Earthborn

In the wake of the shattering of the Pillar and the birth of the Dragon race there were those who were determined to learn from history and avoid past mistakes by maintaining harmony between the Flights, no matter how difficult the task might seem. While unable to prevent the constant small conflicts that arise due to the often inimical natures of the Elemental Flights, these peacekeepers have managed to prevent conflicts from turning into all out wars that might jeopardize the safety of the very world. These peacekeepers are remarkable both for their devotion to their Flight and Element as well as their willingness to leave it and live as an impartial observer and occasional judge in a distant and often hostile realm. The rare individuals chosen are unequaled in loyalty and must possess numerous skills in areas as varied as military, diplomacy, magic, history and reason to name a few. While not all individuals possess all such skills in equal measure, they each have something that sets them apart. These are the individuals chosen to watch over the Nature Flight, and all that dwell within its comforting branches.

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Hatched amidst the cyclopean ruins of Cairnstone Rest, this clever and cunning Ridgeback was born into her element, for the dead rarely complained if someone were to borrow their wealth. Long before she was born her clan had amassed a vast hoard of treasure from the rich gem veins beneath the area as well as the countless tombs. There was danger of course, for some of the inhabitants were not dead and there were times when even the dead were restless, but the clan survived very well in the strange, blighted area. Yet of all the great treasures the clan possessed, the single most valuable object was a simple broken bit of stone roughly the size of a grown male Snapper. This stone had three great gouge marks and, according to the elders of the clan, it was part of the stone where the Earthshaker had rested his paws while holding up the Pillar of the World. Whether or not this was true, it made her clan an object of jealousy in the eyes of several neighboring Ridgeback tribes. Conflict was a constant due to the nature of her home, but it rarely resulted in bloodshed.

Eventually she would grow tired of the endless dull grays and browns of her home and the quiet dust of the tombs. While gems and treasure were a lovely distraction, she found her home too unchanging for her liking. There may have endless places to explore, but they were somebody else’s ruins, made in bygone ages by beings long since dust and full of finality and treasure in equal measure. With all the things to look at there was little to learn. Yet she could not bring herself to simply leave. Uncertain of what to do with herself she began to explore farther and farther a field, looking elsewhere in Dragonhome for something to spark her interest, but no matter how far she went she made frequent trips back to her clan, not to visit family but to sit before their greatest treasure, meditating in front of the stone, resembling a stone statue herself for how still she sat.

During these times of quiet contemplation she began to understand what it was that she must do. Borrowing a select few favorite gems and trinkets as keepsakes, she put on armor she had found in one of the great tombs and left her home one night to travel to the Pillar of the World. There she took a single small pebble, her own greatest treasure, to bring with her. After that she left Dragonhome for good, knowing that with her pebble she would never truly be far from it. At first she worked as hired muscle, protecting trade caravans as they traveled across the lands, but in time her wanderlust faded and she found herself looking for some place interesting that felt like home.

In the end it would prove to be the Viridian Labyrinth that felt most right to her, the shadow cast by the Behemoth reminding her of the times she had sat in the shadow of the stone belonging to her clan and then the Pillar of the World itself. There was something right about the Behemoth, its verdant life mirroring the quiet, grim dust of the Pillar in a way that was fuller, more real. Flying to the top of the Behemoth she found a small crevice in the bark where she placed her pebble. In doing that she knew that she had found her home and completed something in herself as well as the rest of the world. Taking up the title Earthborn at that moment, she chose to act as the emissary of her Flight to help others find the completeness that she had discovered for herself.