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[✓] [Misc. Deity Lore] Malghourn, the Enlightened Drake


Zarsies
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Preface: I don’t think ‘miscellaneous deity’ is the proper verbiage as it implies a power level beyond what Malghourn realistically has but it is the closest category I found for the submission. He’s more on par with a dragaar/drakaar (not that they are very well defined anyways, looking at Setherien vs Aedrex) so maybe this category should be renamed “entities” or something as the catchall for non-deity creatures that warrant a profile.

 

Malghourn, The Enlightened Drake
 

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The Stone Serpent engorged in a greater, bleeding form.

 

 

Origin

 

In ages past when the demiurge-guardian had abandoned his kin just like the Creator before him the firstborn, crude swine race of bohra lived in fear in the frigid North of Anthos. The Outvoker’s great glacial barrier isolated the boarfolk, protecting them from the outside world but trapping them with the cruel, frozen wasteland that was once their home. They were no longer paragons of rare sorcery nor lords of their many deep castles embedded into the rocks; their fall from grace left their minds shrunken and their beastial instincts raised. Tribes camped within crumbling ruins of once brilliant halls and saw their great libraries as no more than kindling to stave off the biting cold where they ventured out, lived, and ate only under the cover of night to hide from the one thing they did not forget: dragons. The North was a hotbed of mountainous peaks, sprawling cave networks, and surging volcanic activity where thick and strong game thrived in the dense tundra. From those peaks swooped many dragons of varying breeds who preyed upon the horned beasts, skulking scavengers, and the loosely organized bohra who, despite their own failures, were granted mercy by a higher power. Aruzond, Warden of the North and a dragaar who found his home within the North some time before the Descendents landed, pitied the fallen race and occasionally guarded them from overhunting. His efforts were interrupted upon his discovery of what the bohra had feared most, what had driven them into their caves and derelict fortresses. Roaming high above the bleak, frozen clouds of the North flew a dragon of rare breed, stacked twice as tall as most and as strong as a human legion tenfold; this was Malghourn, a fierce and mighty creature Aruzond speculated to be the spawn of Xandraza, the Matriarch.

 

Despite Aruzond’s lesser stature, even as a dragaar, his wisdom won him the upper hand and through trickery and traps Aruzond kept an edge on the imposing dragon and fended him off for half a century. Eventually the Warden receded to his cavern when the Black Scourge surfaced deep in the North and the tide of metal and rage poured out from the Red Realm and the bohra and many beasts of the North were immolated by the corruptive frostfire of the Harbingers. They too encountered the brutal might of Malghourn, dark lieutenants torn apart and siege machines laid to waste as their invasion of the arctic stuttered to a halt. Numerous encounters proved the dragon’s thick, scaly armor was too tough for their machines or magic to pierce so they begrudgingly admitted their defeat and called upon their hateful lord to tend to the “stone serpent”. Setherien, black and enraged, rose from the Red Realm and blotted out the sun in his path of conquest to find and dispatch the beast, fuming over the ineptitude of his legions. It was not long until their eyes met, Setherien a burly shadow dripping with raw malice and icy flames and Malghourn a stalwart wall of scale-shielded muscle and hunger. The malevolent drakaar may have been slightly larger but the primal violence stirring in Malghourn had yet to be bested and he was not afraid. Their battle shook the North with every clash spurring avalanches, splintering glaciers, and the collapse of forgotten bohra citadels. With an evil intelligence Setherien saw through the animalistic fury of the dragon and with a few final feigned attacks and a brutal divebomb the supposed apex predator of the North was thrown down upon a frozen lake, shattering its wholly solid waters. Yet with the maddening cloud violence brings over one’s mind Setherien saw a better fate for the otherwise doomed creature and so he descended upon the felled dragon and regurgitated the same taint that dwelled within him, feeding the Ibleesian nectar into Malghourn’s wounds where it festered and spat back. Soon swollen with newfound strength, heinous intent, and a unique wicked intelligence, Malghourn rose as Setherien’s newest pawn.

