The Factional War

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 85651

"Euaristus, we should not do this." said the left one.

"It has been long." said the right one. "The world does not turn the way it once did. We can no longer be certain. Are you truly certain, Euaristus?"

"I heard him die." said the middle one.

"The land forsakes all of us, Euaristus." said the left one. "We are wicks, flaming down to our last remnants. Soon our kind will no more."

from Episode 85297


Lady Euaristus looked directly into Elaine's eyes. It was as if she were sizing her up, and trying to decide whether or not to tell her something. Then she began, in the voice of a grandmother, who had a story to tell, and would tell it her way, or else she would not tell it at all. Elaine kneeled in front of Euaristus in order to get comfortable, and Astra followed suit. The two women knew that this was going to take some time.

Euaristus began, "A very long time ago, beyond the memory of any dragon living, or beyond the records of reliable historians, we were once more like you. Our lives were short, we were fertile, and our natural form was different from what it is today. The understanding of the exceptions to the laws of nature – of the motions of bodies, of the generation of fire, of the mind itself – was grasped by us earlier than it was grasped by man. And those of our kind who understood, and could use this power, prevailed over those who could never gain it. Some of our forebearers recorded that they thought that when that happened, we lost something important. I am of that mind myself, but I cannot tell you exactly why I feel that way, or what it even was that we lost."

"Anyway, at some point, all dragons became magical." Euaristus was weighing her words carefully. She tightened her lips and appeared to be unsatisfied with the way she expressed that thought. "That is crude way of putting it. But I cannot describe it any other way."

"Well, the knowledge of magic, as it were, changed us. Slowly, over the years, we found that we could modify our bodies, extend our lives, and build great engines that would serve to give us pleasure, comfort, and safety. We started to explore this world. And early on, we learned to use our fellow animals to whatever purpose that we needed. The most valuable animal to us was mankind."

Elaine and Astra frowned, and they both were prepared to respond, but Euaristus's eyes bored in on them. She would tell the story her way, or not tell it at all. And both wanted to hear more.

Euaristus continued, "Now, I understand that from the actions of Minestus, that you all have a bad idea of what that means. But originally both dragon and man benefited, or so the old historians say. Men would help us build great works, mine valuables from the earth, and till the soil. In exchange, the cities that had a dragon were special indeed, and have an advantage over those that did not. These cities would gain access to the dragon's knowledge and had a guardian that would fight for them if that were needed. With the knowledge, humans gained a lot – the knowledge of writing, of the arts of pottery, and the understanding of how to grow many valuable crops. We were much sought after in those days, and our knowledge and power grew."

Elaine blurted out, "We never had a dragon overlord in Telluria."

Euaristus smiled, and said, "Not as such. When we had discovered your homeland, the House of Stanley ruled - we think of it as the Kingdom of the Stanleys, or Stannic Kingdom, rather than the later Telluria. And they were the one exception to the state of humanity at that time. By the time we found them, the citizens of the Kingdom of the Stanleys had solved many of the mysteries of the natural world, and even some of those of the supernatural. My forebearers debated what to do. Ultimately, it was determined that we would treat the men of that Kingdom well, and work with them on projects that would benefit dragon and man, but that no dragon was to claim overlordship. This was done, not for your benefit, but for ours. To give one of our kind such a prize would create a dragon so powerful that he or she could hold the others in thrall. For that was the secret fear of many dragons."

"The years of the House of Stanley were a Golden Age for us dragons. There was much knowledge that our forebears knew during that time that has since been lost." Euaristus stopped, and sighed. Astra and Elaine sat at attention. For a dragon to admit weakness was disorienting, as they both considered arrogance as being as much a part of being a dragon as their flame, or scaly coat.

She continued, "We sent people from our domains to your empire to keep track of what was going on. We did this through the years of the Stannic Kingdom. Nothing lasts forever, especially for brilliant but fragile beings such as yourselves. Like roses, the Stannic Kingdom flourished for a time and then winter set in. Quite literally in their case. There was a Dynastic War, and then a number of years without a summer. By the time that land became warmer again, the Kingdom was in chaos, and the great engines were rusting, with the knowledge of how they worked gone."

