Setting:Tabula Gloria/Drakonid Highlands/The Drakonids

A sworn enemy of the Empire, the Drakonids were once a peaceful, if grotesque people to the west of Lake Goldenstar. They were humanoid in shape, but took on dragon-like features, including scales along their body, wings upon their back, and an affinity for fire. Likely one of the tribes left over from the broken Nation of the Thunderhead, they very much kept to themselves once For'Channar came into being. After all, they were one of the tribes in which the Stormlords tried to annihilate under Trawgtarr's rule, and the survivors were sure to pass that story along the generations. So the draconic tribesmen watched the development of the Empire closely from the skies. At first it seemed that the Empire was willing to be peaceful with their neighbors given how they approached the Eltyain people of Phrennoack. But then came Margurim III, seeking to expand eastward into the tribe's lands, for they were incredibly fertile ground. Initially, the tribe had tried to strike an agreement with the Empire, modeled after the Treaty of the Eltyain: the tribe would ensure safe passage through their lands as well as limited access to their resources provided that the Empire did not to assume control over them.

Ultimatum at Minnamack

However, the Emperor also remembered how much his predecessor's treaty stagnated the Empire's economy from the beginning. The village of Twaunae had quickly hit a peak in logging under the stipulations of the treaty, having to resort to a far more dangerous and less consistent tourism along Crenskaw Creek in order to try to make up for the losses. Though he recognized that his predecessor had meant well by the treaty, given the Empire's youth and vulnerability, he knew than to fall for it twice. When the Emperor's diplomats made the trek to the old Benaloran ruin of Minnamack to the east of Lake Goldenstar, they greeted the tribesmen not with a treaty offer, but rather an ultimatum. The Imperial Army would arrive at this ruin in five days. It would be up to the tribe to either leave their lands or to accept Imperial dominion over them in order to maintain peace between them. Otherwise, they would be dragged into a war with the Empire.

The tribesmen had prepared for a situation like this. They answered the ultimatum by murdering the diplomats then and there, sending a Mountain Owl towards the capital with simply a handprint made with their blood. They then retreated into the caves, seemingly never to be seen again. Once the Imperial Army made it to Minnamack, there was no one to be seen, except for the decomposing diplomats. Perhaps the murder was simply a defiant act before they retreated. Either way, the Emperor would get the expansion he sought and the diplomats' efforts wouldn't have been in vain.

The First Incursion

It is said that just as the Imperial Army was about to secure the area, the light was blotted forth from the land. Once the Army looked to the skies to see what was going on, it was too late. The tribesmen had emerged from the distant mountains, gliding above them. Once the soldiers got a good look at their snarling lizard-like faces and their glowing hands of fire, it was too late. All was chaos as bodies fell and others scattered in all directions, allowing the airborne beasts to pick the soldiers off one by one. The tribesmen had indeed prepared for this situation, for they had made a pact with a great dragon dwelling within one of the searing caves of the Highlands, rescinding the last of their humanity and civility in order to achieve greater power under the dragon's employ. In that one fell swoop, the Drakonids managed to drive the Army all the way back to their side of Lake Goldenstar.

But the Empire also prepared for a situation, though not quite like this. They had stationed two groups of Battlemages, one on the west bank of Nechbaer's Tears and another on the west bank of the lake. Though they were told to expect a tribal offensive, there was nothing in the description about them being able to fly, much less breathe fire. But the Empire's mages are nothing if not able to adapt themselves to differing situations. They managed to alter their strategy on the fly, switching it from a ground assault to an aerial one. Though there were many Battlemages who died that day, they were able to drive them back away from their posts. By the next day, another wave of Imperial soldiers marched upon Minnamack, this time with the remaining Battlemages in tow. The Drakonids never knew what hit them, having to retreat back to the distant peaks in order to regroup. Soon after, Minnamack was made into an Imperial fort, and the village of Nechbaer was founded on the spot where its regiment of Battlemages were stationed.

