Tag: Draconic Resonance

#Lore24 – Entry #358 – Sci-Fi Month IV #23 – Seeking What Lies Hidden in the Sands of Time

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “I hope that I’m not delving into a topic I shouldn’t here, but what steps did you take to further your research once these special individuals began to show up again?”

RV:  “I won’t give you all the dirty little details, but will admit that I have used methods which most would find very questionable at best, downright ruthless and monstrous at worst.  I have faced no few attempts upon my life since I renewed my research, and I am something of the galaxy’s boogeyman because of them.  But as I’ve stated before, I don’t care what others think of me.  Most of them are beneath me and could not begin to fathom what it is I seek.

So, once I started to recognize these individuals again, I moved swiftly to secure them for myself.  You’ve heard rumors of some of the methods DSM employs, no doubt.  Some are completely true, others only slightly so.  I directed my AR&D division, in accordance with some of the secrets gleaned from the ancient draconic relics, to enhance the creatures known as doppelgangers, greatly enhancing their psychic abilities and their ability to duplicate their victims, without need for consuming them; all my particular breed of them require is a blood sample and time to psychically analyze and copy their targets innermost thoughts.  This made acquiring some of the more public and prominent test subjects much easier when I could simply replace them with versions that were loyal to me, and would further ensure that DSM maintained its position at the top of the power structure.

Don’t look so shocked, my dear.  In the grand scheme of things, this is on the minor end of the scale when it comes to the terrible things I’ve done in pursuit of my ultimate goal.  You needn’t worry about being replaced yourself, nor should you worry about meeting an untimely end upon leaving here.  Believe it or not, I do have a great deal of respect for what is you’re doing, however roundabout your methods are.  It’s a dodge worthy of Marcon himself, really.

Now, with a few new subjects to study, I would finally see my centuries of research bear fruit, would finally begin to unravel what it was that lay hidden within the sands of time by the dragons.”

AG:  “May I dare ask what it was that was so well hidden?”

RV:  “Why, the dragons themselves, of course.  Or, at the very least, their knowledge and experiences, stored in a way that only someone like me could manage to uncover.  There have been a few others over the course of the many millennia who have began to follow the road I have but have never taken the steps required to actually reach its end, for one seeking this knowledge cannot allow themselves be dissuaded by little things like common decency or a few lives along the way.  Take Lila Darius, for example; she has been something of a treasure hunter and historian in many of her incarnations, but try as she might, she is simply incapable of attaining the knowledge that she too seeks, because she has not allowed herself to see others as I do, to study them as I have.

I’m speaking of the very nature of advanced life as we know it, of the many sentient races who populate this galaxy.  At some time or another, we were all created, more or less in our current forms, by the dragons, our civilizations cultivated, changed, and ultimately left to fall to ruin in the wake of these beings who apparently vanished from whatever worlds they had played with, vanishing into time and space. 

But they didn’t vanish; no, they evolved.  Evolved into an existence that the pathetic little brains of the average being cannot begin to fathom.  That’s why most religions were formed, to make sense of these great beings that had evolved beyond common ability to understand.  Their evolution was what drove them to their experiments with the lesser races, what fueled their travels from one world to the next, trying something different each time, seeing what additional knowledge they could glean from their work.

Not all dragons were that way, certainly.  Some sought simpler existences, were content to continue ruling over their followers as gods in the flesh, while others seemed to grow discontent with their creations, attempting to destroy them only to find out that they had grown beyond their ability to handle, through various factors like the mastery of arcane magic and the formation of “divine” connections, and simple tenacity to survive.  Still other dragons would take different paths along their evolution, seeking to become more like their creations, to live amongst them or even to become them.”

#Lore24 – Entry #357 – Sci-Fi Month IV #22 – Vexations Along the Way

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “I must admit I’m a little hesitant to ask, but could you tell me more about those vexations?”

RV:  “You have absolutely nothing to worry about, my dear.  I assure you, though I may seem a bit angry at times, it’s not aimed toward you.  I consider this quite the honor, truth be told; a shame it’s taken you this long to seek me out, but I suppose all things come in time.

Now, my initial challenge in my study of this reaction was simply finding enough test subjects.  I had no way of easily identifying those who possessed this trait unless I could see them or interact with them myself, so given all my other duties, this proved quite troublesome.  Plus, the extremely low number of those that possessed this trait made it exceptionally difficult to find in general.  That was one reason I began expanding my search to other worlds when I was able to travel freely amongst them.

By the time of the Age of Legends, I would have an understanding of what exactly this trait was, what it indicated about the nature of those whom possessed it, and would shift the focus of my studies to attain a deeper understanding of what it truly meant, what other secrets may lay hidden around it and behind it.  Of course, my studies were delayed through war, threats to the entire world, and various other annoyances that would divert my attention.

Beyond the Imperium War, I had hoped to study the incarnation of Lila Darius of the period, but by the time I was able to return to my studies, she had died and been reincarnated elsewhere in the galaxy, and I could not locate her.  So, even without trying, she had caused me yet another delay.  With the spread of populations throughout the stars, one would think it would prove somewhat easier to identify the individuals I needed, but for a time, it seemed that my choices were very limited, had even seemed to have dried up for a few decades.  I through the drakonae of all people would have an abundance of these individuals, but they proved to be just as rare amongst them as any other species. 

