Frendor Falcon-Wind's Story

Frendor Falcon-Wind looks around

Frendor Falcon-Wind extends his awareness, seeking to understand what the wind is saying

Frendor Falcon-Wind looks at all the other people

The wind began to stir, brushing up against Frendor. A whisper, "Hello, what is it you seek?"

The wind began to manifest into the vague shape of a lady, hovering just above the high and swaying grasses. She hoped not to alarm him, "Surely there is something you seek...?"

Frendor bowed as if to acknowledge the voice of the Wind.

“I seek answers to my quest. I am sent by my mentor, Elvaron, to explore this world and recover any who are lost or out of place. Can you help me?”

"Of course," answered the wind, flattening the golden grasses as she circled Frendor in an inward spiral.

"There are many who are lost, many more who must be found...Tell me, adventurer, have you ever climbed a mountain?"

"Many times I have climbed hills and even small mountains, but never yet a high snow-peaked mountain. I am up to any challenge. I will go wherever I am needed most" said Frendor, feeling a slight chill at the prospect of hiking through a cold wind-swept mountain peak.

He sat in quiet meditation, mentally preparing himself for the challenge, trying to recall what he had been taught about the natural and magical sciences of mountains, but at the same time, paying full attention to the voice of the wind.

Not all winds are hostile, he thought, perhaps instead of struggling against a harsh unfriendly mountain wind, I might find a friendly voice in this wind.

"Have you visited this mountain often, and would you travel with me, at least for part of the journey?" he asked "and may I ask your name, in so much as it can be said in human or elvish words?"

"I will travel for you," Aewisp replied, the wind beginning to whip around Frendor. It wasn't rough and toussling, but it did grow colder and colder.

Weargtooth Mountains

White capped and stretching across the entirety of the north of Ellaria, the climate is arctic. There are many coves and valleys.

In the sky a strange shadow, to the south the horizon was unnaturally bright- a white arc resting beneath the backlit forever-clouds.

A too-small blizzard formed on the neighboring peak. Sinfrost craned his attention away from the bay up to the sky. Something had changed about the position of whatever was beyond the clouds. After a moment's contemplation, the blizzard caught Sinfrost's attention.

A humanoid emerged. Sinfrost stayed exactly still, but wasn't exactly hiding.

Frendor could notice all of these things, perhaps. In the distance, far down in the cape, there was a small civilization, and a massive ship which had clearly torn through here rested below.

Sinfrost kept an eye on the newcomer.He wondered if this one was anything like the ones squabblng down in Iskjerne Bay,

Frendor extended his awareness to sense what kind of being was in front of him. A dragon, no less. He watched carefully to see what it would do. He prepared himself to create a defensive shield if needed, but the dragon appeared to be in its element, and Frendor was inexperienced with frost-magic.

Frendor whispered to the wind "Do you know this dragon? Is it related to one of the factions that I must unite?".

Frendor wondered to himself, who are Ellaria and what is Eras?, but then he stopped to ponder the dragon.

Frendor Falcon-Wind examines Ruby Egg

Sinfrost watched, silent, as the stranger spoke of unity and peace. He found something in the snow, which had eluded Sinfrost until that moment, and swiftly head towards the coast. What was that? Sinfrost spread his great wings and took off from the peak. High above the shadow beyond the clouds had stopped moving.

A great clap of thunder shook the mountains.

Sinfrost stumbled in his flight, but regained coarse. He soared high into the clouds, up, up, up, and finally breached them. What he saw, there above the clouds, was otherworldly. It was as if an entire moon had collapsed and reassembled in such a strange way. Something else Sinfrost noticed was the dead star.

The dead star no longer seemed so dead. Something deep inside Sinfrost felt dread, almost panic. What was all of this, above the clouds?

Thunder and lightning...

