Part 9: Root the Underground

Places of Interest: Coastland Falls (Strant), Bluemoon Lagoon (Bakiz), Elysian Fields (Root)

Strant

Native species: Bronze dragon, Mist drake, Sea drake

When the continent of Root sunk into the Sea of Colossus, the waves left only shallow stretches of land exposed above the sea and the rest tidepools. In essence, this has created a continental surface of shallow coasts. The temperate Strant forms the northern stretch of rocky coasts and tidepools.

Bronze dragons keep the peace between the Mist and Sea drakes, both of whom refuse to respect the territory claimed by the other drake species. The aggressive Seas openly defy Mists. The Mists, however, are conniving, and use speedy stealth strikes to take what prey they want regardless of territory.

The Bronzes have realized the futility of attempting to prevent every such infraction. Instead, a group of Bronzes monitors their jurisdiction for larger scale conflicts between full rampages of Mists and Seas. They put a stop to these struggles and their potentially devastating consequences to Strant, using violence if they must to drive the Mists and Seas back to their own territories.

The Bronzes also ensure that the drakes don't overstrain the resources within their jurisdictions, including the hunting of humanoids. While the Bronzes permit this hunting to an extent, they defend Strant's aquatic humanoids when the drakes become too aggressive. This has led many humanoid clans to give sacrifices to the Bronzes to present to the drakes instead of having the drakes claim members of the clan by chance.

While the hunting and gathering clans of Strant don't openly war with one another, some kidnap members of another clan to offer to the Bronzes as sacrifices. This has led to kidnapping vendettas between these clans, often with the spoken or unspoken approval of the clan elders.

Bakiz

Native species: Tidepool dragon, Sea drake

Bakiz comprises the tropical south of Root. Like the temperate north, Bakiz is a region of tidepools surrounded by coastlines to the east, south, and west. The land peaks at a ridge between the temperate and tropical zone and gradually descends further into the Sea of Colossus, creating a coastal shelf encrusted by coral reef below the waters.

Unchecked by Bronzes or other powerful rivals, Sea drakes have free reign over the Bakiz shallows, and theirs is a reign of lightning-fuelled tyranny. The inbred Seas band together in rampages that swim everywhere over Bakiz, hunting, killing, and engaging other rampages in brutal combat over territory to be abandoned as freely as it was entered.

Tidepool dragons don't dare oppose the mightier Sea drakes and instead make their best attempt at stealth while the rampage of Seas swims through. Unlike the Seas, Tidepools have a strictly defined sense of territory and, once claimed, they never leave such territory by choice. Tidepools are sometimes displaced from their territory when they must flee from preying Sea drakes.

Aquatic humanoids of Bakiz often forge an alliance with a displaced Sea drake, offering the protection of a group. The hunting and gathering groups in Bakiz are small, however, no larger than a family.

These families travel to keep from being discovered by Sea drakes and to follow their food sources. Fortunately, the great coral reefs surrounding Bakiz have cultivated a diverse flora and fauna, so these families are rarely in danger of starvation.

When a family encounters another, the two often make arrangements to meet again at a set time for mating with the males typically joining the female's family in order to provide additional protection for the pregnant female and the new generation. The entire family raises the new generation.

Root

Native species: Imperial Underworld dragon, Cave dragon, Dungeon dragon, Prism dragon, Glass Wyrm

Deep below Strant, Bakiz, and the tides of the Sea of Colossus lies the massive, subterranean heart of the sunken continent. Hidden sea caverns provide the entrance into the cavern, but one must travel far through the perilous tunnels to enter the upper layer of Root, which sits just below the underground river rapids. Each successive layer of the underground complex is hotter and less oxygenated than the last. While this promotes hibernation of the deepest dragon denizens, it does nothing to hold them back once they've awoken.

Glass Wyrms occupy and proliferate the first and uppermost layer of Root just below the underground river rapids. The dripping mineral water has created a mass of caverns toothed with stalactites and stalagmites. The Glass Wyrms have incorporated these natural formations into the twisting, winding corridors they create within the caverns while mining for gemstones to consume. Their broken-glass-like scales embed within the mineral floors, walls, and sometimes cavern ceilings. They reflect any light within their lairs to dazzling and even blinding magnitude. Glass Wyrms keep to their own lairs, but vicious territorial battles have erupted when one trepasses into the lair of another even if by accident.

Prism dragons control the second layer of root, and theirs is truly control. They use their psychic abilities and illusions to create an alternate reality in the minds of the subterranean humanoids that make up their treasure hoard. Each Prism subjects their hoard to a different false reality. They congregate at regular intervals to compare notes on the state of their hoard. Meanwhile, their humanoids have no idea that they're part of a study hoard controlled by Prism dragons. They're not even aware of the presence of Prisms in this layer of Root. Depending on the illusions of the hoard, some of them don't realize that they're underground either.