 

During his tenure as the drakaar’s familial servant Malghourn committed atrocities in his lord’s name, one of which included the wrangling and ritual slaughter of Descendents and bohra for an ancient blood mage associate of Setherien’s. From a broad, occult circle drawn upon a ruined citadel’s highest tower the forgotten wizard conjured a hole into the Void and from it slithered a grotesque horror of the abominable space beyond; Malghourn proved instrumental in slaying the spell-vomiting thing and with a suddenly changed mind the mage offered the drake what he had planned to make for himself. From its squirming, squelching corpse they extracted its hideous alien brain and finished the ritual, binding it as an ethereal organ to Malghourn in the form of an uncommon blood magic feat, a marrow. This spiritual augmentation to the drake granted him sentience and advanced thought in ways his corruption did not, elevating his mind, a rationality he quickly came to crave. This unfamiliar clarity led him to begin schemes that would outlive even his master. A price for his servitude was the degradation of his body for he was still a drake, mighty as he was, and battle left scars and as a product of his taint time chewed at him, calcifying his bulwark of scales into flaking stone. Within 40 years his body chaffed and greyed as the evil that bolstered him from within also drained him of life. As time marched on the Black Scourge campaign seemed to near victory and this worried Malghourn for he saw the wicked intelligence in Setherien, the same wit that turned him from beast to thinking slave, and the end of his campaign would make Malghourn a useless asset and instead a threat. These pressures led him to consort with the blood mages Setherien associated with and fraternize amongst their secret cabals, even learning portions of their ancient art and, when inevitably discovered by Setherien, was spared punishment and instead encouraged to delve into its sphere. The black drakaar allowed Malghourn to glimpse his lexicon, his personal artifact from his draconic birthright, and from it the enlightened drake gleaned much of blood magic’s secrets. Surely Setherien plotted to use Malghourn in another scheme with his interest in the art but such a plan was cut short.

 

The unexpected turn of the Red Realm’s destruction, the formation of the Golden Lance, and Setherien’s death happened in rapid succession and led to a panicked scattering of his remaining forces. Malghourn was conveniently missing once the tide of battle was obviously against them and therein he enacted his plot for supremacy. From the Red Realm Malghourn ferried Setherien’s lexicon into the North after the mortal races waded out in their own celebrations and through it gazed deep into the abyss of knowledge hidden within its bloody, crystalline facets; it was there within the gem that Malghourn was truly inspired and his scheme coalesced into a true plan of action. With what inklings he had of the true potential of genus Malghourn sought out the cabal and one particularly unique character among them, an elderly once-sorcerer of an emir in the Alnorid Sultanate by the name Hazm Alhazred, whose obscure affliction of immortality and bloodthirst intrigued the drake greatly. Malghourn, with well practiced roguery, seduced each of the mages and the vampire himself with promises of restored magic, immortality, great citadel homes beyond the stars, everlasting power, and at the heart of what all the blood mages truly craved for, unlimited ambition realized, even to usurp the gods. They were fools to bide the words of a tainted dragon like the drakaar before him and Malghourn knew it yet their hunger for more blinded them and so a grand ritual circle was conceived through a combined effort of Malghourn, the blood mages, and what lingering fractals of Setherien’s forces remained to round up the diminished, cowering bohra within the North and imprisoned in the Red Realm. In an event of absolute extinction the boarfolk were exsanguinated to fuel the ritual in the year 1461, a colossal creation rite drawn on a bleak field in the frozen wasteland where, somewhat confused and saturated with fearful anticipation, Hazm Alhazred stood atop Setherien’s lexicon before Malghourn and the encircling nine blood mages. All was quiet for a moment as though the eternal blizzards had paused just to see the spectacle unfold.

