This is a journal entry for all who took part in my "Andrissar" D&D game. Skip over it if you don't care. A lot of people will notice some similarities in the story to certain Square video games. One of them was intentional, though the thing about the dragons didn't occur to me until after I had written it down. Since we didn't get to play the final adventure, I extrapolated the outcome based on what I wanted to occur. So here it is, the whole story laid out:
Ages ago in Andrissar, before the gods favored men over elves, there was a tremendous battle in the world between deities. Caiadis, brother of the mighty god, Tyr, became embittered over his siblings favorable reputation with the people of the land. Most people tended to look at Tyr as a noble force while they passed Caiadis off as petty and ignoble. While they were correct, he did not share this vision in his jealousy of his brother, he called upon his servants to attack Tyrs peace-loving worshipers. The Caiadis-inspired armies marched upon the villages and cities of Tyr, ravaging food supplies and trade routes at first. As Tyr merely ignored his brothers threats and replenished his peoples prosperity, Caiadis became angered. When his people marched again, they began waging actual war, and they spared not the women and children of Tyr in their rage. In the slaughter of the good people, Tyr was most displeased at his brother, but upon hearing of their more hideous actions, the goddess Vendia became vengeful.
Using her powers in a manner unapproved of by the general pantheon, Vendia infused her people with the ability to summon elemental spirits at will, creating a powerful force of magic-wielding warriors. Vendias summoners unleashed their powers upon Caiadis army, devastating them wholly in one fell swoop there was nothing the embittered god could do to stop them. With his servants mainly destroyed, he retreated to plot his revenge upon his fellow gods. For many years he lay hidden and silent, working out ways in which he could assert his power upon the land. Eventually he came into contact with five evil dragons Ander, Leviathen, Raindrops, Umbril, and Myst; brown, white, blue, shadow, and green dragons, respectively. Caiadis struck a deal with them he would give them free dominion over the land and his people if they would help him destroy the other gods people. He offered them powers they could not refuse the ability to fuse into one all-powerful dragon, a Dragon God, and also the ability to disguise themselves as other types of dragons. The five accepted his offer and quickly took up their different mantles. They became gold, silver, brass, bronze, and copper dragons, respectively. Ander, being a very intelligent dragon, came up with a plan which surprised Caiadis the five would use their disguises to gain the trust of the people of the land as Dragon Gods and then they would unite as one and destroy the good people. Caiadis was utterly pleased by this plan and went into hiding once more to let them do their deeds.
Unfortunately for Caiadis, he never noticed the superior god of trickery, Tikki, spying on him. The trickster, who frequently takes on the appearance of a fremlin, heard every word of the evil gods plan and took quick action to avoid such an outcome. He teamed up with Lana, the nature superior goddess to achieve his goal. Tikki immediately banished the five evil dragons to five different planes and locked them up there like prisoners, not wanting to actually kill them since he didn't believe it necessary. Lana set to work creating foils to the five dragons in the event that they ever escaped. She created five beings known as Earth Wardens. The Earth Wardens would be passed down randomly through time, with each one dieing and being reborn over and over again. Their task, sometimes unknown to them, was to watch over the planet and make sure that the evil dragons never wreaked their planned havoc upon the land. Caiadis, furious at the discovery and foiling of his plan, tried to take his vengeance out on the land himself. He was stopped, however, by slaughter god Craith and by Faris, goddess of retribution. Though Craith is a wholly evil god, he did not agree with Caiadis methods and agreed once to help the other gods in ridding the land of Tyrs brother. They stripped him of his major powers and banished him to an evil realm to dwell. Followers of Caiadis, since that day, are very rare encounters. All seemed well and the majority of the populace went on wholly unaware of any changes in the land. Time went on and eventually humans gained the gods favor despite the protestations of Sylph, the god of elves. Things became as they are known now.
However, Tikki underestimated the resourcefulness of the banished dragons. Ander escaped from his prison relatively quickly and hid, setting the roots of his original plan before even men gained dominion of the land. Followers of Ander, Dragon God, began appearing much to the real gods chagrin. Anders people thought they were following a truly holy cause. He set up his bases in what would come to be known as the Outlands a realm inhabited by a breed of grey elves with entirely red eyes. Slowly, he set about to help the other dragons to escape. The follies of men helped Ander keep his operations secret from the gods and within a few hundred years, Leviathen and Raindrops were back from their prisons. Ander then decided that it would be good to start rewriting history and the three escaped dragons came up with a very interesting plan. The Council of Five was invented and forced upon men as a representation of the five dragon gods. History was rewritten so that the people believed the Summoners of Vendia were really created by Myst and the Earth Wardens of Lana were really inventions of the other dragon gods as a foil to Myst. Once Myst himself was freed, he agreed to be banished from the circle as part of a punishment for his summoners. Their actions still completely unknown to the real gods, the dragons set about endearing themselves to the people, biding their time for revenge. Masterminded by Ander, the plot was alive and going according to plan.
