of power that invoked the bond. Were he a lesser man, or his partner not of the great draconic lineages, then perhaps it would have failed or killed him- but instead, it succeeded.

He became the first to make the Pact, and through him was forged a means to awaken long dormant power of the driakin lines. Through the pact, not only was such power awoken in the speaker, but in the Wyrm too, granting the so called 'lesser dragons' access to the primordial powers so long denied them.

Eventually, the ability to forge a pact- not just a mere imprinting during childhood, but actual potent magic allowing for a true sharing between the participants- became ingrained so ingrained in the bloodlines of the Arrar that every Wyrm born since that time has been able to innately forge such a bond with an appropriate individual.

Religion

The people of Arrar believe in a variant of the Arete Draconic- worship of the ascendant Wyrms of the Empire's founding- but also in the profusion of the driakin lines that derive from the great draconic houses, with each great house representing a virtues. The Wyrms of each house are subordinate to that house's leader, whom is usually the first Wyrm of that line, blessed by Azurdeena for their service to the Empire. Each of these Wyrms is deified by the Arete Draconic, and are treated as a sort of living saint, with their sons and daughters, and their vassals in turn serving as clergy and religious army for the faith.

As a result of this structure, the common people of the Arrar pay tribute by means of attending to the needs of the Wyrms passing through or in residence at their cities, ensuring they want for little. In return, those Wyrms carry their prayers- written on little strips of paper- back to the great house to be read by the house's archivist, and through him recorded and attended to as necessary.

Myth and Reality

It's commonly accepted that draconic blood is a manifestation of the divine, the last remnant of the ascendant antecedents, however the myth as worshipped by the common people and the reality are necessarily two different things.

The Wyrms of Arrar do not consider themselves to be gods, or divine instruments- they know with certainty that this was the trap the chosen fell into. Instead they know themselves as what they are, which is that they are vast, ancient, and powerful beings whom are- if not as mortal as the regular races, then certainly not immortal except perhaps in that they do not age in the way that the regular races do.

For men, the Wyrms are divine instruments, not dissimilar from the Chosen. They are above and beyond mortal ken, and their acts and motions may all be deciphered as the acts and motions of the divine, with every single part having a secret meaning and reason. Even death is often seen to be a test of the faith, or a punishment or reward to the faithful, and in death Wyrms are often capable of what are seen as great miracles, as the light of their lives flares- then goes dark.

While the Wyrm speakers, as those mortals closest to Wyrm kind, know in their own way that mortal preconceptions blur the lines between the reality of the Wyrms, and the myths of the divine, each accepts and attends to this knowledge in their own way. Wyrm Speakers are both intensely faithful, but also intensely skeptical, possessing a greater and more truthful base of knowledge on which their understanding of the order of things evolve.

Duty and Service

Arrar society is highly stratified, with each great house training its speakers and children for a specific role they are expected to follow. While there are occasionally those who rebel against the system, it accounts for those individuals also, by allowing those of any House to join the army in place of their 'expected' position. Additionally, any Wyrm and speaker pair may be selected by a High Speaker as apprentices.

Generally, however, each great house tends towards a specific post in society. The house of courage produces warriors, while the house of faith produces healers. A comprehensive list will be provided shortly.

Biology

Wyrms are, ultimately, mortal creatures. They live and breath, they eat and eliminate, and they are possessed of emotions, form bonds, and possess self will.

However, compared to those whom are commonly called mortals, the men of the various races, whom live for a short term, are vulnerable to illness and injury on a frighteningly small scale- Wyrms are often seen as divine.

But the divinity they possess is largely a myth. The only true spiritual difference between a Wyrm and a mortal is their intrinsic connection to magic- which for a Wyrm is the core of its existence. Without magic a Wyrm will die- but a mortal will simply lose access to the boons that magic provides.

Wyrms have unimaginably strong bones, laced with a curious structure of crystalline structures not usually seen outside their species. Their scales are smooth and complex in their structure- hard enough to ward off some of the fiercest blows, but flexible enough to bend with impact- ablating a strike rather than shattering. They grow fast when young, and their dietary needs during those early months may vastly outweigh the ability of the unprepared to manage- it is for this reason that they are rarely raised by those unfamiliar with their life cycles.

As a result of the metal content of their bones, Wyrms require an intake of heavier minerals. They are meat eaters, and tend to hold a preference to grazing herd animals, like sheep or cattle- but this is not the limit of their palate. While wild Wyrms content themselves to what they can hunt down, the Wyrms of Arrar hold themselves to be civilized, and thus have a vast culture of Wyrm cuisine, ranging from soups to seasoned slow-cooked meats, to even the occasional pastry.