(Warcraft) Nightmares
Posted: 2006-09-26 03:28pm
I decided to try something completely new to me: point-of-view writing. Don't worry too much if you've never played Warcraft, as he story should pretty much explain itself as it goes along. I decided to try some creative use of text as well.
Nightmares: The Window to Madness
(You are standing in a dark place of indeterminate size. You feel outdoors, though there is not wind and the air is stale. You cannot see the sky. Before you, a shape begins to emerge from the blackness. It is a dragon, large and strong and vibrant. His scales are a beautiful green the color of summer grass. Muscles ripple beneath his armor and his every move suggests power and control beyond mortal comprehension. Oddly, his eyes remained closed even as he focuses on you. He speaks, and his voice is smooth and comforting.)
I am Eranikus, once called Tyrant of the Dream. My mother is Ysera, She of the Dreaming, Aspect and Progenitor of the Green Dragonflight. Be not afraid of me, for I am a friend of mortals and have come to deliver a most urgent warning. Our world – the world you and I and all others share, is in grave danger.
Perhaps you do not know of the Emerald Dream. It is the domain of my Queen and my Flight. It is what our world would have been if not touched by mortal hands. It is green and vibrant. It teems with life, and every inch of it is ethereal and fair to look upon. It was our gift we gave to all druids to share willingly. But recently, there have been troublesome developments within the Dream. Lacking a better term, we have dubbed it the Nightmare.
The Nightmare is akin to a hurricane of dark magical energy that slowly moves across the breadth of the Dream. In its wake it leaves madness and despair, destruction and decay. Animals touched by the Nightmare become bloodthirsty and vicious. Plants and their like become fetid bearers of disease. All things alike become twisted into terrible parodies of their former majesty. We do not know why the Nightmare appeared. We do not know what drives it. We do not know how to stop it.
You may be wondering how this applies you to. Allow me to explain the terrible truth.
In her efforts to learn more about the Nightmare, Lady Ysera sent her four most trusted and valiant lieutenants to investigate it. Ysondre the Gentle, her own sister and most trusted friend. Taerar the Wise, weak in body amongst our kind but possessor of a mind most brilliant and sharp. Laughing Emeriss, dweller in the fancies and daydreams of mortals. And chief among them Lethon, Lady Ysera's second consort, a grand and noble dragon of unmatchable thought and strength.
(Long pause.)
The Nightmare devoured them without pity.
When next we saw them, they had become forces of death and destruction. There was naught left in them but hatred and madness. We would have taken and corralled them, but they fled from the reaches of the Dream and into the boundaries of the waking world. Their intent, it seems, is to spread the insanity of the Nightmare to all the corners of the world, to reduce the home we love and cherish to a twisted pool of hate and death.
I, Eranikus, was also touched by the fringes of the Nightmare, and for a time I too descended into madness. It was during this time that I took up the name Tyrant of the Dream. Thankfully, I was rescued from the depths of my insanity before it could become permanently ingrained into my psyche. It was because of this that I alone amongst all my flight understand how truly grave a threat we all are facing. The four fallen dragons, the Dragons of Nightmare, possess both the will and the means to carry out their diabolical plan. This must not be allowed.
As you have no doubt guessed by now, you are Dreaming. I have crafted this Dream and sent it out to you and hundreds like you so that you may understand what it is that threatens us all. Through this Dream you will see and hear the Dragons of Nightmare firsthand.
And you will understand why even I fear them.
(Eranikus bows his upper body and fades away into the darkness. In his place slowly appears another dragon. This one is smaller and sleeker than Eranikus and clearly female. Like Eranikus, her eyes are closed. As she comes closer, her movements lithe and graceful, the scent of electricity becomes stronger and stronger. When she speaks, her voice is soft and ethereal, almost seductive.)
Mortal. I was Ysondre, sister to Ysera. Now, I am Ysondre, goddess of change. I have become an outcast, a pariah amongst my own kind for the great crime of advancing that which is only natural. Foolish dragons! They attempt to balance the Dream with the Waking as though some sort of compromise might be reached between the two. It is my understanding alone that the two are separated for good reason. Mortalkind has ravaged and raped the Waking world. Why is there any doubt that they would do the same to the Dream, given half a chance? I will not give them that chance.
I will slay them all and let Nature take Her course.
The truth of this was revealed to me in the whirling madness of the Nightmare. In that black cyclone I sensed the unarguable truth; the terror unleashed in the Dream had been caused by mortalkind. My companions were exposed to lesser truths and it drove them mad. Only I retained clarity of mind enough to form a plan atop the foundation that the Nightmare had shown me. While the others went tearing off without pattern or order, I cloaked myself in the mists of the Dream and became as a wraith in the night.
(A playful laugh.)
I had often played games of hide and seek with my brothers and sisters when I was but a lithe young drake. Though my skill at tracking was deplorable none, not even Ysera, could find me if I did not want them to. Those childhood games served me well as my sister's pawns tirelessly searched for me. I laughed to myself as I watched them grow more and more frustrated. Then, when all was as I wanted it, I raided the nest.
