Worldbuilding Wednesday - After the Midland Wars

Some history on the history

Some of you might have seen on Twitter that I'm doing a major rewrite of a short story. This story started out about two years ago as a flash piece "The Dragon Seeker" which I wrote off the top of my head. Now it's being rewritten to actually fit into the history and world of Airthai. I've also changed one of the main characters to Mara – the granddaughter of Nasja (from "A Dragon's Freedom" and "The Price of Freedom"). It's turning into a novella, so I'll keep updates on how it's going as well as some of the worldbuilding that's going on as the story proceeds.

The Dragon Seekers 
Mara, the daughter of Mairja and granddaughter of Nasja was only twenty five years old when her mother passed away at Holt Haliern. Just as Nasja and Mairejath had become the first of the Dragon Seekers, so too was Mairja and Mara trained in Holt Haliern to become Dragon Seekers. During this time, the wild dragons which had been freed by Nasja before the start of the Midland Wars, had started attacking towns

The exodus of the dragons and their Guardians to the Western Isles had already started and with many of the Guardians now training as Dragon Seekers, the world of the Midlands and the southern kingdom of Reiaghy had quickly changed.

The hardest hit of the Midland kingdoms by the wild dragons was Tarathlon and Guldargan, as so many of the dragons had taken to hide and live in the marshes north of the Great Wood. The sanctuary around Théotriewe, however, was almost untouched as was the great house of the Keepers. The dragons seemed drawn to the cities and attacked, their burning tears setting buildings alight and their claws tearing at the people who scrambled away in fear.

While some of the Dragon Seekers ventured into the swamps to try and subdue the dragons with their dragon’s tongue and the ancient songs they had learned in Holt Haliern; others were called to cities after an attack as the dragons sometimes made a nest in the great houses or waited on the outskirts of the city until it attacked once more. The wild dragons, unlike the southern dragons, seemed to burn with malice and many were born with red scales. Some had even fallen as far as to start fading to a silvery grey – a type of dragon which the Guardians had believed had forever been left behind when they fled the Sundered Lands during the Great Sundering.

Old memories of the great wars between the Lewjan Lord’s creatures and the dragons started to be told once more and, in many instances, were embroidered upon. But new tales were also told by the storytellers and singers. Ballads of the heroic Dragon Seekers who could subdue the wild dragons or even slay them by turning the wild dragons to stone. While not all of this was true, the Seekers were sworn not to tell any of their secrets to those who were not Seekers and the dragon’s tongue was to remain a secret to outsiders as well. The gift which the Creator had bestowed upon them when the dragons first awoke seemed more important than ever.

For more about the Midland Wars, visit this page: The Midland Wars.

Worldbuilding Wednesday – The Dragon Guardians of the Western Isles

I've gotten a bit side-tracked (perhaps a slight “Worldbuilding Cold” and not full-blown “Worldbuilder’s Disease”) while writing about the Western Isles and then, specifically the Dragon Guardians of these Isles. They are Guardians who had not been present on Continent after the Sundering. Their dragons are also green in colour, unlike the blue and red dragons found in the Southern Lands. Here is a first look at them:

The Dragon Guardians of the Western Isles
On the shore there was gathered a group of nine people. All were dressed in brown, white and green and each held a carved wooden staff. The staffs were all decorated with finely-wrought patterns in silver and green dragon tears were set into the wood. Upon their brows they wore the red dragon tears the Guardians called Dragon Gifts. The women among them wore long veils of such fine golden beadwork over their hair that it seemed as if their hair was of spun gold. All bore markings on their faces and arms, traced in green, unlike the black patterns seen on the continent.

Caythan told how these markings were not permanent, but worn during times of trouble or when they fasted or mourned. Permanent marking – like those the Werlea (or Gile) had were shunned by them as they said that nothing in the world is permanent and therefore no permanent mark shall be placed on their bodies as all things will pass away before the final ending of the world.

These folk met the Guardians with saddened faces, saying that they had been shown this event in a dream. One, wearing many traces of green upon his face, chest and arms, spoke: “I saw great fields of grass burning, I saw people who suffer and I saw red dragons. Then I saw a ship bearing four lanterns being drawn to shore by a blue dragon. It has been very long since a blue dragon has visited our shores, let alone the Dragon Guardians of the Continent.”

The Guardians marvelled at the dream that had been given to these people and told them why they had come.

So, while I type away at a story including them, I hope to have a proper “Western Isles” post ready in two weeks’ time. Next week you can read how the dragons of the Southern Lands came to the Western Isles and also how the Dragon Seekers came to be.
Until then, Á Agrai tellarias or s'agrélar silássa!

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