"The story of Cardak is hard to tell. He has been an ally and an enemy to
Clan Phrost, so instead of describing him directly, I will try to tell his story
though the eyes of others. In order to understand this story, you must
understand the idea of planets, worlds, and stars. Do you understand these
things?"
(explanation: ) "This is not the most… accurate explanation, but think of the
night sky like an ocean. Each star is like an island. Stars are much bigger than
they look, but they are so far away they look very small. You need special ships
or magic to sail between the stars."
"A long time ago, the exact number of years forgotten, my great grandfather
Arhen had a Blood Feud against elves. He was betrayed by elves, and lost his
love. In his rage, he traveled from planet to planet in search of elves to slay.
He met Cardak, a young inferno dragon, on a desert world of fire and sand.
Cardak wanted to travel; it was his dream to see exotic places. Arhen taught him
how to fight, how to travel from world to world, and the cornerstone of our idea
of honor: to protect those you love, and destroy those who would harm them.
"Arhen continued to travel in his quest, teaching Cardak many things. In
their exploration of magic, psionics, and other knowledge, Arhen developed a new
technique of ritual bond. This bond enables two people to be connected, and if
one is in danger, the other will know. The two can find each other through this
bond if they ever become separated. It only works if the beings are connected in
some way, either by blood, love, or by a painful ritual. The love-bond one can
actually be forged into a ring, my family sells these rings. They enhance the
bond that two souls naturally form when sentient beings are very close to each
other. Er… I’m getting off topic.
"Eventually Cardak and Arhen split company as friends. Cardak continued to
travel and make maps, both of the lands themselves and of the rifts and gates
that separated those lands. Somewhere in his travels he came to a land and met
humans, who were being preyed upon by other dragons. To many dragons, if you are
strong enough to take something, you should take it.
"Cardak objected to this line of thinking, but at first he couldn’t bring
himself to slay another dragon for the sake of humans. Then one day when he was
trying to convince a shadow dragon to stop extorting humans, one bold warrior
calling himself Palladin and wielding a sword attacked the shadow dragon, and
while Cardak stood by and watched, slayed him. That is when Cardak decided that
weaker beings have a right to live, and that stronger beings have a duty to
protect the weaker. Now, Arhen had this sense of duty and honor applied to his
family and friends, but Cardak took this a step further, and applied it to the
entire human race. The human was mortally wounded from his battle, and Cardak
used his magic to heal the man, but he did not heal the dragon. After that, he
traveled with the human.
"He forged a sword of magic and power and while staying in human form, he
became the Dragon Palladin. He was determined to bring a new Law to dragonkind,
to ensure that no dragon, or other supernatural beings, preyed on weaker
creatures. He slayed several dragons, freeing people from being exploited or
eaten. Over the centuries he had several human companions, and trained them how
to fight and he learned from them as well. Arhen helped by pulling some
political muscle to help convince the Dragon Council to accept this new law,
although he made certain it did not apply to his most hated enemy, the elf.
"Finally the Law was passed, and Cardak took it upon himself to enforce it.
He traveled, still making maps, and was known by his dragon slaying sword and
his armor made out of the scales from a shadow dragon’s corpse. There is a rumor
that he observed bloodlines in humans to see if certain things like heroism
passed on from parent to child, but discovered that there is no "hero" gene. He
was a scholar, a warrior, a map maker, and he founded Palladin Orders, teaching
humans to protect themselves from dragons and other supernatural creatures of
ill intent.
"Arhen, having slayed every elf within the system, developed a crude ship
that could travel the stars and left in search of more to exterminate. It is
unknown what became of him. His son, my grandfather, took over clan Phrost.
Millennium passed. Cardak had a small kingdom where he ruled humans with a firm
but very fair hand, when he wasn’t traveling he resided there, in a castle in a
volcano.
