|
Post by Remus on Oct 24, 2015 17:58:12 GMT -6
Go on the boat she said. Let's go to the island, she said. It'll be safe, It'll be fun! She said...
Remus internally grumbled as he trudged along the forest path outside of the last stretch of civilization he'd likely see before getting eaten alive by some giant monstrosity with five heads, four stinging death tails, and could breath fire, lightning, and ice all at once. First there had been the boat ride. Yeah! That was great! A few days at sea, throwing up over the railing constantly only to have Nayru habitually thump him on the back hard enough to almost knock him over; at one point having fallen over the railing because the boat had dipped right hard at the last moment...all to come to some death island no one had any idea of...and for what!? So they could draw a map of some random thing somewhere that almost no one would go?
He sounded bitter internally when he reflected on it...but at the same time he had been the one to agree when she asked him to join her. Then again..he had a feeling Nayru could say "I'm going into unknown depths of likely death and misery! Let's go Remus!" Before descending into a dungeon littered in bones..and he'd prooooobably follow her. If not just to try and help. He'd become quite fond of the dark haired woman, even if she was an ancient lightning spewing dragon.. She'd saved him more times than he could count, was downright a pleasure to be around, and never let things get dull. So he couldn't complain all tooooo much as they stepped through the leaf strewn pathways. Patches of shadow cast over them by overhanging branches were almost ominous as the priest made his way happily along side the woman, fingers tightly coiled around his staff however in a slight acknowledgment of his own distrust towards their safety here. His knuckles weren't white from it, but he was gripping it tight enough that his practiced motions where he used it with the opposing leg as a walking stick were light taps instead of actually leaning his weight onto it. The priest shifted his gaze as the lapis shaded robes he always wore brushed along the ground ever so slightly; priest ignoring this as he walked alongside Nayru.
"So what er...exactly are we looking for again? Or..just wondering?"
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 25, 2015 7:58:13 GMT -6
The heartless villain in question hummed merrily to herself as she wended her way through the foliage of the overgrown jungle around them, slipping between trees and vines and bushes alike with a casual ease that belied her experience in heading into the deep unknown. She was in a wonderful mood really, maybe a touch sore after that /minor/ issue with the, er, giant murder dogs, but that had turned out fine in the end with no one really the worse for wear, and it had turned out to be a pretty fun fight, so as far as she was concerned it had been a wonderfully exciting morning. Really, with wholesome air, a bit of healthy morning exercise, a heal monkey valued partner at her side, and the possibility of dark and dangerous ruins ahead, it was a wonder that she hadn't actually started levitating from sheer happiness.
She was caught up enough in her bliss that Remus's words actually surprised her a bit as they cruelly wrestled her away from the joyous appreciation of nature and murder, not necessarily in that order, that she had been living within the embrace of. She could have sworn she had explained... repeatedly... it was almost as if Remus hadn't been paying attention during her exceedingly lengthy explanations or something.
Nahhhh.
He probably just had a bad memory.
"Knowledge, my friend~!" Her tone bubbled with joy, naked and unrestrained, like a serial streaker in an orphanage. "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, after all!" Hm. Was that the quote she had been thinking of? "Or maybe it was 'time flows like a river and history repeats.' Whatever. Point is, ancient ruins are like portals to the past - living books that can be read for insight into those who came before. And this island has been separated from Elibe for..." Nayru's enthusiasm trailed off a bit as she tried to think of the best way to word the next part, "well, either forever or for a long time - the rumors aren't very specific about that. All we really know is that there are humans on the island, who live mostly sedentary and low-technology lives... but supposedly there are also grand ruins scattered across the island, maybe, probably."
It didn't take a great deal of attention to notice the number of qualifiers strewn throughout her words and draw one's own conclusions based on them. In truth, Nayru didn't know that much about the island or what the official story even was, but the possibilities of vast hoards of lost knowledge or even an entire lost civilization was too exciting to pass up. She continued, turning to face Remus and walking backwards while speaking in a more studious tone, hoping she didn't walk into a tree. "What happened to the people who came before? If the people of this island could once build such ruins, why are they little more than farmers and blacksmiths now? War? Famine? Magical catastrophe? Was there once another race here, perhaps even dragons, who built them before disappearing? Were they connected to the Scouring in any way? Why is the air on the island alive with magic compared to Elibe's sparse stillness?"
Nayru spun, pirouetting in place, immediately proceeding to the delicate task of walking headfirst into a hanging branch. "Ow." That was the polite version of what she had been about to say, but there were half a dozen expletives bundled within that one simple word, her ire and their vile meaning leaking out as if it were a sieve. "Anyways, since I can't find anyone to interview and the villages are halfway across the god damn island, I figure that some old fashioned spelunking will give us more answers than we're likely to get from people who might not even trust the invaders from Elibe. If there are a bunch of dragons on the walls or murals of humans getting eaten by bears or humans fighting dragons, we can get a better idea of what timeframe civilization on this island existed in and how much it overlapped with the Elibean timeline. If there are people living down there, well, we can ask them directly."