"Now I am going to get into more recent history - before my time, and also before yours, Elaine. During period of your Kingdom that you called the Dark Ages, the dragons turned inward. At that point, we had become dependent on the humans to do our work. We modified our own bodies. The art of creating things ourselves was beneath our dignity - a human could do it, or we could use our magical talents. Our new bodies became in some ways impractical. But that did not matter. The changes of this time were driven by vanity and the whims of the day. We became large, because our forebearers thought large was impressive. We grew long tails, because it was the fashion of the times. We glittered like gold and silver at that time. These bodies were beautiful in the eyes of our forebearers, and inspired awe in the eyes of humanity and the higher animals."

"It was late in your Dark Ages that a great tragedy happened. Our forebearers learned the secret of life itself. They thought that they had conquered disease and old age, and barring accident or violence, that they were immortal. Every dragon started to do what was right in his or her own eyes. The act of bringing another dragon into the world, instead of being regarded as a beautiful thing, became a problem to be solved. A young dragon was not a son or daughter, but a competitor who would ruin the pleasure of the parent and the progress of society. They decided to limit the number of new wyrms."

"And so they built a great engine. Children would be rare, and come into the world when and where they were need. At that time, it was thought that 180 dragons was the ideal number - enough so that we could keep an eye on the world, but not so many that any particular dragon would struggle for existence. Therefore, the machine was set so that it would require 40 of us to permit the creation of any new egg. In those days, they were able to this without all dragons even being in the same place, in a more advanced form of the silent speech, maybe. I don’t know."

Astra shook her head, but Elaine nodded. Euaristus said, "Those of us who have studied the arcane arts know how to communicate with each other, silently. There is a certain etiquette to doing it so that those with the ability do not drive each other mad, and I am not sure whether the Tellurians retained the art."

Elaine replied, "It was known in my homeland. Please continue."

"During your Dark Ages, the remnants of mankind in the east of the old Stannic lands accepted the overlordship of dragons. But the men of the west part preferred independence, and our forebearers did not pay any attention to them. And then a certain crafty and admirable warrior, General Teller, united the districts around the old city of Pollux. Does this sound familiar, Elaine?"

"Yes. That was the time of the five good kings."

Euaristus replied, "Yes. Within a century, the young empire of Telluria had recovered to the point where the people were fed, trade had recovered, and the natural arts were flourishing again. At this point, there was a renewed interest in the supernatural arts. There were seven scholars, if I remember correctly."

Elaine interjected, "THE Seven Scholars. My grandfather was one of them."

"Ah, you date yourself, Elaine. You are far older than me." Both Elaine and Euaristus allowed themselves a smile. Euaristus continued, "Telluria's skill in the supernatural grew greatly, and there was a sort of Little Golden Age of magic. Our forebearers became interested in you again, but they did not have the wisdom or tranquillity of those that lived during the Stannic times."

"At the point where you were placed in statis, our community was in trouble. We had not allowed a new wyrm to be born in a century. hat generation became selfish. They started treating mankind as a mine to be quarried and abandoned, rather than an orchard to be nurtured and protected. Instead of assisting men, we started to order them to do our bidding. The younger generation grew proud, even as their skills declined. Having mastered man and nature, they only had one thing to fear - other dragons."

"I have noticed, Astra, that some of your leaders spend much time and treasure in building castles to protect themselves and their people from other men. We dragons became our own castles. This was the time where the dragons learned to capture flame within our bodies. Like a castle, we developed walls, but ours are of armour. We lost our shine, assuming colours that would either dully blend in to the background or try to inspire terror. We took the form that we have today. We started to fear the open spaces, and retreated to fortified places, or to caves."

"But now we come to a time just past the time when Elaine went into stasis, I believe. Elaine, you saw a fragment of the time that came after. But ironically enough, it was your empire, your people, who sparked the Factional War that eventually destroyed us. Things started out well enough between us. But then we saw your people become skilled in the supernatural, and you were now starting to discover things that we did not know. And we were deeply divided. But that did not prevent trouble. Two factions developed. One faction, called the Ethereals, proposed to destroy your cities, and your technology. Because, if you had our knowledge, you would be a threat – a competitor. The Ethereals also strongly believed that each dragon should mind his or her own business. Another faction, which called themselves the Philosophic, believed that limited cooperation among dragons would be good, and that human and dragon cooperation in gaining knowledge of the supernatural might be the beginning of a new Golden Age. This Faction proposed that we offer to exchange knowledge with your leaders, and designate three dragons to acts as ambassadors - and not overlords - to the city."

