#ista lore

[sienniafr]

Taking up the Mantle

Sasaldier didn’t really intend to become the clan’s treasurer. He liked the coins; they were shiny and glittery, just like him, and at first he simply started to hoard them, sometimes going so far as to steal them from Arandar and Lafiris as they headed out to trade, only to tuck the cold treasure under him, feel it’s smooth shiny surface against his skin.

He wasn’t sure who ratted him out - probably Von, or Sapphire, the self-named morality compasses of the group - but somewhere down the line, other dragons actively started giving him the treasure. 

He wasn’t upset about it, really. If they wanted to give him a gift, well, who was he to stop them? But he started to feel a bit bad about it when even the hatchlings would toddle proudly up to him and nudge coins and gems across with their noses and their stubby claws. 

Not that he refused them, of course. Couldn’t be rude, could he?

Then, eventually, there came a day when a group of hatchlings started to hover nervously about him. They shifted their wings and twisted their elegant necks - skydancers, all. Ramoth and Mnementh’s latest brood, he noted - until eventually he sighed and asked them what they wanted, exactly.

“We were wondering, Sas- um, sir, if we could... borrow some of your money?” 

She said it so quietly that by the end it had become an unintelligible squeak, but he heard it, just about.

Apparently, a game had gotten out of hand, and they had ruined their brother’s favourite toy: a little jackalope that Styrkur had given him before he... Before he’d left. The hatchling was apparently distraught, and although he said it was alright, that he didn’t blame them and it was ‘just a toy’, he hadn’t stopped crying since.

“We wanted to see if we could get him a new one,” the apparent ringleader explained, high voice still quivering with nerves. “We tried to make one ourselves, but we... Um.”

“It’s harder than it looks”, her brother finished.

It would be so easy to say no, Sasaldier mused. He was so much bigger than them, he could probably send them packing with a well-timed glare or two, but...

Truthfully, he’d seen their absent fourth, lurking about the lair. A pretty little thing, all dappled and golden, like his mother, and once just as vibrant. Now he always seemed so miserable.

It wasn’t a difficult decision to make.

He counted up his money and handed the right amount carefully - with strict instructions - to Lux, the ringleader. 

That evening, Kandofri had smiled for the first time in days, radiating joy like a small sun, clutching tight to his new toy.

The next time someone asked Sas for money - for some gear or other that Andele simply could not do without - he started making lists.

And that was how it began.

[sienniafr]

It was Sapphire who first noticed the trembling in Hapselli's limbs when she walked or flew. She had come to the clan fully grown, and had always attributed her shakes to the cold, or simple exhaustion, but Sapphire disagreed. Hapselli's never sure whether or not she's glad of that. Arfur, the clan's resident healer, told her that there was a problem with her limbs. The muscles, he told her, were permanently weakened, which accounted for her inability to do anything too strenuous. It might also affect her coordination. Had she had any problems with that? She had, but she didn't say it. She didn't want to. Some days are better than others. Sometimes she can go out with the foragers and gather in plants and insects for the clan, enjoy the sunshine and the casual chatter of her clanmates. Other days she can barely move for the stiffness in her legs. On those days, when she finds herself missing the sun, Heyes often visits her. She hadn't understood him, at first. He was often teasing her, often making jokes and trying to make her smile. He brought her flowers and sweet-smelling herbs and spices, mixed them together in a pot for her. "A little bit of the world beyond." She didn't always like him - he was sly and twisted his words sometimes. She'd seen him do it to her clanmates. But there was something there that made her... not hate him. Probably. And if he wanted to bring her more flowers, well. She couldn't exactly move to stop him, now could she?

[sienniafr]

Hapselli is often regarded as something of a princess in Ista. Delicate, fine boned and always trembling, she is doted on by the others even when she doesn't want to be. She is easily flustered and often takes her clanmates just a little too seriously. She tries not to let their teasing get to her, but it's often overwhelming. When they realise, of course, they're always appalled that they've upset her, and do anything they can to try and make it better. What they don't realise is that, most of the time, her tears are half in anger at her own sensitivity. Of course they were joking! And besides, who really takes that as an insult, anyway? She's working on it, but sometimes it's more of an uphill struggle than flying through the Twisting Crescendo. Not that she could do that, either.

[sienniafr]

As time passed and his skill grew, Adhara asked him to take on a further service to the clan. Though she herself was a skilled strategist, she didn't want to be the only one dragons could turn to in times of war. Von did not care for the idea of war. He didn't want to bring despair or sorrow to others. He was hope, heart and mind and soul, but he could not refuse her. He accepted the position as both the clan's strategist and it's Second in Command, but privately thinks that, in a real crisis, he would be dead long before Adhara.

[sienniafr]

When his longtime mate Otta decided to leave the clan in service to the deities, Von was heartbroken. Part of him longed to leap into the Sea after her, but something stayed his limbs. He watched her dive into the darkness, and lost her forever to the Sea.

[sienniafr]

Having fled from clan Frithsamur with his mate Otta and the anxious Arfur, Von settled quickly into Ista, alternating his time between teaching the hatchlings and fighting alongside Adhara in the Coliseum. Then the oldest dragon in the clan, he also found himself playing adviser in the newly established clan.

[sienniafr]

Denala is one of a number of dragons who came to Ista from the allied clan Frithsamur in the Snowsquall Tundra. They were not fleeing, as Ain was, or even sent to spy, as was Baeldiin. Denala came because they chose the Sea. As a hatchling, Denala had always been filled with questions. What was this? How did it work? Why did it work? The turning of the planet, the movement of the sun across the sky (or was it that the planet moved around the sun? Which was stationary, which moved? How were they to learn it?), why a dragon could float in water with no trouble at all, but fell if they did not move their wings to fly. What was water made of? Why did it slip through the claws? All this fascinated them. So, they came to Ista to learn. The Sea was vast and held many mysteries, and they intended to find them all, someday.

[sienniafr]

She likes to surround herself in ice. Cold, beautiful ice flows in rivers from her claws and sticks and crystallises against just about every surface she touches. She can't understand why the Water dragons of Ista can't appreciate it, really. After all, what is ice but water that stays? Ice is a form that she loves to experiment with. Admittedly, in the heat of the higher levels of the lair it doesn't last long, no matter what form she shapes it into, but for her that's part of the beauty of it.