[center][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/qnc/3020423#post_3020423][img]https://musesings.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/the-desolation-badge.png[/img][/url][/center]
[b]User ID#:[/b] 98625
[b]Makeup Day Theme:[/b] Desolation
[b]Applicable CW & Additional Notes:[/b]
[u]CWs:[/u] Burning alive, branding, fire, descriptive deaths
[u]Notes:[/u] We interrupt prize picking posts to bring you an entry written on mobile because I just finished an 8-hour ride home and had time to do this. Would link involved dragon but it’s already difficult enough making this post on mobile.
[i]There is a scar in the earth.
I’m sure you know of it. A crater of blackened, ash-covered ground where life can’t touch. Where no trace of anything once living remains, leaving soil the sun can’t wash. Whispers of smoke trailing from its edges as if it hungers to spread further, but trapped by the lush greenery that surrounds it. The rumors of something laying within the center, buried as to not start such destruction once more.
We know it as Fury Plain. A place in the Viridian Labyrinth where only unstoppable rage of our deity would forbid her creations from ever roaming again. And us dragons are no different. We treat the area with respect, not daring to touch the hardened black earth no matter how curious. It is a lesson to all to not provoke the gods, or be struck where you stand.
My clan speaks of a time before the ground was lifeless, and that is what I am here to write about. You see, we don’t believe quite the same story as anyone else in the area. Then again, we’re also the oldest clan around these parts, save for one up north.
The oral story, as we know it, is one of warnings and what will happen if they are ignored. One of a once friendly clan turned cult turned enemy of Sormieth. Details have been lost to time, and others certainly exaggerated, but the message remains. Inaction will have dire consequences, not only on those that ignore the warnings, but to those who weren’t aware of the potential danger to begin with.
The story starts as you’d expect from my summary. A friendly, unassuming clan moves in. They consist largely of foreigners, escaping some sort of peril from their home territories. Banding together under a similar goal, they seek refuge in a land where all life is cherished if it can survive the land it lives in. Become top of the food chain and you are safe. Perfect for dragons who would not be easily accepted during the times of tension between the flights.
Nothing was wrong until the clan sought to expand. They had to encroach on an area belonging to another territory, but it had been generously gifted to them. Within the land was the remains of structures believed to belong to an older, long abandoned beginnings of a separate clan. In the process of gathering materials, [u]something[/u] was recovered. Whether from the ground, from within the ruins, or, if the storyteller is feeling morbid, an old skeleton, this marked the beginning of the end.
The Fire-aligned were first. The clans around this one, including ours, believed it to be a revival of belief in their deity. Possibly feeling the draw to home, they wanted to pay respects in some unknown ceremony foreign to those around them. There were great fires that brightened the night sky, these bonfires fed with great amounts of wood and thrown small sacrifices of food that filled the air with acrid black smoke and the choking smell of burning meat.
It is unknown when the others joined in such rituals to what was widely accepted as the Flamecaller to neighbors. While looked down upon for their worship of a different territory’s deity, the origins of the clan found the usually taboo subject accepted. The clan was friendly, and had done no wrong to others, keeping to themselves unless another clan’s aid was needed. There was no ill intent for their actions. No reason to turn them into an enemy solely on worship alone.
Then, there was the first wildfire.
It hadn’t occurred in the clan, or any of those near it. In fact, it was almost a day’s flight away. Still, the clan was confronted, blamed for the disaster that unfairly destroyed the Gladekeeper’s domain. They denied any involvement, but couldn’t account for a scouting party they had sent out. Realizing the connection, the three were captured, bound, and burned alive, an example for any others who may want to follow in their steps. They were strangely cruel to their own, but friendly. An ally who wanted the best for the land as the others.
Yet the wildfires persisted. And each time the clan was to blame. Sometimes there were new followers. Other times they weren’t to blame at all. And each and every time those caught were burned alive, the sound of pained screams and smell of burning flesh permeating the air. Ashes of the dead were buried separate from their bodies, believed by the surrounding clans to be a dishonor to the deceased.
But then dragons went missing.
The clan was immediately turned on as the culprit. But there was no proof. There were no graves. No spilled blood. No recent fires. They were beyond willing to show their innocence, and showed hostility towards the distrust constantly shown towards them. It wasn’t them that was the cause, but someone they thought as an ally framing them. Nothing spread about them was true anymore, aiming to remove them from Sornieth, whether through exile or mass death.