For my purposes I needed lieutenants. I could not have asked for better than Phantim and Dreamstalker, two vigorous young drakes eager to please the sister of Ysera herself. Light-hearted and naïve as they were, within minutes I had them eating out of my proverbial hand. Into them I gently breathed the Nightmare into them and the rest of their world fell away until only I remained; I became their beloved and their goddess.
(Ysondre pauses a moment to purr huskily.)
I took Phantim and Dreamstalker away from the rookeries of the flight. I knew that with them in tow, hiding within the Dream would be impossible. However, now that I had the loyal knights I needed, the time for hiding was over. And so I crossed over into the Waking to begin the next stage of my plan. I had knights. Now I needed pawns.
When druidism had first taken root in the Waking world, numerous small sects had been created, such as the Claw and the Fang. I had assisted in creating sanctuaries for these bands, and now I turned that knowledge to my own purpose. The Druids of the Wing never had a chance to fight back. My knights and I descended from the sky like avenging angels, quickly dispatching the few members of the sect who could have presented a threat and then bathed the rest in the whirling energy of Nightmare. As one, the mortals fell to their knees in rapture and shouted my praises to the sky. Zealously they followed me from their former home, nearly scrambling over each other in their eagerness to be near me.
The Waking world had changed greatly since the time of my last visit and where I expected to find my next conquest, the Druids of the Horn, I instead came upon a large city of tauren. Not wishing to test my fledgling army against such a great host, I accepted the rebuke with a sigh and herded my chicks back into the wild. I realized that my original plan would not work with so many of the druids already awakened. So, I took those I had into the forested wilds and created a new sanctuary. There, I began to create my own Nightmare Flight. I consummated my relationship with my knights as well as with several of the most promising druids.
Don't look so shocked, mortal. What is the ultimate point of life if not to produce more life? Or did you think me incapable? The mad dragoness obsessed with destruction to the detriment of all else? I am not so petty. In my creation of life I create an army, one which I will wield as a most fearsome blade with which I will excise the cancer that is devouring the Waking, and by doing so, I will save the Dream from that which is destroying it.
You.
Perhaps you think me mad. Perhaps you think I am not aware of my self-contradiction? I create life and pledge to save it while I plan to exterminate thousands of lives. But as one destroys a hive of termites to save a dwelling, so too must I become the destroyer of mortalkind if I am to save the Waking world from your depredations.
(Ysondre tilts her head coquettishly and flexes her wings before lifting off into the darkness, electricity sizzling off her body as she moves. The beating of her wings creates a strong breeze that inexplicably grows more and more powerful as Ysondre disappears. As it blows, the wind seems to take on the sound of maddened whispers spoken too softly to be understood. In the darkness around you, streaks of blue-green color begin to flit through the shadows. Quickly, the individual bits of color become an ephemeral dragon, one that beats its wings silently amongst the near-gale. It lands soundlessly, and despite its bulk there is no tremor in the ground as it does. The moment it does, it begins twitching randomly and looks at you with eyes that continually blink open and close. When it speaks, it does so almost too fast to be coherent, its voice high and manic.)
Mortal! We greet you! We are the Taerar, the mind and minds and spirit and energy and soul perhaps yes even the soul of what was or perhaps still is or was the dragon called Taerar Wise. We are Taerar and we are powerful and focused and unfocused and we are determined yes very determined indeed you see we will change the world and change it forever and irrevocably!
We owe you an explanation yes we do we realize you may be confused by us and perhaps even afraid but do not be afraid for we offer you no threat we only wish to enlighten you and yours and theirs and ours and everyone's.
We have gotten ahead of ourselves we apologize we apologize most profusely now let us begin with our story our tale our account our saga our-
We apologize once again you see sometimes and often and once in awhile we become wrapped up in our details and forget what we our doing so let us not delay any longer you see our story begins when we were still the dragon Taerar Wise the dragon or we were called Taerar Wisdom for he was considered and regarded as a learned one amongst his kind it was a nickname to call him Wisdom for other dragons appreciated his knowledge and intelligence and comprehension of many many many many things.
We believe it was for his position as Wise yes it was that as much as anything for which Ysera the Dreamer She of the Dreaming chose him to investigate the Nightmare which is wild and powerful and unlimited in scope. Taerar Wise in his curiosity flew too close to the Nightmare which ensnared him and pulled him in though he struggled and fought and cried out in fear as it drew him closer and closer until he was enveloped within it and there it was that he became we the Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. Taerar Wise within the Nightmare was flayed by the great winds and screaming shrieks of the storm the hurricane the horror the fear the madness the cyclone the hate. His scales were torn from his hide his hide was torn from his muscles his muscles were torn from his nerves his nerves were torn from his bones his bones were shattered by the winds until there was nothing left of Taerar Wise but his spirit his soul his mind and he was subjected and forced to endure the winds of Nightmare without physical form or flesh or scale to protect him and he was flayed and lashed and torn and blasted by the howling screaming crying raging madness.
Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. His lone solitary single isolated mind could not handle could not comprehend could not be brought to understand the full ferocity and rage and hate and anger and power of the Nightmare. His mind was broken was shattered and divided and split and changed was turned and altered and separated into many many many many many many different changing minds consciousnesses realities...
