🔥 Draetherin: Flame of the Shadowbound
A Codex of Curses, Kingdoms, and the Crimson Pact
I. Blood of the Ember, Soul of the Grave
The Draetherin are an ancient and feared offshoot of the Emberin—beings born of fire and purpose. But where Emberin found meaning in creation, the Draetherin sought transcendence in transformation.
In the early age of the desert known as Scorrachai, many Emberin believed they had scorched the original jungle themselves. Wracked with guilt, they turned to art, ritual, and reflection to atone. But after their encounter with the Ocearin and the birth of the Emberwave—a doctrine that preached rebirth through balance—some took the belief too literally.
When Veydras, the Hollow Flame, emerged from the underworld, cloaked in black fire and crowned with horned silence, he whispered to the grieving Emberin:
"Rebuild the world you lost. Let the green return. I offer you power… if you’re brave enough to bear it."
Some rejected the offer. Others—burned by guilt, longing for beauty, and desperate to bring paradise back—accepted. Thus, the Draetherin were born.
Horned illusionists, wielders of flame and shadow, they conjured phantom rivers, shade-giving trees, and walking echoes of their ancestors. In their eyes, it was not defiance—it was restoration.
To the Emberin… it became heresy.
"We were meant to earn redemption—not reanimate it."
II. The Pact-Bound Empire: Obsidian Crown of Scorrachai
The Draetherin did not rise through conquest, but allure. From their volcanic citadels, they established the Obsidian Crown—a network of noble houses united by five disciplines: Fire, Shadow, Blood, Charm, and Flamebinding.
Their leader, Dictar Helmorr, ruled by fear. Thousands were burned in the Forge Beneath the Palace to strengthen magical wards that bound their realm. Sacrifice was the price of protection. Beauty was enforced. Dissent was erased.
To them, fire was not chaos. It was will.
III. Alliance of the Accursed: The Mytherin Bargain
Though distant from the wars of flame, the Mytherin—serpentine mystics devoted to their desert gods—saw promise in the Draetherin. Where one dealt in shadow and fire, the other dealt in sacrifice and secrecy.
A pact was struck.
In exchange for access to sacred Crimson Runes buried beneath scorched land, the Draetherin gifted the Mytherin undead laborers—zombie thralls conjured from the desert dead. These tireless beings helped build Mytherin temples, raise palace stones, and dig ritual trenches.
The Mytherin remained uninvolved in the coming wars, caring only for their own domains. To them, the Draetherin were neither friends nor foes—just useful.
IV. Ash and Wind: War with the Nyari
When the Nyari—silent mystics of the eastern cliffs—witnessed the return of jungle illusions and undead echoes, they issued a warning:
“This is unholy. Let the desert remain. It is not your place to bring life where it was taken.”
But the Draetherin would not stop. They believed they were honoring the Emberwave—restoring beauty, not defiling it. To them, illusions were art. Raised ancestors were memory made whole.
The Nyari saw only sacrilege.
And so, the War of Ash and Wind began.
Storms of sand met pillars of fire. Wind shamans battled flamebinders. The Draetherin, unwilling to yield their illusions, stood their ground.
But even in war… love bloomed.
V. The Forbidden Flame: Tale of Sorin & Velira
In the heart of the War of Ash and Wind, at the scorched ruins of the Shifting Vale, fate struck like lightning through smoke. Sorin, an Emberin warrior-mage sworn to Yutar, found himself buried beneath the rubble of battle—trapped beside Velira, a Draetherin noble of House Embersong.
Their weapons were lost. Their magic dimmed. Only silence remained.
And in that silence, something unexpected bloomed.
Over three days, fire met shadow—not in conflict, but in communion. They shared stories, regrets, and dreams of a Scorrachai that once was—lush, alive, and free from fear. When they emerged, the war still raged. But the two of them had changed.
Their meetings continued in secret—through shadow mirrors, wind paths, and stolen time. They spoke in whispers. They kissed in hiding.
Until one night, they were caught—mid-embrace beneath the moon, locked in a kiss that defied centuries of hatred.
The consequences were swift and cruel.
Sorin was shackled in flame-bindings and dragged to the Goolag of Cinders—a sun-drenched gladiator pit where warriors fought without end. He was thrown into the arena with nothing but his fists and fury.
Velira was blindfolded, stripped of her sigils, and mounted atop a desert camel. With a single command, the beast was loosed into the wastelands—no direction, no destination. Just the dunes of Scorrachai and the will of the winds. A punishment not of death, but of disappearance.
The war resumed.
But then came the day the sky was expected to burn again.
The Sandweeps, violent and rhythmic, had long followed the same pattern—descending every full cycle, without fail. The people braced. The priests predicted. The winds howled in the distance.
And then… nothing.
The storms never came.
The sky was still. The dunes did not shift. A hush fell across the desert.
To some, it was a coincidence. To others, a sign.
To the Emberin and Draetherin alike, it was a miracle.
In reverence—or perhaps fear—they released Sorin from the pits. He emerged, battle-hardened and fire-scarred, bearing no crown but a legend. They called him The Furnace Heart.
But peace could not quiet his soul.
When Sorin heard of Velira’s fate—of her blindfolded exile into the endless sands—he vowed to find her again. Just as he had once found her in the wreckage at Shifting Vale.
And so he wanders still.
A sword at his side. Her name on his lips.
Chasing the winds that no longer howl.
VI. Historical Figures of Flame
Dictar Helmorr – Tyrant of the Obsidian Crown. Burned his own brother to secure power. Enforced magical law through terror.
Velira the Red Sigil – Once heir to House Embersong. Her love for Sorin became a whispered legend among Draetherin dissidents.
Arzha Nighttongue – Diplomatic flame-charmer who secured the Mytherin alliance. Her riddles remain a rite of passage in Draetherin courts.
Zareth the Boundless – A master Flamebinder who sought to imprison the Sandweeps themselves. Disappeared in the attempt.
Velira the Red Sigil – Once heir to House Embersong. Her love for Sorin became a whispered legend among Draetherin dissidents.
Arzha Nighttongue – Diplomatic flame-charmer who secured the Mytherin alliance. Her riddles remain a rite of passage in Draetherin courts.
Zareth the Boundless – A master Flamebinder who sought to imprison the Sandweeps themselves. Disappeared in the attempt.
VII. Faith in the Flame: Veydras the Hollow Flame
To most of Pentara, Veydras is death incarnate. To the Draetherin, he is clarity.
They do not worship him as a deity, but revere him as a teacher—a sovereign of transition, rebirth, and hidden truth. Fire, to them, is not destruction. It is change. Elegance. Focus.
Veydras did not curse them. He refined them.
“You may flee the pact, but not the flame.
For in the end, all fire returns to ash.” – Veydras
For in the end, all fire returns to ash.” – Veydras
VIII. Wrath and Reconciliation: Emberin, Ocearin & the Tale of Two Jackels
Some Draetherin remember the old ways. They recall the Emberwave doctrine and the hope that rose when Emberin met Ocearin. They believe they misunderstood that lesson—not as a call to illusion or dominance, but as a cycle of balance.
One jackel burns with desire. The other waits with wisdom. The one you feed determines what the fire becomes.
Some Draetherin now walk that middle path. They conjure beauty in smaller shapes—candles, carvings, and echoes—not forests of illusion. They raise the dead not to serve, but to speak.
They have not abandoned flame. They have remembered its grace.
For not all fire devours. Some fire… illuminates.
