Warmachine/Hordes: On Blighted Wings…the Dragons of Immoren

Most folk familiar with the legends know that the essence of a dragon is captured within the athanc, a stone that resides in the center of the dragon’s mass, between it’s ribs. Most folk also know that, according to mythology, dragons–or, more specifically, Lord Toruk–are the spawn of the Devourer Wurm; and it is from this first living example of a primeval force of nature that all other dragons arise.

Dragons need no sustenance. Indeed, their claws, maws, wings, and sheer size would make them ideal apex predators. Yet despite this, dragons seem to only desire to destroy for the sake of destruction; and, sometimes, hoard wealth. Their nature of destruction is so powerful that they emit an aura that immediately begins working at destroying the ecosystem of whatever region they come to pass through. Though travel rarely does more than inconvenience residents, a dragon that decides to stay for any length of time literally causes a blight across the region. Plants wither, creatures weaken and die; and those that stay behind become twisted monstrosities of malice only exceeded by the dragon itself. This blighting aura emits not from the dragon, but from its Athanc; as blighted creatures have been noted in regions where an Athanc has probably come to rest.
Blighterghast lairs in the Wyrmwall

It is true–or at least claimed by all dragons that deign to speak with lesser races on the matter–that the progenitor of the species is the Dragonfather Toruk. He appeared thousands of years ago, spent centuries crossing Immoren and sowing death before he got the bright idea that, if one dragon was a good thing, a bevy of dragons would be AWESOME. So he yanked out his own athanc and broke large chunks off. Each of these gelled into another, full but less powerful athanc; and that eventually spawned another dragon.

But dragons are contrary at heart, and the new spawn refused to blindly obey Toruk. Some measure of the Dragonfather’s vast malice and hate was borne in their athancs, and rather than submit, they banded together for the first and only time to fight their own father when he realized his mistake and attempted to destroy them en masse. After that, they scattered to remote lairs across the continent, individually emerging every few decades or centuries to cause untold devastation before vanishing again. They did not interact with each other any further save as hated enemies, and only sought out other true dragons if they were absolutely sure they could kill their kin either by themselves or with a brief and uncomfortable alliance.

Toruk, meanwhile, was gravely wounded; and retired to a new lair–the Scharde Isles–to heal. It was here that he singlehandedly brought the pirate kings of the Schardes to his service, turning those who submitted into the first and most powerful of his servants, the Lich Lords. With Toruk’s mastery of life and death, he built an empire called Cryx within the Schardes; and this empire had only two goals: to keep Toruk himself safe from any concentrated attack of his children or other threats, and to find and destroy Toruk’s children and return their athancs to him. Not that Toruk really needs the protection: when the dirgenmast fleets of Cryx proved ineffective against the Orgoth, Toruk himself took wing and vaporized the invasion fleet of Orgoth blackships bound for Cryx with his fiery breath.

The dragon Ashnephos, sibling of Charsaug

There are a number of dragons scattered across Immoren. In the Wyrmwall Mountains, Blighterghast holds sway. Until recently, the abandoned Castle of the Keys in the western Bloodstone Marches was the demesne of a dragon named Pyromalfic. Halfaug lairs somewhere in the territories controlled by Khador. Wandering around the desert marches of central Immoren is a dragonlike creature called the Chimera, believed to be an amnesiac, insane dragon. To the far east, menacing the insular and dying race of giants are a pair of dragons known as Ashnephos and Charsaug.

Thagrosh, the bearer of Everblight’s Athanc

Of particular note is a more recent draconic menace: to the far north, in the impassable mountains north of Khador, creatures bearing the distinctive signs of draconic blight and a disturbingly irregular symmetry for spawn have begun mounting attacks increasingly further and further south. They are led by a twisted creature known as Thagrosh, though those servants of Thagrosh who utter any comments refer not to this “Prophet” but to another essence entirely, known as Everblight. It is believed by the learned that Everblight is the athanc of a dragon slain centuries ago by the Iosans named Ethrunbal, who took it to a distant hiding place where it would not harm their dying race; sadly, the region they chose was the homeland of their kin, the Nyss. It is interesting that Ethrunbal was considered to be among the weakest of dragons; but he is now succeeding in creating his own empire, with his final goal undoubtedly the elimination of his father beneath the talons of his children. Everblight “gifts” to his most favored servants tiny shards of his own athanc, which gives him greater control over them even as it gifts them with awesome power; keeping with draconic nature, he places little true value in these elevated mortals.Everblight’s Carniveans, blighted beasts