Yet the clans heard the screams. They echoed through the nights where the skies were cloudless. The source of the smell of burning hair, feather, scales, and flesh was close but never within the clan. And those that dared confront the cause became among those lost, or returned frantic and rambling of living skeletons, black and smelling of coals. The clan wasn’t confronted this time, but, as our story concludes, this was the worst decision to be made.
The assault began sometime within the month of dragons ceasing to stop going missing. What started as smoke from yet another bonfire, the largest ever seen by those who bore witness to it, quickly became far more. Blackened bony wraiths, draped in ashen, ragged cloths emerged from seemingly everywhere, incapacitating and binding all they could, and killing those who dared to resist. The living members of the clan came after, scorching marks onto the bodies of those still living before dragging them to the bonfire.
A cacophony of screams served as a warning, but the clans had grown content knowing their friendly ally wasn’t to blame for these, and too fear-stricken to take matters into their own hands. So, when the former allies were ambushed from all sides, it was far too late. One by one clans fell, consumed by the fire that now engulfed the clan, spreading out to consume all within its path.
Prayer did nothing to cease such thorough burning. Trees crumbled into charcoal. Animals were stripped of their skin and flesh and organs until dark, ash-coated skeletons remained. Even those crumbled with time, the flames even threatening to consume the ground below to strip all life from within. Dragons weren’t exempt, but they were smart. They could run from the fire. Try and put it out.
But this wasn’t a normal flame.
Our fledgeling clan knew of fire from before. Of a refugee from the Molten Furnace who spoke of the flame as destructive, but part of life. That which is destroyed by flame fertilizes soul, creates land that the sea had consumed, and fed the living trees with smoke. This wasn’t the life within death of the fire we knew. This was absolute, as bones and coal crumbled to ashen dust. Nothing was left to survive, save for those from the original clan, still feeding the unnatural bonfire where their homes had once been. Those that still could preaching of how everyone was to be sacrificed to this All Consuming One so that they may be freed.
The way this story ends depends on who tells it. Sometimes only one of our clan remained to tell the story as Gladekeeper enacted her wrath. Others say the fire turned back on its creators, consuming them before collapsing in on itself as no fuel remained. But the one I believe, and the one I tell, returns to the fire itself, something unnatural. I was told of the fire picking itself up and taking the form of a great dragon, turning on its makers to consume them. It left a trail of destruction until reaching Dragonhome, where it was lost. It’s believed to still roam to this day, feeding on all that burns as a living wildfire. So that next time news of a great burning reaches your ears, you do not ignore it, because that fire may come running for you, hungry.
As satisfying as it is to tell that story, all it is to you is a story. Something to be thrown away as fiction told to hatchlings to scare them into learning a lesson. There is no truth to my words unless I provide proof. So, I offer you your “proof”. Find that clan older than my own. Tell them of my statement. Of my words towards the living fire that threatened to consume all of Sornieth. Look at the terror in their eyes as they deny the truth. That what I speak of is slander to the acts of their deity.
They know far more than I do. Yet they have never learned from those that came before.[/i]
The Archivist flipped off the device as he finished his recording, flipping through the pages. He was aware of Fury Plains long before reading this statement, having looked into it in the past. It proved too old to connect to his research at the time, something filed away as an unnatural location that may have been one of very few sites where an act of the Eleven remained in plain sight for those to observe.
However, with the knowledge he had now, he couldn’t ignore the site. He’d send an assistant to explore the area and follow up on the challenge proposed by the statement’s author. With luck they’d get information lost from this story from the other clan. Certainly they’d be willing to share a secret or two when provoked.
The Pearlcatcher let out a sigh. He had no reason to believe the “living fire” was still around after all these years. Without a constant source of fuel, it would inevitably flicker out and perish. Still, he’d have a separate assistant search the older statements for such a thing. Eyeing the large stack of unread statements before him, it simply wasn’t worth his time to personally look for whatever monster this once was.
Looking back between a digital timer and seeing less than five minutes remaining, he turned his attention to the window of one way glass within the room. He signaled to the dragon inside that it was time to flip the vinyl disk which recordings were made on. Pushing his microphone back up towards the ceiling where it attached, he took the moment to stretch, finishing off his tea from that morning as he began to skim over the next statement.
