Pyromalfic

Monday, December 28, 2015

Pyromalfic, known in Shyr as Grymvane, was a weakened dragon that lived in the Castle of the Keys until he was consumed by his brother Everblight.

Like the rest of the dragons, Pyromalfic was spawned by the Dragonfather Lord Toruk when he divided his athanc to create a brood dragons as servants in his image. Unfortunately, Toruk’s sons were too similar to him and were unwilling to bow down to anyone, including their father; and they turned on him. Toruk eventually destroyed many lesser dragons, and the rest fled. From that point forward, Toruk sought to hunt the dragons down and gather the pieces of his athanc to undo his mistake.

By 2100 BR, Pyromalfic blighted and enslaved a sect of Iosans, who seized the fortress called the Castle of the Keys, on the mountains of the Bloodstone Marches. He created his lair beneath the fortress complex.

In 1000 BR – by the time Toruk has already consumed three dragons – Pyromalfic participated in an alliance of dragons organised by Blighterghast to drive Toruk from mainland Immoren. The dragons ambushed Toruk, forcing him to retreat to the Scharde Islands southwest of Immoren.

In 230 BR, an Orgoth expedition into the Castle of the Keys decimated the Iosan cult serving Pyromalfic but was defeated by the dragon. A fragment of an Orgoth tome detailing this encounter suggests Pyromalfic was somehow poisoned or cursed.

Several centuries after that, Pyromalfic was reportedly destroyed in a clash with another dragon, Scaefang; though the rumours carrying details of that battle have been questionable. In truth, Pyromalfic retreated deep in the ruins of the Castle of the Keys to recover from his injuries. However, in the centuries following, Pyromalfic’s injury healed only bit by bit, and he became convinced something weakened his regenerative ability, perhaps a problem with his athanc, which weighted on his mind for years.

Pyromalfic’s lair was eventually discovered by the Iosan Ghyrrshyld Vyre, who later became a Cryxian lich in service of Lord Toruk. However, he never revealed this information to his master.
In the spring of 607 AR, the newly-formed Legion of the disembodied dragon Everblight, having been revealed the location of Pyromalfic’s lair by Goreshade, march upon the Castle of the Keys intent on defeating Pyromalfic, consuming his athanc and greatly increasing the Legion’s power.

Pyromalfic is eventually discovered and roused to battle by a small group of Everblight’s minions led by the blighted ogrun Thagrosh, host to the largest portion of Everblight’s athanc. He immediately ascends from his lair and quickly gets swarmed by myriad of Everblight’s spawn: angelius, seraphim andharriers. Pyromalfic’s claws rip through them with ease, but there were too many, and he falls towards the courtyard before his athanc is cut out by the Legion warlock Rhyas. Thagrosh then climbs back to the surface, takes Pyromalfic’s athanc and swallows it whole, forcing it down his jaw and throat.

Even after being defeated, Pyromalfic still tries to convince Thagrosh that he isn’t an adequate vessel and Everblight will discard him as soon as he can, though his efforts prove futile. Pyromalfic’s mind and essence are later fully devoured by Everblight, his athanc and power added to the other dragon’s. Pyromalfic only continues to exist as glimmers of a shattered consciousness that once in a while invade Thagrosh’s mind.

Pyromalfic’s death and consumption alert the threat Everblight proves to the other dragons, and soon after Blighterghast, informed by the blackclad Krueger the Stormlord on the events at the Castle of the Keys, calls the other dragons again, this time not against their father, but against the new threat of their upstart brother.


Lexicanum Immoren

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Epistle on Dragons (St. John Damascene)

Wednesday, December 16, 2015


The main purpose of St. John Damascene is to persuade his readers that dragons are real living creatures and not mythical personages like ghosts, werewolves and so on. To confirm this idea, St. John describes their birth, development, size, behavior, and refers to the catching of a dragon and the measuring of his hide.

Some people contrive that dragons can both take the human form and turn into serpents, sometimes small, sometimes huge, differing in body length and size, and sometimes, as was already stated above, having turned into people, start to associate with them, appear to steal women and consort with them; so we would ask [those who tell such stories]: how many intelligent natures did God create? And if they do not know the answer, we will respond: two – I mean angels and humans… So He created the two intelligent natures; but if a dragon changes its form while associating with people, becoming at one moment a serpent, at another a man… so it follows with all possible clarity that dragons are intelligent beings exceeding men greatly, which has not [ever] been true, and never will be.

