Oiale

Her name was Ruby, and her magic was weak. Like most young adult dragons, she lived with her parents. She worked in their produce market, which wasn't difficult but wasn't terribly interesting, and she was itching to find her own path. Her parents were concerned that her lack of magical ability was restricting her opportunities.

One day, she joked with her parents that she would go ask the Gladekeeper for some more magic. They joked back that she could try visiting the Gladekeeper's pillar shard. There had always been rumors, though not well-substantiated, that it could grant powers and strange effects. As they talked, Ruby got a bit irritated with them, and realized she could use a break. Journeying to the pillar shard wasn't such a bad idea.

The shard was about a day's journey in a direction she had not been before, and she went alone. There was a town to stop by on the way, and another one near the shard, but in-between there was blissful silence punctuated only by the sounds of nature. When she arrived at the shard in the relative cool of the mid-morning, only a few other dragons were there. She waited for them to leave, pondering the Nature element and her place in the world.

She wasn't sure if Gladekeeper or whatever magic was in the shard could hear her, but that was okay. She didn't have a bad life, all things considered.
Gladekeeper, I love being a Nature dragon. I love a lot of what you love - the plants and the animals, the balance of earth and sky and water. And I want to be able to do what other Nature dragons do. Please grant me some of your elemental magic, so that I can make more of the things you love.
After saying this, she touched the pillar shard, and a feeling of peace and new life washed over her. That was nice. She was even... crying? No, her eyes itched. That wasn't so nice. Well, time to go home.

On the way back, she went more slowly, with a newfound appreciation for the life all around her. Her parents were surprised when she got home, but she reassured them that she just took longer because of her fresh perspective on Nature. All seemed right with the world, until the family scribe showed her a piece of paper. She had a hard time reading the text on it. She squinted reflexively, and nothing changed. She blinked, and realized she was still seeing with her eyes closed, which was extremely disorienting. She brought a wingtip to her face and found flowers growing there. Primal.


It took some time for all of them to adjust to her lack of regular sight and new plant-sense. She could see all manner of plant and animal life, even in dead forms like cloth, wood, paper and berry-ink. She could also distinguish water and earth from life, but could not very well distinguish metal from dirt - or apples from oranges, which was much more relevant to her former job. In her mind, though, that was just as well. She didn't want to be a grocer forever; in fact, the crowded city was becoming stifling to her, and she was beginning to consider other options.

Even hearing her own name was becoming uncomfortable. True, she was red, but what had she to do with rubies? No, she needed a new name, and it should suit her new purpose in life. After some searching, she came up with a name both strange and beautiful: Oiale, "forever". She had promised the Gladekeeper that she would make more of the things She loved, and the things She loved were things that lasted.

Some of the farmers who supplied the grocery said that there was land near them that was unoccupied, though it was low and marshy. Oiale hurried there, and marveled. She could see that it was teeming with beautiful plants and animals already, and that with a little cultivation, it could be even better. Now she knew what she had to do: carve out some of this space for herself, and build there a garden dedicated to the Gladekeeper.

Once the boundary stakes had been set, it didn't take long to build a house of living vines with her newfound magic. What took most artists years to craft was hers in days, and with strawberry plants intertwined in it, to boot.

--

Her sister Kasumi and their scribe Aqua live with her.

Life moves far more slowly for her now. She is far more calm on the whole.
The house is decorated with flowers, which she enjoys very much.

She has a goal of terraforming a particular piece of land into a work of art to please the Gladekeeper. Because she can sense the plants, she wants it to be perfect to the last detail. Some features it needs to include are:
* Bonsai
* Bodies of water
* Edible plants that people can take at their leisure

Primals are believed to be wise, so people come to her with questions. Aqua has been advising her on how to respond (mostly with riddles), which Kasumi thinks is a bad influence.

---

Out-of-universe notes
This character is cisgender female. I simply preferred the other pose.
This dragon is pretty special to me. She's (hatched) primal, hatched on my birthday, and from a House of Finwe nest by Arkhia.
Oiale means "forever" in Quenya.
The strawberry plant has white flowers (with yellow centers).


Lore parents:


Idea from unicornponies
"For nature dragons that use breath-based weapons, maybe they spit seed-like things from their mouths that, upon impact, explode into vines? They could also spit vine orbs that grow upon the surface of contact. Or, they could blow air that, after leaving their mouth, blossoms into the attack. Depends on how you want to view it!"

The idea that plants spontaneously grow around her came from someone on the Friend Rising server.
The above comment inspired me to rewrite and expand her story.
This is the closest I've gotten to "religious" behavior on the part of my dragons. Since there's no question that the deities exist, I don't really consider it parallel to real-life religious behavior, and you won't tend to see "prayer" in my FR writing.

consider sphinx lore

Tanglevine lore thread