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IVALIA Vestibulum sagittis.
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Ivalia has been in the clan of SLACKER’s Inc. since before it was even known as SLACKER’s Inc… She is senior to all in her clan, even its founder Kage and the watcher Conundrum. The three may have played together as children, had circumstances been better. But Kage was a clone, genetically enhanced and mutated and Ivalia was abandoned by her clan at birth. She was made to be an offering to the Plaguebringer. Her clan had been ravaged by the roving Beastclans until it had dwindled to a scant few. The Plaguebringer heard their call, saw their sacrifice and whispered one thought into Ivalia’s brain. Live.
Soon after a sickness ravaged the land, the wind carried spores of vile fungi and the earth boiled with many leeching worms. The Beastclans in the area succumbed to the Plague and the clan once more flourished. Ivalia was still alone. Being taken as an offering to the Plaguebringer meant she was dead to her birth clan, dead to the land she hatched in. She heard the word of her mother, her only mother, and lived. Wandering Eastward she found many wondrous places that she could have settled in but she felt pulled in another direction. She moved South into the desert and eventually found herself in the Shifting Expanse where she met a handful of dragons that would later become the founders of SLACKER’s Inc.
She worked alongside them to clear out the local fungi that had been Shade touched but it was a constant struggle. She watched many of her new companions fall ill and die from the spores. Die of a sickness enabled by a deity and infected by a monster. She spent long, lonely hours pondering the nature of the illness; why it claimed others but not herself nor Kage and her kin.
In search of answers she left. Away for weeks that transitioned into months at a time she took notes on everything she heard about the being known as the Shade. It was everywhere, in small amounts that nearly went unnoticed but she found them, studied them and documented her observations in a journal. One journal was soon inefficient so she fitted her room with shelves and began filling them to the brim with her findings. On one return trip through the Expanse a young courier by the name of Nava came to her side and warned her of a mandatory lair inspection. Her frequent trips had caught the Stormcatcher’s attention and he would be sending his top employees to check for illegal research.
If she wanted to keep her controversial data on the Shade she needed to hide it.
As a favor to the clan leader Kage, the Dark Brotherhood offered to take Ivalia under their wings as an honorary member. This meant she could move into the hidden caverns below the main lair; a place the StormCatcher didn’t even know of yet. Her new home was well hidden and her notes were moved in time. The inspector found nothing. The courier that had risked life and limb to warn her was taken in by Ivalia as Head Librarian to her ever growing study.
Life went on in SLACKER’s Inc. but tension grew as the StormCatcher issued more and more restrictions on the clan started by his genetic experiment, Kage. Soon none could leave unless they took treks many miles in length through hidden tunnels. The Shade infected mushrooms had dwindled under their tending but the clan lost more of their freedom with the passing of each month. Ivalia had trouble sneaking about; her massive size and high contrast coloration made her stick out against such a bland and uniform landscape. There were many times where she was nearly caught.
Ivalia had come home from another one of her trips to find Nava’s signal for an inspection outside the lair. She lay in a secluded area and waited for the Boss’s inspectors to leave the lair. Then there was a low call she did not recognize. It carried over the mesas and seemed to sink into the very sand she lay on.
Intrigued she slunk off to investigate.
An army of Beastclan had gathered. Hundreds of Longnecks, Harpies & Serthis littered the valley below the lair and all were pouring into the Dark Brotherhood hidden passageways. Ivalia was struck by a sudden chill; they had come to kill her new home. To murder her new family as they had nearly done to her birth clan. This time Mother was not here to stop them.
She rushed to the lair’s main entrance no longer caring if she ran into the inspector. She was no more than ten meters from the gates when the screeches of her clan mates came to her ears.
She tore through the lair ripping apart any Beast foolish enough to oppose her. She bellowed into the fray and sent many skittering away from pinned yearlings and hatchlings. Adults were nowhere to be found on the top floors so she dove deeper into the lair, down to the Barrier room where the tendril of the Shade had been contained by clan mages. There the real battle was being fought. Beastclan magi were taking down the barrier while her clan fought within the sea of invaders. They meant to release whatever was left of the Shade. She dove over the the first wave of bodies in an attempt to interrupt the Magis’ chanting but warriors barred her way; by the time any of the clan had gotten through it was too late.