(Taerar pauses.)
But the details are not important are they? They are not, are they? Are they? Are they not? They are not. Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. Yes. He did. He became we. He did not die. He changed. And the Nightmare released him. Without a body. We have no body. We are coherent incoherent coherent magical psychic energy. Will. We are will. We are emotion. We are knowledge.
Imagine yourself to be like us. We are not burdened not saddled not laden not hampered by physical tangible touchable body or blood or bone. We are wild and free and happy and energetic and we will never grow old never grow sick never grow weak we are perfect flawless untainted ideal faultless. And we are not selfish you see we are generous and kind we give and share. We will travel the Waking and the Dream and the Nether and the Dark and loose the Nightmare over and over and over and over and over and over until all are blessed as Taerar we are have been all will fly free without constraint or restraint, constriction or restriction. We will make the world the planet the universe the whole of existence free, free, free,free,free,freefreefreefreefree!
(Taerar's tics and twitches grow in scope as he speaks faster and faster until he literally throws himself into the air, heaving and flapping wildly as he rises into the shadows above you. As he slowly disappears into the darkness he is still talking eagerly and his voice is the last part of him to fade. You are left alone and the room is silent for a time. Then, a scent reaches you. You remember having once smelled rotting food, and this reminds you of that unpleasant memory. The scent grows more powerful until you feel like retching. Abruptly, a massive dragon's paw reaches through the floor some distance away, emerging from a hole you do not recall seeing. The paw is scabby and gangrenous, blood oozing out from around the claw tips. As the bulk of the dragon heaves itself into view, you are instinctively repulsed. It is sickly and rotting as though dead. Green muscle shows through holes in its hide and in several places the body is rotted to the bone. Foreign mildews and fungi infest its open sores. Even his teeth are rotted yellow and several are broken, showing trails of nerve and pulp. The dragon speaks and his voice is slurred and sickly. He coughs frequently.)
I am Emerrssh. Emerissh. My name is Emeriss. I wash a shervant of Ysherrra...Yshera. Ysera. She of the Dreaming.
(Emeriss coughs and a trail of greasy saliva hangs from his mouth.)
I entered the Nightmare at her bidding, the bitch. Sshhe shet me up to become thish rotting creatshure I have become...thish shick and twishted parody of what I ushed to be. I wash beautiful. Handshome. Loved. I wash the one mortalsh dreamed of when they thought of dragonssh. The Nightmare changed all that. Look at me. I am shick...disheashed. Rotting. My fall from gracshe could not have been more dramatic than this. The Nightmare broke my body'sh ability to fight germsh and disheashe but ash proof of it'sh horror it made me shomething that lived with the disheashe...shomething became part of it...shomething that became a walking disheashe itshelf.
(Emeriss weakly spreads his wings to show that they are eaten and decaying.)
Look upon me, mortal. Look upon Emerissh, who was onshe the dream of your kind! I emerged from the Nightmare like thish, thish broken and mewling thing I have become! I could not bear to look upon thish new fashe. I cried. I cried like a whelp for my mother. My heart wash broken. My pride was sshattered. Ash my new body warred with itshelf and I wash wracked with pain unimaginable, I belly-crawled away from the Nightmare ash my mother came at my whimpersh.
It would be alllright, I told myshelf. I would be better shoon. But then I laid my eyesh upon my mother and as sshe reashed for me, I shaw in her gaze that even sshe wash dishgushted and horrified by my uglinessh. I knew then that sshe would deshtroy me...deshtroy thish plagued dragon sshe hershelf had brought into thish world. And sho, before sshe could take me into her falshe embrashe, I fled.
Ash I ran, I wondered at my new shelf. I had looked into my mother'sh eyesh and sheen her intent. Ash I flew, I realished I had not merely read her intent...I had sheen her thoughtsh! The fungushesh growing into my mind had given me the power to shee into peoplesh' mindsh! I wash shtunned at thish amazing power. My trepidashion melted away and wash replashed by a feeling of power I had never experienshed before. Power! What wash beauty when compared with power? Shuddenly I felt young and virile again! I shmiled, though it cracked my lipsh to do sho. Beauty? Grashe? What were theshe but arbitrary and foolish conceptsh? Power mattered and now, I had more power than I had ever dreamed!
I knew I could not shtay in the Dream. Sho I left, and as I did sho, I turned and bellowed for my mother. I curshed her name and shpoke all manner of hateful thingsh. I heard an anshwering wail of grief and I laughed ash I knew how I would ushe my new power. To hold the emoshions of one and crussh them! The feeling energished my rotting body and I shlipped from the Dream into the Waking world! I wash like a drake again, young and hearty! I frolicked and reveled in my power! My rotting flessh meant nothing. All power comesh with a prishe, doesh it not? My beauty wash a shmall thing to loshe in return for gaining sho mucsh.
I began to tesht my power. Mortalsh could be difficult to read, I learned. But thoshe I could not read still retshed and shcreamed to my shatishfaction ash I infected them with the Nightmare and watshed them bloat with the fungi that I breathed into them. Their deathsh amushed me and I wanted more.
