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.