Ok, so it wasn't the most thoroughly worked out plan ever, but with ruin hunting you had to kinda wing it. Point was, they weren't gonna get answers about this damn place just punching out a bunch of overgrown puppies on the beach, you had to dig a little deeper than that. "Can't cook an omelette without crushing a few skulls, after all." Wait... "Eggs," she hastily amended, looking not at all sorry for her slip, or 'slip.' "Eggs. I meant eggs."
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 26, 2015 12:19:09 GMT -6
So...sifting through the er... bullshit as Nayru herself would've called it, he tried to realize what it was. She didn't, exactly, know? She didn't really have a plan it seemed. She was just winging it. Which meant they were likely going to almost die to some horrible things. Remus chuckled, tapping his staff along the ground as he looked over to her. She was a historian. Er..Historian/Archaeologist that is. However Remus felt this was the best time to ask her about that actually.
"Right..so that being said. What do you think we can find here? Dragons possibly sure...but do you think their that subtle that they could've been on an entirely other island and there was never any mention ever that they came here? Um..I mean..can you..like..sense them or something or..ah..I...I don't know how dragons work."
That did prompt another question though. One he'd been considering for a bit, at-least once she actually mentioned ruins. Given that she was a historian he wondered if it wasn't easier to question that first. Instead of speculation in actuality. "Were there ruins about dragons in Elibe? Places still standing that humans just..didn't pay attention to? Is that why you spent time in Nabata, when you mentioned that? I mean, I admit it's seldom mentioned in any current historical context. Though I imagine most people wouldn't have as much of an interest in dragon backstories or history. "
He felt a heavy inclination that his answer was "yes" given her knowledge of almost..well..everything. If that was the case, he could detect the simmering question slowly rose up. Questions, accurately. So many questions. What did she know that she hadn't talked to him yet about? Beyond the answer being "Alot" he just couldn't really keep the curiosity down. Just like in bern, he wanted to bombard her with questions. What about them did these ruins reveal? Did she honestly think they were still around or still..influencing events even from a remote island in the middle of no where?? He couldn't help it as this almost awe inspired sense of hunger for answers threatened to breach his restraint. Either way, the priest would wait. The lapis haired male tugged at his staff before shifting it over his shoulders and hoisting it so that he could stretch out a bit. His neck pressed back to the staff at the best of his shoulders and rolled his head to crack his neck briefly. Chuckling, he retorted.
"Were you ah...taught how to read by another dragon when it comes to discerning dragon text or..just knew it or ah..yeah. "
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 26, 2015 14:04:39 GMT -6
"Hmm... probably not," Nayru admitted after a few moments of thought. "On the dragons, I mean. I've never heard of this place before, and supposedly the Dragon's Gate went to another world entirely." She still wasn't sure how much she believed of that though personally; Nax had her story about an 'omniverse' of sorts, but it seemed more likely that the gate was simply exactly that - a gate to another world, singular. Like a window between realms more so than a prismatic disk that sent its light in varying directions based on what angle it was pointed at. "It's more likely there would simply be second-hand records of their existence IF this place is in some way attached to Elibe."
"If there are none, then it is more likely that this island was never connected to Elibe in the first place - that the two worlds coexisted without ever coinciding." The reasoning was as simple as it was bluntly pragmatic, Richter's words coming to mind unbidden. Humans... feared dragons. At least some did. Nayru didn't really buy Richter's entire explanation - she had spent enough time with Veigue, with Hayle and now Remus and truthfully even Richter that she didn't believe that fear was truly necessary or inherent. But there was no denying that people were afraid of the unknown, of things that could rend them fom limb to limb with teeth like swords and scales like the thickest armor. If there had been interplay between cultures, it was very likely that they would have felt threatened by the draconic rulers of Elibe at the time, and that would likely live on in their art.
The questions about Nabata were a little harder to answer, or rather, required a little more finesse. It wasn't that she didn't trust Remus, but not all knowledge ought be given out freely at once without even giving time to drink it in. "Of course there were, Remus. Dragons ruled Elibe for more than five millennia, built great wonders, and had egos that could devour the entire continent. You really think ol' Mr. Meanscales didn't have about 50 monuments to his dong erected in his territory? Heh, erected." Giggling with all the maturity and restraint of a child at her crass joke, Nayru leaned back, thwacking Remus on the shoulder. "They're everywhere in Elibe. Uh... not the dick statues, but relics of draconic activity. Tombs in Ilia, in Lycia, in Bern. Temples in Nabata. Crumbling structures of sacred grounds on Valor, long-abandoned shrines in Bern."
