Chronicles of the World of DaoTyr

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The Palaces of Khelm Aneer. Some of the oldest buildings still standing in the City of Gavin Wel are the ivory mansions of House Ulthuil and HouseKhameir along the River Face.

House Yrthandus. The dominating building at the South End of Fire Holm is the headquarters to the wealthyand powerful house Yrthandus that is responsiblefor the Creation Forges of Gavin Wel and buildsmost of the Airship Technology throughout the City.

Round Falls. Just South of the Fire Walls,the expansive area known as Round Falls opens to the main outlet of the Bestal Riverinto Undermere. Also knownas the Theater District, this is the Cultural hub of the Southern City.

Riamna, a deva, is the Aumnarch of the Council of Eagles. It is the responsibility of the Aumnarch to be the face of the governing party. Riamna delivers an addressto all citizens of Gavin Wel Three time a year from at the Hall of Echoes.

The oldest cathedral in Gavin Wel, perhaps all of Aolder, Sinis Oebyr is a center of Religious culture whereworship of any diety in the Sovereign Host iswelcomed. The Knights of the Platinum Dragon known as the Vassals of the Blade make this their home, monastary and training ground.

A Warforged class of Police known as the Raven Guard patrol the streets of Gavin Wel and enforce civility and the Law.

The Richest City in the Sorado, Gavin Wel is a powerful metropolis ruled by a aristocracy of eight members called the Council of Eagles.

Gavin Wel, now considered to be the only Human City in Aolder, is only a tiny part of what was in antiquity a larger City known as Khepathia.

Founded by the King and Queen of Dragonsnearly five thousand years ago, Khepathia was built around an enormous artificial volcano called Erythia.The volcano’s purpose was to mine and smeltan eldritch element known as Cathoid.Cathoid became the currency of the Soradofor the nest three thousand years before internaldtrife brought dominating reign of the City downwhile it was being ruled by the, then mortalRaven Queen. Cathoid is now a bannedsubstance in Metropolitan Gavin Wel although merchant and thieves’ guilds still trade in the adaptable metal. Although Erythia yields no Cathoid, the mining companies who maintain the enormous structure still are able to find unparalleled veins of precioussubstances from gold to silver to gemsstone.Citizens of present day Gavin Wel enjoy a highstandard of living, largely unaffected by therecent Civil War in the surrounding Valley and withthe Blight Wars currently raging beyond its borders.The City enjoys mild temperatures and lots of rain,leaving many to call it the Emerald City for its lushhanging gardens. Although it is at 6000 ft abovesea level snow has never fallen in the Valley of GavinWel.

The days passed by too quickly for Avari. She had forgotten how easy it was to be around other eladrin having spent too much time in the company of men. The Castle of Old Khepathia is among the grandest compounds ever conceived with miles of hallways large enough for the royal elephants to parade down and topiary gardens tended to by armies of pollenbright fairies, the place itself was the best kind of dream with every luxury imaginable. A wonderland for any child and to Avari it was home, familiar and safe. The thing most remarkable to Avari about being here was how startling it was that her family meant so much to her. She found emotions came easy here, laughing with joy was not something she did much of in Gavin Wel. Hours were spent in the gardens playing with her brother, studying ancient books with Myri in the Royal Library, sitting at her father’s feet while he tended to courtly matters, watching her mother get her hair brushed by Myri as she longingly gazed into the water with what might have seemed like sadness if it wasn’t for her dreaming songs to her young son as he shifted in his crib.

It wasn’t until the sixth day in the Ivory City of old Khepathia that a doom set in and the mystery reared itself to consciousness again. After her lessons with Moira, she ran into the bear headed SedNa in an expansive hall outside the library doors. The archmage took her hand and placed in it a small amulet of cold, silver stone. In a whisper the wizard spoke without meeting her eyes, “You will need this in the coming war princess. I have seen it. You are the only one who can save all that is from what is to be.” Before he could finish the were interrupted by the terrifying scream of Avari’s mother from the grand ballroom.