The Barrier had been broken.
The Shade tendril pulsed and awoke once again, it spread to all corners of the chamber. Its shackles were lifted at long last and it hungered for life. The Beast Magi were the first to go, their own bindings they had hoped to capture it in proved to be no match for the Shade’s might. Warriors and dragons alike fell away into adjacent passages hoping to escape. Ivalia stared into the spreading void; its eyeless gaze pierced her in return.
Fear. Death. Nothingness. Hunger.
It screamed, babbling incoherent voices of all it had devoured echoed within pulling at her mind. She knew it had her. If her voice was added to the wailing Void nothing could ever release her. A rumble in the distance whispered through her ears. A calm silence pierced the Void as she returned to her own mind. Thunder shook the Lair. A warm claw had a grip on her mane; she stumbled letting it lead her wherever it may. More thunder shook the caverns and though dragons flooded the passages to safety all Ivalia could see was the blackness of the Void lingering in her mind.
The Void that was the Shade.
The clan gathered at the edge of the Expanse and gazed in mournful silence at the Eastern sky. A thunder cloud unlike any they had seen before hovered directly overhead lightning arced down and around their home. Thunder shook stones loose from their structures and ceilings cracked at the force. The sand at many of their feet had turned to glass at the impact of sparks that madly danced to the ground. The Shade tendril tried to escape through cracks in the rock only to be driven back by the Stormcatcher’s lightning.
The battle lasted for hours until finally a tower of lightning struck the tendril and all that emerged was a fine black dust. In the silence following Ivalia heard one word whispered to her ear. Live. Color returned her right eye. She felt the last of the Shade touch slipping away from her mind and as her vision cleared she looked about to find Nava by her side. The busy little Skydancer was ordering yearlings to her sending many of them to tend to the wounded and others to find shelter.
They had lost many to the battle.
Though the tendril of the Shade was vanquished all were afraid to return to their home. Kage took the opportunity and none opposed to leaving the Expanse. They left all belongings behind them and journeyed to the West. At first Kage sought out Ivalia’s advice as the worldliest dragon among them but soon Ivalia began to lead the way without Kage’s asking. She knew where she was being pulled now and if the rest wished to follow, then they may.
And many did.
They trekked the Ashfall Waste, staying with neighboring clans long enough to regain their strength. She was tormented every night with terrors of the Shade, staring at her from beyond the dreamscape. They then soared over Windswept Plateau and the Western most sea. Small islets dotted the sea and peaks of crystal arose from the depths. Ivalia settled herself down upon the ground on one such islet and slept. The lands' magic eased Ivalia’s mind and for the first time in months she was able to sleep peacefully. When she awoke the following afternoon she knew this was where she was being called to. This was to be their new home.
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NAME:
ROLE:
AGE:
CLASS:
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Ivalia
Matriarch
520
Warrior-Bard
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BIRTH ELEMENT:
ELEMENTAL ALIGNMENT:
MORAL ALIGNMENT:
MBTI TYPE:
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Plague
None
True Neutral
response
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The Life of Shade A story crafted by Rocwylde.
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Another day alive with the SLACKERs, another day dedicated to clearing out those shade-touched fungi grown from vile past events. And another day she mulled over the strange sickness that came with the fungus. If only she could find the source of this disease, perhaps she could save those who were falling under the sickness’ influence. Completely lost in thought, she only realized she had been wandering the moment she heard a feral howl tear through the air.
A Mirror… And where there was one, there was an army. If she had accidentally stepped into their territory, diplomacy would not be an option. The dragon snarled once more, closer this time, and Ivalia’s flight response kicked in. She was more concerned for her clanmates and thought a confrontation would be folly.
“You do not belong here, Wanderer.” The voice of a male, she was horrified of the possibility of this being the pack leader and tried to raise her talons in surrender.
“Please, I do not come seeking trouble.” The rocks the Mirror perched upon shrieked with the sound of thick, heavy claws racking over them. He pounced on the ground, breaking his fall as he approached cautiously. They had not called for their pack, this was her chance to find a way out of this mess. However, the Piebald Imperial found herself staring curiously at the fungus growing from the circuited mirror’s right shoulder. She knew that eerie glow anywhere.