Now I dwell in the Waking. I have come to revere my power ash the blesshing that it truly ish. Laughing Emerissh ish no more! That weak, shuperfishial creatshure is dead! I am Emerissssss! Emerisssss! And I am without equal!
(Emeriss begins heaving his body up and down, blood oozing out from cracks in between his scales. On his third try he manages to lift himself weakly into the air and clumsily turns on his wing to vanish into the darkness. You only have a moment to clear the stench from your nostrils before a massive form drops from the sky and slams into the ground with astonishing force just in front of you. This is the largest dragon yet, his scales a pale green and his teeth and claws pristine white. Unlike all those previous, his eyes are open and staring, though they are a featureless milky white; he is blind. This is clearly a dragon in his prime and when he speaks, it is with a powerful bellow that reverberates in your chest and overwhelms your ears.)
I AM LETHON.
I AM THE LORD OF NIGHTMARE.
GAZE UPON ME AND SEE NOT A DRAGON, BUT A BEING OF YET GREATER POWER.
I WAS THE LOVER OF YSERA. HER MOST TRUSTED CONSORT. ACROSS THE WHOLE OF MY FLIGHT, NO OTHER COULD POSSIBLY COMPETE WITH ME IN ANY RESPECT.
AND SO IT WAS I WHO LED THE DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM.
IN THAT LIVING MADNESS WHERE ALL SOUND IS SHRIEKS AND ALL THOUGHT IS LOST, I WAS EMPOWERED. I HAD REACTED MORE QUICKLY TO THE STORM THAN MY COMPANIONS AND SO AS I FLEW SAFELY, SHIELDED FROM THE TERROR, I SAW THEM TORN. I SAW KIND YSONDRE'S SPIRIT BROKEN. I SAW WISE TAERAR'S MIND SHATTERED. I SAW BEAUTIFUL EMERISS' BODY TWISTED AND WARPED. ALL THIS PASSED IN MERE MOMENTS AS THEY TRIED TO FIGHT THE UNRELENTING POWER OF THE WHIRLWIND.
AND SO I SAVED MYSELF FROM THEIR IGNOMIOUS FATE. I HAD GIVEN MYSELF THE FEW PRECIOUS MOMENTS I NEEDED. UNLIKE THEM, I THREW OPEN MY WINGS AND HOWLED MY ACCEPTANCE OF THE NIGHTMARE. AND THE MAELSTROM RESPONDED. IT RIPPED THROUGH MY MAGICAL SHIELD LIKE SO MUCH PAPER AND POURED ITSELF INTO ME.
EVERY FIBER OF MY BODY WAS STRETCHED TAUT AS THE NIGHTMARE INFUSED ME WITH ITS AWESOME POWER. MY EYES FLEW OPEN AND THE CYCLONE TOOK MY SIGHT, BLASTING MY MIND WITH SO MUCH ENERGY THAT WITHIN MOMENTS I NO LONGER NEEDED THE PALTRY SENSE OF SIGHT.
I WAS NOT THROWN FROM THE MAELSTROM. I EXITED IT MOST GRACEFULLY. MY FLIGHT LOOKED UPON ME WITH MIXED AWE AND HORROR, THOUGH I KNEW JEALOUSY UNDERLINED EVERY ENRAPTURED GAZE. AND WHY WOULD IT NOT? I HAD ENTERED A MERE DRAGON; A PROUD AND STRONG DRAGON, YES, BUT STILL A DRAGON. I HAD EXITED A GOD.
YSERA SENT ME FROM HER IN HORROR. I WENT, BUT TO REMIND HER THAT SHE NOW HELD NO POWER OVER ME I SEIZED A NEARBY DRAKE IN MY IMPENETRABLE GRASP AND USING THE POWER I HAD TAKEN FROM THE NIGHTMARE, TORE THE SHADOW FROM HIS SOUL AND RIPPED HIM ASUNDER. THE NIGHTMARE HAD GIVEN ME THE POWER TO SEE THE SHADOW – THE DARKNESS THAT LURKS WITHIN EVERY SOUL – AND TO TEAR IT FATALLY FROM THEM.
I FOUND MY GODHOOD MOST PLEASING.
SHOCKED, YSERA WATCHED HELPLESSLY AS I SAUNTERED FROM HER. ONLY ONE FOOL ATTEMPTED TO STOP ME. ERANIKUS HAD EVER BEEN A RIVAL OF MINE, AND BREAKING HIM WAS A PLEASURE I CANNOT DESCRIBE.
I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE LIVING AT THE WHIM OF ANOTHER. I HAVE COME TO THE WAKING TO CARVE OUT MY OWN EMPIRE. THOSE WHO SUBMIT WILL LIVE. THOSE WHO DEFY WILL BE ERASED FROM EXISTENCE. MY GODHOOD WILL BE COMPLETE AS I RIP THE SHADOW FROM THEIR SOULS AND REMOVE THEIR EVIL FROM THE WORLD.
(Lethon flexes once and launches into the air with a burst of energy. Violet and near-black energy crackles around him as he swoops overhead and then gracefully turns to bear down on you, mouth gaping open as his claws begin to blaze with emerald fire.)
