8. DANGERS AND ENEMIES

Due to the danger of life in the DragonLands, the dragonriders are called upon a great deal to aid the Landbound. This is something of a love-hate relationship: the Landbound hate to have to ask for help and tithe the Warrens in exchange; the dragonriders hate the fact that they are not self-sufficient (in the rocky lands suitable for Warrens, it's impossible to raise or grow enough food to support the population). Both need each other, and both tend to think that the other is getting more than they are giving.

The major dangers of the DragonLands are:

8.1 Wraiths

Formless, airborne grey/black shrouds that periodically attack parts of the DragonLands, feeding off of anything organic they find. They are capable of devouring a Human, laying waste to farmland, and generally destroying anything they come across. They can be destroyed by extreme elements (burning and freezing), and they can't pass through (or damage) stone: thus, all buildings in the DragonLands are built out of stone. Wraiths cannot survive immersion in water, but a large quantity of water would be required for the job, such as a lake or river; smaller quantities, e.g. rain, does not seem to have any particular effect on them.

Wraiths are the largest, most consistent threat in the DragonLands. They can attack at any time, so travel on foot in the open can be very dangerous. Dragonriders have a patrol system set out to identify wraith attacks as soon as possible and head them off. The telepathic communications between dragons aids in rallying forces.

Wraiths are not found anywhere else in New Brittany. They are a phenomenon of the DragonLands, and are barely understood at all. Dragonriders are always trying to learn more about this nemesis. Wraiths are now known to have some kind of hive structure with a "queen" at its head, but the level of free will/intelligence of individual wraiths is unknown. When a wraith "queen" is killed, another rises to replace it after a month or two, though how this is done is unknown. The devouring of organic material is done through a corrosive substance excreted by the wraiths that behaves like an acid, but fails acid tests.

The wraiths seem to have achieved this hive structure intelligence after their return in Winter of 2997 after a 20-year absence (last sighting was in 2977). What caused this change is unknown.

Another new element in the wraith menace is the appearance of a wraith-variant that does apparently posses its own intelligence, and which is capable of inhabiting and possessing the body of a human host. When this happens, the original personality of the possessed human (referred to as a "Hellspawn") is suppressed by the wraith and will be entirely destroyed within a relatively short time unless through some means the wraith is driven out of its host. A person possessed by one of these wraiths exhibits a marked change in behavior (characterized by extreme hostility to humans and dragons) that can make it possible for other people to identify the Hellspawn as such..

Very recently, during a mass wraith-attack against Geode Warren in the Lost DragonLands, two new subtypes of the "Hellspawn-type" wraith were identified, one which could access and utilize the knowledge and memories of its human host (which the previously-encountered sort could not do). These Hellspawn are much harder to identify than the earlier type. Another Hellspawn-variant first encountered at Geode could possess Dragons, previously thought to have been immune from possession.

There are a few amulets in existence which allow humans to communicate mentally with wraiths, but these are extremely dangerous; often, the human who uses such an amulet becomes an agent of the wraiths, or even a Hellspawn.

It is not currently known if there are still other types of wraiths which have not yet been encountered.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

8.2 Wastes Creatures

Due to the crossover of DL magic and magic from the outside, the Wastes contain the strangest wildlife known in the land. They are fraught with carnivorous and intensely poisonous plants as well as misshapen monsters. These creatures occasionally venture out of the Wastes for unknown reasons, and attack towns and Warrens. The Wyrms, which are found only in the areas of the Wastes adjacent to Jasra Warren, are among the most deadly; however, the possible variety of Wastes Creatures which may be encountered are virtually limitless.

8.2.1 Wastelings.

A Recently "discovered" monster in Telnor region, these creatures become riders and dragons by feeding off the minds of rider and dragon pairs. They are creations of the wastes, and are attracted by the magic in the link. The creatures can sense the magic of an active link, and will be drawn to it, like the smell of baking cookies. mmmm

A creation of a new wasteling is completed when a fully adult wasteling breathes out a mist. This mist contains the DNA of the creature. If this mist comes into contact with a human or dragon wound, deep enough to get the mist venom into the blood stream, then the infection starts. The human or dragon would only be infected if the mist DNA reaches the rest of the body. Here are the indications of infection:

The first day, there is almost no way to find any indication of the infection.

