[Dragaar] Taynei'hiylu, Watcher of The Wilds

[squakhawk 7303]

 

THE FLEDGLING DRAGAAR

Origins

 

A fledgeling Dragaar, Taynei’hiylu is one of the most youthful among her kin, even in their now ancient age. Sprung of life and bright eyed, she admired life before The First War. As The Betrayer geared up to battle the earth and heavens themselves, a wizened Malin had found the young verdant dragaar. Curious and full of hope, she had appeared as a studious young mali hidden amongst the earliest druids and their studies. A disciple of their sacred grove and raised like a daughter to Malin, her adept intuition and endearing curiosity made her a figurehead- almost even a prophet for the earliest of elves and druids. In an ancient rite, a young and disguised Taynei’hiylu was given the gift of druidism from the first druid himself. Dubbed “The Transcendent Druid”, the young dragaar knew the consequence of her deception were it ever revealed. 

 

And in time, it eventually would be- with The First War and blights to come with The Betrayer’s folly, Taynei’hiylu was noticeably shy from the corruption which had spread across the land. The homeland of the elves itself was under siege, and a renowned druid prodigy, The Transcendent Druid hid with cowardice as her true identity began to further unravel. 

 

As corruption began to spread amongst her kin and Malin’s home continued to fall, the fledgling dragaar could hide no longer. Viewed even still with both suspicion and contempt by her kin, the verdant Taynei’hiylu would try to earn the trust of Malin’s children immediately by showing them her intentions had always been pure. The Dragaar, while weaker than others, used her druidic power and draconic flame to cleanse and purify land- a feat that would later become known as Druidic Blighthealing. 

 

Despite her efforts and that learned begrudgingly by the druidic order, Iblees’ corruption was far too great- exceeding beyond what the fledgeling dragaar was capable of. Despite this, in the darkest hour of that ancient order, Taynei did not choose to fight or aid the druids who stood their ground. With the knowledge of her kin’s susceptibility to corruption, with word of Azdromoth’s first atrocity- Taynei fled. Taynei abandoned the druids, leaving them to their doomed fate at the hands of Ruin. 

 

 

 

DEVOURED BY EARTH

Ibleesian War

 

Fleeing Malin’s druids, The Fledgeling Dragaar flew mournfully east- battling with sorrow and regret within, but without the strength to turn back. Taynei’hiylu imagined the demons and undead ripping the people she once loved, and had loved her, to pieces and joining their rank. The words that described Azdromoth, once the pride of her kind, ripping his own brother to pieces was horrific. Why did it have to be such a way?

 

It was in this distraction she did not notice the mountain among the clouds. Not a rock, but one that lived. It flew closer among the storm clouds, cloaked in grey shadow as The Archdrakaar descended upon the distant Dragaar. The Titan crashed into Taynei’hiylu, entangling her within his grasp as the two began to plummet from the sky.

 

Bones broke merely upon the impact, her scales charred from the hellfire that burnt her green sides black. Flickering images came to her mind in the moment of the assault, time seemed to slow to a crawl as she was left to simply behold. She saw the earth, even the moment of her own conception. The moment Dragur moulded her from a grassy mountain, the second she had opened her eyes and saw the world for the first time. But it was not with the beauty she saw for the first time. She saw it in reverse, as her eyes began to close. A call within her begged to return to stone, before it was too late. She had heard her brothers had done the same- a last option before corruption.

 

But she was a coward, and she was afraid. Taynei’hiylu was bit into by Azdromoth, who’s twisted and sharpened teeth gored her flesh and nearly tore her wing free from her body. Writhing and struggling, The Fledgeling Dragaar felt insidious corruption burn and tempt at her very blood. Her ears rang, deafened from the roar of The Archdrakaar who was sure to quickly bring her a swift fate. Toying with his prey, and certain of her entrapped state with a wing clipped, he brought his full force upon her and sent her screaming toward the dense forest below, quickly descending after her.

 

She saw her death, she knew her death- it was in this very moment, after all. But she still begged and bargained, refusing the reality which had clearly been upon her. Azdromoth had not even wished to corrupt her. He simply wished to take joy in the killing. Like a comet descending upon the earth, Taynei’hiylu broke the thick canopy of Aegis’ untouched forest, trees and branches scratching and breaking her further as she struck the ground. Her wing nearly torn, her bones broken and blood showered upon the earth below, Taynei’hiylu had felt the call of sleep. Soon it would be over, she thought. It was then, at the precipice of acceptance, that she heard a voice. Something motherly, which seemed to give her a tender touch and a soothed feeling. 