The third layer of Root is the realm of the Dungeon dragons. Much like the Prisms above, they have amassed hoards not of treasure but subterranean humanoids. Their greatest pleasure is to force these humanoids to traverse the trapped and monster-populated labyrinth of their lairs, promising freedom to those who survive to the end. Instead of freedom, however, the surviving humanoids are passed on to the Dungeon's latest project labyrinth of horrors. As Dungeons prefer to flee rather than to fight, when they infrequently encounter another of their kind while carving out new labyrinths, they tend to ignore one another and turn tail, excavating in opposite directions.

The fourth and darkest layer of Root, just above the lava flows, belongs to the eyeless Cave dragons. They earth glide through the caverns of their territory, hunting and eating anything they might come across. Despite their intelligence, these dragons are slaves to their own hunger and will not stop themselves from wiping out entire populations if they should find them. At times, this leaves the Caves with little choice but to cannibalize and hibernate.

The fifth and deepest habitable layer of Root is lit by the fires and lava from the core of Colossus. Here rule the Imperial Underworld dragons. Intelligent and organized, they hibernate in rotations so that all territory belonging to one family of Imperial Underworlds is always guarded by members of that family. Wyrms and wyrmlings are paired for their rotation, as are the very young and the ancients, the juvenile and the very old, the young adult and the old, and the adults and mature adults. While each family claims to respect the territory of another family, they keep watch for any sign of weakness, at which they will gladly kill the guarding Imperial Underworlds and murder all those hibernating in order to add to their territory.

The majority of subterranean humanoids of Root belong either to the hoards of the Prisms on the second layer or the hoards of the Dungeons on the third. Some escape to the first layer above or the fourth layer below. Few live long enough to adapt to the low-temperature humidity and blinding glasscapes of the first layer or the increased heat and deeper darkness of the fourth.

Humanoids in both Prism and Dungeon hoards are kept in manageable groups, their populations in between a small village and a large town. Those in Prism hoards never see the dragons in their true forms and most do not realize they're trapped underground with their societies subtly shaped by the whims of their hidden masters. Those in Dungeon hoards live a life of constant confinement, fear, and testing-they are very aware that they are at the whim of their subterranean tyrants.

Immigrants

Species: Guardian dragon, Mithral dragon, Elder Wyrm, Taniniver, Vishap

Few of the denizens of Root can oppose Guardian dragon and Elder Wyrm immigrants. Strant's Bronze dragons and the deep-dwelling families of Imperial Underworld dragons are some of the few who, in their groups, can expel and even hunt Guardians or Elder Wyrms on their territory. Everywhere else, these dragons take what they will and utterly destroy those who do not flee far and fast enough. Prism dragons are especially sensitive to incursions of Guardians and Elder Wyrms with those driven off becoming objects of wretched pity to the others for losing their hoards.

Mithral dragons gravitate toward the mineral-, metal-, and gem-rich mines of the underground Root over the coastal Strant and Bakiz. While their first instinct is to negotiate territory, they must at times take it by force from the Glass Wyrms. The shining, glittering caverns of the first layer of Root utterly captivate the Mithrals so that few attempt to delve deeper.

Vishaps follow the ley lines. While the Bronzes prevent them from settling in Strant, they have little trouble acquiring territory in Bakiz and the first and second layers of Root. Some unfortunate Vishaps are drawn by the signs of greater ley lines in the depths of Root only to encounter a Dungeon or Cave Great Wyrm. Those who survive to reach the lowest depths of Root are mercilessly hunted and killed by a family of Imperial Underworlds.

The universally hated taninivers are the one factor that will unite even the most solitary and separatist of the continent's dragons. At the first sight of a taniniver, all observing dragons attack the single, diseased target with the intent to kill. Despite these desperate efforts, the non-diseased dragons are not always successful. That territory claimed by the surviving taniniver becomes a blighted place which all dragons avoid. Like the plague.

Dragonriders in Root

Immigrant dragons are most likely to bond with Riders in the deeper layers of Root, as few meet true opposition in Bakiz. What opposition they receive from the Bronze dragons of Strant tends only to be sufficient force to drive them to Bakiz.

Riders are unheard of in Bakiz due to Sea drakes's general hostility toward the aquatic humanoids and the tiny size of the Tidepool dragons.

Riders in Strant are rare, but some humanoids, usually those ostracized within their own clan, leave the clan to seek out the Bronze dragons. If the humanoid can find favor with the Bronze, they may end up as a Rider. If the humanoid cannot or loses favor before bonding, they become one of the sacrifices.

Riders in Root are exceedingly rare. Most dragons of Root prefer to lord it over humanoids from a distance, and those humanoid hoards of the Prism dragons aren't even aware of the presence of dragons. On those rare occasions that bonding occurs, it is to an immigrant dragon on the verge of death by the hands of the native dragons.