The second and third days, the body of the host may indicate different symptoms. (These are the result of the body trying to fight off the foreign body.) Symptoms may be fever, sniffles, headache, or possibly none at all.

The fourth and fifth days after infection is when the first signs can be seen. An infected person would get better from the symptoms that gave the impression of the body being ill. During this time, the human consciousness would begin to forget things: Names, places, things he/she may have known in their lives.

At about the sixth day the new wasteling consciousness begins to take control. The new wasteling is an amalgam of wasteling DNA and the host's DNA. With the wasteling's being dominant. This is a sort of sexual reproduction, assuring that the wastelings aren't all just clones of each other. After the sixth day, the host will begin to feel a distortion like dizziness, and will find themselves doing things they normally wouldn't do. Here is also where the link starts to work on any that are unprocessed. If a rider is infected and the dragon not, then on the sixth day, the mind of the dragon will start to show lethargy and missing of memories, as the wasteling's instinct to keep itself hidden until that time when it can infect the other mind.

On the seventh day, the point of no return approaches for the host. At about this time, the wasteling will take full control, awakening into its own consciousness, and begin to attack the other mind in its chosen body. This battle is the only time that the consciousnesses can either win out and become dominant, or lose and be absorbed to become memory. After this time, there is no way to remove the wasteling. Trying to do so, would be like trying to remove the brain out of a human. At this point the wasteling DNA is completely integrated in the host's cells.

On about the tenth day after the infection, if the wasteling is in control then the host's body will begin to create the mist DNA in pouches on the underside of the tongue. These pouches are an excellent way to identify a wasteling possessed human or dragon. On this day, if the possessed host's joined partner is not also a wasteling, then they wound, and purposefully infect them. This usually causes the second one of the two in the link to become subservient to the one who created it.

A wasteling has no definite lifespan, while they and their captured bodies can be killed just like a non infected host, they will not die of old age. The magic that infects and controls the host regenerates, and removes the effects of age. The wasteling tends to get a stretched and ageless look. Most end up being killed by other wastelings, or normal humans long before this sets in.

The wastelings have the ability to bend the waves of telepathy and make another being think they see, smell, or even taste and feel something that is not there. This is an advanced form of mental illusion.

After the infection has progressed and the host mind is overtaken by the wasteling, all memories and skills are retained, only the sentience is lost.

With the addition of memories and skills, all phobias, fears, and mental problems from a host transfer over to the wasteling. These are not as strong, and can be resisted, but they never leave, and are almost always an annoyance to the adult wasteling.

The wasteling almost always has a connection to the one who created it, they can sense, their parent once then get about fifty miles from the offspring. The offspring is almost always subservient to the parent, instinctively. This changes from time to time, and wastelings have been known to kill their parents so as to be able to do what they wish. But it is not common.

A wasteling has an abnormal infatuation with blood, This usually causes the creature to be blood thirsty and evil. This is usually thought as shock when a wasteling stops and stares at blood.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

8.3 Wild Dragons

When food gets scarce, the wild unjoined dragons from the wastes attack nearby communities. This is a truly disastrous time for the DragonLands because it calls for the joined dragons to fight the unjoined. It only happens once every few years, but it is usually much more dangerous than wraith-fighting. Wild dragons have a great hatred for humans, who have (from their point of view) enslaved their cousins, the joined Dragons of the warrens. They also tend to "look down" on joined Dragons, whom they consider to have "sold out" to a lifeform far lower on the food-chain than themselves.

Although they can be wild and ferocious, wild dragons have the same basic distaste for fighting their own kind as do joined dragons; this is because, like joined dragons, they are automatically in low-level telepathic contact with any other dragons around them. Thus, fighting other dragons tends to be painful for them; still, they are more combative than joined dragons and may initiate attacks on other dragons if they feel they have sufficient cause, regardless of the consequences.

