Wraedan, the Grimlord
Dragon God of Death
Death comes to all mortals in due time. When it did, their souls were ushered to where they belonged by Wraedan. Those who paid homage to a particular deity most closely in life were taken to the appropriate realm. For those with no close association with any, they were welcomed into the Halls of Silence where their souls remained under the care of Wraedan and his black dragons until they were ready to reincarnate and walk the world once more. Wraedan had always been a quiet deity throughout the ages. He did not seek to bring death to anyone before their time. He had been known to serve as the patron of those in mourning, the comforter of those in grief and sorrow. Alongside his beloved Raella, the two of them saw to the balance of Life and Death throughout the cosmos.
At first glance, Wraedan could be unsettling. Tall, broad shouldered, with ebony skin and eyes blacker than the darkest of shadows he garbed himself in midnight black robes that were softer than velvet. The only bright thing to be found on him were two bracelets crafted of what appeared to be the scales of a golden dragon. Once one got past the shock of his arrival however, they were soon touched by an aura of tranquility that assuages any fear one might have had of the Dragon God of Death. That tranquility was lost following the demise of his beloved Raella, the Dragon Goddess of Life. Horrified and furious, the eternal calm that was once so assured of Wraedan’s presence was shattered.
The Grimlord went mad with grief at the loss of his wife and Death rampaged across the world unchecked. An untold amount of souls were swallowed up in Wraedan’s anguished wrath. Abominations of the most wretched sort roamed the land and stalked the living. The souls of the dead found no rest as Wraedan turned them upon the mortals of Ransera.
In the end, the Stonelords laid a trap for Wraedan by tapping into the very essence of the Lifemother. Drawn to her presence like a moth to a flame, the Dragon God of Death was momentarily pacified. In that moment of clarity it is said that Death himself wept with the deepest of grief. Whether for the loss of and imprisonment of his wife or for the destruction he’d wrought has never been clear. That moment however enabled the Stonelords to mercifully put the Dragon God of Death out of his misery…for better or worse.
Wraedan was the second of the Dragon Gods to fall and so it was that Life and Death became more beautiful and terrifying.