 

The farfolk let out a harrowing wail as searing pain lept up from his chest; the pools of bohra blood had began to vaporize into the iconic crimson mist of blood magic which quickly formed lashes that tore into the elder elf and stripped him bare. His skin peeled away and shredded into vapor while his muscles were rended from his bones like stubborn babes torn from their mother. His bones splintered and his striga spirit lingered still, screaming and shrieking until just a haunting image that the genus clung to. He was unraveled and his soul was cleaved apart, sinking into the lexicon where it shuddered and become unnaturally sanguine, fracturing into ten shards; nine lesser crystalline shards red as blood and one greater shard, the Red Nexus. The scarlet haze surged through each of the blood mages and the drake himself while their shards drew close to them, the largest Malghourn’s. The mortals quickly fainted but Malghourn bore witness to his transformation, a fate the blood mages were spared.

 

His stoney hide of scar-ravaged scales flaked away as Malghourn let out a terrible scream, his stature shrinking while his exterior nearly liquified into viscous ichor and he reshaped into something else, feeling every twitch and moment of change. His muscles flourished anew beneath crimson scales, his fangs grew long and menacing, and his plan was becoming reality. Once the nine archons awoke to experience their new forms and witness Malghourn’s menacing visage he lambasted them over their foolishness and treachery which he hoped they’d learn from. He then tasked them with their duties, gave them their realms and tools, and held their lifelines through the nine bloodshards inherently connected to his eminent Red Nexus.

 

Years passed while the archons toiled away, some in exile as punishment or ignored for their perceived disappointing ineptitude while others were held in great esteem. The sovereign pairing churned out their race in their bound worlds and the trio of the quartermaster, turnkey, and headhunter advanced Malghourn’s goals. Together they built and sustained a cosmic army of siliti - mystical and sophisticated parasites where striga were raw and animalistic - which quickly found use defending the nine archon planes as their presence innately drew in cosmic chaos whose threats could only be barely warded off by magic and required attentive defense. What legions can be spared led small campaigns of conquest and liberation across the infinite, siliti warring against the ever dour inferic tides from Moz Strimoza and, recently, abominable horrors of the crushing Void. Some, the best of the best, assisted Malghourn himself who thereafter the ritual established the roots of a greater campaign which necessitated tact and chicanery.

 

Upon the mortal realm the now ‘Enlightened Drake’ wielded his newfound powers to great extents. Finally capable of harnessing all avenues of blood magic via abuse of the sacrificial Hazm Alhazred’s soul and his collected marrows, Malghourn sought to reach new heights and solidify his sorcery therein, reinforcing himself upon every gain. He and his closest cabal, occasionally including visits by archons, rooted hidden dungeons across the many continents and seeded tiny conspiracies for careful monitoring and later resource gathering. With relative ease Malghourn would gather dozens of mortals for brutal sacrifices, conjuring foul horrors from the Void whose alien anatomy and bizarre organs made for prime greater marrows to augment himself; brains to keep ethereal libraries, stomachs to feed from spatially distant pools of blood, hearts to enable otherwise unfathomable feats, and so on. His intelligence and craft swelled until new limits were reached and after looking inward the drake looked out upon the world. A trio of rift-connected underground lairs were carved out for his use where he hoards his valuables, toils away, schemes, and keenly watches.

 

In recent years, beyond 300 from the initial silit ritual, Malghourn has rescinded his lineage of blood magic among the Descendant population for their centuries of negligent abuse, mismanaging of assets, rampant ineptitude, and all-consuming treachery. By gleaning the formula from the elusive and famed horror Achan-Chatla as applied to a brood of Voidal horrors, Malghourn conducted a global ritual to steal back the art through the ethereal connection of the bloodshards wherein the mortals lost the majority of their powers over genus but by virtue of its constitutive and essential nature to them it could not be stripped entirely. Satisfied, Malghourn has since sought to deploy silit agents from the outer worlds to carefully imbed themselves on the mortal plane, a step for another grand scheme ahead. Currently he lingers within New Rivel, a subterranean archive-palace where he has been experimenting with mind control over his native species, dragons, and other such lesser dragonkin.
 

