Despair

JETSTONE MATRIX



Requirements
Breed: Snapper and Obelisks
Eyes: Any

Primary Gene: Basic, Metallic, Falcon, Ripple, Savannah, Tapir, Tiger
Secondary Gene: Basic, Alloy, Peregrine, Current, Safari, Striation, Stripes
Tertiary Gene: Opal

Primary Colors: Oilslick, Obsidian-Midnight
Secondary Colors: Oilslick, Obsidian-Midnight
Tertiary Colors: Any

Lore
The battles between Plaguebringer and Gladekeeper left entire forests to rot. Then the breaking of the Pillar buried some of these dead forests in stony rubble, where they compacted into coal seams. In areas still infused with left over energy from the Second Age cataclysm, such coal also developed opal deposits.

Exaltation may be a great honor, but it severs dragons from their hatching families, and sometimes even from their original flight. Some Snappers, with their long memories, had trouble letting go of their grief. They wore jet gemstones as a sign of mourning - especially those with opal accents. They adorned themselves with as much jet as possible, carved deep mines in search of the perfect gems, and dug shelters and molting burrows out of the coal seams.

Over time, trace amounts of jet and opal in their food and water sources built up internal and external deposits, catalyzed by reactive Second Age energies. These energies also altered their mental outlook. Exalted dragons are not unreachable, just farther away - and since all dragons are joined by the elements, why not visit?

Jetstone dragons, in their wanderings, link exalts and their free clan families. They travel in a circuit that gets more complex with each lap, as an exalt's friends ask the Jetstone to take a message home to their families, who may have other exalted relatives, who have other exalted friends with their own families.... Their messengers never seem to mind, viewing all those they carry messages for as a sort of ever-growing family-by-proxy. Infused Jetstone dragons may even make a game of finding the shortest chain of connections between two dragons.

In addition to carrying written messages, Jetstone Matrix dragons are among the few to regularly make an attempt at the native tongues of Coatl and Fae dragons. The general consensus is that their accents are terrible, but there's something endearing about the attempt. And a solid Snapper, precariously balanced on hind limbs and tail, attempting to use their wings as an expressive substitute for a Fae's head crest, is a sight to behold.

Most such messages are, due to flight loyalties, carried between Earth flight dragons. But a Jetstone Matrix dragon has no objection to communicating with dragons of other flights. Other flights have been slower to trust the Jetstone's innate sense of neutrality and interconnectedness to all elements. The chance to communicate between long-separated family is a powerful lure though, so perhaps this stigma will fade with time.

After the Obelisks were unearthed, some dragons felt called to protect all clans - not just their own - from the Unnamed Threat. They sought out deposits of opalized jetstone to intentionally induce the same metamorphosis that their Snapper cousins had previously undergone. Now bound to neutrality by oath and magic, they travel to offer their assistance to lairs across Sornieth. For now, that assistance largely takes the form of lair inspections and disaster preparedness planning. Someday soon, however, it may take a more martial form...

(Created by LadyRaptor and co-created by Recherche)