Wild dragons, because they have no magical human-dragon bond to worry about, can often escape pursuit by joined dragons by simply retreating farther into the wastes than joined dragons can go without endangering their bond with their riders.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

8.4 Rogue Dragonriders

On EXTREMELY rare occasions, those few dragonriders who have rejected Warren life or been banished become a threat. If a rogue dragonrider becomes a threat, violence is usually avoided passionately on both sides. Joined dragons have a great deal of trouble fighting other joined dragons. If forced, they become very traumatized and sometimes don't recover.

Rogue dragonriders are the greatest fear of Warren society (and some pretty dastardly villains). Some of the more notable rogues are listed below:

Rixx Highsun, Dragon- Jade (green): Deceased. A one-time combat legend of Norwall Warren. When wraith attacks ceased 20 years ago, he fell into drunken decline and eventually became clinically paranoid. Seven years ago, he kidnaped his 11-year-old son Shard and disappeared into the wilderness, poisoning many of the Norwall Dragons to avoid pursuit. Norwall has never completely recovered from this loss. Rixx died in the wilderness, but his betrayal is still felt strongly at Norwall.

Malk Bromitz (M'cos) - Dragon Yenal (black): Formerly of Telnor Warren, M'cos was presumed dead when his partner and her dragon were found wraith-eaten after failing to return from a patrol; actually, their deaths were caused by M'cos, who had gotten hold of a wraith- amulet. In the ensuing degradation caused by his contact with wraiths, he killed his partner and, as Malk Bromitz, led a wraith-horde against Marrid which resulted in the death of a large percentage of the warren's dragons and riders. Bromitz was later defeated and his amulet taken away from him; abandoned by his wraith allies, he disappeared into the Wastes and thus broke his bond with Yenal. Yenal retained his sanity, and is now informally paired (though not joined with) another resident of Marrid Warren. Bromitz, though generally believed to be dead, actually still lives and is currently at another warren.

Roland - Dragon Talthalar (maroon): Deceased. Formerly the male-power obsessed mate of Rhina, Warrenlady of Falagand. He was banished from Warren society by Dragonlady Christalla at the Council of Warrens as punishment for his abuse of Rhina and Falagand. Subsequently, many of his followers (some of whom were innocent of any wrongdoing) were banished by Rhina's successor, B'nair. Swearing revenge on Keldarra (and specifically Christalla and Evelle, blaming them for his fate and for Rhina's death), Roland led his followers in support of Feldrik the Conqueror, culminating in their joint attack on Ralengarde. Much of the city was burned in the process, but the attackers were finally driven off by the forces of King Jaldor, supported by dragons and riders of Keldarra Warren. Following his defeat at Ralengarde, Roland retreated to Shakar, the warren he had founded in the newly-opened Nomadlands. Shakar survived and even grew by stealing wilder eggs (and, where possible, eggs from warrens) and forcibly searching Nomads as new riders, while forcing Nomad tribes to pay tithes in return for Shakar's protection from the wraiths and wild dragons that now inhabited the Nomadlands. Roland was later murdered there by a Nomad woman whom he'd taken as his slave and bedmate.

D'gerrit - Dragon Orobos (brick red): Former Wingleader for Norwall Warren, D'gerrit's ambition was to be Warrenlord of Norwall. When Naomi assumed her position as Warrenlady, he felt she had usurped his rightful place and swore to stop at nothing to make her job impossible in hopes that the older riders would support him in any power struggle. After an accident while fighting wraiths, he lapsed into a coma and his chance to consolidate his position was lost forever. When he finally regained consciousness and realized that he no longer had any influence at Norwall, he fled the warren vowing vengeance against Naomi and her sister Lacey, the junior queenrider of Garnet. He kidnaped his nephew, hard, from Marrid's med center and vanished into the wastes. Since then, he has harassed Norwall at every opportunity; he and his followers were responsible for the recent destruction of the village of Fairlight, near Norwall, and their last attack on the warren resulted in the deaths of Lacey and Garnet and the destruction of all but one egg of Queen Amethyst's clutch. While both D'gerrit and Orobos were badly injured in the attack, both managed to escape and are presumably still alive.