The skies were furious with their display of lights and shadows. Down below, the mountains trembled with the clammering of thunder and lightning. The misty rainbow which formed over the waterfall at Kadota Peaks had disappeared, though the river still flowed. Deep within the rockface, inside the Weargtooth Mountains, another presence was felt. The chaos and loud bellowing of the mountains had disturbed Asvith Thrym from his slumber. The enormous frost jotunn had been sleeping for centuries, appearing to those around him as just another snowcapped mountain. But as one of the large rock formations began to move, soon the mountain was turned sideways as Asvith Thrym lifted his head to sit up and open his giant eyes for the first time in eons.

Asvith yawned deeply, the sound carrying for miles over the mountain tops, echoing throughout the many nearby lands of Ellaria where they could be felt from across the sea. His breath was like a cold blizzard, his mouth as wide as a gaping cave, his eyes as large and icey as Gaia's moons. He had a forest of trees for hair, large giant roots dangling from his rocky hands and feet, and a long frozen white beard formed from the centuries of ice and snow. Asvith Thrym was a giant among giants, an enemy of Asgard since the days of old, banished to Gaia at a time that had long since been forgotten. As he sat up slowly, his massive head stood at eye level with the surrounding mountains. Even now, sitting down, the jotunn was mighty and terrifying to behold.

He would slowly rub his eyelids and look around as small boulders, rocks and earth fell from his head and shoulders like dandruff, smashing and crushing the ground below. The massive rock giant was too large to notice the elves and dragons, and other creatures in his vicinity. Confused and still waking up, Asvith was incredibly slow but incredibly mighty, an echo of legendary gods from ancient times. He would briefly swat at a large dragon as it circled around his head and soared above the sky into the clouds, as if shewing away a common gnat or mosquito. But just like a mosquito, the dragon was much faster and likely able to dodge his enormous hand with relative ease as it soared past him and disappeared.

Taking a moment to gather his strength, Asvith looked down at the settlements below. Noticing a rather large redwood tree sticking out of the forest, he reached over and plucked it from the ground by its roots, as if picking a small piece of broccoli from a salad. The tree itself was enormous, over a hundred feet tall and as wide as a house. But the jotunn would bring the leafy substance to his lips and bite down on it with his sharp jagged rocky teeth, snapping branches and crushing the tree in half with one big crunch. He then chewed the sustenance slowly, the sound of grinding rocks and wood carrying over the forest below until he had devoured the whole tree. Afterwards, he would slowly turn over and bring himself up to his hands and knees before pushing himself to his feet. As he stood up, his silhouette could be seen from miles and miles away, his frame now larger than even the highest mountains as he stood with his head in the clouds.

Asvith Thrym had awakened...

Frendor woke up from his slumber in the forest.

Am I still dreaming, he wondered, and why cannot my eyes focus....

Then he realized the danger he was in. He spun a web of invisibility around his cloak. He started to change the substance of the trees, so that a sleeping potion would run through their sap. The change was slow and used all of his concentration, as Asvith Thrym ate portions of the forest.

The forest, made of massive redwood trees, splashing through the Weargtooth Mountains, cried out as it was munched upon. Their voices were dimmer than they had ever been before.

Up standing to just above the clouds, a giant made of mountain itself. Though the rumblings across the sea stirred for long, it was on Ellaria that the first awoke. It was in the north of Ellaria that Eras's grip was most firm. Here, in northern Ellaria, one of the teeth biting the sky stood up. In it's wake, a ravine cutting north into the Ellarian Tartarean Coast. A gap in the skyline, filled with a figure connecting above to below.

The first of the Colossi.

Awoken.

The edges of the clouds began to visibly pinken. Eras grew stronger, absorbing more of Gaia and whatever forces dare venture close. He was hungry, so hungry. The redwood trees, too, felt within themselves another change. Their screams turned to wails turned to grumblings as they began to fall into a slumber. Thunder rumbled across the mountains as Eras laughed at Gaia's misfortune. He didn't seem to realize that the trees didn't weaken so rapidly by his hand alone.

Where were her champions now? Thunder rolled again as Eras laughed.