Siege at Drakonhelm

There wasn't much activity against the Empire's new holdings since the end of the First Drakonid Incursion. Sure, there were sightings of Drakonid scouts in the sky every once in a while, but nothing a few anti-air magical missiles couldn't scare off. During this time, research was being made into brilliant suits of armor found in the deeper halls of Minnamack, and soon enough, some of the soldiers there were being trained in their use. By the time the first batch of soldiers were completed in their training, Margurim III had died and his brother Alexius I had assumed the throne. Upon hearing about the reported Aethergear suits being used by the soldiers at Minnamack, the Emperor ordered the eastward expansion to continue. Assigned to lead the charge would be the Chancellor of the Imperial University, none other than Prifa Carbane, daughter of the famous explorer Ezel Carbane. Though it was an unusual decision not to assign one of his Generals to the task, Prifa was famed for her background as a mage of multiple disciplines as well as a scholar, qualities in which the Emperor believed would work in not just overpowering the Drakonids, but also outsmarting them.

Determined to destroy the "demonic evils which plagued the mountains," Prifa pushed her forces deep into the Highlands, ordering them to slay every Drakonid they encountered. Male, female, hatchling, a target was a target in her eyes. The Imperials would then descend upon a craggy structure, a grand palace carved out of the very mountainside itself. From her childhood joining her father on his travels, Prifa knew the place as Drakonhelm, then home to a peaceful if wary people. It was still home to those people, though they were transformed by a terrible force which forced them to draw her wrath. The least she could do, in her eyes, was to give these people the merciful death they are waiting for. In a brilliant display of power, magic, and speed, the Imperial forces scoured through the complex, killing as many Drakonids as they could manage, the rest of them fleeing further east into parts unknown. The operation had gone better than even Prifa had expected, celebrating the victory with her comrades outside of the bloodied palace. But then a crash echoed through the skies, and suddenly, the back of Prifa's head exploded, splattering her brains against the main portal into the palace.

One of the Drakonids was hiding off in the distance during the whole time. He watched the battle from afar, staying his hand while his brethren were utterly slaughtered by the orders of an overly zealous woman. He waited until the time was right, clutching an old Benaloran firearm in his hands. Just as she had dropped her guard to cheer in jubilation for the awful massacre she caused, he squeezed the trigger. He didn't bother to stay afterwards to inspect his handiwork, only to slip back into the mountains to report the victory to his superiors. Prifa's remains would be carried home and buried with honors, saluted as a Heroine of the Empire. Countless Drakonids were slaughtered that day, but the Drakonid sniper also came to his people as a hero, for he took down the most powerful among the Imperials.

The Second Incursion

According to official Imperial correspondence, it was said that Prifa had put down the Second Drakonid Incursion. Though the Drakonids indeed fought hard against the suffocating Imperial advance, it could hardly be considered as an Incursion, at least in the context of the First. It was a fact that the next Emperor, Alexius II, would consider in making his foreign policy. The first thing he would do upon taking the throne was to relax the Empire's control of Drakonhelm, an unofficial gesture of peace towards the Drakonids, who were surely still bitter after the devastation the Empire had wrought upon them. Though commoners didn't know of the move, those in the higher echelons of government repeatedly warned the Emperor about it. They feared that it would only invite the Drakonids back to wreak more havoc upon the Empire, that only further pressure against them. But the Emperor held his ground, citing that the "wishes of the Founder were no longer being heeded," that the Empire had "become an engine of War rather than an engine of Service."

The actual Second Drakonid Incursion has yet to come. Surely, there are those among the Drakonids who are planning it. There are also likely those who cannot get the images of the Siege at Drakonhelm out of their heads and wish for it not to happen again. This schism in the future of the Drakonids only serves to allow the great dragon in which the tribe bartered with to furthermore corrupt their minds, formerly unable to do so given their original, singular purpose.

To the northeast of the Western Continent, further north than even the great mountains of Benalor dare reach, lies a frozen land of eternal winter. The winds howl and the snow falls with the lament of its former inhabitants, the Iotold, a people who hail from a time prior to that of even the Old Empires. Despite all of it, life still thrives there, great forests spanning from coast to coast of the peninsula, even people making their lives there.