It was going to be a long day.
User ID#: 98625 Makeup Day Theme: Desolation Applicable CW & Additional Notes: CWs: Burning alive, branding, fire, descriptive deaths Notes: We interrupt prize picking posts to bring you an entry written on mobile because I just finished an 8-hour ride home and had time to do this. Would link involved dragon but it’s already difficult enough making this post on mobile.
There is a scar in the earth.
I’m sure you know of it. A crater of blackened, ash-covered ground where life can’t touch. Where no trace of anything once living remains, leaving soil the sun can’t wash. Whispers of smoke trailing from its edges as if it hungers to spread further, but trapped by the lush greenery that surrounds it. The rumors of something laying within the center, buried as to not start such destruction once more.
We know it as Fury Plain. A place in the Viridian Labyrinth where only unstoppable rage of our deity would forbid her creations from ever roaming again. And us dragons are no different. We treat the area with respect, not daring to touch the hardened black earth no matter how curious. It is a lesson to all to not provoke the gods, or be struck where you stand.
My clan speaks of a time before the ground was lifeless, and that is what I am here to write about. You see, we don’t believe quite the same story as anyone else in the area. Then again, we’re also the oldest clan around these parts, save for one up north.
The oral story, as we know it, is one of warnings and what will happen if they are ignored. One of a once friendly clan turned cult turned enemy of Sormieth. Details have been lost to time, and others certainly exaggerated, but the message remains. Inaction will have dire consequences, not only on those that ignore the warnings, but to those who weren’t aware of the potential danger to begin with.
The story starts as you’d expect from my summary. A friendly, unassuming clan moves in. They consist largely of foreigners, escaping some sort of peril from their home territories. Banding together under a similar goal, they seek refuge in a land where all life is cherished if it can survive the land it lives in. Become top of the food chain and you are safe. Perfect for dragons who would not be easily accepted during the times of tension between the flights.
Nothing was wrong until the clan sought to expand. They had to encroach on an area belonging to another territory, but it had been generously gifted to them. Within the land was the remains of structures believed to belong to an older, long abandoned beginnings of a separate clan. In the process of gathering materials, something was recovered. Whether from the ground, from within the ruins, or, if the storyteller is feeling morbid, an old skeleton, this marked the beginning of the end.
The Fire-aligned were first. The clans around this one, including ours, believed it to be a revival of belief in their deity. Possibly feeling the draw to home, they wanted to pay respects in some unknown ceremony foreign to those around them. There were great fires that brightened the night sky, these bonfires fed with great amounts of wood and thrown small sacrifices of food that filled the air with acrid black smoke and the choking smell of burning meat.
It is unknown when the others joined in such rituals to what was widely accepted as the Flamecaller to neighbors. While looked down upon for their worship of a different territory’s deity, the origins of the clan found the usually taboo subject accepted. The clan was friendly, and had done no wrong to others, keeping to themselves unless another clan’s aid was needed. There was no ill intent for their actions. No reason to turn them into an enemy solely on worship alone.
Then, there was the first wildfire.
It hadn’t occurred in the clan, or any of those near it. In fact, it was almost a day’s flight away. Still, the clan was confronted, blamed for the disaster that unfairly destroyed the Gladekeeper’s domain. They denied any involvement, but couldn’t account for a scouting party they had sent out. Realizing the connection, the three were captured, bound, and burned alive, an example for any others who may want to follow in their steps. They were strangely cruel to their own, but friendly. An ally who wanted the best for the land as the others.
Yet the wildfires persisted. And each time the clan was to blame. Sometimes there were new followers. Other times they weren’t to blame at all. And each and every time those caught were burned alive, the sound of pained screams and smell of burning flesh permeating the air. Ashes of the dead were buried separate from their bodies, believed by the surrounding clans to be a dishonor to the deceased.
But then dragons went missing.
The clan was immediately turned on as the culprit. But there was no proof. There were no graves. No spilled blood. No recent fires. They were beyond willing to show their innocence, and showed hostility towards the distrust constantly shown towards them. It wasn’t them that was the cause, but someone they thought as an ally framing them. Nothing spread about them was true anymore, aiming to remove them from Sornieth, whether through exile or mass death.
