Tenora

General Leader of the Clan of Dusk and Dawn
Clan Founder
Warrior
Mother of Dusk

Probably Ace, Panromantic
Strongly female
Nicknames: Tenra



Tenora is the leader that presides over both halves of the clan of Dusk and Dawn, and together with Malagrine and Enirgan, one of the last three surviving founders that are still with the clan. She is responsible and practical, and tries hard to learn from her mistakes.

She is usually very serious and no-nonsense about everything, and will get frustrated rapidly if someone starts behaving like an idiot, and has been known to judge others based on first impressions. Despite that, she is also very kind and caring, always willing to offer a hand or a word to someone in need. She has had a number of negative experiences of being a mother, but she's still fairly good at it.

Her most important relationships currently are with her adoptive daughter Jiira, her old friend Cater, her student Dorian, and her new ... friend? life partner? Derianda. As well as this, she is learning to accept Shianzar despite their rocky start, and is trying to deal with her new understandings of Malagrine and Enirgan.

When Tenora was young and naive, she left her home clan in the Tangled Woods on an impulse and set out to see the world. She soon found her way to the Sunbeam Ruins, where she learned that leaving home without any forward planning is an easy way to get into a lot of trouble. This is how she came to be the first of many dragons that Enirgan took in despite Malagrine's wishes, who later came to be the founding members of the Clan of Dusk and Dawn.

Among the other founders were Hesser and Umbrex, a Wind Tundra mage, and Light Spiral scout who served with her as the clan's first hunting and reserve defense unit. Despite the personality differences, the three dragons became close friends after their shared experiences in skirmishes against the beastclans and many close calls in battle.

Although raised into the Ridgebacks' culture of borrowing, living with so few others of her own kind led to her losing the habit quickly. Despite this, she keeps a pair of goggles given to her by Umbrex, and satchels she adopted after discovering how useful Hesser's were.

She started a relationship with Hesser, but she only had eggs with him because she believed it was what one did, and because Malagrine wanted more hatchlings born to jumpstart the fledgeling clan. The eggs hatched into healthy children, and Tenora found raising them an enjoyable experience, but they soon grew up and moved on.

Her relationship with Hesser went well, up until the point when a jealous Plague Ridgeback named Lorez came to the conclusion that as the only two Ridgebacks among the founders, they were fated to be together. He manipulated Tenora into breaking up with Hesser and becoming his mate instead. Being a nasty piece of work generally, he only remained civil when he felt like it, and once their eggs failed to hatch, the relationship descended from occasionally unpleasant to outright abusive. That was when Tenora began to feel that something had gone wrong, and was convinced by the other founders to break up with Lorez. (Malagrine was going to throw Lorez out for being a male who had caused harm to one of the leading females, but a young Guardian named Delarita claimed him as her Charge, and he was kept on for her sake.)

Despite Hesser's insistance that it hadn't been her fault, Tenora felt that she'd betrayed his trust, and never rekindled their relationship. Eventually another Ridgeback named Marbin asked her to be his mate, but she never really felt much for him.

After her various experiences with romance, Tenora threw herself into her duties, and it is thanks to her and her team that the clan's territory is covered with a great many hunting trails and scouting tracks. During this period of her life, and determined to learn from her mistakes, she became the serious, responsible and no-nonsense dragon she is today.

She was out hunting with her team when the storm struck, and was thrown an enormous distance across the Hewn City. After this, she had a nasty encounter with some Maren she barely escaped, and was saved from bleeding to death by Shianzar.

Despite recognising that Shianzar appeared to be rather badly off emotionally, his acerbic personality soon put her in mind of Lorez, which made it very hard for her to sympathise with him. When she found the Earth egg that Jiira soon hatched out of, Tenora was determined to protect the little Mirror from Shianzar's tendency to lash out, and stopped trying to sympathise with him at all. When Derianda arrived to be Shianzar's Guardian and was determined to make him a better person, Tenora felt for her and her seemingly hopeless quest, and tried to support the younger dragon emotionally.

When the remainders of the clan, then consisting of only Cater, Marl, Dorian and some potential hangers on, she was offered the position of leader as the last (apparent) surviving founder, but she refused as she felt that her injuries were too great for her to take an active role in leadership, but agreed to advise Dorian on the subject.

When Shianzar ran away, and Derianda decided she wasn't going to force him to return, Tenora began to give up hope that Shianzar would ever change for the better, and for Derianda's wellbeing. When Derianda was finally convinced to return, she was unhappy to find that Derianda was allowing Shianzar to look after the hatchling Marita. Derianda convinced her to hold off removing the child from his care, and Tenora began to look at him in a new light when she realised he was doing his best to look after Marita, and had returned to the clan for her wellbeing. This change in opinion continued when she found herself agreeing with Shianzar's perspectives about Duren's (highly unpleasant) adoptive siblings, and when he helped defend the clan from them.

The other fallout from this conflict caused Dorian to realise the temporary camp the clan was inhabiting was unsafe, and they all returned to the old lair. Shortly after this, Malagrine finally came back from wherever she'd managed to get lost, and refused to accept the changes that the clan had undergone. For the first time, Tenora discovered that Malagrine was a lot worse than she'd ever realised before, and stood up as leader to protect the clan from her. Enirgan, who had returned with Mala, sought to find a non-violent end to the conflict, and the clan voted against Mala leading them. Disgusted with her former clan, Malagrine left, but was brought back unconscious by Enirgan after they ran into a pocket of the Shade incursion that had been growing since the storm.

In the face of this danger, Tenora put out a call for any warrior dragons that were willing to help, and formed the Regiment as an extra line of defence for the clan. These hired mercenaries were put under the command of Malagrine after she recovered, with Enir as second to prevent the old matriarch from plotting insurrection. In order to balance this, Tenora gave back the direct civilian leadership of the clan to Dorian, and took her place as general leader.

In light of recent events, Tenora is beginning to wonder whether keeping their stronghold in the Hewn City is at all worth it. The presence of a three-headed Emperor, compounded with the Shade incursion, is worrying enough that she thinks that perhaps it's time that Dusk and Dawn finally retreated to the lands around the Beacon, but travel can be dangerous with such a monster on the loose, and she is wary of leaving the place that was her home for most of her life.



art by Embidi



Tenra is my pride and frickin joy. Doesn't matter that you probably think she looks boring, or doesn't have enough art for such a feeling. I don't care about your opinion anyway, she's gorgeous and a great protagonist and that's all that matters to me.

Some parts of her personality are based on my mum, but the other half is largely her own experiences.