The two ran into the ballroom to see a dark figure with a knife to the queen’s throat. SedNa yelled for the guards and then continued, addressing the man dressed in black threatening the queen’s life, “Xengxui! you have no business here! There is nothing more to discuss, this was settled years ago.”

“Be still magician!” Lotan’s voice was full of madness. “Tiamat. Sister. I have come here only for your safety, you must see. Since you will not go peaceably, I will take you. You will return to Dilmun this night, war is coming! None will survive.”

In a surprising show of strength and power, the queen bent back into the hold of her brother flipped him over her back and then kicked the knife across the room. “You have lived too long on that moon too long brother. I have not been there since Avari’s birth and will not go back now. Your mind doesn’t know what is real. You must stop listening to the songs of the North Wind!”

“I know of what I speak of Tiamat!” he yelled. Xengxui was sweating and Avari could see he was hurt, crouching over as if his stomach gave him pain. “You left me and your birth right…to walking on legs like them. You will not be able to hide who you are forever. This triviality of a life you live…less than grains of sand, the mortal days. Even your half bred children will see the end of their lives before you grow a day older! This is not our war, but that of the insects crawling out from the swamps. Be done with this and return home. Now I beg you one last time…” Ending he rant he straightened himself with the threat and leveled a wand at his sister. “Leave all behind and return to your true form or you will become a twisted vision of your true self.”

“I can never forget how you banished me from my home, left me for nothing and now you say you know what is best for me!” Tiamat yelled. Avari noticed the walls enclosing on the fighting siblings and the sky darkened. Great spirits of wind and smoke circled the ballroom to witness the event. “You are a murderer, King of the Moon! I will not forget that.” The queen materialized a darkwood staff from the air and continued “these half breeds as you called them are the only reason you are not dead already.”

“How, by your husband, the Unonbate? I have him sealed from this place with blood. If you will not go with me, then I shall kill you to save us all from what I know you will become!” With that, a burst of dark energy full of skulls and fire erupted from the tip of Xengxui’s wand. In a movement as quick as thought the queen snatched Avari into her arms and a ball of blue light formed to protect them both from the infernal attack. SedNa was not so protected and in a moment of anguish was instantly incinerated.

“Brother. You are Mad! My destiny lies here! You are a fool!” A bolt of arching electricity stretched across the room from Tiamat’s staff, knocking Xengxui through an enormous stained glass window. Just as the glass is breaking Xengxui throws a poisoned dagger aiming at the Queen, a last and vengeful act…

The wand he had been holding went skittering across the floor. A tiny dragon appeared from Xengxui’s sleeve as he went flying back through the window, a creature whose purpose was to retrieve the wand. Avari too went running after it, but the blazing eyed dragon got there first. Avari grasped a water basin on the table next to her and charged the impish creature that seemed too pleased with itself to notice the little girl sneaking up on it. Avari graceful tumbled and trapped the tiny dragon under the inverted bowl. Grabbing the bowl’s lid, Avari turns it over and traps the creature with the wand and returns to her mother. She sees her mother slumped and the window sill looking out to make sure Xengxui did not return. “Mother, mother, please get up, we have to leave to find father. Mother, please.” A trickle of blood at the edge of her mouth. Turning her over, Avari saw the poisoned dagger in her mother’s gut.

With pained breath, the last words Avari heard her mother say, “I meant what I said. You are my destiny. I know the secret to your mystery. I brought you back to make you remember where it is you came from and what you must do. It was I too that sent you so far into the future to begin with. That is a time of great portend. I will be something else then, you will not recognize me. You are the key to all of this. You are the daughter of Bahamut and Tiamat. You have the power of the ages…the bloodline of the dragon gods…the ability to move through the planes…find what was lost here today.” Tiamat raises a piece of paper and it ignites turning to ash and with a breath, Avari moves through a portal.

