Legends

The Legend of Tashalasheeri the Lost - by T.A. Saunders ©2010 v1.2

Among the Astral Wyrms, there were none more volatile and powerful than Tashalasheeri the dragon companion of the champion, Hazaad. She was considered not only the most formidable but perhaps the most passionate. It is said her devastating Frostfire breath weapon slew a Lord of Chaos in the great battles across Imarel when it was a young a world. The great jagged, frozen peaks of Zoda are said to be the remains of that Chaos Lord, shattered and eternally petrified by her fury. She fell madly in love with the Champion and he with her, though their love was a forbidden one by the Old Gods. It was a love they kept in great secret, because unions between Asyndi and Wyrm for forbidden, for the dangerous and insane Dracothar hybrids they often produced.

Dracothars are large, reaching anywhere between as big as thirteen feet tall, look similar to the Dragon half-form but cannot shift and are often riddled with mutations, such as a cyclopsian eye, two heads, four arms and as said, insanity are all not uncommon. When the mother is a dragon, such as Tashalasheeri and a father is humanoid, such as Hazaad was, that can be the only outcome of such a siring — but they did not know this, nor did anybody else for that matter, save Zorah and Kaal. Hence, why they forbade such couplings. It had simply been the will of the Old Gods and that will was followed by their divine children and their companions.

Tasha began to shape-shift into a beautiful Asyndi female to maintain the secret romance between herself and Hazaad; so well were her talents in illusion that she even fooled other dragons and other Asyndi. They were to be married on the day after the final battle with the armies of Chaos; with Zorah's own intervention against Gurhjuua the Witchflame and the victory rallied around its fall, there was a true chance of peace and a chance they might convince Zorah and Kaal would allow their union as a reward for Hazaad's valor in battle.

Unfortunately, the case would never come before the Gods, for on the final day of battle, is when Hazaad's faith in Zorah and Kaal finally crumbled and his Asyndi Runeblade shattered. Thought dead and taken as a trophy Tashalasheeri grieved deeply, begging the Old Gods to at least honor him despite his fall from righteousness and faith. Zorah and Kaal debated this for three days and on the third day, declined her request, on the grounds that making a martyr out of an Asyndi who cast off the love of the mother and father, would be showing approval for his actions.

In her deep and unyielding grief, Tasha was outraged and attacked the Old Gods in berserk fury. It is said that she still has the blood of Kaal on her talons, where she ripped asunder his mighty stone armor after blasting it with her Frostfire. Kaal in the end defeated her, but before he could decapitate her with Mirastheyr, Blade of the Flamebringer, Zorah interceded, for reasons she did not explain to her mate. Instead, it was decreed she would be banished from the Bright Heavens, to the live out the rest of her existence alone, on Imarel. It was a fierce battle, however. It was the first time any Asyndi saw the Old Gods' blood. Not even a Chaos Lord, attacking Zorah was able to accomplish such a thing. That it is when it is believed that the Dragons' fall from grace began.

As she fell from the Heavens to waiting Imarel below, Tashalasheeri unleashed all of her might upon the moon Vocoria. All the anguish, rage and grief within her came forth with such force that it shattered the fiery moon into molten embers that to this day are known as the Rings of Falling, for the spectacular ring they form around the world of Imarel.

Many followed Tashalasheeri to Imarel, though she herself was never actually found by the remaining Astral Wyrms of the First Clutch. Writings were found here and there, it is said. Angry, bitter ranting scrawled on whatever she could find, often using her own blood as the ink. On rocks, smeared on caves or occasionally on the dried flesh of somebody who made the mistake of disturbing her. It is common legend that she roams as an albino Asyndi, even now, clad in the ever-white robes of mourning. Hazaad, forever lost to her. And then came the birth of her and Hazaad's bastard child.

Tasha wandered the world with a pregnant belly and madness-stricken grief. The hatchling she would produce was named Aryxiar, the first and only known Astral Dracothar. Tashalasheeri, quite lost in her own revenge-empowered madness, did not grasp the danger Aryxiar presented. Like all dragons who live long, she fell into The Slumber and dreamed of revenge, while young Aryxiar made plots of his own. Where Tasha only hated the Old Gods and all that stood with them, this Dracothar sought to expunge all life, wherever he found it.

Before she fell into this slumber, she taught him all she knew about sorcery and battle and poured all the love she had left in her heart into his own black, soulless pit. He accepted his mother's love but did not return it. Aryxiar even plotted to return to slay Tashalasheeri if he was successful in his other campaigns. Tasha would awaken to discover Aryxiar had slaughtered ten of her own kin and had begun wearing their pelts as trophies. Ten dragons of the First Clutch, slain by this creature. Ten of the very dragons she kept dear to her heart, even if she did not lead them as she once did.

In the end, Tashalasheeri found her son and encased him in a tomb of thick, impenetrable frost and buried him where he could never escape, having no heart to kill her own son, no matter what his crimes. So exiled and alone once more, now by even her own kind for failing to kill Aryxiar, Tashalasheeri the Lost wanders this world even still…always as a white-haired humanoid of some kind, waiting for the day she finds Hazaad, reborn. An old draconic prophecy states she will take this reincarnation of the Champion into battle against the Bright Heavens themselves, to finish what was started the day she drew blood of a god. On that day, it is said, Imarel will know its final age.