Let them also say who in particular tells about it. For we trust the teaching of Moses, and, more exactly, the Holy Spirit, having spoken through [the prophet]. This [teaching] reads: And God brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever [Adam] called every living creature, that was the name thereof (cf. Gen. 2:19). Hence, a dragon was one of the animals. I am not telling you, after all, that there are no dragons; dragons exist but they are serpents borne of other serpents. Being just born and young, they are small; but when they grow up and get mature, they become big and fat so that exceed the other serpents in length and size. It is said they grow up more than thirty cubits; as for their thickness, they get as thick as a big log. Dio the Roman (A.D. 155 – 236) who wrote the history of Roman empire and republic, reports the following: one day, when Regulus, a Roman consul, was fighting against Carthage, a dragon suddenly crept up and settled behind the wall of the Roman army. The Romans killed it by order of Regulus, excoriated it and sent the hide to the Roman senate. When the dragon’s hide, as Dio says, was measured up by order of the senate, it happened to be, amazing, one hundred and twenty feet long, and the thickness was fitting to the length.”

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The “Dragon-Slayer” Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church



St. Marina of Antioch (4th c.) is swallowed and exploded from the dragon’s belly at the same time.

According to the version of the story in Golden Legend, she was a native of "Antioch" and she was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse and lived in the country keeping sheep with her foster mother (in what is now Turkey). Olybrius, Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked to marry her but with the price of her renunciation of Christianity. Upon her refusal she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents occurred. One of these involved being swallowed by Satan in the shape of a dragon, from which she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the dragon's innards.



Tolkien--Concerning the Origin of Dragons

Saturday, October 31, 2015

By Randall Johnson, cogitemusaccurate.blogspot.com

Introduction

Of all the mysteries that Tolkien left for us to solve, the origin of Dragons ranks somewhere in the middle. While more wars have been waged over the nature of such characters as Tom Bombadil and Ungoliant, fewer debates are sparked over the shoe-size of Hobbits (that is, if they wore shoes). The origin-of-Dragons debate is closer in popularity to the debates of how many Balrogs existed, how Orcs breed, and why the Eagles did not simply carry Frodo and the Ring to Mount Doom.

In this paper, I will briefly outline the cosmogony of the world created by Tolkien, especially concerning the taxis of created spiritual beings; then I will discuss the raiment of these spiritual beings shortly. Then I will explain the metaphysics of evil in Middle-Earth. Next, I will categorize the corruptions and perversions of the evil spirit, Melkor. Finally, I will classify the various theories of Dragon ontology, analyze them, and eliminate all but the best theory. I intend to prove that Dragons, though not Maiar themselves, originated from the union of Maia and beast. 

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Toruk - Dragonfather

Monday, September 28, 2015

Lord Toruk, the Dragonfather, is the progenitor of the dragons: malicious, god-like creatures that bring nothing but desolation and waste wherever they roam. For sixteen centuries Toruk has been worshipped as a god by those in the island empire of Cryx.

History
According to Everblight, the athanc was the first sentient entity on all of Caen, risen to consciousness and assuming the name Toruk in a language of his own devising long before he clothed himself in flesh and scale. Whether this primacy is true is a matter of debate, since the only one who would know is Toruk and/or Dhunia.

In ages past, Toruk became tired of his solitary existence. Desiring company or perhaps servants, he split off pieces of his own athanc to form others, and from each splinter a dragon came into being.

Unfortunately for Toruk, the essence of these dragons was too pure, for the lesser dragons were not capable of humbling themselves, even before their creator. Each considered himself a god in turn and refused to bow to the glory of the Dragonfather. Instead the dragons turned on their father and sought to consume him. Toruk eventually destroyed many lesser dragons, and the rest fled and scattered across Immoren.

From that point forward, Toruk sought to hunt the dragons down and gather the pieces of his athanc to restore their essence to his own.

In 1640 BR, Toruk consumed Shazkz, the dragon of the Scharde Islands. Shazkz's blighted blood rained on the island, creating the Satyxis. In 1400 BR, Toruk discovered Everblight hiding under the Kingdom of Morrdh and exerting his influence by turning several Morrdhic lords to him. Toruk threatened the lords whom Everblight was unable to corrupt and convinced them to end their alliance.

Everblight fled as Toruk descended. Toruk managed to inflict grievous wonds on Everblight, who led him to the lair of another dragon, Nektor. Toruk decided to go after Nektor, leaving Everblight alone. Momentarily sated by the consumption of Nektor, Toruk forgot Everblight and gave up the chase. Toruk continued his hunt elsewhere, consuming Gaulvang at the Castle of the Keys in 1387 BR.

