Outpost's Clan

User Status 03/01-2024:
I'm returning from my sudden and unexplained year-long hiatus

It's been a... really rough year for me, to say the least. I'm fragile and worn out, but I've missed my dragons and my FR community, so I'm slowly working on finding my way back, starting with figuring out what I've missed in my absence.

To all those who I just disappeared on without an explanation, and might have hurt or worried in the process: I'm so sorry. My intention was never to do that, but that does not change what actually happened, and I cannot make any promises that I won't do the same again since, unfortunately, my anxiety has way too much power over my life and my mental health isn't at its best, lately.

But I want to return to FR, and I want to stick around, this time. Hopefully that will matter more, in the end.




Before we start in on the Clan Lore (as it will be quite long and barely anyone will have the energy to scroll past it), let's begin with important info about me and some meta-knowledge about the Clan, shall we?



I'm at FR +9 and suffer a case of strong introvertedness + some social anxiety, so sometimes when everything gets to be too much I need to cut myself off from the world (including the internet) and just... be.

That means that my replies can be somewhat irregular and arrive at odd times XP I really do like being social when I have the energy for it, though, so don't let this stop you!

...that said, I'm just going to leave this link here as an apology to all those whom I have gone silent on and as a warning for all future possible internet friends.



Speaking of friends! I'm not a great fan of random friend requests - please talk to me first, even if it's just "I want to friend you so that I can find your lair again." It doesn't need to be a long conversation :)

That said, I semi-regularly clean out my friends list of people I don't immediately remember the reason for why they're in there. It doesn't mean I don't like you anymore, it just means I have a bad memory and like to keep the list clean. Feel free to send a new request if you want.



I have waaayyyyy to many projects going on simultaneously.... *sigh* So my lists are mainly for my own organisation, but if there is a kind soul out there who would like to contribute, you would have my profound gratitude.

And since I have so many different project/wish lists, I'll just leave the link to the dragon holding my master list here. You can find all the rest from her bio via clicking on the relevant links :)

The wishlists can also be used to see which thigs I might accept as alternate forms of payment!



Apart from the Clan Lore you will find below, all the dragons in my Outpost tab have a story of their own. The Wanderers also have a few sentences, even if it's nothing as elaborate as the Outpost dragons. You can either click through my lair randomly, or start your journey over at the Lore Directory.

The dragon who holds it is not a part of my lore, but she still serves the important role of helping you (and me) see which dragons have completed bios and which only have brief (or not-so-brief) story notes, complete with links to all dragons for ease of access! She also holds links to pieces of my lore which do not make it into any dragon's bio (or she will, eventually, I just need to pretty up my lore scrap documents first).



All dividers and such in my dragon's profiles and here in the Clan profile are made by osiem - you can find the dividers (and other wonderful art) here!







The Outpost began as an abandoned, withering and dilapidated ruin much like any other ruin, barely distinguishable from the rest of the ages-old wreckage littering the Shade-blighted Hewn City, crying out with voices unheard for things they barely even remembered, for the lives long since ended within their walls in a never-ending song of lament.

The particular ruin that would one day be dubbed "The Outpost" had three advantages over every other ruin in the area, though, for all that it didn't know it: its foundations were still standing strong despite everything that had happened to it in ages past, it straddled the mouth of the Hewn River, and one day, a war-weary Guardian would be able to hear its sorrow.

These three things would allow the structure to once again find life, laughter, activity, love... and above all, it would bring the sun back to the bleak rocks that had long since forgotten the Lightweaver's touch.

The change wasn't instant, or painless. No, quite the opposite.

The change began with war.

With blood flooding the haunted river of salt until it ran visibly red even in the darkness and smelled like iron.

With pained howls, crazed cries and frenzied bloodlust.

With the dragons pushed back as the Bleastclans turned the corpses of their comrades against them, grotesque monstrosites rising from muddied ground as the Beasts denied the fallen Imperials their proper funerals.

With shattered pieces of eggshells slowly dimming as they lost the magic of the life that they had once sheltered littering the shores of the Hewn City as if in a demented mockery of the stars in a night sky the place had not seen for ages.

With death, death, and more death.

Let no-one say that the Deities' reclaiming of Sornieth passed without conflict or bloodshed. No, atrocities were committed on both sides of the war as the Eleven claimed the world for their children.

...still, in most places, things didn't get as bad as they did in the Hewn City.

In the Hewn City, the Shade was watching, waiting, laughing as its pray did its work for it.

In the Hewn City, the fighting never ended.

In the Hewn City, every fallen dragon and beast was only fuel for the remaining wisps of the ancient abomination that had buried down and hid in the wreckage when the Eleven came, undetectable among the ancient laments of the land.

And so it goaded the fighting on and on and on.

It took long for the dragons to notice - almost too long, so caught up were they in the battle against the Beasts and the petty squabbling amongst themselves about which Deity got which piece of land once it had been wrested from the Beasts.

But only almost.

