Dragons are divided into four types: Chromatic, Metallic, Crystal and Planar. All dragons have little more than beasts after hatching and only develop sentience after adulthood. They begin to develop instinctual magic after hatching though they develop more magic after gaining sentience. They reach adulthood based on size and not just age, though most end up not gaining the requisite size before their time is up and they are forced to stay base beasts. They are often hunted down as their ravenous hunger often causes them to consume most everything around them.
Chromatic dragons have for the most part fallen to their greed, seduced into working with the demons the evil of the dragon goddess aligning with the fiends. Metallic are for the most part, like their dragon god, standing against the demons though they are rarely considered aligned with the civilized races. Crystal dragons in their rarity and general neutrality not sided with anyone in the war against the demonic hoard. Planar being a blanket term for dragons not normally found on material planes vary by individual and type.
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Randy Ravnos
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I glance at the gas gauge of the motorcycle I stole as I drive through the now desolate town where my wife and son should be. It’s gas light is on as it has been for a while but now the engine and oil lights have joined it.
I slow down and come to a stop at what seems to be the center of a battlefield. The fabric of reality feels strange here, a lingering resonance from someone performing a lot of magic, but who?
The thunder twins don’t have the power for such an act anymore. Did Geldath plant another watcher over my family? No, I haven’t found another soul with our gift. I need to know what happened, why did my wife and son flee?
I pull out a pair of glasses with lenses made from diamond, runes scratched over the entire frame and put them on before whispering the words to my spell of hindsight. Something I should not be able to do anymore yet I regained that power.
Day and night roll backwards as I gaze into the past, the distortions in reality swell until the moment of their creation comes into my view. Conflicting emotions pass through my heart as I see my son destroying the invaders of our dimension. Pride at his strength, worry for his safety and anger at whatever the cause of the madness in his eyes is.
I begin to sweat as my power cannot maintain gazing so far into the past for long. I return to the present, my son didn’t die in this fight. My wife was never at this scene though, I need to get to the house but there is definitely not enough gas left for that.
With a sigh I pick up a rock from the broken asphalt and concrete before using the only other power I excelled at, elementalism. I draw on the power of Earth and command the ground to change with a word.
The dirt and stone rearranges itself to be a flat surface as I pull out an empty jug and call upon the water in the air to fill it. Once the dirt has settled I use the rock to draw the alchemical circle to transmutate water, once the circle of runes and geometric shapes are complete a flash of light follows and I can smell what the water now is, gasoline.
With this I rush towards the house not caring about the traces of magic I leave behind.
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Traces of another battle meet me when I get to the clearly ransacked house. This battle was further back than the other, I’ll need more than just my glasses to see it. I want to just use my blood to seek a next of kin but that would alert the thunder twins that our curse doesn’t hold me anymore.
Indirectly is the only way I can defend my family, I won’t risk them becoming experiments to remove the curse we deserve. I sift through the junk in the garage I use to hide the larger foci I can’t carry around in my job as a government agent.
I find the crystal ball I was looking for, though most of the things I told my son were important are missing. Did he carry them with him when he left? I’ll have to ask about them when I track him down.
Once more I cast my senses into the past and quickly watch the events from the start of the planar convergence until my family, the thunder twins, Adrian’s friends, and three girls I have never seen before all leave a few days ago.
Adrian woke up his mother’s bloodline, how? The soul spark of the Ravnos does not attach to supernatural entities. Then again my curse should have prevented him from awakening at all.
The image of my wife’s wedding ring fades slower than the rest of the past, how could I have forgotten such an obvious connection to my family. With haste I search the house for a map before spreading it over the floor and tying a string to my ring I perform a scry.
My ring pulls the string taunt as it points to Kansas City, that is where its pair is and my next destination. But first I need to begin what I do best, learning everything that could happen before it does.
I smile as I pull out the few foci that Adrian left behind, stuff I had hidden. Clear stones, seer stones of ancient religions. The perfect tool to use in divination as they allowed people to do so even without gifts in ages gone by.
The only problem is that they look ridiculous as glasses, or anything else, so I keep them hidden when not in use. I put them on and whisper a prayer to those very same now dead gods as I twist reality and see not just the strand of fate I am walking but the wheel that crafts them as hundreds of thousands of possible futures flash through my mind.
I won't remember most of this but I will know the trend that the strands of fate are likely to take. The images that I see are not futures I want to see happen, nigh every single one ends with my son screaming as Geldath casts some grand rite.
The visions end and I begin to pack everything up in haste, there is little time if I want any chance of avoiding that strand of fate.
Folding the map I end up tearing it in my haste as I walk back to my bike, and not the one I rode in on.
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Adrian
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Ignoring the pouting looks of the twins I use Translocation Grasp on one of the light bulbs in this part of the building. Now I have to focus on duplicating the AC current that flows through the walls.
I close my eyes and begin to meditate and focus on feeling the flow of electrons through the wires in the walls around me. My first attempt causes the bulb to shatter in an explosion, the current refusing to alternate directions.
After a half dozen attempts I give up on getting the direction of the electricity to oscillate and pull out books from Void Cache. I need to understand electricity better, or rather how AC current works.
Stolen novel; please report.
“What are the books for?” Lysan asks innocently.
“To help me understand how electricity works.”
“I thought you said there were no spell books written by your people.”
“There are not any, these are about science. About how the world naturally works.”
“Why would you need to use something like that in magic?”
“What is easier, creating a fireball to set an entire building on fire or placing one that will spread to the whole building?”
“The second one.”
“That’s why, to make things easier. Turning the laws that normally increase the difficulty of something into an aid instead.”
“You can do that?”
“Of course, do you want an example?”
She nods and so I continue.