I SENSE THE SHADOW IN YOUR HEART! THERE CAN BE NO REST FOR THE WICKED!
(The dream ends.)
Nightmares: The Window to Madness
(You are standing in a dark place of indeterminate size. You feel outdoors, though there is not wind and the air is stale. You cannot see the sky. Before you, a shape begins to emerge from the blackness. It is a dragon, large and strong and vibrant. His scales are a beautiful green the color of summer grass. Muscles ripple beneath his armor and his every move suggests power and control beyond mortal comprehension. Oddly, his eyes remained closed even as he focuses on you. He speaks, and his voice is smooth and comforting.)
I am Eranikus, once called Tyrant of the Dream. My mother is Ysera, She of the Dreaming, Aspect and Progenitor of the Green Dragonflight. Be not afraid of me, for I am a friend of mortals and have come to deliver a most urgent warning. Our world – the world you and I and all others share, is in grave danger.
Perhaps you do not know of the Emerald Dream. It is the domain of my Queen and my Flight. It is what our world would have been if not touched by mortal hands. It is green and vibrant. It teems with life, and every inch of it is ethereal and fair to look upon. It was our gift we gave to all druids to share willingly. But recently, there have been troublesome developments within the Dream. Lacking a better term, we have dubbed it the Nightmare.
The Nightmare is akin to a hurricane of dark magical energy that slowly moves across the breadth of the Dream. In its wake it leaves madness and despair, destruction and decay. Animals touched by the Nightmare become bloodthirsty and vicious. Plants and their like become fetid bearers of disease. All things alike become twisted into terrible parodies of their former majesty. We do not know why the Nightmare appeared. We do not know what drives it. We do not know how to stop it.
You may be wondering how this applies you to. Allow me to explain the terrible truth.
In her efforts to learn more about the Nightmare, Lady Ysera sent her four most trusted and valiant lieutenants to investigate it. Ysondre the Gentle, her own sister and most trusted friend. Taerar the Wise, weak in body amongst our kind but possessor of a mind most brilliant and sharp. Laughing Emeriss, dweller in the fancies and daydreams of mortals. And chief among them Lethon, Lady Ysera's second consort, a grand and noble dragon of unmatchable thought and strength.
(Long pause.)
The Nightmare devoured them without pity.
When next we saw them, they had become forces of death and destruction. There was naught left in them but hatred and madness. We would have taken and corralled them, but they fled from the reaches of the Dream and into the boundaries of the waking world. Their intent, it seems, is to spread the insanity of the Nightmare to all the corners of the world, to reduce the home we love and cherish to a twisted pool of hate and death.
I, Eranikus, was also touched by the fringes of the Nightmare, and for a time I too descended into madness. It was during this time that I took up the name Tyrant of the Dream. Thankfully, I was rescued from the depths of my insanity before it could become permanently ingrained into my psyche. It was because of this that I alone amongst all my flight understand how truly grave a threat we all are facing. The four fallen dragons, the Dragons of Nightmare, possess both the will and the means to carry out their diabolical plan. This must not be allowed.
As you have no doubt guessed by now, you are Dreaming. I have crafted this Dream and sent it out to you and hundreds like you so that you may understand what it is that threatens us all. Through this Dream you will see and hear the Dragons of Nightmare firsthand.
And you will understand why even I fear them.
(Eranikus bows his upper body and fades away into the darkness. In his place slowly appears another dragon. This one is smaller and sleeker than Eranikus and clearly female. Like Eranikus, her eyes are closed. As she comes closer, her movements lithe and graceful, the scent of electricity becomes stronger and stronger. When she speaks, her voice is soft and ethereal, almost seductive.)
Mortal. I was Ysondre, sister to Ysera. Now, I am Ysondre, goddess of change. I have become an outcast, a pariah amongst my own kind for the great crime of advancing that which is only natural. Foolish dragons! They attempt to balance the Dream with the Waking as though some sort of compromise might be reached between the two. It is my understanding alone that the two are separated for good reason. Mortalkind has ravaged and raped the Waking world. Why is there any doubt that they would do the same to the Dream, given half a chance? I will not give them that chance.
I will slay them all and let Nature take Her course.
The truth of this was revealed to me in the whirling madness of the Nightmare. In that black cyclone I sensed the unarguable truth; the terror unleashed in the Dream had been caused by mortalkind. My companions were exposed to lesser truths and it drove them mad. Only I retained clarity of mind enough to form a plan atop the foundation that the Nightmare had shown me. While the others went tearing off without pattern or order, I cloaked myself in the mists of the Dream and became as a wraith in the night.
(A playful laugh.)
I had often played games of hide and seek with my brothers and sisters when I was but a lithe young drake. Though my skill at tracking was deplorable none, not even Ysera, could find me if I did not want them to. Those childhood games served me well as my sister's pawns tirelessly searched for me. I laughed to myself as I watched them grow more and more frustrated. Then, when all was as I wanted it, I raided the nest.
For my purposes I needed lieutenants. I could not have asked for better than Phantim and Dreamstalker, two vigorous young drakes eager to please the sister of Ysera herself. Light-hearted and naïve as they were, within minutes I had them eating out of my proverbial hand. Into them I gently breathed the Nightmare into them and the rest of their world fell away until only I remained; I became their beloved and their goddess.