 

Azdromoth above was descending like a meteor, a falling star which would crush the Dragaar into the earth itself. A voice spoke, quietly giving her an offer;

 

“Do you wish to die, daughter of Dragur?”

 

She took no moment to ponder, her voice too weak to even muster a reply- but whatever it was which spoke, seemed to understand her response.

 

“Then serve again.”

 

It spoke, the motherly voice still yet soothing Taynei’hiylu with a wash of calm and tranquil. The Dragaar seemed to recognize the voice as something greater, something which would shepherd her to a peaceful end. Perhaps The Caretaker, or The Bell which would guide her to an afterlife without pain or duty. In these final moments, The Fledgeling Dragaar accepted fate- and conceded to whatever voice had spoken to her. 

 

And thus, the earth swallowed Taynei’hiylu in whole. Brambles and moss grew over her as she receded into the ground below, flowers sprouting from her blood and blooming brightly with life. The Titan slammed onto the earth, a crater forming beneath him as the dragaar was simply gone. Confused and enraged, The Titan searched briefly before soaring again upward- continuing his maddened crusade elsewhere.

 

 

THE WAKE AND SLUMBER

Cycle of Taynei’hiylu

 

The fledgeling Dragaar slept beneath the earth, her wounds nurtured and healing over time as The Aspects took hold. A window into her spirit from her druidic nature, she would begin to transform and grow into a prize worthy of The Aspect’s attention. Brambles and vines regrowing where scales once held, moss and branches protecting that which made her most vulnerable. Sleeping within her pocket of The Fae Realm, known as The Cradle, Taynei’hiylu healed over millennia as the wounds inflicted began to heal. Whilst her age did reflect it, this would ultimately leave the Dragaar stunted. Still the same as she was in her youth, Taynei’hiylu would be immature and younger- less learned than her other kin who had the time to learn and explore the earth.

 

It was during Vailor she first awoke, roused by Cernunnos who gave the first task expected of her. She was to defend the Aspect Stones in the oasis grove, rumored to soon be attacked by Iblees. She met the druids for the first time in lifetimes, seeing descendants of the ancient ancestors she had seen what only felt like yesterday. These druids did not seem so cold- yet they held the same distrust toward the young Dragaar as those she had betrayed. 

 

Despite this, indeed did the attack one day come- Necromancers of Iblees seeking powerful deific artefacts to corrupt in his name, assaulted the grove and quickly overwhelmed the druids. To their surprise, The Dragaar seemed uncorrupted by their attacks- her deific bond protecting her. She was as green as the grasses within the grove, her clumsiness showing as she took attack after attack, and initially failed to ward off the attackers.

 

It was with her purifying verdant breath which turned the attacking Darkstalkers unto stone and the necromancers mulch for the grasses below that they yielded, and the grove was defended. Yet she was not recalled- not initially. Two druids, known as Owl and Solstice, extended their hand and began to heal The Dragaar. Whilst the rest of the druids picked up what remained and began to rebuild, the two elves began to heal Taynei’hiylu- defying expectation of her and others that she would still be left alien and untrusted.

 

Her duties were extended forward when the aspects spoke again- a plague brought ruin to the shamans of The Uzg, one which their magic could not seem to relent. Spawned from a source of Ibleesian corruption wrought by Ixli, Taynei’hiylu purified the artefact and it’s corrupted following with her verdant flame and a buffet of her titanic wings. Whilst she could not save the sick, she broke the source of their corruption- allowing the local Witchdoctors and Farseers to heal their people uninterrupted.

 

She was recalled unto The Cradle once again, slumbering deeply until Axios.

 

It was near the end of the descendant time upon Axios that she awoke again, in the midst of a moonless night. There was an unsettling feeling, a turn in her sleep which brought her unease. Noone had roused her. Noone had tasked her. She set out quickly upon the druids, praying they were not annihilated like those that had come before. Dawning upon Axios, the same moonless night ruled the sky as a familiarity gripped at her core. A feeling of discomfort, upset, and wrong. What was it that ate away at her mind?

 

It was in her flight she had witnessed it. A pinnacle to sin, a monument to violence, to death and ruin. Tor’Azdraeth, home of Azdromoth and The Nephilim, which stood in stark contrast to the rest of the calm forests of Asul to the south. Druids prepared for an assault upon the keep of Azdromoth in his absence, and in the fall of Axios did they make their strike. Ents, Treelords, Shapeshifters and Druii of the grove began their assault upon the towering stone citadel. Nephilim both young and old defended the fortress, showing an ample counter to the greater force which broke upon their walls. Taynei’hiylu felt a rage boil beneath the surface as she watched onward, the fledgeling Dragaar reminded of the pain she was dealt at The Titan’s hands. Unasked to intervene, with hate boiling within her heart, The Dragaar descended upon the fortress in surprise, burning at their walls with her emerald flames which melted the very stone walls that pierced the sky in height. 