A few centuries before 1000 BR, a great dragon, a champion of the wyrms, whose name is now lost, confronted Toruk to prove to the others that their father could be harmed. In this the champion succeeded, but after a great battle he eventually fell. The other dragons, smelling Toruk's blood, rushed from their hiding places, and Toruk was forced to flee, unable to stay behind and consume the champion's athanc, which was soon hidden from the dragons by Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador.

In 1000 BR, the dragon Blighterghast gathered the surviving dragons and convinced them to drive Toruk of mainland Immoren. The fight ended in a stalemate, with Toruk being forced to retreat to the Scharde Islands west of Immoren.

When Toruk came to the Scharde Islands, it was ruled by fourteen great pirate kings. Toruk sent an emissary to the pirate kings to force them to bow to him. The pirate kings slew the messenger rather than answer, and Threnodax, the mightiest of them, roused the others to defiance and convinced them to muster their armies and prepare to battle Toruk.

Though Toruk could easily destroy the pirate kings, he had need of an empire and generals to use against his brood, so he came to the Atramentous, a Tordoran dirgenmast ship stolen by Threnodax to use as his flagship, and obliterated its crew and captain in a breath of consuming fire. He extinguished their lives, collected their souls, and turned them into revenants bound so tightly to the ship that it could retain them even past death.

The ghost ship Atramentous came upon the pirate kings who had gathered at Threnodax’s fortress in Darkmoor. The revenant crew swept through the harbour, overwhelming the living defenders and added the killed to their number. Thirteen of the kings gathered in a fortress tower and watched in horror as all they had built burned. Only King Moorcraig absented himself.

When Toruk descended upon the fortress, crumbling it to ruin beneath his terrible weight, the pirate kings were the sole survivors. Twelve of the kings prostrated and humbled themselves in the surviving tower. Stubborn to the end, King Threnodax kept his feet, continuing to speak defiance.

Lord Toruk annihilated all thirteen in a single breath, but the twelve who had bowed were reborn. Their souls were enslaved and they would become the first lich lords, chosen by him as vassals to rule over a new empire. Threnodax was consumed for a special torment by Toruk.

King Moorcraig hid within his castle and hoped his collection of ancient relics would protect him, but when Toruk flew over the castle and unleashed unquenchable fire, all of Moorcraig’s plans and schemes burned and were buried in rubble.

At the Dragon's Roost, in the shadow of a great volcano, a blackclad prostrated himself before Lord Toruk and offered his service in exchange for even a fraction of his power. Toruk made no promises but challenged the druid to prove his willingness to sacrifice everything. He climbed atop the lip of the volcano and jumped into its depths. Toruk scooped his bones from the caldera with one massive talon and blew a spark of unlife into them. The blackclad's soul was put into a vessel of power, and from then he became known as Iron Lich Asphyxious.

The lich lords wasted no time or effort in founding Lord Toruk’s empire and were privy to secrets and powers known previously only to the Dragonfather. Toruk allows his servants to rise and fall by their virtues and ambitions, with the weak culled by the strong, who are elevated to replace them.

In those early centuries the lich lords divided the governance of Cryx among themselves, each finding his role in the construction of the empire. They unified the islands and culled the petty faiths of their inhabitants, and Lord Toruk became the sole god and master of these islands.

The arrival of the Orgoth from across the Meredius put any invasion plans of the lich lords on hold. The Orgoth seized the Thousand Cities one by one, then launched an incursion to seize the Scharde Islands. After a Satyxis fleet sent to intercept the Orgoth ships was annihilated, Toruk took to wing for the first time in centuries to deal with this threat personally. Toruk sunk the entire Orgoth fleet, and this was the last time Orgoth challenged Cryx. Toruk instructed his minions that they should deal with the Orgoth at a time of his choosing. The invaders were allowed to occupy the northern island of Garlghast, but any ship that dared Windwatcher’s Passage was destroyed.

When they were finally driven from their fortresses, the Orgoth retreated to their first and mightiest stronghold of Drer Drakkerung on Garlghast Island. Toruk gave his approval to commence the great attack, and five lich lords led an army of tens of thousands strong and sailed against Garlghast.

