Cypress

Familiar Plainstrider Bard Familiar The centaur beastclans have long excelled at diplomacy, and much of that can be attributed to their usage of bards and music to ease tensions. 2300 Job Item Historical Text Trinkets A long, storied history of the rise of the Serthis is scrawled on this parchment, written from the perspective of a Serthis too young to fight. 41

Cypress Historian Keeps the clan's history, Neutral good One day, a hatchling was practicing their runework on a tree. Imagine their surprise when the tree became a living, breathing dragon! Now that tree is the historian for the clan, planning to live as long as she would have as a tree.

The current history of the clan:

Once, in the Wandering Contagion of the Scarred Wasteland, two Tundras came together to create a clan. They were hopeful and devoted to their deity, and immediately had three hatchlings, each more Tundra than the last. Soon, other dragons came to join them in their family, and as it turned out, the female Tundra wasn't interested in the Male Tundra, even though he loved her. His heart broke when she kept warding his advances, and he died while she realized her love for her clan was universal, and that she would never breed again to show favoritism.

There was consequences to her love, however. The others thought of her as weak, and she was overcrowding the lair constantly with an abundance of dragons who didn't give back to the clan. A Fae took over the lead of the group, and swept out those who were greedy and useless. She formed an army to protect the clan, but that too became an unsafe strategy, because they broke up into different groups, and the infighting started. Death was abundant, and she was eliminated brutally to make way for the Snappers who wanted to control everyone. Those that didn't prove indispensable were killed

A coup happened shortly after, making the clan weak and vulnerable. Everyone in the Wasteland could see how incapable they were of staying together, and offered to help take in dragons who needed homes if the clan was disbanded.

Spirit and Wayfinder quickly gathered what was left of the clan and made them swear fealty to the lair and the story. This worked well for the most part. The clan worked together, and the only incident was from a Pearlcatcher, who created a poison and used it on the clan. They refused to throw him out, because as loyalists to the Plaguebringer, they could only find fault with him using it on them. They sealed him and guarded him before too many of the clan died.

Alchemy came into the clan soon after, and many of the dragons were drawn to it. Several of them mutated, which saved them from a fae who was desperate to impress the wayward Pearlcatcher, and recreated his poison to finish off the clan. She could only reason it had to happen to the clan, or he wouldn't see it happening. She wasn't caught for several months, and those who hadn't mutated or come from those who mutated were quietly killed in the night. She created the Fae Brigade to "protect" those that were left and to cover her own misdeeds as she moved about the lair, but her second in command found her out. She was exalted dishonorably, the poison and its recipe destroyed. The Pearlcatcher was released upon the promise he would never return.

After the Pearlcatcher left, there was a dark period that forced Spirit to lead his Plaguebringer clan to the Tangled Wood in the Firefox Bramble of the Shadowrealm. The other Plague clans were anxious from the utter destruction that was being caused, and he took his family to a place where they could learn to be a peace with each other.

Spirit, being a leader of actual strategy, found a way to bind the remaining dragons to the clan until their lifespans were over or they wanted to leave for personal reasons. At once there was a celebration, welcoming new hatchlings into the clan and allowing them to pick their own name and clan before they became adults. Usually quickly following that the young dragons were celebrated for finding their place and work in life. The dragons that had already been there had first choice on jobs, but the young ones had enough space to find a way to express their true joy in whatever job they picked. Each flight was given the full experience of their elemental celebrations, brought together by dragons who loved to celebrate the lives of all their clanmates. No one was left out, and no one was unequal.

For now, the clan is under the impression they are cursed by their own history. Many of the dragons are marred in some way, twisted and marked as a piece of karma that needs paid for. It will be a long time before they accept that they have been forgiven for the mistakes of those before them.

There was a great exodus of dragons as they started to realize that they were not, in fact, cursed. They happily left, and Spirit was happy for them, letting them live out their lives without a curse hanging over them.

Shortly after the great exodus, a group of new dragons came into the clan. Unfortunately for Spirit, they were rowdy and unfocused. None of them were proficient in jobs, and a lot of them didn't even have names. Those loyal to the clan were getting fed up with the entire situation, so Spirit had to make some decisions, and fast.

Unfortunately, due to Spirit's lack of decision skills and allowance of anyone to come into the clan, a contender to the throne has arrived. She's evil and cutthroat, literally. If everyone doesn't gather together and make sure the clan is safe, they could see themselves as henchmen to an evil lair.

Of course, Spirit being a kind and gentle soul who doesn't want to see anyone hurt, abdicated his throne immediately. Some of the dragons left the clan, but others saw an opportunity in having a stronger, more capable leader.

Silence

CandyApple slid out of her hiding spot. There was no noise coming from the halls, which were usually filled with chatter and laughter. Now they were collapsed and nothing echoed toward her.

"Hello?" CandyApple called, her voice pitching up out of fear. No one answered.

The meteor had come out of nowhere, and she was shoved into her hole by her protector, Trystian, before she had a second thought. CandyApple was not a kind or generous leader, but she loved her clan, and now they were all gone.

She shoved at rocks and stones trying to escape the cavern she now found herself in. She finally found a spot of fresh air and dug for her life. From her vantage point all she saw was rubble and ash. But she could hear someone crying.

CandyApple ran towards the noise and found a baby Tundra sitting amongst the dust and pyres of fire that were still burning. "Hello!" she called out again, anxiously stamping her feet. She was only vaguely aware of what to do with babies, having sold her own on the auction block. "Shh, shh... don't cry."

She couldn't console the baby, but picked it up regardless and took it to a small leftover cavern. She began to sing, and it was enough to soothe the baby into falling asleep. "We're going to make it through this, I promise."
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With the lair partially reassembled thanks to the efforts of certain dragons, CandyApple is reminded of who she is: a tyrant. Everyone who doesn't have a specific job is assigned to hard labor, scouring the lands for treasure and familiars. She doesn't allow gardening of any type, preferring to stay in the rubble of the landscape.

Can CandyApple keep the reins on her fully formed clan, or will she be forced to step down or be killed?