The Council of Wyrms

Patron: The Council of Wyrms

  • Duchak the Younger (Great Wyrm Gold Dragon)
  • Ri'an the Crown-Bearer (Great Wyrm Imperial Dragon)
  • Seeve the Silver (Great Wyrm Silver Dragon)
  • Weyr Tathmalasain the Bronze (Great Wyrm Bronze Dragon)
  • Vathahaut the Copper (Great Wyrm Copper Dragon)
  • Thykondrot the Brass (Great Wyrm Brass Dragon)
  • Iskarazand of the Setting Sun (Great Wyrm Sky Dragon)
  • Amban Kio, Born of the Deep Place (Great Wyrm Sea Dragon)
  • Soken the Diamond (Great Wyrm Crystal Dragon)

Capital: Clockwork Garden
Primary Race: All
Primary Language: High Draconic
Suggested Traits: Artist, Beacon of Faith, Blessed Touch, Cooperative, Cosmopolitan, Education, Mercantile Background, Militia, Saddleback, Silver Palm, Street Smart, Templeborn, Wealthy
Regional Feat: Common Faith

 

Description

The jewel of Zenáthras, the Council of Wyrms was the first nation to adopt the system of patronage and remains the largest, strongest, and most unified.  Each of the powerful Councilors maintains a large city, while lesser wyrms protect villages and townships spread across a third of the continent west of the Wallshard Heights.  Though these pockets of civilization are dotted across the wilderness, their unity is maintained by the Council's two greatest assets: the Knights Draconis and the airship fleet.

Every dragon within the Council is required to serve at last one century as a Knight Draconis, a defender of the Council partnered with a human rider chosen from the most capable and pious devout in the Council.  These teams escort airships, guard caravans, patrol the cities and farmlands, seek out dangerous monsters in the wilderness, and, in times of war, serve as the backbone of the Council's military might.  Humanoids selected to be Dragon Riders are trained from a young age and generally serve for a minimum term of 8 years regardless of race, though it is rare to find members of the so-called Sky Corps that willingly retire, instead being grounded after decades or centuries of active service as their aging bodies can no longer bear the strain of constant travel and combat.

While the Knights Draconis fall under the direct command of the Council, their other major asset—the airships—is privately owned, though many of the mercantile entities that own them are also headed by dragons.  Costing hundreds of thousands of gold to build and maintain, there are nevertheless scores of these aerial vessels in service across the whole of the Council, from small messenger barques and merchants' lumbering cloudjammers to the deadly, ballista-armed wings-of-the-line and even the rare sky citadels which serve as mobile roosts for the Knights Draconis.

There are nine major cities within the Council, each presided over by one of the Councilors.  The largest and most famous of these is the seat of the Council itself and ruled over by the current council head, Duchak the Younger: Clockwork Garden.  Located amongst the cliffs and hoodoos of the western flank of the Wallshard Height, it was once the seat of the Kingdom of Gycatta, a nation of middling size and importance during the Era of Heroes.  No, it is a staggering metropolis and home to nearly 80,000 residents.

Unlike many other countries, which define themselves as much by race as location, one of the founding principles of the Council is species equality.  All residents are welcome, be they the humans and orcs that make up the majority of the population, the elves who live mostly in the forests around Ri'an's city of Uzul, or even the mysterious Gyrfolk who seldom leave their plateau aeries near Iskarazand's home of Fleita.

 

History

The Council has its origins in an agreement made between the golden dragon Duchak the Elder and the last ruler of the human nation of Gycatta, Prince Gynus Praesor.  Originally little more than an agreement to protect Clockwork Garden, it not only founded the Knights Draconis but opened the way to discover how a patron Great Beast could grant followers magical powers.  When Gynus died without an heir, the people acclaimed Duchak their new ruler and the dragon began extending his protection to other cities, as well as finding like-minded dragons who, in turn, adopted cities of their own.  In time, the mightiest representative of each draconic lineage agreed to form a council which could guide the growth of the entire region as a whole.

This Council of Wyrms has succeeded in subduing more territory than any other nation in Zenáthras and has also extended aid to other peoples and nations outside their sphere of influence.  At various times in the past, they have helped the people of Idyle, the Tide Princes, the Chorate of Dwallutham, and Jyvestra.

Most disastrous of all their exploits abroad, however, was the Volcannon War in Millennium 7 Year 320 against the Tyrancy of Geddephron.  Long seen as an inexcusable insult to the Council and a terrible abuse of those living beneath its shadow, the Tyrancy—ruled by an unidentified but malevolent species of dragon—was declared anathema to the Council and the greatest army since the Era of Heroes was gathered.  Hundreds of airships and dragons cross the Sea of the Watchers and the Feidul, striking at the Tyrancy's eastern border and pushing hundreds of miles in.  Though the Tyrancy fielded dragons of its own, they were unable to match the teamwork and experience of the Knights Draconis and they fell, burning, from the sky.

When they neared the Tyrancy's capital, the volcanic citadel of Cruciform, Geddephron itself joined the battle and the warriors of the Council learned fear.  At the head of the Council's armies, Duchak the Elder was the largest and mightiest dragon any had ever seen, over a hundred and fifty feet in length, weighing hundreds of tons and able to pull apart adamantine like a man might shred paper.  Geddephron dwarfed Duchak like a wyrm dwarfs a hatchling, with witnesses estimating its length at five hundred feet or more, with some of the more hysterical claiming him nearly a thousand, with wings that would have blotted out the sun if they had not burned as ferociously as a forge fire themselves.

The cost of that battle cannot be underestimated, for they lost Duchak and twenty more of the most powerful dragons in the army, including the councilors Ouro Met and Gallaseius.  Airships burned and plunged from the sky, carrying their crews down into death.  Geddephron's fire burned dragonflesh where no mortal flame could hope to find purchase and its claws splintered scale and armor alike.  It remains the Council's greatest and most telling defeat, the consequences of which have reverberated to this very day.  Only in the last few years has the Council regained the same measure of strength that it had at the outset of that terrible conflict.

 

Foreign Relations

For the most part, the Council retains good relations with those powers it views as righteous or, at the least, as being on the whole beneficial to their vassals.  They have a close relationship with the elves of Idyle and they trade regularly with the Tide Princes, Dwallutham, Jyvestra, and Kyth.  They also have some measure of contact with Estruaza, Marukeem, Tholaqua, L'r Tost, and Zharad Gruene.

On the other hand, they refuse to have any truck with the Tyrancy of Geddephron or countries of similar dark purpose, such as Skunting, Tythald Gate, Möth Unvidia, or Barren Haven.  They remain relatively neutral to more ambiguous nations such as Voad or Imbara, but supply their victims with aid whenever those two countries decide to go on the warpath.

The Council also has far more contact with the isolated freeholds and redoubts that dot the globe, often running airship routes out to trade and sending Knights Draconis to patrol nearby settlements and try to keep them from falling victim to the dangers of the world.  For these charitable actions, the Council is much-loved by travelers and the residents of these isolated places.