Da'ntray - Dragon Keppo (green): Deceased. A longtime rider of Daere Warren, and the father of the Warrenlady's son there, Da'ntray was secretly kidnaping both warren and landbound girls and forcing them into prostitution. When his activities were discovered, he was brought to bay by the riders of Daere and was thought to have been killed; however, he and Keppo escaped and later formed an alliance with the rogue Khazeen in the Nomadlands, thereafter calling himself Vascone. He then led a raid on the hatching cavern at Daere, in which the junior queen Kalindeth and her rider were both killed; however, he was finally killed beyond doubt by a Cleft Warren rider in the final battle against Khazeen at Jhezrael in the Nomadlands.

Khazeen (M'del) - Dragon Rashevon (black). Originally an inhabitant of Keldarra Warren, M'del faked his own death in a "teleportation accident" to prevent his banishment for a crime he committed shortly after joining. However, he resurfaced years later as Khazeen, the self-styled Lord of the Nomadlands, and led a relentless war against Cleft Warren. By portraying himself as a Nomad deity, he had succeeded in founding the nucleus of a Nomad army at his fortress of Jhezrael, and even aspired to overthrow the Dragonlady herself once Cleft was conquered. However, he was brought under attack before his plans could come to fruition, and was presumed dead in the destruction of Jhezrael (though this has not been confirmed). This pair was unusual in that the dragon is thought by many to have been the true villain; insane since birth, Rashevon was a violent creature whose radical mood swings may have caused his rider's own eventual insanity. Vicious and brutal, he was in all ways the antithesis of a normal joined dragon, a situation caused by both his dysfunctional telepathy, which had cut him off from birth from any real contact with his own kind, and a hormonal imbalance which gave him twisted sexual desires totally unlike any other dragon, wild or joined. All in all, it was fortunate that he was one of a kind.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

8.5 Shadow Wyverns

Long ago the dragons forced the wyverns to flee, taking up home in the wastes. Though the two races were related the wyverns cared only for their own dark purposes. Most dragons have forgotten about them though they learned of them in the passing of memories, it had been centuries since any wyvern has been seen -- until they recently returned to Daere Domain.

Appearance: Smaller then dragons their bodies ranging in length of 20 to 40 feet with long thin tails that bushel into spikes at the tip. Their scales are normally a mix of dark greens, yellows, red and black. Their eyes are always red, while there head is shaped almost cobra like with a wide bream.

Shadow Abilities: All wyverns have the abilities to cloak themselves in a shroud of darkness, which allows them to be hidden from others. This ability has a limit in that it will only work in places that are dark or when the sun is no longer in the sky. None breathe fire but a few rare ones breathe a poisons gas. Their bites are venomous, though they can control the release of venom from merely paralyzing to killing. The sweat of a wyvern is toxic to plants often killing any vegetation where they might stand or lay down. They are telepathic and humans who have telepathy can be subjected to control. If the human telepath is bond with a dragon he can break the control of the wyvern causing the wyvern a massive headache.

Society: Wyverns live by a code of survival and leadership by the strongest. Any thing perceived as a weakness is often an invitation to be killed. They take great pride in how well they can bring a victim to fear before they actually kill. Among there own kind they ruled with fear and intimidation. Recently the new leader has managed to stop the inner fighting, and get them to turn that energy upon the humans and dragons. During the day the wyverns live below the earth surviving in caves grouped in packs of 3 or 4 wyverns. If one becomes pregnant they move to the clutch which is a society of tens and twenties made up of the ruling clans to over look the hatchings. When the new born hatch, they will fight until the ruling clan feels all the weak ones have died.

Recently it has been noted that Wyverns, can spit acid that can burn through almost anything; though on flesh it seems to stop at the muscle. (NOTE: This section provided by Ed Murray of Daere Warren)

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE