RuneScape Forum Archive | Draconic Interactions (3)

Darlantan

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Umbra grew silent as he listened to Rhen with interest, leaning forward slightly and resting his scaly chin in his free claw. He did not say a word until the watcher was finished, his dark eyes thoughtful.
"...Your description of your kind remind me of my children, albeit with more dedication to the search for arcane knowledge. The dragons of shadow... well, you would be correct to say they kept to the shadows, observing other races unseen and keeping their homes deep in the earth. They were seekers of knowledge and often used crystalline mediums to store it... though they also used books and stone tablets and such. However, they also had a strong interest in building and art... when they did not seek knowledge, they tended to add to the cities or construct a variety of types of art. Poetry was always my favorite... Ah, but there was no knowledge I forbade them from... although 'dangerous' knowledge was much less in those times."
The dragon paused for a moment, thinking.
"...You say your kind is created through magic and I can see clearly enough that it is integral to your being... I am curious, does your kind feed entirely upon magical energy? I have known some creatures to feed on energies as a supplement of sorts, but yours would be the first I've encountered to feed solely on it."
Umbra grew quiet for a few seconds, then decided to add something else.
"Your kind would probably benefit greatly from an encounter with Magnus... He is the ancient of magic and shares magical knowledge quite freely. However, his memory of anything non-magical is quite poor... oftentimes he forgets he's an ancient."

22-Jul-2014 05:03:47

Basileus257

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As Umbra was responding, Matt flipped through the book he had picked. He would stop at random pages and read the contents of the page before continuing on. "Hmm... I know that this probably means little to you, but I admit that your works are well written. I am hardly one to analyze poetry, but I feel that these poems are able to speak to the reader on a level that few authors are capable of. It's a shame you are unable to publish these works for all to read. I am sure many would enjoy them."

After Umbra finished speaking, Matt was silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. "I... apologize if I brought back some bad memories or if my question offended you in any way. That was not my intention. It sounds as though you and Nihil were close before he began to change. If your theory on our world corrupting him and the Abyss is true, then it is no wonder that he wants to destroy us. Perhaps in his mind, he believes removing the Worlds from existence will slowly change him back into what he was before or perhaps he is simply motivated by thoughts of vengeance. Either way, it's hard to blame him for feeling the way he does. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to stop him, but in a way I understand why he has become so malevolent."

Matt chuckled before continuing. "Now that you've explained your views further, I cannot say I blame you for distrusting this Vates. It seems as though he makes mistakes and then blames his failures on others rather then taking the blame. I can't say that I look forward to the idea of meeting him, should I run across him in my travels. I doubt the two of us would see eye to eye on many things."

“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”

¯ Aristotle

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

Marthe Troly-Curtin

22-Jul-2014 06:15:16

Basileus257

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"Well, I suppose that I ought to give you a brief overview on our kind. At the very least, on the way our society has evolved. I would assume that we are biologically similar to whatever sort of humanoid species existed when you were imprisoned here so I will not dwell on that. I guess one thing that separates us from most other species is our passion to improve and to overcome our flaws. In Neuva, we mostly do this through the construction of machines. Machines have allowed us to do a great many things that theoretically should not be possible. We cannot fly, for example, yet we have developed a machine called an airplane that allows us to do so anyway. Communicating across a world as big as Neuva is difficult, so we designed computers and then an extension to computer capabilities known as the internet which allow us to communicate with someone on the other side of the world instantly. Once we design something, we then strive to make it better. Once we developed the airplane, we made it go faster until we had developed planes that break the sound barrier. From a personality point of view, we are all separate an unique. Ask twenty different humans the same question and you will likely get twenty different answers."

Matt paused to sip at his wine. "But enough about my kind. I am sure that you do not care to here the ramblings of a patriotic member of the human race. I do not want to take up too much of your time and I am sure Forlirn has questions of his own. I still owe you a favour for rescuing my friend from death though. After all, I was the one who asked you for help. If you can think of some way for me to pay you back for your assistance, just let me know and I will do what I can."

“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”

¯ Aristotle

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

Marthe Troly-Curtin

22-Jul-2014 06:26:08

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22-Jul-2014 09:17:02

NarBloodwolf

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''I have been asked this several times in my travels. On Elune the Watchers do feed on ambient magic as a primary source of energy. But we do have to eat food to supplement a shortage of magic in times were the other races of Elune fight each-other. It creates a disturbance in the natural flow of magical energy when magic is used in such great scales like war. But we do not have to eat often so long as there is often enough ambient magic so long as the battles of other races remain small skirmishes and not a prolonged war. So yes in a way we do feed entirely upon magic on Elune except in times of war. On Nueva however it is a different story. On Nueva Watchers are like walking plants we feed off light and convert the energy from light into energy. In places like the caves outside your kingdom where light is scarce, I must consume food like humans to keep my body's energy flow.'' Said Rhen prior to a moment of thought about what Umbra has said about Magnus.
''Magnus you say.....I shall have to keep an eye out for him. To learn from one who is literally magic incarnate would be fantastic. There would be so much myself and my people could learn from him that much is true. Oh it would just be wonderful to learn how all magic works and from where it flows. The applications I could pursue with this knowledge would revolutionize magical technology on Elune.''

22-Jul-2014 16:30:27

Darlantan

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"Poetry has always been my favored art form for it is the closest a written language can come to the Primal Tongue," Umbra replied, nodding his head slightly. "Unlike typical speaking or writing, it grants depth to words far beyond what mere words can normally hold. The Primal Tongue... it is the language I speak, as do most ancients. When you speak a language, you manipulate your environment in a particular way to carry a meaning you intend to convey. However, what you can convey is limited by the means you can convey it. Much of what you can feel and think you cannot tell others for your language lacks the means to do so. The Primal Tongue, however... It is like taking the message you wish to convey and casting it into existence itself, with ever facet and aspect of the world reverbrating with your meaning. Few can speak it, but because it flows through existence all can understand it. However, for complicated beings such as yourselves, meaning is lost, for you have grown to percieve the world in a limited way. You can detect very little of the Primal Tongue, and what you can detect you percieve in the way you know of communicating: you language. For the most part... there are some exceptions, particularly when a Name is spoken. I spoke the Name of the Godslayer earlier; while I cannot know what name you heard, I expect you also felt and saw portions of the Name for the briefest of moments. Ah, but I ramble... yes, I am quite fond of poetry, for its depth reminds me of the primal and of a yearning of mortals for a method of expression at the primal level. If my works did exists in the physical world... well, I'd be surprised if you could read them, for they would be in the tongue of the ancients. That being the spoken language we developed partly so we might understand the limitations of mortal languages... but mostly so we could know what names would be given to us and our domains so we might identify ourselves to all mortals with the same name."

24-Jul-2014 14:30:05

Darlantan

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The ancient chuckled softly, slowly gazing about the spacious chamber again.
"You need not worry about inadvertantly offending me. I may have my moments but I have largely, shall I say, 'outgrown' becoming angered for petty reasons. I cannot say what his reasoning is or if he even has reasoning any longer; he succumbed to his base nature long ago I doubt anything short of purifying the Abyss would change that.
"I do not know which passages still lead here... but I find it most likely you entered the surface from the northern continent. If you wish to avoid Vates, I would advise not entering the continent in the other half of the world. He rules the continent on the Elunian half and makes no attempt to hide such. Even here I can feel his power surging beyond the world barrier. In fact... I would advise never stepping foot there. His attitude toward mortals is... unusual. He might send you away with several prophecies that may or may not come to pass... but he also may ensure you never leave at all. I suspect the latter is more likely..."

((I'm not done posting, but I'm out of time for the moment. I'll likely resume some hours later.))

24-Jul-2014 14:48:35

Darlantan

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Umbra placed an elbow on one of the arms of his seat, resting his chin in a claw.
"Your race does remind me much of the kruxnak. Much of them devoted their pursuits to the study of magic, but those which lacked magical capabilities instead devoted themselves to various sorts of inginuity. Those latter sort developed far quicker than the mages... I recall they were soon experimenting with various applications of electricity, though what I remember most was some sort of printing device they created. It was quite useful in the nonmagical creation of books... though I recall the shadow dragons modified it to be powered by magic due to a lack of electricity down here, and so they could imbue the tomes with a small bit of magic to keep the paper from decaying and the ink from fading. Magic fused with nonmagical technology... it was quite marvelous."
The dragon glanced at Forlirn, but turned to Rhen before the silver could say anything.
"Quite remarkable... I've never known of a mortal race capable of utilizing so many forms of energy. Even among the ancient-created... I am quite intrigued as to your origins. Ah, but of Magus... He preferred the form of a kruxnak mage in my time, so I expect he would currently take the form of a k*uznak-descended race. He always sported a beard... preferred grey robes... and carried a rather unwieldy weapon, some strange hybrid of a staff and a warhammer imbedded with a ruby. He lived in a great, stone tower modelled after that hammer-staff of his far across the eastern ocean in the land of bipedal dragons. However, he had a tendency to pop up all over the place; even among ancients, he was one of the only capable of teleporting across the world as simply as he could blink. You could already have met him and not know; as I said, he often forgot he was even an ancient. His most tell-tale sign is that staff-thing of his."

24-Jul-2014 19:03:14

Darlantan

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Forlirn tilted his head as the ancient grew silent, then decided to ask his question.
"...Glacignes... that is, Lux... The clan long waited for him, searched for him, and called out to him, but he never appeared. If we are his creations... born from his essence, if that is the way of all the ancients... Why did he never show himself to us? It would have solved... much..."
Umbra gazed at the dragon for a short time, then shrugged and shook his head. "I do not know. Lux was always rather enigmatic, as was his twin. Perhaps he was waiting for something and your clan simply never satisfied what he waited for... or perhaps it was Tenebra. They almost always appear side-by-side... Perhaps he knew the ancient of darkness would have some great effect on you as you were born from the essence of light... or perhaps it was something else entirely. I truly do not know."
The ancient grew silent for a moment, then glanced toward Matthew.
"...You speak of repaying me, but I expect you would do as I asked even if you had not required my aid. As I said before, I care of two things: poetry, and vengence upon Nihil. You do not seem like one who would compose poems to pay a percieved debt... but you've been quite clear that you oppose Nihil. But even though he is the youngest of the elders, all of you against an ancient... it is a fool's errand. Mortals unknowing the ways of ancients cannot hope to slay one of the most powerful to walk the world... but with the help of an ancient, you have a chance. I have both knowledge and ways which may strike against him... but I can hardly do a thing alone in my soulstone. We have common goals... Nihil must die. However, his bloodline must survive; otherwise we would simply create a cycle of new ancients arising from the Abyss to try and devour the world. There is only one of his bloodline in existence... you know him as Thlorian. He must take Nihil's place. And again, time is not a worry. I can make time last as long as needed in here."

24-Jul-2014 19:22:05

NarBloodwolf

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''Wait a moment......we saw someone matching your description of Magnus's form right before we traveled north. He went by the name of Reonga. You mean to tell me that old man was Magnus? Things just got a lot more interesting.'' Rhen muttered to himself.

Rhen pondered the fact that Magnus had been right in front of them without them knowing. He was trying to wrap his head around the fact. More importantly he was thinking of a way to where he could find or contact Magnus in the future if he had questions about magic. But Umbra's words to Matt drew Rhen out of his thoughts.

''In other words you want us to take you in your soul stone with us if I understand correctly. I am for it if it will help us accomplish our goals and it will give the rest of us the chance to learn more of our enemy before we form a plan of attack.''Rhen commented to Umbra after he finished speaking with Matt.

(( Will be out of town for the next three days so a reply to anything after this afternoon will have to wait.))

24-Jul-2014 20:16:07 - Last edited on 24-Jul-2014 20:37:58 by NarBloodwolf

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Draconic Interactions (3)