“Alright let’s take your sister’s lightning bolt spell, it works by forcefully caging electricity in a box of mana to get the lightning to travel the desired path right?"
Talia nods.
“Electricity will travel the easiest path to a discharge point, so what if you ionized the path you wanted it to take and let the generated power move itself rather than guiding it? I’m not sure if that would be cheaper than the mana cage but rather than fighting against electricity's flow it now saves you energy. Even if it does cost more it would travel through the air faster making it harder to dodge.
For me I can’t get the electricity to change directions through brute force fast enough so I want to find an efficient shortcut through science.”
“Can I read these books too?” ask both of the sisters in unison.
I pull out a few middle school physics and biology books as I skin through the table of contents for the college textbook I’m looking at. That should be a usable introduction for them right?
I flip to the section and start reading, making sure to memorize everything. After a few minutes I find a phrase that tells me how AC current is created, oscillating the polarity, so magnetism or inverting charges? Alright I think I can get that to work.
I still break a few dozen bulbs before I get a flow of electricity stable enough to light up the bulb just as the few that are still in their sockets around the room. With that I begin to charge a phone through a wall charger as I wait for the eventual escort to deal with the Althaen.
It is dawn when someone finally enters the cell portion of the station. I am supprised and disappointed in the security that never bothered to check on their prisoners especially with odd sounds coming from us.
The people who enter are Thrane, an Althaen with the same house emblem as the man I killed yesterday and Jasmine. Everyone but Jasmine is smiling but for different reasons.
“You know what to do unless you want war” says the Althaen and Jasmine gives him the key to the cell before exiting.
“You better hope that the other slaves have not been touched boy.”
“You are aware that you are threatening another noble Damien” Thrane interrupts.
Damien then laughs before scoffing at the idea that I would be a noble.
“A noble would never be treated as such.”
“Are the papers finished Thrane Goldenrock?” I ask.
With a smile he pulls what I requested out of a satchel before passing them to me. “As soon as you sign them they will go into effect and your nobility and house will be recognized by the Dwarven Nations” he says as I grab the offered papers and pen.
The look of disbelief on the Althaen's face was worth sitting in this cell all night. I quickly sign the few places before they all disappear leaving behind a signet ring of a dragon surrounded by stars. I guess this is my symbol now.
“I do believe you have to call a trial or a challenge now, I am a fellow noble after all.”
The hatred on Damien’s face is enjoyable, but he quickly covers it up with a grin. He did not expect to have to do such a thing and is now thinking of how to make me suffer.
“So you got the dwarves to back you, fine we can have a trial over your theft and false claims of nobility.”
“Perfect, lead the way then.”
And lead he does and though he didn’t unlock the cell door with his key it doesn’t stay shut when you teleport the lock's mechanism out. I do the same to our hand cuffs and pass them to one of the police as we all walk out of the station.
We end up at the courthouse, a room that has been hastily altered for the jury box to be in the judge's place. One that is already filled. Where they tipped off before Damien was sent to fetch me? No, he was surprised, then a message spell of some sort must have been cast by him or the dwarves set it up to be available for a small charge. . .
I would guess the latter. Thrane might tell me later if I ask him. I quickly set up the phone I managed not to accidentally fry to record video as I tell Lysan how it’s used.
Thrane gives me a look of interest at the device before I mouth to him that I’ll put its uses on the list I owe him. He nods with a smile, no doubt thinking of how to be of use during the trial to have me owe him more.
One of the old men in the jury turned judges' box speaks up, no doubt starting this trial.
“You Adrian Ravnos are guilty of theft, possible destruction of resources and impersonation of nobility. You will be tortured until broken as the slave you are or used as the resources you stole.”
Great, no fooling around. This won’t be easy but will work great when released as a video to the public. Before I begin to force them to acknowledge me, Thrane does so for me.
“This young man has been added to the Dwarven List of Approved Peoples and his nobility has likewise been acknowledged. Your claims are an affront against the dwarves who approved of him.”
“It is known that that those of Terra lack mana and arcane skill. They cannot be nobles. Sit down before our treaty of Noble Rights and Requirements is called upon to punish you.”
“I stand and remain standing, if you want to pursue your charges challenge his ability.”
The man who has been the voice of this council turns to me, “do you accept a test of nobility?”
“Name the spell” I answer.
“Animate Dead.”
“You ask for a spell whose ingredients are not here. Give me a corpse and a black onyx then.”
The motions some soldiers to the side, surprised at my reaction to his demand. The soldiers drag out the body of the noble I killed yesterday. It was probably going to be used as evidence against me.
It is a few minutes before a black gemstone is given to me. Once it is I warp the light around me to make the gem appear to shatter as I pocket it in Void Cache and send a darkness into the corpse.
Then I mutter nonsense under my breath for a few minutes as I form a negative energy matrix through the Sphere of Death. There is a look of scorn in their eyes so I begin a light show of shadows and red glows before verbally commanding what should now be a zombie.
“Arise”
The newly made undead thing stands but I can feel the matrix inside it wish to fall apart. I didn’t do it right and it will only hold as long as I maintain it. One of the Althaen points a bone wand at the corpse and issues a command in a language I do not know.
The corpse begins to walk to him before I stop maintaining it. It falls to the ground and I say with a smirk, “sorry but you can't steal it and it is better to leave the dead to rest anyways.”
The judges grumble before one of them speaks up, “your undead did not stay the test is inconclusive, cast Call Lightning instead.”
“You want proof through a divine spell restricted to outdoors?”
“Is that a problem?”
“Not if you are covering the damage.”
He nods and I am thankful for the clouds outside as I draw upon and amplify their potential for lightning before calling bolt after bolt down, breaking through the ceiling and having it crash on the floor. I had a lot of practice doing this during my madness and smile at the Althaen judges after the flurry of lightning ends.