"The Philosophic Faction prevailed, but there was discontent among some of the Tellurians and dragons. For many Tellurians saw this as compromising their independence, and the Ethereals saw this as reckless indulgence of humanity. But the Philosophic path seemed to work for a time."

But then, one day, the three ambassadors were murdered. Nobody knows who did it, although a lot of lies were written by all parties involved. And that was the start of the Factional War. The dragons of the Philosophic Faction were snuffed out. We lost two thirds of our population in the purge. Another result, that you saw in your vision, was the annihilation of the Tellurian Empire."

"I was born after that time. I was in the generation that came into being after the Factional Wars had ended and the Ethereals had won. I had always felt that we had somehow fallen, and so I read the histories of other times. Although the actual factions no longer exist with active organizations, and their leaders are long since dead, their ways of looking at the world still affect us. I am more strongly sympathize with the Philosophic point of view. The Order that I belong to is founded on many of their beliefs. I bring two others who are also of the Order, who should be here shortly, after they have completed their tasks."

Astra replied, "What happened to the Ethereals?"

Euaristus shook her head. "Ironically enough, they turned on each other. Remember,the Ethereals believed strongly that each dragon should mind his or her own business, and no dragon should rise above the others, as well as believing that humans should know their place. It did not take much for one Ethereal to believe that another was trying to rise above him or her, and they ravaged each other's lands. And some of the dragons of my time, and especially the time afterward, are little better than savages. They have had little guidance, and are often not likely to accept any."

Astra then said, "There is one thing that I have never understood. With all their power, and all their wealth, why would someone like Minestus kidnap the young women of our kind and hurt them? If I had the power to transform, I would not become a field mouse and then kill another mouse's children. It is not only evil, but unbelievably petty."

Euaristus shook her head. "That is shameful. Some of us have fallen quite low. But ...."

She paused. She was hesitating. There was something that she felt that she had to tell, but did not want to. She plunged ahead.

"There is a special wound - a terrible one - that our kind has inflicted on itself. I told you earlier, that our forebearers, in their pride, constructed an engine that requires forty dragons to assent to bringing a new wyrm into the world. They never thought that it would become impossible to get forty dragons to agree. But that is the way things are today."

Astra and Elaine's eyes widened. Had the number of the dragons dropped below the forty the Euaristus had mentioned? Or were they so divided that it was merely impossible to get an agreement on which dragon would be the first to do so? Or perhaps there was agreement, and the knowledge of how to operate the device had been lost? The question was not asked.

Euaristus continued, "So a dragon like Minestus cannot even do what a possum or field mouse can do, and have offspring. And the one lesson that he remembers from history is that humans used to serve us. So if a bully like Minestus resents humans for a joy that he can never feel, how would he naturally strike back?"

Astra was stunned. She understood why Euaristus did not wish to discuss the tragedy of the dragons. The stories of dragons murdering children and her shabby treatment at the paws of Minestus made sense, in a sick sort of way. Elaine said, "The machine - the duplicate of the one in the Azure Citadel - what exactly does it do? It was a relic of what you call the Stannic Kingdom. If you want to help us, why do you not see hope in it? It might restore some of what was lost."

"If it is what I think it might be, which would be some variety of a device called the Nexus, that engine is likely to be an incomplete and twisted version of the one in the Citadel. Such a device should never have been built in the dark, and in secret, for one thing. It cannot possibly lead to any good. Even in your time, the machine in the Citadel was not exactly what it was when it was built - just as my kind of that age was not the same as those of the Golden Age, and the Tellurians were not the same as the Stannics. But to answer your question as to why I am concerned - the two in my company will fear it because it can be used as an instrument to enslave us, either by another dragon or humanity. But I am concerned about it for yet another reason. If this machine is what I think it is, it may take mankind down our path, and drain from their souls that which makes you human."

  1. The questions continue.
  2. Elsewhere ....

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