 

Amidst the chaos the continent faced, the druids faced their most numbered casualties and deaths at the battle of Tor’Azdraeth. Ents burnt and corrupted by Ibleesian-draconic flame, druid cut, broken, and wounded by the many weapons of the Azdrazi within. Whilst each defender lay dead, and the ruin lay in smoke and crumbling stone, Taynei’hiylu lay mostly unharmed. She felt not only justice and retribution, but power for her destruction of Azdromoth’s most beloved. His seat, and much of his children, were now dead- reduced to ash and stone as their bloodied corpses littered the fortress. Taynei’hiylu demanded of the druids the fortress was made a home to them. Distant from the lands of Atlas they would now venture to, Tor’Azdraeth would gently be overgrown and made into a sanctuary of the druids which had conquered it. Yet the night had ended and the morning had broke, Taynei’hiylu quickly fled back to The Cradle within The Fae Realm, slumbering where she once remained until time times of Arcas would come.

 

With quick news of the defeat of her closest brother, Gudour, the fledgling dragaar wept in the fae-world. She lamented their childhood - their flights upon the world, discovering people, cultures and histories. And the most vital of this was their bond - for when Gudour was sane of mind, he showered her with kindness that was unmatched by others. In a time where people were in strife and wars, it was her brother Gudour who shielded her and protected her; this only reinforced her desire to grow stronger, so that what befell Gudour would not change its fate towards the Dragaar.

 

Taynei’hiylu swept down from her nestled homeland of groves and rivers, to land before those druids who remained strong in bond with nature, and revered the Aspects. She looked onto those druids present, and offered to return them back with her - to rest eternally in the fae-realm. Those important who were brought with her would be: An old Treelord named Midnus, the Lamb Druid Marie and finally: the Owl Druid, she who had shown her such kindness in the past. They would rest within The Fae Realm with The Dragaar, remaining by her side even to this day.

 

The cogs of time spun once more, and Taynei’hiylu slept in the Cradle; awakened again as descendants migrated to Almaris - to be tasked in giving out the Aspect Stones, and the dagger relished from it. Gruesome trials were set in motion to ensure those who would safeguard it would be worthy of the claim, and many druids: gave up, died or lost their prowess and hope. With time and arduous effort, the druids were successful in earning the stones and the dagger, tasks completed by their very deities which grant them their power.

 

It was later that Ando Alur crashed amidst a deathly burial ground, its voidal taint spreading far into the eastern subcontinent of Almaris. Taynei’hiylu returned to support those in healing the blight that stained the plane, her powerful druidic sorceries intertwining with nature to cleanse the taint and slowly return the planes of Ando Alur to normality. However, the Dragaar came to despise the bickering amongst her relished few: the druids who argued over the stones, and the fear of an ongoing perpetual threat who wanted to take it away from the aspects grasp. In doing so, Taynei’hiylu reclaimed the Aspect Stones from the hands of the druid, and returned to the fae-realm in order to safeguard it – from druids who fought internally, and the evil threats willing to corrupt it. 

 

 

PRESENT DAY

Explanation

 

In the depths of the fae realm, bulbous green lights illuminate the skies. With plentiful groves, lakes, vines and trees infested by hobbling rabbits, pouncing deers and flocks of birds - it remains tranquil and peaceful; there are no issues brought into the grasslands, nor blight that can touch the different areas of the wild plane. 

 

The earth of the fae-realm shakes with the violent slumber of Taynei’hiylu; her cycle of sleep continues, so that she may regain the strength to return to work in heralding support for the druids. Her love, rooted in the earth, seeps out of the realm to bring rise to lively groves. All can feel the essence of her power that comes with time, regained after her undisturbed drowsiness. It was the aspect stones that harbored her into this state of rest, but it is not permanent - she will awaken soon.

 

Known as the Cradle, it is a portion of the fae-realm surrounded by large hills and mountains, nesting the dragaar who sleeps peacefully in the hermit of the Aspects embrace. Streams of water flourish over her green scales, bathing her to remove grime and dirt. She is never alone, accompanied by a flock of animals that desire to rest with their pillar - Taynei’hiylu, the one who dreams of the wild, ever-watching those she adores.

 

And hopefully, the fledgling dragaar will awaken and mature from her shell.

 

To show all her strength.

 

Credit to:

Squakhawk - Writer

Werew0lf - Writer