I attempted to study this on myself over the years, of course, but ultimately could not find the data I needed without placing myself in greater risk than I deemed safe.  However, I would remain patient, learning what else I could about the pattern of draconic travel and details about their methods that were hidden deep within their ruins and relics.  Their newest creations that I could find, those only a few thousand years older than I, possessed some extremely fine details that were not present in older works, that had simply been lost to the ravages of time.  One could compare these small details to DNA strands, practically invisible and just as easily destroyed, almost as if they were coded into the very materials as they were forged by their draconic creators.

AG:  “What did these details reveal to you?”

RV:  “Unfortunately, nothing that I could immediately act upon for my own desires, but that would still prove useful in some form or another throughout DSM’s existence.  There were indications of methods that could be used to alter or influence the various aspects of life itself using magic and science that had been forgotten even before I came along.  Some small fraction of this knowledge I managed to extract and utilize, leading to some of the more significant contributions from DSM over the years, mostly in the form of advancing medical technology to the state where divine healing has become almost extinct in some areas of the core worlds. 

But that was research I mostly delegated to my underlings in the AR&D division, for it didn’t further advance the understanding of what lay beneath and beyond the flesh.  I would continue my studies of the patterns of draconic movements through time, though, and given their spiral nature, I arrived at a theory that would seem to be advancing to fact.  Even after their vanishing, the pattern continues, and after several more centuries, I was able to again begin to find more of the test subjects I required.  More of the individuals with this trait began to appear, several of which drove the further development of the corporatocracy as it is today, only this time I would not waste my time being subtle.  I would have what I wanted, whatever it took, whoever it was that I had to lay my hands on to study.”

#Lore24 – Entry #356 – Sci-Fi Month IV #21 – Following the Trail of the Dragons

Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum

AG:  “…Are you suggesting that the dragons themselves in these creation stories are in fact the gods?  Or…rather, that the gods as we know them are in fact, the dragons?”

RV:  “See, I told you you’d get there.  Yes, I am quite certain that the various deities that we know of, through whatever means they may have created their various child species or the loyal followers they have cultivated over time are indeed the dragons of legend.  Aside from a handful of examples that we know of throughout history, based upon the standard Andyllion-centric views, there have been no encounters with living dragons, yet it seems our lives have been shaped by them consistently and seemingly at every turn as we delve deeper and deeper into our galaxy. 

I’m not suggesting that all gods are dragons, far from it, for we have multiple examples of the lesser races ascending to that lofty realm, your own goddess for example.  But I am saying that the majority of the gods as we understand them are or were, dragons.  The dragons themselves are, in spite of everything we know of them, very alien to common understanding, so the methods they use and the reasons they do what they do are still very much uncertain, even to me.  But in this, I am quite certain.”

AG:  “Could you elucidate upon this, please?  What have you learned that leads you to this conclusion?”

RV:  “It’s a very long trail, a most convoluted web, but I will endeavor to be as succinct as possible.  As I’ve said before, I realized fairly early in my existence that I was in fact different from the other elves, and began to search for others like myself that were…different.  Through the long course of my research, I did indeed discover others like me, for when I first met them, I experienced a visceral, instinctive reaction like what I described feeling for Lila Darius.  Though these individuals did not always possess the same understanding of the arcane as I did, they possessed certain other traits similar to my own:  greater ambitions, exceptional drive to accumulate wealth, the ability to instill intense loyalty, that sort of thing.  This is what would, at some points in history, be referred to as the “spark of rulership” or some such thing, that extra little something that made various rulers greater than others. 

I likewise felt this when I first met Marcon Shadowmist, and again when I met his various children prior to the Age of Legends.  Marcon aside, for he is an anomaly amongst anomalies, the reaction I felt inside me with his children was exactly the same as what I felt when I find myself thinking of Lila Darius, only slightly lesser, given our frequent clashes over time.  The thing about Marcon…he is always testing you.  Always.  When he sought me out for assistance in correcting the demon incursion problem, it was a test.  When we sat back and observed events during the Age of Legends, it was a test.  Though I have not met him since before the Imperium War, I’m certain he still tests me.

And what is he testing for?  Some would say character, others perhaps wisdom, or others simply how well one can maintain their manners.  It’s hard to say exactly.  But in this, I believe he was testing my awareness of myself and of my nature, for he knew what I was, though he never once hinted at my true nature.  I suppose you could say he didn’t wish to spoil the surprise. 

Once I became aware of this reaction, this resonance, with certain beings, I began my experiments, using the lesser beings, the ones who did not share my response to this resonance, as test subjects over the years.  I noted particular changes in the nature of the resonance between beings, some more visceral, others more muted, others something I could describe as a sense of familiarity, and since I could find no physical traits that would account for this, I delved deeper, all the way to their very souls. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be as simple as tearing down a soul.  No, there would be plenty of vexations along the way.”