When the Orgoth saw Cryx would be triumphant, their warwitches invoked a final conflagration to obliterate both themselves and the Cryxian army, including three of the lich lords. The other two, Fulmenus and Tenebrous, forced into somnolent recovery after the near disintegration of their physical forms, were thereafter unsuited to the chaos of war. Toruk thought nothing of these losses and was satisfied with the outcome. The Orgoth could not keep their secrets from him in death, and in time his legions would grow ever more powerful. Certain occult traditions from the Orgoth now survive only among Cryx, such as the warwitches, which have become a vital Cryxian occult tradition.

After the fall of Drer Drakkerung, Lord Toruk gave his leave for additional forces to emerge from the inner island and extend deeper into the continent. He needed generals to replace those destroyed on Garlghast, and for this task he chose Daeamortus and Terminus.

As the duties of rule are beneath the Dragonfather, he has left the governance of Cryx to his twelve lich lords. Toruk currently dwells in a great citadel ornamented with metal spires resembling grasping claws. Beneath lies the Black Temple, the centre of Toruk’s worship, where his undead clergy gather at the direction of Lich Lord Divinitus to chant obeisance to the self-appointed 'God of Caen'.

Mainland faiths do not accept Toruk’s claim of divinity, but it is an unquestioned fact in the island empire, and to suggest otherwise is to invite the retaliation of the merciless blighted priests of the Church of Toruk.

Personality
Possessing vast intelligence and patience beyond that of any living thing, Toruk has no interest in traditional conquest. His only desire is the destruction of his progeny. He has been waiting, watching, plotting, building for thousands of years, and is willing to continue that plan for thousands more before making a move. In time, his armies will arise and lay waste to the petty kingdoms of humanity, enslaving them in death and preparing the army of his final victory. Once the nations of men have fallen, Toruk will drag his progeny from their hiding places and devour them once and for all.

Ocean Dragon

Friday, September 25, 2015


A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of Greek sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine. Sea serpents descriptions have a number of things in common, but also enough variety that it sounds like more than one species. Sea serpents come in a variety of colors, including black, brown, gray and green, and have adult lengths ranging from twenty feet to hundreds of feet. Most of them are reported to move in an undulating up-and-down motion, with a series of humps visible above the water at times. They generally have a split tail, like a whale, and may have one, two or more pairs of paddle-legs along their lengths. They may have armored segments like a millipede, large plates or scales, or a smooth rubbery skin. Most often, they have smooth skin suggestive of a mammal.
Sometimes sea serpents have a mane of hair or hair-like fins running in a row along the back. The head is generally described as horse-shaped, with huge cat-like or eagle-like eyes. On sea serpents that don't follow that body plan, the head and neck instead resemble an elephant's trunk, with tiny eyes and a small mouth near the "tip" of the "trunk." Some sea serpents sport whiskers, but it is not always clear whether witnesses mean the same kind of whiskers that cats, dogs and seals have, or whether they mean fleshy "whiskers" of the sort that are found on catfish.

The creatures described in these reports tend to look fairly serpentine, as far as their overall body shape goes, although in some cases it is only the head end and tail end that look serpentine, with a roundish body between the two ends. At first, this generally serpentine shape meant that sea serpents were universally thought to be huge ocean-going snakes or sea dragons. Witnesses would confidently label them as snakes even when some features inconsistent with this conclusion were also noted, such as a mane of hair (typical of mammals only) or an up-and-down motion (all known snakes swim with a side-to-side motion).


Tigrex - Monster Hunter Freedom 2


Tigrex is a Flying Wyvern introduced in Monster Hunter Freedom 2. It is known to inhabit a variety of environments and can be encountered at all ranks.

Physiology
Tigrex is a large, quadrupedal wyvern characterized by its massive head and jaws, powerful limbs and striking yellow/blue striped colouration. The top of its head is tipped with a pair of horn-like ears, and its segmented tail ends with a spiny protrusion.

Abilities
As a pseudowyvern, its wings have evolved into forelegs, which allows it to run at very fasts speeds. Though it possesses a pair of adequately-developed wings, it is rarely seen flying in a traditional sense. It is in fact more prone to gliding from location to location. It has a powerful set of lungs which gives it the ability to produce extremely loud, concussive roars which can physically damage nearby objects. Unlike many other monsters, Tigrex does not wield any elements. Instead, it relies on its sheer brute strength to bring down opponents.

Behavior
When idle, Tigrex will assume a bipedal gait, standing only upon its hind legs while holding its forelimbs at its side. When threatened or engaging prey, however, it will stand upon all fours and ready itself for combat. It will usually attempt to intimidate would-be attackers with an ear-splitting roar. If combat becomes intense enough, it will flush blood to its forelimbs, face, and eyes, in order to give its skin a bright-red glow as an effort to further intimidate attackers.

