Jelanda

J E L A N D A ambassador | lead coordinator Jelanda has been at Greenwill Valley for longer than any others. Hailing from a distant Plague clan, she joined Luyten and Aralt in establishing the clan on the cliffsides of Dragonhome. Her early days were spent as an ambassador and messenger between her new clan and her old, but she slowly picked up more duties within the clan itself, eventually becoming the lead coordinator, keeping track of the comings and goings, the lodgings and the nestings that went on within the clan's territory. In her younger years, Jelanda was much more of a spitfire, snarky and sarcastic, and always ready to speak her mind, no matter how harsh. Now, she has become tempered with experience, and funnels her wit into providing perspective and opinion, from which she helps shape the decisions made within the leadership of the clan. A long time ago, she considered Oerwoud as her mate, before he vanished into the jungles, to become exalted in the glory of the Gladekeeper. To say she was at all attached would be to lie, however, and to this day, Jelanda has remained very fickle, never content stay with one particular mate for long, if she has one at all. In addition to 7 scatterscrolls, Jelanda has had the following gene scrolls applied to her over the course of her life: Speckle, Shimmer, Ripple, Underbelly, Skink, and then Contour. Birth: Beige/Mightnight/Rose 06/05/2014: Stone/Azure/Brown 06/25/2014: Royal/Jungle/Sky 06/25/2014: Red/Teal/Red 08/16/2015: Stone/Stonewash/Tomato 08/31/2015: Midnight/Sand/Goldenrod 11/02/2015: Carmine/Fire/Coral 06/06/2016: Avocado/Sanguine/Driftwood

Plague Runestone Dragonmade An ancient stone bearing the ancestral rune of the Plaguebringer. Such a find should be kept as a prized possession. 110 Empty Inkwell Trinkets A darkened glass bottle that once held ink. There are remnants of fluid crusted on the bottom and rim. 80 Intact Parchment Dragonmade Perfect for diaries, manifestos, and shopping lists. 15

In the young days of Luyten's clan - just he and Aralt, protecting their first nest hidden away in the crevices of the cliff sides of Dragonhome, a Spiral only a hair older than they stumbled upon their secretive nest. She was an agent of a Plague clan, sent to explore the world and help make connections for her own clan. Staying with the duo to recharge before continuing her journey, Jelanda got to know them a bit more, and her firey, quick-witted, and sometimes snarky attitude and differing world views provided counterbalance to Aralt's own impulsiveness and wild ideas, and the two became fast friends, their relationship born of a respect and appreciation for each other's knowledge and opinions.

They told her of their plans - to settle here in secret, and attempt to turn the dusty, barren cliff side into a pocket of jungle, to plant, perhaps literally, the first seeds of Nature on this side of the channel, and help expand the Gladekeeper's reach. Jelanda, always having a taste for the mischievous, found this idea hilarious and cheeky, and what started as a short stay to rest, turned into a small "detour" to help with the new parents' very first young, and eventually, Jelanda found herself disinterested in leaving to resume her duties to her clan.

She did decide to make the trip back to her original home, to explain her findings, and her absence, and after a few more trips back and forth, an alliance was decided upon, with Jelanda acting as ambassador and messenger between the two clans. For a long while, this was her duty, to carry information between the two clans, and to act as ambassador in her new home.

As the clan grew and developed, many dragons came and went, but Jelanda remained a constant presence, through thick and thin, ever loyal to Aralt, and always by her side. When Luyten left for the higher calling of the Gladekeeper, Aralt and Jelanda were quick to ditch his preaching ways and turned their attention to what Aralt really believed would bring this crevice in the rock wall to life - hard work. Their numbers small, they were not picky about who they brought in to help, and when a Ridgeback decided to lodge there for a while to escape some stormy weather, he managed to worm his way into Jelanda's heart.

Oerwoud, however, would overstay his welcome. Many of Luyten's qualities were reflected in the Ridgeback, as Oerwoud's contributions to the clan were not in the form of constructing dwellings or tending to crops, but rather, he immediately began construction of a temple to the Gladekeeper, which he was aghast that no such thing had yet been built. At first, as long as he agreed to provide for himself, they tolerated his presence, and initially, he appeared to be a boon - he was a talkative, confident extrovert, and frequently wandered off to speak to passerbys of the glory of the Gladekeeper, bringing home with him more dragons.

Aralt and Jelanda had hoped these new residents would be able to help out, but it quickly became apparent that they were here for Oerwoud, and for worship of the Gladekeeper, and they ate everything in sight. With the congregation of worshippers, self-labeled as the Gladekeeper's Loyalists, growing in number, they quickly outgrew the few that remained loyal solely to Aralt, and thus, in secret, Aralt hatched a plan with her own dragons, to drive them out.

Jelanda, being the closest of Aralt's circle to Oerwoud, played her part well, luring him to nest with her one last time, inviting him to eat a meal with her on the eve before an important date observed by the Gladekeeper's followers, a meal that had been poisoned to reduce his sensibilities. To pull off the bluff, she too ate from the poisoned food, and spent the next week sleeping off the deliriousness - but it was worth it. Believing Aralt's words, Oerwoud left for the Behemoth, following Luyten's tracks to exaltation. With the head of their congregation gone, it wasn't long before the rest of his followers slowly dispersed, and life, for Aralt, Jelanda, and those who remained, returned back to the way they preferred it.