Unconsciously, Nayru's voice had become a little less goofy as she continued, almost starting to resemble a teacher lecturing a student. It was by no means intentional nor did that particular vibe describe her feelings toward Remus so much as it reflected her getting caught up in the subject, her inclinations to try to bring the past to life, to teach history in order to avoid its repetition. "And it's called Low Draconic. Academia in pre-Scouring Elibe used the written form almost exclusively, much easier to learn than the spoken version. It's considered a dead language now, but some historians and archaeologists still learn it to translate surviving manuscripts and the like. Some truly ancient ruins bear murals etched in High Draconic, its precursor language, and the oldest of all are in a tongue I've never even heard of."
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 26, 2015 14:37:47 GMT -6
Another world? That..was a scary thought. Some other place where no records existed of? Yup. Here it came. Questions bleeding though to be the source of more answers that awarded more questions. The blue haired priest lifted a hand to his chin as he made no effort to hide his thoughtful expression. "A place disjointed from elibe entirely...then I guess that makes me wonder. If dragons were here..would they even recognize Elibian dragons or..um..well..acknowledge you as a dragon? Obviously if yo just kinda...became a dragon or something yeah but what I mean is-" Briefly he spread his arms as if to indicate wings through some unacknowledged universal sign-language when referencing the dragon mode bit. "Do you think they'd have developed differently as people? Er, a civilization that is to say. I mean..if the dragons had such a vast empire as you mention I guess I could see them spreading out like..ah to re-colonize or find new places. Similar to Etruria with the Western Isles..except for you know..the pirate problem."
Though mentioning the dragon empire brought up another portion he'd been curious about. He shifted his point where he stood as he crossed his arms, his healing stave trapped between them while trying to word this one more delicately. Though knowing the truth about Nayru ultiamtely changed little about what he thought of her, besides thinking her farrrr cooler now, he couldn't help but feel a tad more self conscious towards some of the things he brought up. Like the scouring. Or Elimine...who helped kill dragons. Or dragons being dead. However it was something he simply had to ask. "That reminds me...um. I realize they say history is written by the victors. I mean, you yourself said that. But ah..well is it really just solely due to humanity wanting to make its-self seem more important and all encompassing that we don't even know much about dragon ruins? Are they hidden some where, er..that is to say like grand complexes and ornate structures under ground that we just can't find or see?"
Oh gods. His entire conversation about how great he thought Elimine to be that night in the inn within Ilia. Oh..Oh no. He must've looked like such a pompous fool! That she had to endure him mentioning Elimine, or an entire nation being more like her. Now he understood why she was so against the idea of her being praised. So many more comments made sense in a greater term. He'd be far more careful with how he worded things now.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 26, 2015 15:04:47 GMT -6
Nayru cocked her head quizzically at Remus as he spoke, not quite understanding his meaning through the words. It wasn't that his questions were stupid or inherently incomprehensible, but there was such a... gulf in perception that what was obvious to him was alien to her, and what was obvious to her was alien to him. It was like they were speaking in two entirely different languages with only a few shared words. Dragons were dragons. There were many variations on them; of course a thunder and a water dragon were very different, while a thunder dragon and a water manakete were even more different. Even within the same element, dragons and manaketes were almost fundamentally different - even two thunder dragons could be absolutely different to the core.
She had little in common with Aerious despite both being thunder dragons, and the First and Forsaken Lion of legends had been a dragon among dragons, one that even the greatest thunder dragons in history were like mewling kittens against... and the her of now, for all her power, would probably be even less than the truly powerful thunder dragons of old.
But they were all dragons.
"A dragon is - a dragon," Nayru eventually returned, the hesitation in her tone obvious. She still wasn't sure what Remus had meant, but was trying nonetheless to give an answer. Or at least get an idea of what he meant. "I don't understand the question."
The other question was... well, she wanted to say easier to answer, but it was a different metric. Factually speaking it was quite simple, but there was a certain level of hesitation to that as well, mostly because of the subject matter. But she couldn't be held by it, wouldn't be held by it; Nayru did not hold the grudges of her elders nor would she be burdened by their sins... or those of their executioners. "I don't know if you've heard about it," she began, reflexively turning to grim humor to deal with the situation, "but a while back there was this little thing called the Scouring." It was a dark subject to put it lightly, but above all Nayru was struggling to not openly take it badly in fear of propagating the occasional awkwardness she had noticed from Remus when they talked nowadays.
It was kinda funny that the worst she had to worry about when discussing her race with a follower of someone who had killed a GREAT deal of them was not making HIM uncomfortable, but before they were human and dragon, she and Remus were friends, or at least she thought so, and friends didn't have to tip toe around each other. "The old world burned, in all its glory and all its horror. Mountains fell and cities burned, and all those monuments and shrines and tombs were brought low along with them."
