Ch.1 Fall of Draconia

The Destruction Of Draconia

In the far north is a ring of volcanos sacred to the ancient red dragon families of Cylinder. Over tens of thousands of years, the dragons built the volcanos into the origins of their sprawling empire. The dragon's gold paid for terror and slaves and they spread their influence, the gold making its way back to start the cycle again. The constant running of the engine of war, the interplanar trade of slaves and technological advancements needed to manage millions, and the harnessing of ever greater powers by greedy overlords built a strangely modern city in a world still wild and free.  Liliend, the favorite elf slave of Dreadless Carnionexus, does her best to act the part of someone under the influence of the city's slave suppression field emanating in from the outer walls.

She notices things for the first time in decades while walking across the tops of the buildings, Draconia looks like a city in hell. Lava lit corridors of urban sprawl sit between mountainous volcanic buildings that services its red dragon rulers. It was from the air and in the great palace volcanos that the Red Dragon City earned its impressive and opulent reputation away from the slums and slave traders. It was common to the skies filled with dragons and flames, their deafening roars would drown out the clamor of the city, and for just a moment silence would overtake a million souls as the world waited for the fire and death that followed the anger of the red dragon lords. Around the city in glowing hot corridors powered by lava and steam, draconian warriors ordered around humanoid slaves that did the work needed to tend to a thousand dragons and a million draconian warriors, the main fighting force of the chromatic dragon empire. The boiling temperatures cook the uncovered skin of humanoids so sheets of “Ice Cloth”, paper thin sheets cut from the ever frozen lake Kdbrachtca, are used to compensate. The clear flexible ice was as much a curse as a necessity, as it was a delicate art to add enough insulation and wrap it correctly without letting it touch the skin, freezing solid in seconds. Many die accidentally wrapping themselves too tightly just trying to escape the deadly heat. An even worse fate is to wrap themselves completely leaving a small hole in the cloth to breathe through just to have the cloth slowly go stiff with the building frost. They scream in their ice cocoons locked in place breathing the scorching air. Unattended the frost builds up around their mouth and they suffocate before they freeze.

Liliend was walking alone in a crowd of people after she had left her entourage to walk down the common path. Atop the buildings, she couldn't help but feel pity for the poor and enslaved who huddled in cooler areas. She was one of them until a month ago, though she had rarely been outside the palace. They seemed so hollow and broken, just as she must have been. Most were taken from their homes in dragon raids, the epic and powerful beasts leading groups of humanoid warriors that have been millennia long bane of the north. Now draconian warriors, humanoid sized warriors made from cursed dragon eggs, were becoming the loyal legions of the dragon overlords as the humanoid slaves were being replaced and worked to death in cities like these. At least their suffering would soon be over. Or at least that is what she told herself. 

She passed groups carrying buckets of water to throw onto a Dajin who was taking his time deciding who he would purchase and lamenting about the quality of them. She caught eyes with him for a moment, just as the smug look on the water genie's face was washed off by an ill timed bucket as he was speaking. She let out a small laugh just before the man was thrown from the building to his death, the enchanted slaves unable to resist as tears of the trapped souls inside fell down their faces. If Liniend had a spear in hand she would have ran him through. But she wasn't here for him. She was here for the whole city and such an outburst would have given her away as no longer under their control.

A tower rises above the slums to her right. The wealthy often built these because the updraft from the city was much cooler than being down with glowing cobblestones. They used slaves and servants to do their bidding down below and only traveled by airship to other higher-up and prestigious locations. Many of them had sold their own kind, none were innocent. Liliend felt proud to walk the common path below, though she was not accustomed to it being a slave of the royal family. She was born a free elf who’s forest was burned and her and her family were taken. Magics were used to influence her behavior and track her movements, these were suppressed by the elven military she was sent to as a gift but they were still in place enough to fool her masters. She was under her own control for the first time in decades. The dampening slavery magic didn't completely remove someone's awareness so even as a child she knew the war was turning and the time of the dragons was at an end. Only she remained now of her family, she wasn't sure what she owed her life to, but she had been ready for death for a long time. She passes a noisy draconian shop filled with weapons and meat and various smelly tinctures. Aging draconians pick through the wares while younger warriors boast and try out weapons. The dragon humanoids eyed her as they passed whispering to one another. She started walking faster. The sun was starting to fall. That wasn't good, she needed to be at the meeting of the dragon lords before it was dark. 

A loud roar was followed by the massive shadow of the great red dragon general Lucidiouser. In the cloud giant war he was known to set entire floating citadels on fire with a single massive breath and seemed large enough to burn down the world should he be set loose. She could only imagine what was about to happen. Her legs felt heavy. Did she take the slower path on purpose to keep herself from her goal? She had to shake off doubt and fear but she was walking through hell incarnate and this last mile seemed an eternity away. She felt nauseous, she stumbled off to the side and slumped down away from the crowd. And there in front of her was a small scorched wooden doll. A children's toy. Who’s, she didn’t know. Were they even still alive? Looking up she felt new determination to destroy this place. “This ends today” she said to herself as she joined the precision again.