Yet the clans heard the screams. They echoed through the nights where the skies were cloudless. The source of the smell of burning hair, feather, scales, and flesh was close but never within the clan. And those that dared confront the cause became among those lost, or returned frantic and rambling of living skeletons, black and smelling of coals. The clan wasn’t confronted this time, but, as our story concludes, this was the worst decision to be made.
The assault began sometime within the month of dragons ceasing to stop going missing. What started as smoke from yet another bonfire, the largest ever seen by those who bore witness to it, quickly became far more. Blackened bony wraiths, draped in ashen, ragged cloths emerged from seemingly everywhere, incapacitating and binding all they could, and killing those who dared to resist. The living members of the clan came after, scorching marks onto the bodies of those still living before dragging them to the bonfire.
A cacophony of screams served as a warning, but the clans had grown content knowing their friendly ally wasn’t to blame for these, and too fear-stricken to take matters into their own hands. So, when the former allies were ambushed from all sides, it was far too late. One by one clans fell, consumed by the fire that now engulfed the clan, spreading out to consume all within its path.
Prayer did nothing to cease such thorough burning. Trees crumbled into charcoal. Animals were stripped of their skin and flesh and organs until dark, ash-coated skeletons remained. Even those crumbled with time, the flames even threatening to consume the ground below to strip all life from within. Dragons weren’t exempt, but they were smart. They could run from the fire. Try and put it out.
But this wasn’t a normal flame.
Our fledgeling clan knew of fire from before. Of a refugee from the Molten Furnace who spoke of the flame as destructive, but part of life. That which is destroyed by flame fertilizes soul, creates land that the sea had consumed, and fed the living trees with smoke. This wasn’t the life within death of the fire we knew. This was absolute, as bones and coal crumbled to ashen dust. Nothing was left to survive, save for those from the original clan, still feeding the unnatural bonfire where their homes had once been. Those that still could preaching of how everyone was to be sacrificed to this All Consuming One so that they may be freed.
The way this story ends depends on who tells it. Sometimes only one of our clan remained to tell the story as Gladekeeper enacted her wrath. Others say the fire turned back on its creators, consuming them before collapsing in on itself as no fuel remained. But the one I believe, and the one I tell, returns to the fire itself, something unnatural. I was told of the fire picking itself up and taking the form of a great dragon, turning on its makers to consume them. It left a trail of destruction until reaching Dragonhome, where it was lost. It’s believed to still roam to this day, feeding on all that burns as a living wildfire. So that next time news of a great burning reaches your ears, you do not ignore it, because that fire may come running for you, hungry.
As satisfying as it is to tell that story, all it is to you is a story. Something to be thrown away as fiction told to hatchlings to scare them into learning a lesson. There is no truth to my words unless I provide proof. So, I offer you your “proof”. Find that clan older than my own. Tell them of my statement. Of my words towards the living fire that threatened to consume all of Sornieth. Look at the terror in their eyes as they deny the truth. That what I speak of is slander to the acts of their deity.
They know far more than I do. Yet they have never learned from those that came before.
The Archivist flipped off the device as he finished his recording, flipping through the pages. He was aware of Fury Plains long before reading this statement, having looked into it in the past. It proved too old to connect to his research at the time, something filed away as an unnatural location that may have been one of very few sites where an act of the Eleven remained in plain sight for those to observe.
However, with the knowledge he had now, he couldn’t ignore the site. He’d send an assistant to explore the area and follow up on the challenge proposed by the statement’s author. With luck they’d get information lost from this story from the other clan. Certainly they’d be willing to share a secret or two when provoked.
The Pearlcatcher let out a sigh. He had no reason to believe the “living fire” was still around after all these years. Without a constant source of fuel, it would inevitably flicker out and perish. Still, he’d have a separate assistant search the older statements for such a thing. Eyeing the large stack of unread statements before him, it simply wasn’t worth his time to personally look for whatever monster this once was.
Looking back between a digital timer and seeing less than five minutes remaining, he turned his attention to the window of one way glass within the room. He signaled to the dragon inside that it was time to flip the vinyl disk which recordings were made on. Pushing his microphone back up towards the ceiling where it attached, he took the moment to stretch, finishing off his tea from that morning as he began to skim over the next statement.
@Saronai Thanks for drawing me! My prize choice is Shade Watcher.