She shrugged. "Well, not all of them. But most. Nabata escaped relatively unscathed, neither humans nor dragons ever really spent much time there, and ancient tombs and temples are still occasionally found throughout Elibe via cave-ins and the like. But most of them were lost when the First Age ended, just more victims of a war that no one really won."
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 26, 2015 15:18:35 GMT -6
"I don't understand the question."
Right. Maybe it was best if he held off on that one until he rephrased it later. He'd "shelve" that question for now. The priest laughed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He smiled to her with a bit of an awkward grin before admitting openly. "Well yeah..I suppose that's true. If I find a better way to word the question I'll get back to you with round two, yeah?"
The scouring. Ever since he'd learned about Nayru being a dragon he was questioning the level of accuracy that the Eliminian church taught history with. The priest however also thought back more on their conversation in Ilia. They'd discussed it a bit, but he'd never overly gone into the way Etruria taught it. He also had a feeling, given its zealous nature, she'd likely avoided a fair portion of inner Etruria. Though that was entirely an assumption. Remus however, had to get used to talking to her about these things. They'd discussed it before when he didn't know she was a dragon. That meant she was okay talking about it, and meant he could talk to her without worrying about offending her. Right...?
"I know of the scouring..but only what we talked about, and what I was taught growing up. I...am beginning to question the accuracy of what I was told. I imagine it was much like a coin. One side to a single object. Obviously, in the Eliminian faith they teach you growing up what the eight managed to do. That they lead humanity to win the war. However..they don't ever say how. What has been lost over time and what is actually just distorted truths I couldn't begin to say. For example. I know Elimine was noted to be remarkable at both healing and light magics. Athos, the great sage that mastered all magics at his grasp. Roland, a Hero of unparalleled strength. So on and so forth..but..well..they don't say why they were so great. I mean...okay. Look at what you did. As you are now. You fired lightning from your mouth that obliterated a monster far beyond any means equal. That is something I'd expect any magic using sage like Athos to do. Does that mean our stories are exaggerated, and you yourself are as strong as say, the sage Athos? Or is there more to it that we simply don't know? They also never explain how it started, or why. They never tell you what things were like before. Honestly..I don't think there is a single scrap of record as to what life was like before the scouring that a human could understand. "
This was all important to the priest. Understanding the entire event was important to him because he did not want to be ignorant. The priest looked to Nayru with a furrowed brow. "What is the dragons version of history? What is their story of the war? I'd...like to know as much of the truth as possible. If it isn't too much to ask. "
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 26, 2015 16:03:55 GMT -6
Well, at least it wasn't a boring hike.
In retrospect she should have expected Remus to continue plying her with an endless storm of questions as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and she was trying to resign herself to that fact. Certainly it wasn't anything that she was afraid to answer exactly, it was more that several centuries of NOT talking about this stuff made it very... awkward to talk about at best even with someone she could trust. It was a sizable part of why she honestly hadn't told Veigue all that much; not because she didn't trust him, she trusted him with her life itself, literally in fact, but he hadn't really pried that much and she hadn't volunteered much either.
"Well... first lesson." Nayru smiled gently, a little wistfully. It wasn't sad per se so much as a little melancholic. "There are as many histories as there were those who experienced it, and every one is biased. Humans remember dragons as cruel oppressors; most Scouring survivors remember the humanity of then as sheep attacking their shepherds." While Arcadia was ostensibly a place of learning and acceptance, where dragons and humans could live in peace, the wounds of old were slow to heal and some would doubtless fester forever. Oh, the dragons who had truly hated humanity were almost all dead, but resentment was still alive to some degree, and one could only lose so many family members to another race before they lost the ability to ever truly trust them. Arcadia was a flawless gem from without, but from within she had seen the cracks in the facade, the perfect order that was kept through fear of the outside and the tremendous power of the enforcers within - both dragons and Athos alike.
While she didn't by any means wish harm on those too locked in the past to move beyond it, Nayru suspected that any sort of real reunification would only come when they were all dead. War was terrible, but its scars only lasted as long as people were bound by them. Time healed all wounds, as the saying went.
The discussion of power levels was interesting though, perhaps most because she truly didn't know the answers to some of it. She had never seen what Athos was truly capable of when all his power was bent solely on destruction - what the power of Forblaze and a mind as old and sharp as any dragon's could accomplish when all the facade of kindness and restraint was torn away, when there was nothing but life or death, existence or oblivion - him or them. The kindly, wizened man she had seen was very different from the legendary warrior humanity revered, a man who had changed greatly over the years... but how much of his power did he have, and what power did the weakened Forblaze yet possess?