Habitat
The Tigrex can be found in many different environments. Like many wyverns, it will travel far and wide in search of prey.

Questing Beast

Monday, September 7, 2015


The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant (Barking Beast), is a monster from Arthurian legend, the subject of quests by famous knights like King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. The strange creature has the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion and the feet of a hart. Its name comes from the great noise it emits from its belly, a barking like "thirty couple hounds questing". As King Pellinore describes it, the hunt of the beast has always been the burden of the Pellinores, and all Pellinores are in fact trained for the hunt from birth (a training which does not seem to extend much beyond finding the beast's droppings). Having searched fruitlessly all his life for the beast, Pellinore is convinced by his friend Sir Grummore Grummursum to drop his quest. However, when it turns out later that the beast had been pining away for lack of attention, King Pellinore nurses it back to health and resumes his Sisyphean hunt.

The first accounts of the beast are in the Perlesvaus and the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin. The Post-Vulgate's account, which is taken up in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, has the Questing Beast appear to King Arthur after he has had an affair with his sister Morgause and begotten Mordred (they did not know that they were related when the incestuous act occurred).

Arthur sees the beast drinking from a pool just after he wakes from a disturbing dream that foretells Mordred's destruction of the realm (no noise of hounds from the belly is emitted while it is drinking). He is then approached by King Pellinore who confides that it is his family quest to hunt the beast. Merlin reveals the Questing Beast had been born of a human woman, a princess who lusted after her own brother. She slept with a devil who had promised to make the boy love her, but the devil manipulated her into accusing her brother of rape. Their father had him torn apart by dogs as punishment. Before he died however, he prophesied that his sister would give birth to an abomination which would make the same sounds as the pack of dogs that was about to kill him.

The beast has been taken as a symbol of the incest, violence, and chaos that eventually destroys Arthur's kingdom.

Excellent Dragons!







T. rex was bigger than thought: study

Tuesday, August 4, 2015


The iconic T. rex dinosaur grew bigger and faster than previously estimated, according to British and US scientists.

Scientists digitally modelled flesh on five mounted T. rex skeletons and showed that the meat-eating lizard kings were up to a third bigger and grew two times as fast into adults than previous research had suggested.

The findings, led by Professor John Hutchinson of The Royal Veterinary College, London, and Peter Makovicky, curator of dinosaurs at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, are published in the journal PloS One .

One of the skeletons included in the study was "Sue", the largest and most complete T. rex specimen ever found, on display at The Field Museum.

The 67-million-year-old dinosaur was discovered in 1990 on an Indian reservation in South Dakota by American palaeontologist Sue Hendrickson.

Named after its finder, Sue was previously thought to be about the size of a big elephant or rhinoceros, standing 3.5 metres high and 13 metres from head to tail.

Her living weight was guessed to be 6400 kilograms, or about six and a half tonnes.

But the latest methods found she would have tipped the scales at well over nine tonnes.

"We knew she was big but the 30 per cent increase in her weight was unexpected," says Makovicky.

Using digital models

The technique used mounted skeletons to derive body mass estimates, instead of models created to scale.

The team made three-dimensional laser scans of the skeletons to form a template for digital models that would add simulated flesh.

They devised three different levels of the approximate amount of flesh the creatures likely had, to figure the size of a thin, hungry animal up to a well-fed one.

"Previous methods for calculating mass relied on scale models, which can magnify even minor errors, or on extrapolations from living animals with very different body plans from dinosaurs," says Makovicky.

"We overcame such problems by using the actual skeletons as a starting point for our study."

By establishing new sizes for the other four specimens studied, the researchers also found that the creatures likely grew faster than initially thought.

"We estimate they grew as fast as 1790 kilograms per year during the teenage period of growth, which is more than twice the previous estimate," says lead author Hutchinson.

That would mean the land-roaming carnivores expanded by about 5 kilograms per day during their peak growth spurt, more than double their 2004 estimate of 2.1 kilograms per day.

T.rex's serrated teeth tore through flesh

An artist's impression of Gorgosaurus, a cousin of T.rex, ripping apart another dinosaur with its serrated teeth (Danielle Dufault)

Will Dunham
Reuters


If you want to know the secret behind the success of Tyrannosaurus rex and its meat-eating dinosaur cousins, look no further than their teeth.
 