"It became rare that a dragon would dare break the Law, until Arkhon. He was
a young inferno dragon, and had carved out a kingdom for himself and ruled by
fear and hatred. He didn’t know any better, he wasn’t raised by parents or a
clan to teach him manners. Cardak heard about him, and took the hatchling into
custody. He treated the youngling as a prisoner instead of a protégé. Cardak
tried to teach the youngster that it was wrong to hurt humans, not because of
fear of consequences, but because it was simply wrong. Arkhon believed the
strong ruled the weak, and followed Cardak’s rules for no other reason than
Cardak was stronger.
"Cardak went to the Dragon Council, which meets once every century, and
proposed a law that ALL dragon hatchlings must belong to a Clan, and if the
parents cannot be found, the hatchling would be sent to another Clan as an
adopted child.
"Arkhon took the opportunity of Cardak’s absence to escape. He traveled
through the set Gates and decided to hide in the last place Cardak would ever
look for him, among humans. He pretended to be an ordinary human, keeping the
bulk of his powers hidden, otherwise Cardak would be able to easily find him.
For decades Arkhon, who was probably about my age, lived in fear of being
discovered, and moving every so often so that others did not notice he didn’t
age.
"At one point, Arkhon made friends with the humans he lived among, and grew
to care about them. There was a war between his friends and a rival group. The
night of the deciding battle, he realized the only way he could save his friends
was to use all his powers, but to do so would lead to Cardak finding him. He
chose to protect his friends instead, turning into a dragon and taking out the
enemy.
"Cardak found him, and instead of being angry, was quite proud that Arkhon
"finally got it." It was unknown if he let Arkhon escape as some ingenious
manipulative plot, or if everything just worked out for the best. But Cardak
officially adopted Arkhon. More centuries passed. Arkhon grew into a powerful
adult dragon, and Cardak was very ancient.
"Cardak fell in love with a human woman, deeply in love. It was said his love
for her was beyond measure. He wanted to have children with her, even though
they were different species. He cast a greater ritual so that the impossible
could become possible, so he would be able to have a child with his beloved.
"His ritual worked. Every dragon in the Crysandis system could breed with
humans, and produce viable offspring. The down side? They could no longer
transform into anything except human or dragon form. Needless to say, the rest
of the dragons were not happy. There was a war, that waged for a full century.
Cardak sent his half-dragon daughter into the future where she would be safe.
Cardak was the most powerful of the dragons, and the combined might of the other
dragons wasn’t enough to bring him down.
"His human allies, however, suffered greatly. Tens of thousands of lives were
lost, so many of Cardak’s mortal friends. My grandfather was killed in battle,
and my father took over, even though he was quite young by dragon standards. The
rest of the Dragon Clans began to exploit their new gift, discovering that the
offspring between dragons and humans had enormous psychic potential. These new
psionic vassals, or psi-vals, could use a dragon’s strength to grow more
powerful, or lend their strength to the dragon through Arhen’s bond.
"At the next Dragon Council, it was finally decided that although Cardak had
done something unforgivable, there was no way to correct his mistake. Instead,
the dragons would adapt to this new gift. The Kyono School was created, out of
solid dragon ice, er.. you would call it diamond, where the psi-vals of each
clan could come together to learn, and full blood hatchlings, now called Scions,
could learn alongside their cousins. It became a Law of the school that no
violence could be done between students, and that Law is still in effect today.
"Both Scions and psi-vals have the clan mark, that is granted at a ceremony
when the clan Patriarch, or Matriarch, uses a variation of Arhen’s bond. If the
psi-vals or scions are in danger, the clan ruler knows, and knows where they
are. If it is within the domain of the clan, the clan ruler can teleport to
their aide."
*Angel rolls up the sleeve to reveal a tattoo-like mark of a white dragon on
her forearm, right above his elbow.*
"I’m currently outside of Phrost domain, but inside our borders I would be
almost completely safe from harm. There are other powers too, the dragon can
pass on elemental powers. An inferno dragon can make their psi-vals immune to
flames, to gain power and comfort from heat. A phrost dragon can make their
psi-vals immune to cold. Also… a difference between the balance of power in my
land and yours, in Crysandis, it hurts to use powers. There is a price to
pay for power, our belief is that with your mages, they pay for it afterwards,
or else with good service a deity will pay that price for them. We pay for
powers up front. And a clan ruler can pay that price for their followers. In a
time of great need, a dragon can draw on the strength of their psi-vals and
scions. If my father is ever attacked, he could draw on all the psionic energy
of hundreds of psi-vals and dozens of relatives to use to defend his clan.
