A brief treatise on Dragons in the Reconstruction Era.
From the Reconstruction Archive, 532 Sela
Documented by Magister Tyrus, The Archive
From the reclusive Toto to the wild Hyrnedhnai, many an impressive Beast calls Circadia home. Such creatures (seemingly) have mortal lives and, through their use of Mana, intersect with the Divine intention of the Gods; however, they nevertheless live separately from what we call ourselves–“Mortals.” These creatures speak their own languages, have their own cultures, and move throughout the world in a way fundamentally different from our own Mortal worlds. Indeed, anyone who has interacted with one of the Mynaira, even one assimilated into Mortal society, can attest to the fundamental differences between a Circadian Mortal and a Circadian Mynaira.
There are different academic terms for this category of creatures.
“Creatures of Mana” has a level of popularity, but many have correctly indicated that this would include Mortals.
Magister Natasza Zmeyanov has proposed “Divine Beasts” to differentiate these creatures from not only Mortals but also from the elusive “Strange Beasts” found in the annals of Steramestei’s historical lore.
Some have argued that “Divine” assumes a connection that may not exist and have, instead, proffered “Magical Beasts.” Many have criticized this as semantical hair-splitting, and some have raised an eyebrow at the implied heresy, but some nonetheless favor “Magical” above “Divine.”
The diversity of such creatures cannot be overstated, particularly since it is estimated that Circadian Mortals have only encountered roughly half of the extant population. Indeed, romanticism surrounding the “undiscovered” has given way to many fantastical stories of any number of Divine Beasts, and, among all of these Beasts, one has most strongly captured imaginations since time immemorial: the Dragon.
Be they called wyvern, drake, or wyrm, images of Dragons inhabit the margins of codices, the buttresses of ornate temples, and even ruins dated to as early as the First Pantheon. Homespun folklore and archaic hymnals alike make mention of Dragons, particularly insofar as Dragons are associated with the Gods Beodhen, Nepheris, and their forebears. Across texts, there is a general agreement that Dragons are large, long-lived, and highly magical. In depictions, they are almost universally scaled creatures, reptilian in presentation, and possessing ferocious claws and fangs–from these generalities, they range as diversely as artists’ imaginations might.
To a great number of people, particularly the layfolk divested from such notions, the Dragon is little more than fiction: a misappropriation of some other Divine Beast, some believe the Dragon is a sprawling fantasy borne of Mortal creativity and desire for the unknown. This is largely because there are few–if any–substantiated accounts of interactions with Dragons that could not be better explained by encounters with other Divine Beasts. (Magister Piers Yuna, for example, writes on a well-documented incident when seven Toto, hoping to scare away approaching Mortals, created an illusory Dragon. The illusory Dragon, believed by the Mortals to be real, looked almost exactly like the Red Dragon seen on Beodhen’s Dynastic seal, but was in fact a product of Toto ingenuity.)
To many, however, Dragons are not only real but integral to the Reign of the Gods. Such believers suggest that Dragons do not interact with Mortals because that is simply not their purview–to assume that absence indicates non-existence is little more than Mortal arrogance.
A small number of Mortals, of course, claim to have personally encountered Dragons. Such accounts are few, far between, and poorly regarded but nevertheless remain remarkably consistent. They include:
Sightings of a colossal serpent, swimming some hundred miles south of Port Naia.
Rumbling earthquakes in the southeast precipitated by a humongous Black drake taking flight into the air.
Tremendous footprints, fresh, deep, and suggesting a gargantuan lizard, on the coast across from the Gray Isles.
And, of course, there are those few who have journeyed through Shadow when granted an audience with T’Zyri and, on their way to meet the Goddess, encountered an ominous presence, draconic in bearing but best described as “terrible” and “wicked.”
Who can say what is fact and what is fantastical memory?
From true cynic to generous skeptic, even those unsure of the reality of Dragons must admit that their hold on the Circadian imagination is substantial.
In any event, it is perhaps no small wonder that, to this day, places uncharted on maps are still marked “here be Dragons.”
Zealot Larp 