A comprehensive analysis of the teeth of the group of carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods, published in the journal Scientific Reports, details a unique serrated structure that let them chomp efficiently through the flesh and bones of large prey.

Theropods first appeared about 200 million years ago and were the dominant terrestrial meat-eaters until the age of non-avian dinosaurs ended about 65 million years ago.

The study involving eight theropod species revealed their previously unknown tooth complexity.
Internal dental tissues were arranged in a way that reinforced the strength and prolonged the life of teeth that were serrated like steak knives for easy dismembering of other dinosaurs.

Fossil evidence shows that T. rex's teeth could crush bone. Its teeth have been found embedded in the bones of its prey and chunks of bone appear in its fossilised dung, says the study's lead author palaeontologist Kirstin Brink of the University of Toronto Mississauga.

"But the serrations were most efficient for piercing flesh and gripping it while ripping off a chunk of meat, called the 'puncture and pull' feeding style," says Brink.

The researchers analysed slices from fossil teeth using a powerful microscope and a sophisticated device that revealed tooth chemical properties.

They studied teeth from: the early and relatively small Coelophysis; bird-like Troodon; large predators Allosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus; and big, semi-aquatic Spinosaurus.

The teeth of Tyrannosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus measured up to 23 centimetres long.
"In theropods, the serrations are larger and deeper than the superficial view suggests, making them stronger and longer lasting, less likely to get damaged or worn," says study co-author Professor Robert Reisz also of the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Dinosaurs were able to continuously grow teeth throughout their lives. When a tooth was broken, another could replace it.

"It could take up to two years for a tooth to grow back in the big theropods like T. rex. Therefore, having specially reinforced teeth means less tooth breakage and less gaps in the jaw, leading to more efficient eating," says Brink.

The Komodo dragon, an Indonesian lizard that grows up to three metres long, is the only living reptile with serrated teeth closely resembling those of theropods, although these teeth evolved independently of those of the dinosaurs, says Brink.

Galrauch -- The Great Drake, First of the Chaos Dragons

Thursday, July 16, 2015



In the time of Aenarion, when the Elves fought their great wars against the tides of Chaos, the elder race of Dragons fought at their side. These great drakes were the nemeses of the armies of the Dark Gods, diving from the skies upon the scions of Chaos and crushing or incinerating them in their thousands. The might of the Dragons could only be matched by the greatest of Daemons, and the epic clashes between these mighty creatures were events of such magnitude that the mortal warriors could only witness them in awe.

It was during such a battle that Galrauch the Gold Drake came upon Fateclaw, the Lord of Change at the head of a Daemon horde. As Galrauch descended from the heavens like an avenging thunderbolt, the avian Daemon-thing below did nothing more than bare its teeth in a sinister expression of glee. Galrauch's great jaws snapped shut around Fateclaw's head, ripping it clean away in a multicoloured spray of ichor. Within a heartbeat, the broken body of the Greater Daemon had dissolved into a scintillating mist that enveloped the exultant Dragon and sank into his flesh. Galrauch, resplendent in victory, flew high into the air, and the Elf warriors below him raised cries of triumph. But their cheers died away when the Dragon's body became suddenly wracked by violent convulsions. The mighty drake froze in mid-air, and an evil, iridescent light appeared in its eyes. H is scales flowed like water, form ing into evil, leering faces that cackled maniacally in praise of Tzeentch. Foul tentacles and wicked spikes emerged from the Dragon's flesh, and finally the once-noble head of Galrauch split into two all the way down to the base of his neck. Where there was once one head, there were now two, and to the horror of the Elves below, both turned towards their ranks. One head belched dark fire, burning scores of Elves alive, but the other breathed a sorcerous mist that brought horrible mutations and madness. The heads were governed by the same will at first, but soon they started to tear at each other with hatred, a sure sign that the spirit of the great Dragon had not been completely destroyed. The mind of the Lord of Change managed to wrest control of the powerful body once again, but not before the Elves and Dragons had broken the back of the Daemon armies. 


Galrauch withdrew from the lands of mortals and slept for centuries at a time, emerging now and then throughout history to wreak havoc on the lands of Elves, Dwarfs and Men. Legend has it that he was the first of the Chaos Dragons, and that many were the dark creatures born of his blood and of his evil sorcery. It was Galrauch who slaughtered King Thurgrim Rockarm and all his kin and sacked their ancient halls. It was he who single-handedly destroyed the city of Languerre de Lac and plunged its ruins into eternal night. Hundreds of noble heroes have tried to slay him, but they have all failed.