@cartographic @Katsuji 6th place got in touch over pms so now I can assign your prizes too. You each won the last two event subspecies dragons (skydancer to cartographic, pearlcatcher to Katsuji) whose bios I will start working on personalizing tonight. Unless you have no interest in a personalized bio it may take up to a week for me to finish them and send them on their way. That being said, they may be done tonight.
The bios will be done around my personal favourite entries from each of you unless you have a different request. cartographic, I will endeavor to pick one of your other entries after a reread so the bio story is different from your event dragon win. I will let you know if I chose a runner up story if the spiders were my favourite ;)
If you have no actual entries, Katsuji (I'm unsure) I will just personalize the bio around the hatchling story itself you can feel free to update as desired.
@cartographic @Katsuji 6th place got in touch over pms so now I can assign your prizes too. You each won the last two event subspecies dragons (skydancer to cartographic, pearlcatcher to Katsuji) whose bios I will start working on personalizing tonight. Unless you have no interest in a personalized bio it may take up to a week for me to finish them and send them on their way. That being said, they may be done tonight.
The bios will be done around my personal favourite entries from each of you unless you have a different request. cartographic, I will endeavor to pick one of your other entries after a reread so the bio story is different from your event dragon win. I will let you know if I chose a runner up story if the spiders were my favourite ;)
If you have no actual entries, Katsuji (I'm unsure) I will just personalize the bio around the hatchling story itself you can feel free to update as desired.
Books: They have the power to convey knowledge, skills, and stories! They also have the power to flatten plants.
22
((They/Them)) ((Ve/Vir))
Pressed Morning Glory
Organics
Artists are always taking three dimensional objects and creating two dimensional representations.
22
@Saronai, I did not have any actual entries, though I will one day post here when I have the time to write more. I do not mind the bio being around the hatchling story! Take as much time as you need. No rush.
@Saronai, I did not have any actual entries, though I will one day post here when I have the time to write more. I do not mind the bio being around the hatchling story! Take as much time as you need. No rush.
Alright, each of you should have received your raffle prizes by now. If for some reason you have not, please PM me and we'll figure it out and get it sorted.
With that all prizes have been handed out. Everyone can feel free to go for late badges whenever if you like at whatever pace you like. I'll probably have nbdy edit the original post so it lets new visitors know.
Your late posts don't have to follow any rules except for Flight Rising's, post whatever images and formatting you like. Some CWs are probably still appreciated for relevant fears. I know I will still be reading and may eventually get around to a compliment for each entry starting with the first posts. So I'd definitely still appreciate a heads up for ear horror.
You may also still requests fandragons and avatars for those walls if you like or try to trade/sell your event dragons/skins.
I'm also game for rolling all of this into nothing more than a linked reference if someone else wants to run an untimed TMA-themed event or quest thread. Even without linking us, you won't be stepping on our toes.
Our final event ping follows. If you'd like to be on a longterm pinglist for any future, new TMA/Lightner events related to this one, please let @Saronai know and I will start cultivating a new pinglist.
Whether this thread continues into the future or dies down into obscurity, thank you all for helping us make this event such a fun success. You're all awesome!
Alright, each of you should have received your raffle prizes by now. If for some reason you have not, please PM me and we'll figure it out and get it sorted.
With that all prizes have been handed out. Everyone can feel free to go for late badges whenever if you like at whatever pace you like. I'll probably have nbdy edit the original post so it lets new visitors know.
Your late posts don't have to follow any rules except for Flight Rising's, post whatever images and formatting you like. Some CWs are probably still appreciated for relevant fears. I know I will still be reading and may eventually get around to a compliment for each entry starting with the first posts. So I'd definitely still appreciate a heads up for ear horror.
You may also still requests fandragons and avatars for those walls if you like or try to trade/sell your event dragons/skins.
I'm also game for rolling all of this into nothing more than a linked reference if someone else wants to run an untimed TMA-themed event or quest thread. Even without linking us, you won't be stepping on our toes.
Our final event ping follows. If you'd like to be on a longterm pinglist for any future, new TMA/Lightner events related to this one, please let @Saronai know and I will start cultivating a new pinglist.
Whether this thread continues into the future or dies down into obscurity, thank you all for helping us make this event such a fun success. You're all awesome!