 

Description and Goals

 

Malghourn is a unique creature. Once a bestial dragon and then corrupted drake of Setherien, he is now a vampiric drake whose mind has been elevated to higher sentience first through Ibleesian taint and later solidified and expanded upon by marrows, ethereal and esoteric organs made through blood magic. These marrows paired with the splintered mortal soul of Hazm Alhazred empower him physically and magically, artificially boosting him to rival the powers of dragaar and drakaar. Typically he takes the more diminutive form of a draconic, vaguely humanoid serpent red as fresh blood but can project himself through his magic as a tall and gangly thing formed from coagulated blood and scabs or engorge himself, swelling into a colossal, bleeding dragon equivalent to Setherien’s scale.

 

[Backfacing section removed]

 

 

Capabilities

 

[Backfacing section removed]

 

On a final note, Malghourn’s extensive power is balanced by a tactful, cautious mind for while he could potentially overwhelm a continent with firestorms and unparalleled earthquakes he knows that degree of misuse will very quickly spell his doom at the hands of the many forces invested in the world and the Descendants and too is simply evil, two things he gravely avoids. He favors and utilizes nuanced approaches to most things. Malghourn is not some powerhouse entity with underling factions to be shoehorned as a main antagonist by misguided staff. His influence is intended to be sly and when direct, meaningful and not overly destructive.

 

 

 

Purpose

 

First and foremost Malghourn is a character who has been present in the LotC universe since early 2014 yet never had individual lore which nowadays is looking to become the norm. As such I wanted to document that and his history and compile it with events and mentions in previous lore as well as upcoming events and lore. His uniquely situated origin, long lasting impacts, and strong convictions makes him a staple in the dragonkin roster that deserves a full profile like this; Malghourn fulfills the roles of overarching mastermind, dogmatic and powerful wizard, threatening dragon, planar  and in-world faction, and strong character with server history all in one. The degree to which roleplay can sprout from numerous hooks in this lore through events is what most profile pieces ought to include.

 

 

Citations

 

Dragonkin
Voidal Horrors
OG Post 1
OG Post 2
Aruzond
Second Gen Blood Magic
Awakened Blood Magic
Third Gen Blood Magic
Pale Blood Magic

Siliti

The Nine Archons

 

 

 

Credits

 

Zarsies (Author)
Mordu (Consultation)
Aelesh (Previous lore)
Raptor (Previous lore)
Swgrclan (Previous lore)
Tsuyose (Previous lore)
Mephistophelian (Previous lore)

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8 hours ago, Zarsies said:

Preface: I don’t think ‘miscellaneous deity’ is the proper verbiage as it implies a power level beyond what Malghourn realistically has but it is the closest category I found for the submission. He’s more on par with a dragaar/drakaar (not that they are very well defined anyways, looking at Setherien vs Aedrex) so maybe this category should be renamed “entities” or something as the catchall for non-deity creatures that warrant a profile.

we should just make a Drakaar/Dragaar place. We have a lot of them, but none are really collectively put anywhere or organized.
also they should be defined as to how they came to existence or something, thats my suggestion.

Also, a great story to read. +1

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11 hours ago, Zarsies said:

Hazm Alhazred

 

Excellent lore all in all, save the needless inclusion of this guy above who is newly fashioned. I’ve given my two cents on the Archon post here

Despite that though, and I’ll just say this. The only thing you could probably do obtain his soul would be to have your dragon eat him (putting aside the incredible dubious circumstances under which how he’d actually manage to get all the way from his homeland to get there.) I do love the lore, but for the love of GOD please keep my cute boys with fangs out of your dragon fantasies. @Zarsies

 

Edited by methuselahs
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This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.

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