Galatea

GALATEA
Sentient Statue
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Long ago, when dragonkind was young, an Imperial sculptor became master of his craft. Though his name has been lost to history, his works can still be found scattered across Sornieth, all of them chiseled from the rarest stone, and all of them marked with his signature: the rune for 'beauty'. Those few clans who have a legitimate piece of his work often treasure it above all else in their hoard, due to the striking realism the statues bear; but though they are all stunningly beautiful, none compare to his masterpiece.

Nobody quite knows how the sculptor brought her to life. Some say he carved a magic wand from the Behemoth itself. Others claim he wove a complex spell of ancient wild magic. Still others posit that he engaged in a dark ritual to bind a lost soul to the stone. Whatever his process, the sculptor managed to awaken one of his creations. And as she opened her eyes and took her first breaths, he took her into his arms and told her she was his.

With her creator, she lived in luxury. He dressed her in the finest silks, gave her all manner of familiars for company, allowed her to engage in whatever activities she wished. He hosted parties wherein he showed her off to other dragons of note, relishing their awe and masked jealousy. She had the run of his lair, but he would allow her to go no further, fearing she might fall into the covetous claws of an artistic rival. And so he kept her always by his side, indulging her every whim, but keeping her always in a gilded cage.

And then, as all creatures do, the sculptor died. It was the first death his statue ever experienced, and the trauma of abruptly losing the only person she had ever been close to sent her into a spiral of deep depression. Though naive, she was acutely aware of how many of her creator's rivals sought to have her. So she barricaded herself in his tomb, coiling around the urn where his ashes were kept. There she stood guard, never sleeping, never eating, with no company but her own thoughts.

Years passed. Deep underground, the sculpture collected dust. Spiders wove webs in her horns, moles tunneled beneath her belly, snakes laid eggs between her paws. She watched them all, still as the stone from which she was carved, dreaming about what went on in their little minds. There she may have stayed for eternity, had not her self-imposed imprisonment been interrupted. For one day, the door to the tomb creaked open.

The adventurous Light archaeologists who uncovered the sculpture brought her back to their clan as a treasure, for she was stiff and weak from years of stillness and solitude and could not fight them. There, she was sat before the clan leader, who asked her many questions she could not answer. This, as she soon learned, was to be a running theme. She escaped the enthusiastic Light dragons, but quickly came to realize the world regarded her more as a curiosity than anything else. Earth, Fire, and Ice dragons were interested in her beauty and craftsmanship, and wanted her as a work of art. Arcane, Nature, and Lightning dragons wanted to study her and discover the powers that brought her to life. Nobody wanted to know her or speak to her, and she grew to mistrust them.

And then, she encountered a small Wind clan, who did her the greatest kindness anyone ever had.

They gave her a name.

Now, Galatea is older and stronger, and, inspired by the Wind flight, a traveler. Having spent so long underground, she now seeks to find out everything she's missed. Her heavy body means she cannot fly, but she is learning to hone her magic to achieve levitation, or at least a way to gracefully fall wherever she wants to go. How she gets there, though, is inconsequential; what matters to her is her freedom.