"Er, I digress… at any rate…
My own father refused to go along with the peace and could not forgive Cardak,
declaring Blood Feud. The only other Blood Feud our Clan had declared was
against elves, nearly a million years ago with my great grandfather Arhen. We
respected the new Laws that were put in place for psi-vals and for the school,
but outside of that it was open ground.
"The Great Feud waged for two centuries until one final battle, when Arkhon
renounced his father, and left with all his remaining psi-vals to begin his own
clan. It was the only way to save them. Clan Phrost is a rival to Arkhon, even
now, but we are not true enemies. Cardak went into hiding. It is unknown what he
did during these years of hiding, no doubt heartbroken by the betrayals and the
loss of life.
"More centuries passed. My father expanded his domain, and with my uncle’s
careful management and business sense, clan Phrost became one of the most
powerful dragon clans, especially now that Cardak was no longer in the picture.
"On a planet called Earth, a young girl, Candace, was found who had the mark
of a psi-val of Cardak. She was discovered using her gifts at a gambling house.
She was taken to the school at Kyono where she was safe, and provided for, but
had difficulty fitting in. She was a dream walker but didn’t know it, and often
went into my elder brother’s dreams. ^_^
"Eventually, it was found out that Candace was actually Cardak’s daughter.
Since Cardak wasn’t around to claim her, by his own laws, she had to belong to a
Clan. Clan Phrost, um, purchased her for the price of a diamond warship. What my
father did I am not particularly proud of, but I mentioned there were 3 ways to
connect with Arhen’s bond? Blood, love, and… pain. He used magic to torture her,
partly to see if there was any connection to Cardak, in the hopes of flushing
out the elder dragon.
"Finally my father relented, and adopted and bonded Candace. He used a
psionic variant of mind wipe that did not make her forget, but rather dulled the
pain. Like, when you were hurt when you were a child? Looking back it’s not
nearly as painful as it was during or immediately after. My father dulled the
pain and she recovered quickly. He soon found out that she had health issues, as
some psi-vals and half dragons do, and swallowed her for imprinting. He
corrected the health problems, and after imprinting she found it a little easier
to adjust.
"It was roughly a year later that Cardak showed. He challenged my father to a
dual over Candace. My father considered, and then simply smiled, and stated: "It
is ironic, but by your own laws, the laws that you spent so many years slaying
dragons to forge, by those very laws, she’s mine, and there is nothing you can
do about it. No, I won’t dual with you, it gives me more pleasure to take
everything away from you than kill you, just as you took so much from me."
*Angel holds up an orb.* "It is ironic that spheres are integral to this
sword, as so much of Cardak’s past winds up in vicious circles."
"Candace didn’t particularly like this, so she went out and created her own
ship, making a MASSIVE sacrifice of pain in order to make the dragon-ice, er..
diamonds. She pulled it off, paid off the price that our Patriarch paid for her,
and declared herself her own clan. It was…well… technically legal.
"She declared herself independent, then soon afterwards joined our clan
again, but this time married to my brother. Her condition was that the Feud end.
And... it ended. After hundreds of years, my father forgave Cardak… sort of. At
least he promised not to try to kill or do anything bad to anymore. The elder
dragon went back into hiding and hasn’t been seen from since.
"That’s all I know of Cardak. If I keep the sword, it will probably go to
Candace, who is by blood Cardak’s daughter. I do not know when this sword was
created, before or after the War. If it was before, well, Cardak and my family
were allies. If after… then it may hate once it awakens, if it awakens. It was
only recently that my family forgave the elves, after a million years of Blood
Feud; dragons are not what you would call a forgiving lot."