It was the sun god Tloon who eventually noticed the actions of the dragons and reported to Tikki. Unfortunately for the god of trickery, though, the dragons now had an incredibly powerful mage on their side. This mage, a male human named Blaise Rugo, believed he was working for good based on his prior interactions with Tikki and kept the superior god from banishing the dragons again. With Umbril the only remaining dragon imprisoned, Tikki set about making sure he would never walk the real world again. Blaises effort was not enough to stop Tikki and Umbril was permanently locked up in his Dragon realm. Tikki also succeeded in keeping Leviathen trapped in a body of water for eternity. And so, for the second time, the Dragon Gods were foiled.
Ander, however, was not to be stopped. With the help of Rugo, he set in motion another plan. The wizard was able to transmute the essence of each dragon into a small artifact. The dragon would live on, but once these artifacts were all brought together, the one Dragon God would form and the husks of the five would crumble away. Anders plan was to trick some foolhardy people into accomplishing the reuniting of these essences. He located a fire summoner a rare occurrence: because of the power they could wield, they, too, were banished and set him as a worm, a corrupter, in the service of a King. Eventually, the people would realize that their King was being controlled and would try to stop the Summoner. The proposed do-gooders would eventually learn that the Dragon Gods were the only way to stop the corrupter and would help reunite them for their ultimate vengeance.
However, something unexpected happened as Anders plan was executing: into a village of Summoners an Earth Warden was born. Tallia Moonflint, the daughter of a water summoner in the village of Myst, somehow inherited the spirit of a fallen Earth Warden. The amazing occurrence was unknown to the dragons, however, and their plan was kept intact. Oddly enough, though, the worm, Anders fire summoner, learned of her birth and began making plans to have her killed. He couldnt do it openly because she was highly protected by her family and friends, so he waited for the right moment.
Six years after the Hybrids birth, Anders do-gooders appeared. A knight in the service of the corrupt King, a bowman named Fox Thoroughgood, questioned his Kings motives in certain endeavors. This bowman was sent on what he was lead to believe was a mission of dire importance he had to deliver a package to the mayor of the village of Myst, and the bowman was supposedly the only one he could trust with the job. His faith in his King temporarily restored, Thoroughgood recruited a few traveling adventurers to help him deliver this package. The ranger, Parrin Loc and warrior of The Tribe (a group of neutrally decent warriors dedicated to policing the land for no pay) named Cayen Darkwind joined Thoroughgood on his mission. During their travel, they slew what they thought was a young dragon. They were not aware that the monster was really an elemental, summoned to guard the cave they were traveling through by the mother of Tallia Moonflint.
The group reached Myst and delivered the package as was requested. They did not open the package, or they would have realized that they were delivering several fire elementals summoned by the Kings worm to destroy the village. The worms plan to destroy the girl would have succeeded had her mother not been killed part of the power of Vendias Summoners was that if the elemental they summoned was killed, so were they but young Tallia was some way out of town mourning her mothers death when the mayor opened the package. Fox and his companions escaped the village and came upon her. When she learned that they were the ones who had killed her mother, they got a small demonstration of her hidden powers: she summoned a combination of an earth elemental and a giant, which only lasted a short time due to her inexperience. Realizing that hed been set up, Fox decided that it would be good to bring the girl along with them, thinking that she would play some part in clearing his good name and helping to expose the King as an evil man. They got her to calm down and come with them.
Slowly, the group came to learn that the King was being corrupted and that the girl would help them in the fight against him. While sailing down a river to get to a large city where Cayen knew theyd be able to enlist help in fighting the King, their boat sailed over the body of water where Leviathen was trapped. Sensing the power of the girl on board with them, he knew what he had to do the dragon attacked the boat and sunk it, taking the boats people captive. After consulting with Ander, the plan was modified he realized that the girl was incredibly powerful and that training her would help their cause out. He then had Leviathen free the adventurers and make it seem like they had washed up on shore somewhere downriver. Their original quest having been altered, the partys mission now was to free the girl from the clutches of the Dragon God. The girl was sent secretly to Umbril in the Dragon plane for her supposed training. And thus, Anders plan became very close to completion. Blaise Rugo helped them out by leading them to their first dragon. They visited Myst, thinking that Rugo destroyed him but really only retrieved his essence for them. They then visited Umbril and then Raindrops, gathering their essences as well. Their next visit was supposed to be with Ander, but thats when the plan went awry.