(Ysondre pauses a moment to purr huskily.)
I took Phantim and Dreamstalker away from the rookeries of the flight. I knew that with them in tow, hiding within the Dream would be impossible. However, now that I had the loyal knights I needed, the time for hiding was over. And so I crossed over into the Waking to begin the next stage of my plan. I had knights. Now I needed pawns.
When druidism had first taken root in the Waking world, numerous small sects had been created, such as the Claw and the Fang. I had assisted in creating sanctuaries for these bands, and now I turned that knowledge to my own purpose. The Druids of the Wing never had a chance to fight back. My knights and I descended from the sky like avenging angels, quickly dispatching the few members of the sect who could have presented a threat and then bathed the rest in the whirling energy of Nightmare. As one, the mortals fell to their knees in rapture and shouted my praises to the sky. Zealously they followed me from their former home, nearly scrambling over each other in their eagerness to be near me.
The Waking world had changed greatly since the time of my last visit and where I expected to find my next conquest, the Druids of the Horn, I instead came upon a large city of tauren. Not wishing to test my fledgling army against such a great host, I accepted the rebuke with a sigh and herded my chicks back into the wild. I realized that my original plan would not work with so many of the druids already awakened. So, I took those I had into the forested wilds and created a new sanctuary. There, I began to create my own Nightmare Flight. I consummated my relationship with my knights as well as with several of the most promising druids.
Don't look so shocked, mortal. What is the ultimate point of life if not to produce more life? Or did you think me incapable? The mad dragoness obsessed with destruction to the detriment of all else? I am not so petty. In my creation of life I create an army, one which I will wield as a most fearsome blade with which I will excise the cancer that is devouring the Waking, and by doing so, I will save the Dream from that which is destroying it.
You.
Perhaps you think me mad. Perhaps you think I am not aware of my self-contradiction? I create life and pledge to save it while I plan to exterminate thousands of lives. But as one destroys a hive of termites to save a dwelling, so too must I become the destroyer of mortalkind if I am to save the Waking world from your depredations.
(Ysondre tilts her head coquettishly and flexes her wings before lifting off into the darkness, electricity sizzling off her body as she moves. The beating of her wings creates a strong breeze that inexplicably grows more and more powerful as Ysondre disappears. As it blows, the wind seems to take on the sound of maddened whispers spoken too softly to be understood. In the darkness around you, streaks of blue-green color begin to flit through the shadows. Quickly, the individual bits of color become an ephemeral dragon, one that beats its wings silently amongst the near-gale. It lands soundlessly, and despite its bulk there is no tremor in the ground as it does. The moment it does, it begins twitching randomly and looks at you with eyes that continually blink open and close. When it speaks, it does so almost too fast to be coherent, its voice high and manic.)
Mortal! We greet you! We are the Taerar, the mind and minds and spirit and energy and soul perhaps yes even the soul of what was or perhaps still is or was the dragon called Taerar Wise. We are Taerar and we are powerful and focused and unfocused and we are determined yes very determined indeed you see we will change the world and change it forever and irrevocably!
We owe you an explanation yes we do we realize you may be confused by us and perhaps even afraid but do not be afraid for we offer you no threat we only wish to enlighten you and yours and theirs and ours and everyone's.
We have gotten ahead of ourselves we apologize we apologize most profusely now let us begin with our story our tale our account our saga our-
We apologize once again you see sometimes and often and once in awhile we become wrapped up in our details and forget what we our doing so let us not delay any longer you see our story begins when we were still the dragon Taerar Wise the dragon or we were called Taerar Wisdom for he was considered and regarded as a learned one amongst his kind it was a nickname to call him Wisdom for other dragons appreciated his knowledge and intelligence and comprehension of many many many many things.
We believe it was for his position as Wise yes it was that as much as anything for which Ysera the Dreamer She of the Dreaming chose him to investigate the Nightmare which is wild and powerful and unlimited in scope. Taerar Wise in his curiosity flew too close to the Nightmare which ensnared him and pulled him in though he struggled and fought and cried out in fear as it drew him closer and closer until he was enveloped within it and there it was that he became we the Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. Taerar Wise within the Nightmare was flayed by the great winds and screaming shrieks of the storm the hurricane the horror the fear the madness the cyclone the hate. His scales were torn from his hide his hide was torn from his muscles his muscles were torn from his nerves his nerves were torn from his bones his bones were shattered by the winds until there was nothing left of Taerar Wise but his spirit his soul his mind and he was subjected and forced to endure the winds of Nightmare without physical form or flesh or scale to protect him and he was flayed and lashed and torn and blasted by the howling screaming crying raging madness.
Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. His lone solitary single isolated mind could not handle could not comprehend could not be brought to understand the full ferocity and rage and hate and anger and power of the Nightmare. His mind was broken was shattered and divided and split and changed was turned and altered and separated into many many many many many many different changing minds consciousnesses realities...
(Taerar pauses.)
