Date: Year 0042 of the Firmament Era
Time: Forty-two years after the Sealing of Vorthar
Location: Skyrend Spire, Seat of the Broodlords
Moon Phase: Third Quarter, waning skies
Prologue
"We were not made to kneel.
We were born between sky and flame.
The world spins below us not because we rule—
but because we choose not to fall."
—Myrkaaz, Skyfather of the Dragons
1. The Bones of the World
The Stormshard Peaks were the tallest mountains in Kael'Thor—jagged, wind-split spines of obsidian and crystal. Higher than clouds. Older than nations. Wrapped in lightning and watched only by the sun and stars.
And at their very center, where no mortal could ever tread, stood the Skyrend Spire—a living tower of volcanic glass and sky-iron, its peak sheathed in flame that never burned.
This was the home of the Broodlords—the oldest and most powerful dragons still alive.
They did not rule mortals.
They did not claim thrones.
They watched.
And they remembered.
The gods had given the dragons no cities, no temples, no domains to rule. Instead, they gave them the sky. The mana. The wind between worlds. Aetherion, the Sky-God, had breathed them into being not to conquer—but to guard balance.
To the dragons, observation was sacred. They interfered only when the world itself became misaligned—when corruption, imbalance, or chaos tilted the ley-lines, bent the mana-streams, or threatened the sky.
Now, after forty-two years of growing silence… they stirred.
2. The Sovereigns of the Sky
There were six Broodlords who had survived since the Age of Creation. Each one born directly of Aetherion's Breath. Each embodying an element, a philosophy, and a vision of what the world should become.
Their size alone dwarfed entire fortresses. Their wings could cast shadows across miles of forest. But their true power lay not in breath or fang—but in their minds.
They were not beasts.
They were the last words of the sky.
🜁 Myrkaaz the Skyfather – The First Breath
Element: Aether (Pure Mana)
Age: Oldest among all dragons, and the only one who remembers the Will's hum
Form: His scales shimmer like dawn mist; always shifting between colorless and radiant silver
Wings: Semi-translucent, embroidered with veins of living light
Personality: Patient, contemplative, unfathomably deep
"We are not born to lead.
We are born to know *when not to follow."
Myrkaaz sleeps for decades at a time but dreams the movements of ley-lines. He has spoken directly to gods, once, during the Sealing. He now guards the Chronoaetheric Prism—the only device capable of measuring the Will's residual pulse.
🔥 Vezhara the Ember-Heart – The Flame Matron
Element: Flame
Form: Crimson-gold, with a magma-core heart visible beneath her chest
Eyes: Like twin furnaces, always smoldering
Disposition: Proud, fierce, maternal, and war-hungry
Belief: Fire does not destroy. It reveals.
"If the gods sleep, then we must wake. If they wait, then we must burn."
Vezhara is the most aggressive Broodlord. She birthed over thirty trueblooded children—more than any other—and all but five now lie dead or slumbering. She considers war against the Ashmarked inevitable.
❄️ Thrymos of the Howling Chill – The Still-Fanged
Element: Ice
Form: Colossal and pale-blue, with frozen armor-ridges instead of scales
Voice: Rarely speaks; communicates in ice-runes that appear in air
Belief: True balance lies in stillness. Reaction is weakness. Time reveals all truths.
His breath can still volcanoes. His presence drops the temperature of entire valleys. Where Vezhara rushes, Thrymos waits. He is as eternal as a glacier—and just as slow.
⚡ Saerynd the Tempest-Wing – The Thunder's Laughter
Element: Storm
Form: Sleek, silver-blue, with a body made for speed and chaos
Eyes: Crackling constantly with lightning
Belief: Life is the storm. Chaos is inevitable. Ride it or be destroyed.
Saerynd is a paradox—beloved and feared. Her laughter has shattered mountains. She sings into thunder and rides the sky like a current. She trusts fate—because she thinks she can always outfly it.
🪨 Grendhal of the Molten Root – The Earthbound Flame
Element: Magma and Stone
Form: Massive and slow-moving, with armor-like stone plates that glow with runic magma beneath
Belief: The world will end in collapse—best to be its last pillar.
He rarely speaks, but when he does, his voice trembles mountains. Grendhal is both artisan and judge. His breath can carve underground cities—or bury them.
🌗 Elunaes the Veiled Flame – The Duskbinder
Element: Twilight (Shadow/Light)
Form: Ethereal, often invisible in direct light; appears as shifting colors and flickers
Belief: Truth is found in contradiction. Dusk is the space between what was and what might be.
Elunaes is feared and misunderstood by mortals. She walks between dreams and memory, and she knows things others have yet to learn.
3. The Gathering Storm
The Broodlords met in the Atrium of Breaths, a massive stone ring suspended between four storm-pillars, high above the clouds. Runes burned on the floor, keeping the air stable for discussion.
The air hummed with pressure. Aetherion's lingering breath shimmered in the wind. And gathered around the central dais, the dragons formed a circle older than empires.
Vezhara was the first to speak.
"The Ashmarked are no longer whispers. They name themselves in daylight. They make altars. They bind flesh to shadows. They desecrate fire."
She looked to Myrkaaz.
"And still we wait?"
Saerynd snorted thunder. "I say we test the wind. Burn their prophet and see what rises from his ash."
Thrymos shook his head, carving his response in frozen glyphs:
"War changes the balance more than silence. Let the world purge itself."
Elunaes murmured from the shadows:
"The world forgets the name of the gods. But it will never forget our roar."
Myrkaaz was silent for a time. The wind itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then, he raised his head.
"If we descend," he said, "the balance will tilt forever. We are flame upon oil. Storm upon flood."
"And if we stay?" Vezhara growled.
"Then we wait to be the last things the world remembers."
4. The Skycore
Each Broodlord held within their chest a Skycore—a crystal of condensed Authority, gifted by Aetherion at creation. It is their power source, their soul, and their limit.
To awaken it fully would unleash catastrophic force.
But to burn it would kill them permanently.
No god could restore a dragon who gave their Skycore freely.
The dragons never speak of this aloud.
But they all knew—
One day, they might have to choose.
5. Vezhara's Departure
Vezhara did not wait for consensus.
"If you will not act, I will."
She spread her wings, roaring a command to her kin. Five of her children, already circling above, responded with echoing shrieks.
Together, they launched into the sky like comets—flaming, divine, thunderous.
"The world burns," she called as she rose. "I will not watch it die quietly."
And she vanished into the east.
Myrkaaz did not stop her.
But his eyes closed, and his words fell like stone:
"Let the wind remember her."
6. What the Sky Knows
The dragons are the last beings who remember the true hum of the Will—faint, but ever-present.
And they know something even the angels forget:
The Will is not gone.
It is only watching.
And when it stirs again… it will ask:
"Who did you become while I slept?"
And on that day, dragons will answer in fire.