"Well, I dunno about Athos," she responded simply and honestly with all the guile of the guileless. It was less an admission of weakness as the gospel truth; Nayru truly had no idea what he was truly capable of. "He doesn't really do the gloom and doom thing these days, and I haven't really talked with him much." Yet again the difference in worlds was obvious, though less so to Nayru than it might be to Remus. That much. That she could shrug carelessly at the thought of having the opportunity to casually converse with a living legend and think nothing of it didn't even register for her... but it might for him. "And alas, I missed the chance to get murdered by him in the Scouring by the unfortunate coincidence of being born too late, a fate I regret every time I breathe."
Yeah... there might be a little sarcasm in there. Not the mean kind, more amused irony. She had spent hundreds of years running, prioritizing her own life above all else; the idea of regretting she wasn't dead was in some ways the greatest joke of all.
"But you know, Remus." Nayru continued forging onward through the underbrush, though she had unconsciously slowed down sometime during the conversation to a pace Remus could more easily match. Her tone was light, almost a touch whimsical, but the underlying implications were... less so. "The reason that breath attack in Bern took so much out of me wasn't because the attack itself was anything special. The issue was simply that this body wasn't capable of replicating the real thing."
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 26, 2015 16:51:58 GMT -6
It was still so much to take in. Since he knew so little about dragons still, and his natural curiosity ate away at him..he had to ponder. Wonder. Just what was it like? A village of dragons? While this gave off the nightmarish(to some) idea that there was once dozens of huge cities filled with thousands of "Nayrus" everywhere..he felt like dragons would've been just as different with eachother as people were. Some that were nice. Mean. Angry. Sad. Ones that always got along with everyone. Ones that hated everyone. So..he found it a bit weird. The sheep analogy. Then again, her example probably had to do with the state of humanity prior to the war. Were dragons shepherds of some kind towards humans? Guided and protected them? Or did she mean that they were nothing but farm animals to them? He knew Nayru hadn't tried to eat him yet, so that wasn't a fear of his entirely per say. That didn't speak for old dragons though. Remus shifted his staff a bit and crossed his arms further, tucking them beneath one another. The priest questioned quietly after a few moments. "So...what were we like then..as er..sheep? I mean..why that analogy? Ah..I guess this would help if I got the context. What were things like before the scouring then?"
Athos? Er..these days. Ah. He instantly thought back to the crimson mage and mumbled to himself quietly. Oh..so he is still alive...Athos. After all this time... That statement...deserved some clarification. If nothing else because it made him sound weirder than he probably should've seemed. "Ah. Sorry. There was this mage I met, during the City of Heroes siege. This guy was..well pretty amazing. Magic, staves, and I mean REALLY strong magic. He pretty much helped Richter defeat a cyclops and Hargus with a few others. he was increadible; but anyway. He was in charge of the healers..and he knew alot about almost any topic we spoke of. He ah..at one point mentioned meeting Athos. And that a small dragon sat on him. I er..didn't believe him before. Well....while I'm still slightly skeptical, it is far harder to be knowing what I do now. It's also really hard to believe Athos has been alive all this time! How does a human live that long? It just seems so...far out of a possibility. Yet two very credible people have said that he's still alive."
The blue haired priest laughed, fairly heartily before actually responding to her comment. He quietly shifted his staff again and looked over to her with a content, yet thoughtful gaze as he examined her. He could only draw one conclusion that his train of thought led to as she spoke about it. "Ah..so I take it when you look like us..your..er..human form so to say..it has limits as to what it can do then? I mean..I don't see wings so I assume you can only fly as a dragon? Or..?" The idea of Nayru suddenly thrusting a fist into the air and flying away oddly stuck for some reason.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 26, 2015 17:32:24 GMT -6
"Much of the Scouring came back to the fundamental relationship between humanity and dragons - the question of disparity between what it was and what it should be." Heh, that was a nice way of putting it. It only took the absolute genocide of an entire species, a century of war, and the near-total annihilation of the entire world to decide the answer to that one. But was it the right answer? Had either answer been right? Nayru didn't think so. She didn't know that much about the human-dragon unification platform from before the Scouring, perhaps ironically falling somewhat into the mindset that dragons had as a whole believed in the existing order, but it was a mistake born of ignorance rather than malice.
"Humanity was the youngest race, the last to appear in Elibe, thousands of years after dragons called it home. They were protected by their elders from the horrors that stalked the world, allowed to prosper in relative safety. It was less a single monolithic society as living within the autonomous territories of various dragons - good luck getting a bunch of dragons to agree on anything, much less letting another rule them - and each draconic ruler treated its subjects differently, but as a whole it was not too drastically different from the nations of today, if the larger countries were split into states akin to the Lycian territories."
"But humanity chafed under its bonds, the tale goes; they were willing to trade that protection for freedom." Nayru sighed. She didn't really like telling these stories like they were the absolute truth, but more than that, she hated that she hadn't been there to witness it herself - to actually have her own opinion of matters, rather than simply an amalgamation, a hybrid belief based entirely on the flawed stories of others. "I don't think anyone really knows what sparked the Scouring - the single moment when history changed. The tensions had been brewing for countless long years, and when it all came to a head, no one was truly ready for it. Each side demonized the other, and in time even the most peaceful kingdoms and flawless harmony, territories that had embraced coexistence, dissolved within the tides of war."
