Trance

╭- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ╮ ♕ Trance Phyrexia's Line | Gen II Mischievous | Clever | Lonesome ╰- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ╯ automated bio template by squidragon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

╭- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - l o r e - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -╮ Most of His children had hatched before His compleation, before His evolution, before He was made perfect, the products of occasional meetings with other dragons. He mated not out of love, or even lust, but out of necessity. Should something happen to Him He had to have heirs, had to have descendants who could continue His research to His perfect specifications. Phyresis, known then by the name Viscera, had known this when He accepted her offer to become permanent mates. She didn't need His love, or for Him to love their children. She would love their young twice as fiercely in His absence. Eggs laid after He was compleat would never hatch. He could not blame the embryos for their failure to survive; there was a reason His orders excluded the young, after all. Hatchlings lacked the strength and will to undergo full compleation, and embryos had no bodies to speak of, so how could they hope to survive being infected in the egg? Each egg was laid already tainted by the ichor, already consuming its own organic components to feed the growing artifice. But without form, without a body, each potential hatchling was doomed from the very beginning. His surviving children, those born before His compleation, did not all have the spine required to join Him. Some remained regular dragons, though most at least had the ambition to become powerful mages themselves. And some, a precious, vicious few, sought Him out once the Mother had marked them, once they had proven themselves stronger than the common droves of dragons who usually failed to survive His gift. These offspring He held in higher esteem than the rest, for they had shown themselves to be of far better quality than every other fool lucky enough to be blessed by His bloodline. For these few had the strength to survive compleation, and take their place among the phyrexians. The ascended of dragonkind. ╰- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -╯ Some sort of quote or saying that's about a sentence long can go here. ETYMOLOGY - Name meaning RELATIONS - Name - Relation, Name - Relation BELONGINGS - Trinkets, Key Items, Other Possessions

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Based on the Phyrexians from Magic the Gathering, the phyrexian dragons are consumed by a disease that their "god", Phyrexia/the Machinist, refined from some sort of Shade-based infection he came across during his research. The new disease, phyresis, is contracted through any form of contact with the black, viscous liquid ("ichor") produced by phyrexian dragons. If one comes into contact with the ichor, their only hope is to amputate and raze the affected area of the body, as well as anything involved in the process (tools, surfaces, etc). If they fail to notice or take the proper steps to save themselves, they undergo an agonizing and slow (ranging anywhere from a few days to a few months) transformation, as the infection literally consumes their flesh and replaces it with superior artifice. This has a very high fatality rate (~75%), except among dragons of certain Plague subspecies, roughly 80% of whom survive compleation* due to their powers.

Not all phyrexians are fully compleat; some do remain in an incompleat state for quite some time, even for years, their body reaching a sort of stasis where flesh and machine are joined in one surprisingly fluid and harmonious creature. However, a fully compleat phyrexian will always be entirely composed of inorganic metal.

Led by Phyrexia in the past, and Norn in the present, the phyrexians believe themselves and their infection to be the next step of evolution for dragonkind, and seek to spread phyresis to all dragons of Sornieth. While at first glance the phyrexians are a hivemind that only seek to obey Phyrexia/Norn and spread their infection to dragons both willing and unwilling, they do all retain their own personalities, ambitions, and goals. Their perception is simply twisted so that they see phyresis as the best outcome for all of dragonkind. This mental reconditioning is a side effect of the ichor, and can be resisted as any kind of conditioning can. However, in combination with the physical agony induced by the process of compleation, it is very difficult to maintain one's willpower long enough to resist this conditioning.

That being said, a phyrexian is not evil by default. Some, such as Maple, actively worked against Phyrexia to orchestrate his fall from power and stop him from forcing his "evolution" on any others. What phyresis does, or attempts to do, is twist one's goals, not change them. A dragon who is utterly loyal and protective of their family above all else might genuinely believe after being infected that this is the best way to protect and care for their family now, because of the stronger body and massive family/safety in numbers that comes with being a phyrexian. A dragon who hunts barghests and other monsters would not suddenly cease to do so just because they were infected. Where your dragon falls in terms of morals and worlsview is entirely up to you, even if they are infected.

Phyrexians retain any and all abilities of their flight, breed, and/or subspecies. For example, a Necromancer phyrexian still has their power to give and take away disease at a touch, and their control over infection is not suddenly limited to just phyresis. Venomous dragons retain their venom glands, though their venom will also take on the properties of infection granted by the ichor.

A phyrexian dragon's blood is generally the first thing to be entirely replaced, so they no longer bleed blood, but ichor. This ichor can also drip from their eyes and be coughed or spit up, usually with the goal of quickly infecting someone else. For this reason a bite from a phyrexian is generally considered a death sentence by those outside their faction, as it is almost impossible to properly prevent the infection from spreading if the ichor has already made contact with a dragon's bloodstream.

In theory, an Emperor phyrexian would be capable of regaining and maintaining their sanity, but no phyrexian has yet made the attempt to infect an Emperor.

* "Compleation" is not a typo. This is the canon spelling for the name of the process of phyrexianification.