In order to see Ander, the group had to gain the trust of a tribe of Outlanders. Instead of letting them attempt to find him themselves, the leader of the tribe, a brash, intelligent elf named Khan Qian requested them to go retrieve a tribal artifact from a green dragon named Kaelzenious in the city-state of Middom. It was in facing Kaelzenious that Anders plans became destroyed. The party had long since lost Fox and Cayen, but Parrin Loc was still there for the rest of it. While fighting Kaelzenious, though, Parrin was killed. The dragon was killed, but the loss of Parrin not only devastated the group but also whatever hope Ander had of someone bringing those essences to Leviathen. It was then, also, that Tallia escaped from Umbril and came to try and save the group from the fate shed learned of while in captivity, though Ander was unaware of that. Time passes much quicker in the dragon plane and even though it had only been about six months since the party had lost her, shed already aged sixteen years and was in full command of her powers. She convinced the other people traveling with Parrin to help her destroy the essences of the dragons and free the King from his corrupter. With the help of the tribe of Outlanders who realized their betrayal by Ander, Tallia and the remaining party members laid siege to the Kings castle. Khan Qian slew the worm, but not before it dealt him a deadly wound as well. The other Outlanders held the castle guards at bay while Tallia and her new friends faced the greatest threat to the land an enraged Ander backed by a newly freed Caiadis. Caiadis snatched the essences of the dragons from the group and went to go unite them, but was intercepted on his way out by his brother, who destroyed the three essences he possessed. The land shook in the deaths of Raindrops, Umbril, and Myst. Ander, however, knew not to trust the god of tyranny, and had secretly taken his essence back from Caiadis. It was then that he spoke his final words to the adventurers in front of him, they are recorded as such:
You know, the plan was simple enough unite as one all-powerful Dragon God and have our revenge on the real gods people for our imprisonment. It was really the agony of waiting a thousand years for the right moment which proved difficult. Maybe I jumped the gun in my anticipation, thats not really important. Now the time is at hand, and that fool Caiadis just got three of my fellows killed. Leviathens still alive but hes trapped CURSE THAT FOUL FREMLIN BASTARD FOR ETERNITY! Alas, I havent come this far to accept defeat readily. Im more powerful now than I have ever been, thanks to that idiot god. Someone has to pay for my downfall before the real gods come and destroy me, as well. And you people are here right now, so youre going to be my scapegoats. Enjoy death, weaklings!
He then shed his disguise, revealing his true heritage of a brown dragon and went to attack the group. Unbeknownst to him, Tallia had been hiding all of the time as her friends faced the dragon. Also unbeknownst to him, shed spoken with Blaise Rugo about his deception and together, the two of them emerged and threatened Ander. He was shocked to see the girl, but more shocked to see Rugo there. Together, Tallia Moonflint and Blaise Rugo used their powers to reduce Ander back to his former strength to give the adventurers unwittingly pulled into the struggle a chance to live. Though they succeeded, the effort of the exertion was enough to drop the two powerful wizards and the three people that Tallia had brought with her were left to face Ander and his wrath.
It is unknown as to whether or not the adventurers were able to slay Ander. There are several different opinions, but none can be proven. What is known is that Ander was killed. It is also known that Tyr showed up after locking Caiadis up and destroying Leviathen. The general opinion is that the adventurers fought Ander bravely, eventually succumbing to his fantastic powers, and that Tyr came and slew him once and for all. That is what is written in history books, since its the easiest to picture.
However, secretly, many people believe another tale that the adventurers fought and slew Ander before Tyr arrived. The lives of Fox Thoroughgood, Parrin Loc, Cayen Darkwind, Embien Innekar, Olien Soulseeker, and a mysterious figure named Thirteen will not be recorded in any history books, but their roles in the downfall of Ander will always be remembered by the people. Its even said that the mysterious one still walks the land today; but that, of course, is also unproven. Regardless of how it happened, though, Ander is dead, Caiadis is imprisoned and unable to cause further harm, and the Outlanders signed a peace treaty with Andrissar and eventually were accepted by the people.
The End.