Primacy

Primacy is a self-declared noble who will do anything for the clan to protect his honour. In many ways, this has reduced him to the status of errand boy, an irony that is completely lost on him. He's a simple dragon, more than happy to fetch things from the cold storage as long as they don't prevent him from keeping his head high and wings held in a way representative of his proud and noble bearing. Usually this means he'll spend hours struggling with a simple problem, as he's too good for the tools common dragons use to move heavy objects.

He's one of the richest dragons in the clan — his hoard towers above the others'. Not that he does anything with it. Well, he does pay Aldryd to keep it sorted. That doesn't really count.

Primacy is very proud of his high birth, and tries to associate with important clan members as much as possible. At the same time, he believes humility is a very important virtue for one of his station, so he does his best to treat everyone as equals and not act like he's better than everyone else. He does rather poorly at it, but he's nice enough that many are willing to humour him. Silas can usually point him in the direction of someone who needs help, which he'll respond to enthusiastically and maybe even effectively.

He also likes to think of himself as a dashing and heroic warrior. Unfortunately for him, he barely knows which end of the sword to hold, and his magical abilities amount to little more than shining bright lights into people's eyes. Still, that is occasionally useful (few make a better distraction than Primacy), and most of the clan will play up the danger of the errands they send Primacy on to make him happy. Actual danger is not something it's recommended to expose Primacy to, though it's no big deal if you do. Turns out he's exceptionally good at fleeing.

However, he strongly overestimates his own importance, and thus believes that he is at risk of being assassinated. The fact that the first bodyguard he hired disappeared under mysterious circumstances has done nothing to help his paranoia. So to prevent himself from finding any knives in his chest, he now pays Tolmac to act as his new bodyguard. Not that that's really Tolmac's preferred job, but after seeing how much treasure Primacy was offering, the ridgeback was eager to accept.

The banner on his armour portrays the emblem of his family. He once asked Kushiel to weave a massive banner with the symbol on it, to which the fae got a little overeager in its creation. The resulting monstrosity was far too large to hang anywhere, and thus currently serves as the carpet in the fortress' great hall. A few dragons weren't sure Primacy would ever recover from seeing others tread on his family's beloved emblem.

Looking to be more helpful to the clan as a whole, Primacy has recently launched a study into that mysterious portal in the basement. Perfunctory testing (i.e. chucking random stuff into it to see what happens) has concluded that there is not, in fact, a giant angry monster lurking at the other end.

Honestly, it's progress.

---

Some dragons may be confused by the fact that Primacy still has any treasure left to his name. After all, it's not like he ever does anything that would make him him any coin, and his inheritance can't last forever. Those dragons aren't alone in their confusion, for Primacy doesn't know where his money comes from either.

The answer isn't quite clear, but it has something to do with the fact (little to Primacy's knowledge) that his parents weren't nobility among dragons, but among the beastclans. They were great champions of an arcane talonok flock, leading raptorik to victory in combat and guiding the corven as they built up their roosts into cities. Between campaigns they would return to the light flight, using stolen valuables to pretend to be nobility and gather support and supplies for further conquest.

Primacy's parents built a great legacy, and quite a lot of treasure as well, plundered from the other beastclans (and a few unfortunate dragon clans) that were ousted as their talonoks' domain expanded. But no dragon is immortal, and they were both eventually struck down in combat with a cohort of serthis. They left everything to their very young son, hoping for him to continue on their legacy. The talonok did as well, with both raptorik and corven believing the young skydancer to be their destined hero. The avians have secretly brought him tribute ever since, until the fateful day when he returns to lead them to further conquest.

They might be waiting for quite some time.

(It's only due to Primacy's oblivious nature that he doesn't know where the treasure comes from; the rest of the clan is willing to permit talonok bringing gifts.)

---

And yet, it's beginning to look like the talonok might not be able to wait much longer. Primacy has acquired a sentinel, whose attempts to act like he's not watching Primacy have failed to fool anyone but the skydancer himself. The raptorik calls himself the Haruspex, and refuses to divulge any actual name or the purpose of his presence. But he clearly wears ceremonial talonok robes and spends a lot of his time mumbling vaguely about impending destruction, so he's probably some sort of seer.

Whatever his purpose is, the Haruspex sure doesn't like what he sees. Primacy is about as far from a champion as a dragon can get, and thus all signs are looking rather dire for the talonok. But his bloodline carries too much weight among that talonok clan, so the raptorik can't give up on him. Instead, he's taking to causing trouble when the skydancer is nearby — perhaps letting wild animals loose or setting some unwary dragon's spells haywire — in the hopes that Primacy might display even the slightest bit of heroism.

Surprisingly, Primacy has actually managed to succeed in some of these trials. To the uneducated observer, it would look like he accidently solved the problem while trying to run away, and honestly that's likely what really happened. But if he can do that reliably, well, maybe that will be good enough for the Haruspex.