"Beyond that - well, I guess one history of the war works as well as any other. The Legendary Weapons gave humanity the edge it needed to win, but irreparably ruined Elibe's atmosphere and obliterated what remained of civilization, sending your kind into a Dark Age within which you still struggle. And now monsters are back to finish the job." You. Us. It was subtle, and Nayru meant no harm or aspersion by it, but her unconscious choice of words was telling. It spoke of the divide between their races, the immutable truth that the gulf between them was deeper than simple acceptance. That even if they were similar on the inside, that even if they believed the same things and wanted the same thing, they were in the end still two separate races.
Completely clueless to the existence of Elias, Nayru had no idea who Remus was talking about, and knew little more about the siege on the City of Heroes. Bits and pieces, yes, but not a great deal. She did recognize one name, though! "Ah, a friend of Richter's? He must be an impressive mage indeed then." It was just... she couldn't honestly see Richter surrounding himself with weak warriors and yes-men. Either his personality would drive them off or they would get left behind when he started fighting, one or the other, so the magic user Remus was talking about had to have at least some level of ability.
Of course, the conversation simply flowed into other subjects as it went. "Essentially, yes. This body is simply incapable of channeling my power to any degree of effectiveness. I only recently figured out how to push it far enough to use some semblance of my elemental powers in this form, and it's..." the dragon trailed off, looking more than a bit mutinous in her frustration. "Well, it's a bit of a work in progress." Sky above, what she wouldn't give for a mentor! She didn't even know if her newfound abilities were anything special or if she was truly blazing new ground for dragonkind or something in between, with a very small sample size to observe and draw conclusions of; she had met only a few dragons and only even gotten confirmation from one that they couldn't. Erim had possessed an incredibly refined and subtle degree of control of her element, but it was hard to even imagine Erum as being anything but a veritable goddess for Nayru so it never occurred to her to think that Erim could have been capable of anything less than far more than that.
Huh. Had she explained to Remus the difference between human and dragon forms? Nayru couldn't remember off the top of her head.
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 27, 2015 7:45:02 GMT -6
Remus huffed a bit as he walked. More of an expression towards actual thought than anything. He quietly gazed towards the path ahead. The quiet crunching of the occasional twig and branch beneath their feet or rustling of leaves along the earthen walkway they moved along was the only sound to disturb the silence for a brief period. The priests brow furrowed in thought while he looked to the segments where sunlight broke through forest line and the canopy of trees had not the influence to restrain it. Blotches of shadow on the ground gave way to sunbeams which lit a way through them.
His mind quietly turned inside, cogs working way before he spoke up finally. "That sounds...stupid. Apologies to use such language..and I don't mean about the history you tell but just, how it was handled. I can understand why dragons would be upset. I can see why humans would want to be treated better. It just..even before the scouring why is it no one can get along?" The priest shook his head a bit, visibly frustrated not towards Nayru but just how events transpired. It wasn't like he could control things to change them definitively. Just made him a bit sad. However he looked to Nayru and seemed to shift subjects. "So stronger dragons just kind of..staked a claim on some land and that was that? Though..I imagine with dragons being so much bigger than people they'd need more space huh? Hmm...but with dragons being able to fly, did dragons ever get mad if another dragon was flying around in their land? "
This was all new stuff to him, (obviously) and his curiosity really had no limits. At all. He also, given his trust of Nayru, trusted her entirely and took each answer as a fact. If nothing else because of the trait that was obvious, he had no one to cross-compare the other data with. Though when she mentioned the Legendary weapons it drew up a question for the young Etrurian Priest. "Ah Yes. So do you know much about the legendary weapons? All they tell us is that they were really powerful and responded well to pretty much only the eight. Besides their names we know little else." It wasn't that he wanted to horde power or anything, but since Nayru was a historian as well he hoped to learn a bit more about them. Another point she brought up gave him pause before exclaiming. "Ah! So wait...they almost destroyed the world? And..monsters..do you know why their here suddenly? They just seem to have appeared. "
The priest was more open now and seemed to have been entirely freed up from the burden of frustration towards just not being able to see why dragons and people would go to war. He sort of felt like he understood her though as she mentioned still trying to control these lightning powers. Remus looked towards her with a bit of a chuckle before inquiring further. "Do you have er..a mentor or trainer that can help with that? Like..a really really strong lightning dragon you can train under or anything? I know people typically do that with magic and what not so I would assume that's something you could do."