“That… is a shadetouched colony of fungi, isn’t it?” Expecting to have her throat mutilated instantly from her comment, Ivalia was almost shocked at the dragon’s curious guffawing.
“So the Wanderer knows her stuff, how entertaining! Yes, you are correct. This life growing out of us is indeed shadetouched. But it is not dangerous.” Whatever the dragon’s words were meant to be; reassuring or threatening, the imperial only became more wary. Were they… was he being controlled by the shade? Was it here to consume her and all her dear ones? As he circled around her, she mimicked his movements. “You do not trust us? Clever. We did not expect someone so spacey to be this alert.”
He… had been stalking her?! For how long?
“For a very… very long time, we have been watching you. Your intentions are pure, but unfocused.” For the slightest of moments, her guard dropped. What was he talking about, unfocused?
“Your family of dragons… you seek out the shade, do you not? Actively, from what we’ve gathered.” Deciding to humor this collective speaker, she nodded. “Ah… that will never work out.” Ivalia straightened up, insulted and pride wounded. Her friends have DIED trying to eradicate this primordial force, and they get no gratitude, only a fool who spits on their very graves. She saw the poison ooze from this mirror’s claws and thought that was the perfect description of him as a creature, toxic and vile.
“And why should I listen to a thing you say, shade-touched mirror?” Another guffaw.
“We are not shadetouched, Wanderer. But your family shall succumb to shade sickness if you do not change your manner of extermination.”
“How would you know?” The Mirror suddenly stopped circling the imperial, crossing the distance between them. He smiled underneath his hood, his teeth sharp and menacing.
“We have hunted shade remnants for decades, but we do not go to the shade. The shade comes to us.” His whiplike tail suddenly split a shrub in two, the small remnant of life drifted in the air to the ground where the mirror dug his envenomed claws into the sunbaked sand of the expanse. Instantly, the roots of life known only by nature dragons began to ensnare the deceased shrub. And when the plant was revived, the shard of shade embedded in the mirror’s fungi suddenly trickled down his shoulder to latch onto the shrub. Ivalia’s wings unfurled instinctively at this grotesque revelation, she wanted nothing more than to run back home to her clan… But her legs were heavy, and she could not stop observing this horrible tentacle of black writhing against the revived shrub.
“WHAT… IS THIS?!” The mirror’s lips curled back in a smirk.
“It is the law of the Shade. To latch onto the most alive object of interest nearby and consume all its mana. Fortunately, the fungi we carry is a parasite that obtains most of its life from the host.” Ivalia’s talons came over her maw in absolute horror.
“If that is true, why does the shade never target us dragons?” A huff came from the orange mirror.
“If you were a parasite that lives off of another, would you really try and consume a dragon that would take all of your energy to pierce? When there is no more magic to live off of, the shade becomes dormant and weak, it dies. A parasite will never bite off more than it can chew, unless it is a massive entity. Dragons are safe so long as shade does not become overly concentrated to one location. So long as it does not become strong enough to overpower you.”
It was a lot to take in, but she listened intently to every word the mirror uttered. She wrote down everything in her notes and when she asked for more clarification, her mentor did not seem bothered by it. She realized this dragon did not want to harm her, he wanted to help. And when she was satisfied, the mirror who introduced “themself” as Joel stopped producing magic and snuffed out the shade with only his tail. After saying his farewell, Joel turned away to return to where he came from. Until a voice stopped him.
“Wait, Joel.” Four eyes looked back to regard her, but he said nothing. “Is there something I can do to repay you? Perhaps… a place to rest your head for the night?” The mirror shook his head.
“The way to repay us, Wanderer, is to take this knowledge and destroy the Shade as best you can.” She nodded, planning to do that no matter what he would have asked of her.
“My name is Ivalia, I have already introduced myself to you.” Joel nodded and simply took his leave. Perhaps they would meet again in the future, when she had become more knowledgeable about the Shade, enough to even repay his great gesture in some way.
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