For a while, the clan continued to grow, and as dragons came and went, with the more "lazy" ones kicked out faster, the once dry and barren canyon grew lush with life blooming out of ever nook and cranny. A pocket of green in a relatively desolate land, it became prey to outsiders, seeking its fruitful bounty. The small clan did their best to fend off the raiders, with hiring expensive mercenaries and picking up weapons of their own. However, over time, the land slowly became ravaged. Though they mostly won their skirmishes, they were losing territory to destruction, and vegetation, still fragile in its youth, became trampled and ruined. It would seem their luck was turning, that this cheeky game of invading the Earthshaker's domain was coming to an end, when Luyten suddenly returned.

He was furious at the state of the clan, and Jelanda did not immediately know why he would be furious - after all, they had done what they set out to do, they had turned the area into an oasis of life. It wasn't necessarily their fault that it was now under siege, and the wear and tear of skirmishes was showing faster than it could be repaired. But Aralt evidently did know, and as she shied away from him in their argument, she let slip that she had ignored his messages - messages Jelanda had no idea existed. No, he was furious over the neglected and ruined state of the temple Oerwoud had built - the only place in the entire valley that indicated any kind of worship, and he was furious over her heresy. He was furious over the lack of appreciation for the blessings the Gladekeeper bestowed upon the valley as thanks for his service, and the lack of meaningful repayment for the blessings.

Jelanda, not a dragon of the Gladekeeper herself, had for years overlooked this tendency from Aralt. It didn't matter to her either way, her own ties to the Plaguebringer also fairly distant, and Aralt's heretical behaviours were of no consequence in Jelanda's eyes. Clearly, Luyten thought differently. Aralt tried to argue with Luyten that the only thing that "blessed" the valley was hard work put in by the dragons that lived there, and upon hearing that last bit of blasphemy, Luyten, with the power of the Gladekeeper bestowed upon him, tearful and angry, cursed her into a lesser form, that of a kamaitachi, and drove her away, with a few of the clan more loyal to Aralt trailing after her in the days to come.

Almost as hurt as Luyten - bonded to protect his beloved charge - Jelanda begged him to decide differently, but the Guardian was steadfast in his loyalty to the Gladekeeper, and the Wildclaw had a lesson to learn, and for a while, Jelanda lost her closest friend. She thought of fleeing with Aralt, to stick by her even in this time of darkness, but that would require leaving the clan, and by now, with the clan growing, so too have Jelanda's duties.

The days of acting as messenger between her old clan and her new one had long since ended, as a younger Imperial, Yuta, much more suited to long-distance flying, had taken the mantle of clan courier, and could easily cover visiting her old clan in his circuit. Jelanda now found herself second in command of the whole valley, and all its residents, both permanent and temporary. To follow her friend on a well-deserve exile would be to abandon so many other dragons, and the well-being of the territory. She found, upon closer self-examination, that her loyalty was no longer to the leaders, but to the land. So, she stayed behind, to continue her duties, and to work her way onto Luyten's good side, so that maybe, one day, she could reconcile the two.

Luyten brought with him a disciplined, almost militaristic, attitude, and under his direction, now with proper observances of the Gladekeeper's glory, he brought the clan up to the standards he considered to be good. Additionally, he had connections with the heart of the Viridian Labyrinth, and in time, new recruits, beginning with Affliction, began to arrive, to fend off the raiders, and train up new warriors, who went off to serve the Gladekeeper. Perhaps even more than before, the valley began to flourish once again, and the clan grew in size, becoming a force to be reckoned with, fully establishing themselves, to become a permanent fixture in the sides of Dragonhome's rocky cliffs.

This was the backdrop for Aralt's return. Carried aloft by one of her remaining allies, Rot, they were accompanied by Decay, carrying the witch, Pestilence. This display of force would have been intimidating for the clan Aralt had left, and Aralt had evidently intended to usurp, but was caught unawares by how much more prepared Luyten was for trouble, and how large the population of the clan was now. With Affliction and his trainees surrounding the hapless four, they quickly realized their error, and switched tactics to diplomacy.

Jelanda didn't believe a word coming out of Aralt's mouth, and she could tell that Luyten also wasn't buying it. Finally, he gave Aralt an ultimatum: Stay by his side, under his watchful eye, or never return here again, and remain forever cursed as a lowly beast. Aralt chose the former, and though the situation was tense, the trio were once again reunited, though things had changed. Luyten had grown majestically into his role as leader of the clan, and Jelanda rose to the position of coordinator, her duties now involving keeping track of the comings and goings, lodgings and nesting room. She's delegated what she can, but the clan has become something of a crossroads, with many dragons stopping for lodgings in their travels. The core of the clan remains small, but their presence is not to be ignored or overruled, and a large part of that is keeping on top of the organization. Jelanda had grown as the clan had grown, coming out of Aralt's shadow, and standing on her own beside Luyten.

---

Banners, bio layout by Vertegris. Bio layout tweaked by Ganondorf.
Endless Garden pixel art by Oranitha.
Bio written by Ganondorf.

---