But the details are not important are they? They are not, are they? Are they? Are they not? They are not. Taerar Wise became Taerar we are. Yes. He did. He became we. He did not die. He changed. And the Nightmare released him. Without a body. We have no body. We are coherent incoherent coherent magical psychic energy. Will. We are will. We are emotion. We are knowledge.
Imagine yourself to be like us. We are not burdened not saddled not laden not hampered by physical tangible touchable body or blood or bone. We are wild and free and happy and energetic and we will never grow old never grow sick never grow weak we are perfect flawless untainted ideal faultless. And we are not selfish you see we are generous and kind we give and share. We will travel the Waking and the Dream and the Nether and the Dark and loose the Nightmare over and over and over and over and over and over until all are blessed as Taerar we are have been all will fly free without constraint or restraint, constriction or restriction. We will make the world the planet the universe the whole of existence free, free, free,free,free,freefreefreefreefree!
(Taerar's tics and twitches grow in scope as he speaks faster and faster until he literally throws himself into the air, heaving and flapping wildly as he rises into the shadows above you. As he slowly disappears into the darkness he is still talking eagerly and his voice is the last part of him to fade. You are left alone and the room is silent for a time. Then, a scent reaches you. You remember having once smelled rotting food, and this reminds you of that unpleasant memory. The scent grows more powerful until you feel like retching. Abruptly, a massive dragon's paw reaches through the floor some distance away, emerging from a hole you do not recall seeing. The paw is scabby and gangrenous, blood oozing out from around the claw tips. As the bulk of the dragon heaves itself into view, you are instinctively repulsed. It is sickly and rotting as though dead. Green muscle shows through holes in its hide and in several places the body is rotted to the bone. Foreign mildews and fungi infest its open sores. Even his teeth are rotted yellow and several are broken, showing trails of nerve and pulp. The dragon speaks and his voice is slurred and sickly. He coughs frequently.)
I am Emerrssh. Emerissh. My name is Emeriss. I wash a shervant of Ysherrra...Yshera. Ysera. She of the Dreaming.
(Emeriss coughs and a trail of greasy saliva hangs from his mouth.)
I entered the Nightmare at her bidding, the bitch. Sshhe shet me up to become thish rotting creatshure I have become...thish shick and twishted parody of what I ushed to be. I wash beautiful. Handshome. Loved. I wash the one mortalsh dreamed of when they thought of dragonssh. The Nightmare changed all that. Look at me. I am shick...disheashed. Rotting. My fall from gracshe could not have been more dramatic than this. The Nightmare broke my body'sh ability to fight germsh and disheashe but ash proof of it'sh horror it made me shomething that lived with the disheashe...shomething became part of it...shomething that became a walking disheashe itshelf.
(Emeriss weakly spreads his wings to show that they are eaten and decaying.)
Look upon me, mortal. Look upon Emerissh, who was onshe the dream of your kind! I emerged from the Nightmare like thish, thish broken and mewling thing I have become! I could not bear to look upon thish new fashe. I cried. I cried like a whelp for my mother. My heart wash broken. My pride was sshattered. Ash my new body warred with itshelf and I wash wracked with pain unimaginable, I belly-crawled away from the Nightmare ash my mother came at my whimpersh.
It would be alllright, I told myshelf. I would be better shoon. But then I laid my eyesh upon my mother and as sshe reashed for me, I shaw in her gaze that even sshe wash dishgushted and horrified by my uglinessh. I knew then that sshe would deshtroy me...deshtroy thish plagued dragon sshe hershelf had brought into thish world. And sho, before sshe could take me into her falshe embrashe, I fled.
Ash I ran, I wondered at my new shelf. I had looked into my mother'sh eyesh and sheen her intent. Ash I flew, I realished I had not merely read her intent...I had sheen her thoughtsh! The fungushesh growing into my mind had given me the power to shee into peoplesh' mindsh! I wash shtunned at thish amazing power. My trepidashion melted away and wash replashed by a feeling of power I had never experienshed before. Power! What wash beauty when compared with power? Shuddenly I felt young and virile again! I shmiled, though it cracked my lipsh to do sho. Beauty? Grashe? What were theshe but arbitrary and foolish conceptsh? Power mattered and now, I had more power than I had ever dreamed!
I knew I could not shtay in the Dream. Sho I left, and as I did sho, I turned and bellowed for my mother. I curshed her name and shpoke all manner of hateful thingsh. I heard an anshwering wail of grief and I laughed ash I knew how I would ushe my new power. To hold the emoshions of one and crussh them! The feeling energished my rotting body and I shlipped from the Dream into the Waking world! I wash like a drake again, young and hearty! I frolicked and reveled in my power! My rotting flessh meant nothing. All power comesh with a prishe, doesh it not? My beauty wash a shmall thing to loshe in return for gaining sho mucsh.
I began to tesht my power. Mortalsh could be difficult to read, I learned. But thoshe I could not read still retshed and shcreamed to my shatishfaction ash I infected them with the Nightmare and watshed them bloat with the fungi that I breathed into them. Their deathsh amushed me and I wanted more.
Now I dwell in the Waking. I have come to revere my power ash the blesshing that it truly ish. Laughing Emerissh ish no more! That weak, shuperfishial creatshure is dead! I am Emerissssss! Emerisssss! And I am without equal!