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 27, 2015 9:03:46 GMT -6
"Iunno." Her tone was neutral, almost cavalier. Not because Remus's question was dumb or wrong, but because, put simply, she just didn't know. Oh, Arcadia's archives were undoubtedly better than literally anything outside humans had access to, especially given that they were mostly coauthored by humans and dragons, but once again it was a question of not knowing it firsthand. "Dragons as a whole are very... individualistic. We're a bunch of special snowflakes who don't like being compared to each other." Nayru smiled, as much at the irony of her self-flagellating statement as the pragmatic but harsh view of her race. "So doubtless there were border issues, but it would have varied wildly by area. Elibe was heavily fractured, so there weren't really big wars, but apparently a lot of skirmishing."
"Well, that was mostly in the outer rim. More centralized nations were held in check by the Council, so overall it wasn't that bad for most people, hence why there were so many scientific and magical breakthroughs. It was just the frontiers where things got hairy." They broke through the tree cover, finally at the end of their journ-"oh god DAMMIT" she muttered mutinously as the world opened up before them, a vast valley stretching below them for miles, as was easily seen from the precipice atop which they stood. Apparently the maps were still really shitty.
Still, there was something in the distance, spires of crumbling stone that stood out among the greens and browns and blues of the landscape. Something clearly constructed rather than born naturally, though the tree cover obscured anything resembling a ground level so there was no telling from here what condition it was in or if there was anyone there. Nayru rubbed her chin thoughtfully, momentarily taken aback by the view as well as the possibilities of wht this discovery implied. "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, there actually is something there."
Turning back to her companion, Nayru grinned, her composure cracking in the face of the dark god Ruin Maniac Nayru awakening from her eternal slumber to cover the world in darkness. Or at least geek out really bad about ruins. "Last chance to turn back if you're afraid of a little adventure, Remus. The real journey is only just beginning."
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 27, 2015 9:58:35 GMT -6
It was interesting. Truly. To hear some of the things that these dragons did. To find and hear snippets of their society and more about dragon kind, and to possibly be one of only a handful of humans to know this much in..a thousand years? Maybe even more depending on how long the build up and rising pent up tension between man and dragon had taken. Though something of hers caught his attention. A council. A kingdom of dragons, which humans had always portrayed as mindless violent beasts, (given Nayru's profession as a historian, that was piss already) it was still a shock to him that they were so organized. It was a stereotype sure..but even he couldn't instantly undo the subconscious teachings of generations. That however, prompted another question(A real cycle had seemingly started in this aspect) that he felt compelled to voice. The priest shifted a hand through his blue hair as he looked to the woman curiously. He had a feeling if any one question was too personal she'd certainly let him know.
"Nayru. Humans believe, and I've a feeling they fear even that dragons are savage and mindlessly violent. Now, I know that this could simply be considered fear and parallels drawn between them and monsters of late as a comparison since they've no knowledge otherwise. However I've also done some researching of my own. The incident in Bern. A black dragon was said to have appeared in the Arena and began to attack people. Yet...more than one account says the dragon didn't actually openly start fighting until it was attacked. So..taking that, and the fact that you are not a mindless monster given your well..a historian and clearly free thinking..were there ever any dragons that were actually just crazed and violent? I mean...I assume that's similar to like..brigands who mindlessly kill and what not but I dare not assume dragons and humans so similar in that aspect until I actually learn more. At this point I don't want to assume anything yet know I will haha so it's a tad confusing still."
The priest scratched lightly at his chin, hoping he'd atleast made sense with what he was trying to ask. He smiled to her regardless however. He was genuinely enjoying their conversation. Though as the priest listened to the woman exclaim and wai-..wait a minute. "There's actually something here." Did..she not expect there to be? Had she just dragged him around on a whim? part of Remus was incredulous, but even as he considered voicing that he heard a slight skeptical voice in the back of his head. Right, because you aren't completely enjoying the conversation. Yeah. Okay so he was glad to have simply had the walk if nothing else. The priest shifted his staff and taped it at the ground, chuckling as Nayru grinned to him before offering him a chance to go back. "Isn't this..you know..why we crossed that little thing called the ocean to find? How could I go back to that and turn away now? Besides..I'm still just now starting to feel better after getting sea sick. "
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Oct 27, 2015 10:43:15 GMT -6
"Ah... Marcus." Nayru flinched at Remus's comments about the arena. She had only learned after the fact, from Richter, but the realization had been pretty brutal nonetheless. They hadn't been friends per se, but there had been enough similarities to create a certain connection on the day they met decades ago, and knowing it had been severed was a dark day indeed. "He wouldn't do that." Her voice was absolute in its certainty, as if that truth had been shouted from the mountaintops since the dawn of time. "Marcus just wasn't the kind of person to go randomly attacking people."
She didn't know what he had done in Etruria nor the circumstances thereof, which from a completely objective standpoint might weaken her statement somewhat, but Nayru as she was now, based on when she had known him, believed it to be true. Even if she had known, she would likely have focused on his attempt to strike a blow against the horrors of Etruria.