The scholars and tacticians noticed that something was wrong in the reports coming in from the area - to much blood and violence and berserker rage without any thought behind it, on both sides.

The Lightweaver was the first to investigate, which would be what finally solidified the Ruins as the Sunbeam Ruins, as hers.

The brilliant Light surrounding Her easily revealed the rooted Shade, and she trapped it and drove it back.

Back, but not away.

It had grown too deeply, Rooted itself too thoroughly in Sornieth's very being - pulling it out would mean opening up a wound in the world that would steadily leak magic until Sornieth bled out, becoming nothing more than an inert husk floating through space.

In comparison, it was better to leave the parasite in place. But it could not be allowed to assert dominion over the area again, so the Lightweaver, in Her great wisdom, stopped trying to conquer more land for her children and instead settled in the Ruins, Rooting Her magic into the ground much like She had observed the Shade doing and flooding it until it could remember no other influence than Hers, thus caging the parasite in the Hewn City and claiming all of the Sunbeam Ruins for herself.

Her work was not done there, of course - She still had to hold her newly claimed lands, so She recalled her Host, giving them a new mission: Defend, and Protect.

This is where we come back to the structure that would become home for the Outpost Clan, and the three things that bring it salvation from the oblivion of time: structural integrity, a strategic position and a Guardian who could hear its lament.

Having heard of a Guardian mate-pair (minor officers in Her Host but allegedly very charismatic and exceptionally skilled in battle besides) who had somehow survived the worst years of the Hewn City battlefields with their bodies and minds intact, the Lightweaver assigned them a command position close to the centre of the Shade burrow, where they would be uniquely poised both to watch over it and to repel the Maren's advances upon the Hewn City by guarding the salt river coursing though it.

They were assigned to the ancient, crumbling river-fort straddling the mouth of the Hewn River, stubbornly standing strong despite the test of the ages and the tides, only its water gates having given up the fight, rusted and rotted to ruin until they offered no protection whatsoever.

Upon arrival, the Fort sang to the male of the pair, Odin, who broke down crying at the pure sorrow and determination contained in the melody, as well as the deep sense of belonging and purpose that filled him as he finally found his Charge after his centuries of Searching. His mate, Frigga, held him and kept watch until he had settled, and they could begin their tenure as dual Commanders of the Host of Light's Central Hewn City Outpost, bringing the fort back to life, slowly but surely as each room was swept out, repaired and inhabited.

The War was still ongoing, the Shade was still lurking, but slowly but surely the sphere of influence this small outpost held expanded in spite of blood, death and insanity as the Commanders grew more established and experienced.

It was an uphill battle - the Hewn City was still the least desired posting in just about all of Sornieth, its most military active outpost even more so, and almost all personnel coming through the Central Hewn City Outpost were rotated out often to prevent the pervasive, Shade-brought insanity of the Hewn City to take root in their minds, but somehow the Commanders made it work.

They made it work, and they started building up a core force. Dragons too insane for any other commander to handle, sent to them as a last resort, dragons too broken to want to go anywhere else, dragons too damned stubborn to let the Shade win.

The year-rounders, the Veterans.

They made a motley crew of just about every type and degrees of issues in existence, but it worked. They found a home in each other, the lost, the broken and the outsiders.

A home in the welcoming arms of a fort that refused to let go of a single one of the bright new sparks of light and life it had found, knowing what it was like to be lifeless and forgotten for so long.

And then the war ended.

Peace settled upon the realm of Sornieth.

Most of it, at least.

Enough that eventually, the Lightweaver officially started dissolving and reassigning Her Host of Light, converting it into an Exalted Guard Force.

In this process, the old Host's outposts were abandoned, one by one, or at least as good as when only a scout or two came by every now and again, to make sure that the peace held as it should.

Neither the ancient water-fort nor her Commanders took that very well.

The Shade was still waiting down below, in the roots of the City, after all, and the Hewn River remained a highway deep into the heart of the Sunbeam Ruins for all hostile Maren - they couldn't just leave!

...but most of all, they couldn't just leave.

The water-fort would never let them.

The Veteran forces of the Host of Light's Central Hewn City Outpost couldn't function without each other, at this point, being as they were - both their mental states, loyalties and Elements would not let them leave without BReaKInG.

And so the Commanders sought Audience with the Lightweaver.

And they asked Her for permission to officially secede from Her Host of Light as a still-functioning and active military unit and found a mercenary Clan to hold the Central Hewn City Outpost on their own initiative, and act as they saw fit as long as they did not harm the interests of the Lightweaver, who would still be their Patron.

She Granted them this Permission, giving them the territory they had previously held in Her name in Truth and recognised them as the Outpost Clan, led by Matriarch-Queen Frigga and Patriarch-General Odin.

It was the start of a new era for the denizens of the now-dubbed Outpost, one that would see them respected and feared as one of the most prominent military forces outside of the Eleven's own armies.

(That everyone coming away from a visit to the Clan does so with the strong - and fairly accurate - impression that "they are all out of their Shade-touched minds!!" certainly helps establish that healthy fear.)