(Emeriss begins heaving his body up and down, blood oozing out from cracks in between his scales. On his third try he manages to lift himself weakly into the air and clumsily turns on his wing to vanish into the darkness. You only have a moment to clear the stench from your nostrils before a massive form drops from the sky and slams into the ground with astonishing force just in front of you. This is the largest dragon yet, his scales a pale green and his teeth and claws pristine white. Unlike all those previous, his eyes are open and staring, though they are a featureless milky white; he is blind. This is clearly a dragon in his prime and when he speaks, it is with a powerful bellow that reverberates in your chest and overwhelms your ears.)
I AM LETHON.
I AM THE LORD OF NIGHTMARE.
GAZE UPON ME AND SEE NOT A DRAGON, BUT A BEING OF YET GREATER POWER.
I WAS THE LOVER OF YSERA. HER MOST TRUSTED CONSORT. ACROSS THE WHOLE OF MY FLIGHT, NO OTHER COULD POSSIBLY COMPETE WITH ME IN ANY RESPECT.
AND SO IT WAS I WHO LED THE DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM.
IN THAT LIVING MADNESS WHERE ALL SOUND IS SHRIEKS AND ALL THOUGHT IS LOST, I WAS EMPOWERED. I HAD REACTED MORE QUICKLY TO THE STORM THAN MY COMPANIONS AND SO AS I FLEW SAFELY, SHIELDED FROM THE TERROR, I SAW THEM TORN. I SAW KIND YSONDRE'S SPIRIT BROKEN. I SAW WISE TAERAR'S MIND SHATTERED. I SAW BEAUTIFUL EMERISS' BODY TWISTED AND WARPED. ALL THIS PASSED IN MERE MOMENTS AS THEY TRIED TO FIGHT THE UNRELENTING POWER OF THE WHIRLWIND.
AND SO I SAVED MYSELF FROM THEIR IGNOMIOUS FATE. I HAD GIVEN MYSELF THE FEW PRECIOUS MOMENTS I NEEDED. UNLIKE THEM, I THREW OPEN MY WINGS AND HOWLED MY ACCEPTANCE OF THE NIGHTMARE. AND THE MAELSTROM RESPONDED. IT RIPPED THROUGH MY MAGICAL SHIELD LIKE SO MUCH PAPER AND POURED ITSELF INTO ME.
EVERY FIBER OF MY BODY WAS STRETCHED TAUT AS THE NIGHTMARE INFUSED ME WITH ITS AWESOME POWER. MY EYES FLEW OPEN AND THE CYCLONE TOOK MY SIGHT, BLASTING MY MIND WITH SO MUCH ENERGY THAT WITHIN MOMENTS I NO LONGER NEEDED THE PALTRY SENSE OF SIGHT.
I WAS NOT THROWN FROM THE MAELSTROM. I EXITED IT MOST GRACEFULLY. MY FLIGHT LOOKED UPON ME WITH MIXED AWE AND HORROR, THOUGH I KNEW JEALOUSY UNDERLINED EVERY ENRAPTURED GAZE. AND WHY WOULD IT NOT? I HAD ENTERED A MERE DRAGON; A PROUD AND STRONG DRAGON, YES, BUT STILL A DRAGON. I HAD EXITED A GOD.
YSERA SENT ME FROM HER IN HORROR. I WENT, BUT TO REMIND HER THAT SHE NOW HELD NO POWER OVER ME I SEIZED A NEARBY DRAKE IN MY IMPENETRABLE GRASP AND USING THE POWER I HAD TAKEN FROM THE NIGHTMARE, TORE THE SHADOW FROM HIS SOUL AND RIPPED HIM ASUNDER. THE NIGHTMARE HAD GIVEN ME THE POWER TO SEE THE SHADOW – THE DARKNESS THAT LURKS WITHIN EVERY SOUL – AND TO TEAR IT FATALLY FROM THEM.
I FOUND MY GODHOOD MOST PLEASING.
SHOCKED, YSERA WATCHED HELPLESSLY AS I SAUNTERED FROM HER. ONLY ONE FOOL ATTEMPTED TO STOP ME. ERANIKUS HAD EVER BEEN A RIVAL OF MINE, AND BREAKING HIM WAS A PLEASURE I CANNOT DESCRIBE.
I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE LIVING AT THE WHIM OF ANOTHER. I HAVE COME TO THE WAKING TO CARVE OUT MY OWN EMPIRE. THOSE WHO SUBMIT WILL LIVE. THOSE WHO DEFY WILL BE ERASED FROM EXISTENCE. MY GODHOOD WILL BE COMPLETE AS I RIP THE SHADOW FROM THEIR SOULS AND REMOVE THEIR EVIL FROM THE WORLD.
(Lethon flexes once and launches into the air with a burst of energy. Violet and near-black energy crackles around him as he swoops overhead and then gracefully turns to bear down on you, mouth gaping open as his claws begin to blaze with emerald fire.)
I SENSE THE SHADOW IN YOUR HEART! THERE CAN BE NO REST FOR THE WICKED!
(The dream ends.)