Avari awoke in her bed back in Niaskatel as if the experience was a dream. Struggling to bring the room into focus, she sits up wondering if it was magic of a trickster that caused such images. Eladrin don’t believe in dreams as being something different than reality. Getting out of bed to go inspect the bookcase, Avari knocked over a glass basin on the floor, an angry, small dragon emerged and flapped wildly in all directions. Picking up her uncle’s wand the memory returned in full. Looking out of her window she saw then world layered on top of each other like geologic strata made of consciousness constructs. Yes. Answers are coming. Answers that will save them all.

cowritten with Keli Rivers

Avari’s studies the concept of other planes existing parallel to her own.

Avari grabbed as many old books as she could carry and sat at her desk and heard muffled sounds coming from the books on the shelf behind her. It was then that she found a group of books that didn’t belong with the others. Older books, worn bindings with what looked to be words but in a language she had never seen in her 155 years. The Tomes of Hirarch.

When trying to touch them her hand passes right through, leaving her hand cold and numb, what should be solid is hallow. The moaning and chiming sounds from the books grew louder as she pulled her hand away. Without gauging of what dangers could await her, Avari walked through an illusionary wall that appeared before her, projected from the eldritch tomes. She found herself in what used to be a grand hall but has sense been left to ruin. The muffled noises filled her head with such volume she fell to the ground clutching her head with her hands. “You must be causing this madness…It must be you Rendgrey…” She unleashes at her pouch that holds the Leomund’s Chest that currently houses the evil sword. The tiny pouch fell to the ground with a thud the belied its true weight. Even above the chiming in her mind she can hear the sentient sword call to her, an impulsive call that not many can resist. Black whispers that forever haunt the mind. After her encounter with the Anathamancer, the mysterious forger of the great sword, Avari believes that she is the only one who can master the will Rendgrey.

The eladrin wizard then stood and began to discern exactly the origin of the crushing noise and the secret cause of her transport to this ruined place. The chiming turned to voices and words from familiar mouths came to consciousness. At first the voices were eldritch and dark. Mouths formed in the darkness and reached for the fearless Avari who understood that this was not their true form but a temporary state of becoming. It became clear that the voices were the same that plagued her before in the presence of the Father Light, again with the Khelem Jahar, and originally at the death of her great uncle, Mikiiel.

Avari’s basic instincts, rooted in ancient Raelfaen magic, allowed her to let go and as calming down a wild horse, she silenced the madness within. A wave of warmth washed over her as she turns the voices to singing. The mirthful songs, familiar and true, then transformed into telling epics of love and joyous times long since forgotten. Deciphering the ancient lyrics, she hears “Mother and Father to all Eldar whisper the truth of your heart and the unlocking of the world…” Then loud and wondrous choirs began to form themselves into manifest figures before her, dancing through dream mist with. The ghostly rabble leads her out of the Ruin where she first appeared.
Without care and with a light heart, Avari followed the ghosts into a dark forest until they came to an ancient stairwell climbing an overgrown hill covered in nightblooming flowers. The dancers evaporated and the voices faded, leaving her in a breath of shadowed silence.

Avari then ran up the stairs without a second thought, full of curiosity. The stairs were covered with writing and as she ran she could read them with the touch of her bare feet as if the words wanted to be in her mind. Ancient histories of her people, the origin of many things. What would seem like hours to a human, is nothing more than a blink of an eye to a daughter of Feywild. The stairwell ends in a dusty, muted grey room long since uninhabited by the living. Large, glassless windows defined the interior space of root and stone. Two thrones sat at the end of the expansive space that was once a grand hall, gilt with gold and silver.

A boisterous, commanding voice erupts and echoes through the empty room. Words from an ancient Raelfaen dialect seem to call warn Avari with a dark and severe tone. Scared for the first time since she walked through the wall she searches for her prime weapon, the minotaur wand but it is not in the holster at her belt. Panic strikes her as she realized that the Leomund’s Chest was absent too, and her books! And even the loud mouth Ahkinat. Feeling reduced to nearly human, vulnerable and exposed, Avari backs toward the stairwell, but it had folded into the shadow. The voice calls again, this time without the severe quality, this time the tone is full of warmth and in a modern tongue, “There is no near to fear, my child, my eyes are old and I did not recognize you, but I see you now…come greet your father, he has missed you.”

cowritten with Keli Rivers