There was a certain level of irony in Remus's question though. Yeah, she did know of one crazed and violent dragon, one who had spent a long time just killing and killing when transformed. She had faced that creature and lost many times... and only lately had she been lent the strength to defeat it. "There was... one," Nayru responded slowly, trying to stay vague, "but there are always outliers. Most dragons are far more learned than the average human and have the benefit of hundreds or thousands of years of experience. I think it would be a stretch to call them mindless savages by any metric."
She didn't include herself in that group, her choices in pronouns subtly implied it, but Nayru didn't notice. She was still looking down, into the future - or was it the past? Maybe a bit of both when you thought about it. "Besides, if you want mindless destruction, I'd say the Legendary Weapons have us beat. You didn't think the Ending Winter was a coincidence, did you?" She tested the slope, frowning a bit; it was pretty steep. "Hm. We're gonna have to use trees to get down there safely, unless you want to jump." It was maybe a bit crude of a joke given that it was a good hundred feet down if one moved as the crow flew. Fell. Whatever.
Experimentally, Nayru hopped over the ledge, skidding down a few feet before catching herself on one of the protruding small trees growing out of the hillside. Nothing too impressive, certainly no large trees, but the terrain was bumpy and misshapen enough that here and there, smaller trees, or more like large saplings, could find purchase. Still, it was gonna be a bumpy ride, even assuming they didn't slip and fall and die horribly along the way. "Try not to get your skirt caught on anything," she helpfully called up to the priest.
|
|
|
Post by Remus on Oct 28, 2015 10:06:11 GMT -6
"Marcus..."
It was weird to put a name to that which he'd heard about, but never seen. Then to hear someone talk about him so personally. That Nayru knew him, well, he'd say coincidence but he didn't know what the actual likeliness was for that. Did dragons all know each-other or have like...an animalistic honing sense. Was it that they lived so long they could just...tell? They just simply knew? Remus looked over to her, and well, from her tone he could tell they had at-least gotten along. That much was obvious. He looked to Nayru quietly with a soft smile, a smile, but appropriately warm. "I'm sorry, it seems like you knew him well enough to feel a loss. If it's any consolation, I heard there was atleast one or two people trying to defend him. Whether or not it's true I couldn't say but it was prominent enough to be mentioned. " He had to admit though..well..some thoughts were better left openly said. His smile widened as he chuckled, nodding towards Nayru. "I can't blame them though if it's true. If you were all dragon form, and people tried to hurt you..even if they couldn't, I'd do my best to protect you. "
It was a silly notion. Nayru needing his protection. He didn't know much about what she was like as a dragon, and he wondered if he ever would. That wouldn't change though that she was his close friend. He'd never leave a stranger behind, so it was far more obvious he'd sooner die then leave a friend behind. Add to that the mentality of a healer. They could only contribute by keeping others alive. Letting another fall, simply wasn't an option in his mind.
As the priests quiet steps brought them closer to this precarious teetering danger that seemed so idle to Nayru, Remus couldn't shake the squirming internally. His stomach was sure to remind him of the danger of heights. He quietly waited to retort, taking his sweet time gingerly testing the stability of the ledge by easing a few inches of foot at a time near it's tip and shifting weight slowly pound by pound. It was like a small child trying to will themselves to step into the frigid tides of the ocean. Perhaps in an attempt to distract himself, Remus spoke up again. "Do dragons know how to recognize other dragons if their in human shape? Do all dragons just...kind of know each-other or is it no different than people? "
Ah..the ending winter. She'd mentioned that to him briefly. Until she had though, he'd no idea of its existence. He still didn't quite understand it. "er...the ending winter. You mentioned that before. That was er...the thing that made magic weaker right? "
Remus rolled his eyes at her response about the falling to their death, and getting his skirt caught. Dust and dirt crumbled down the lingering depths along the side of the cliff while the priest shifted his weight and threw himself down a bit. "Please, Nayru. I'm not entirely helpless. " The slide was faster than he thought and as he grabbed out to the small tree like branch extending, he yelped a bit in shock and surprise. The small branch gave way and the roots burst out as his slope continued before he found himself actually slipping on the back of the lapis shaded robes he wore, stumbling and flailing as he tried not to lean too far to the wrong side and plummet off the face of the cliff. His arms found another tree like limb growing out of the cliff before he clung to it with both arms curling around it, staff so tightly gripped in his hands that his knuckles were bleached bone white. A few pebbles quietly tumbled downwards, and the priest nervously looked down to the dizzying descent before looking back to Nayru. "Se..see? Not so bad.." Who he was sating that to could've easily been called into question however. Either way, the bumbling priest was slowly making progress to follow her. Slowly. Slowly. Following her.
|
|