Castanea

Among the Gleamhaven clan, no other dragon is more respected and admired than Matriarch Castanea. Given life and granted stewardship of her own scrap of the Gladekeeper’s massive forest, Castanea took it upon herself to foster growth in the parts of her creator’s realm that struggled most to take root. Naming her new territory The Verdant Eyrie, she quickly set to work sowing the seeds of kinship and family. That her clan has changed names and hands matters little to her; she still sees it as hers to protect and serve.

As a young clan mother, Castanea longed for family. Ironically, her own brood has been quite sparse — only one of her children remains with the clan, while the rest long since joined the Gladekeeper in exalted status. However, blood ties have never mattered much to Castanea, and she sees every dragon in her clan as kindred.

Castanea is rarely seen without her son Castanor close at hand. The only one of her children still remaining with the clan, Castanor serves not only as her defender, but quite often as the devil’s advocate to many of her ideas. Indeed, Castanor provided much of the counter-argument against moving the clan to the Starfall Isles as a way for their disconnected family to reunite with one another and rebuild their legacy. Castanea has not abandoned her duty to the Gladekeeper; rather, she sees her work in Gleamhaven as much the same as it was at The Verdant Eyrie. She still tends to flowers and trees, and mentors her kindred as they hatch and grow.

A gentle giant, Castanea only seldom angers: most of the time, she maintains a cool, soothing demeanor. On the battlefield, she fights like a demon, and up until recently boasted the greatest physical prowess in the clan. However, she’d just as soon tend crops and nap by a babbling brook than shed blood. Since ceding her position as Matriarch to Vastrana, she spends a lot of her time giving the younger dragon advice and passing on her wisdom.