Epilogue:
Three hundred years later, the story of the Tyranny of Dragons has become enshrined in history. Originally envisioned as a six part opera, to be performed over three days by a cast of hundreds, it is usually abbreviated into a two act play. The play recounts the battle against the Cult of the Dragon Queen, which for a moment, held the Sword Coast in its talons, threatening to return the world to a millenium of draconic rule.
Arwen Dunwood, who the Dragons knew as Ominak DiL'gra, The Great and Honorable High Duchess Johanna Stonesthrow, Adrik Ungart, Heir to the Dragon Prophet, and Cora Lightbow, who sits now with the Platinum Dragon. There were others who joined them, but the records of their names are lost to time. Their parts are played by several actors, including two elves, wearing black wooden masks, another masked elf, dressed in a priest's vestments, and a human, wearing a pockmarked silver mask. It would become traditional to save eight seats for the protagonists in honorarium. In most performances, they are given out ceremonially: one each for a town guard, a noble, an Elven or Dwarven orphan, a halfling child, a priestess of Selune, a criminal, a traveler from distant lands, and an urchin girl, who is given a backless dress and invited onstage for the banquet scene.
The play that's most commonly performed cuts many scenes that true aficionados say are essential. Any expert will tell you that while Arwen's dialogue with the felled White Dragon in the Castle of Ice is timeless, his quest to return to his sister's wedding has to be seen in full opera. The legendary Elvish tenor, Cuvravaim Gal'yeth's rendition of Arwen's solo, where he raises the castle from where it crashed in to the earth, piloting it through the skies back to his old home, and gives his sister a dragon's horde as a wedding gift, once brought an audience of five thousand to tears.
Sadly, historians have begun to reveal some darker truths about the most well known of the heroes. At the end of the crisis, the then Lady Stonesthrow was granted vast swaths of land by the Lord's Alliance to rebuild after the Cult's followers brought desolation to the Sword Cost. She led reconstruction efforts, working her powerful magicks day and night, laboring with her bare hands when they were spent. She built a great college in her capital city, where all who wanted to learn were taught the mysteries of magic. She grew old, and eventually passed on peacefully, surrounded by family and friends at the end. Her notes and laboratories were opened to her collaborators, where they were shocked by what they found. The details have been largely suppressed by Johanna's daughter, who asceneded to the throne after her mother's death, but rumors spread of what was found. There were huge caverns dug deep beneath the Stonesthrow estate, where the decaying and distilling carcasses of dragons, humanoids, and other, unspeakable things were uncovered. Unholy sacrifices were made deep in the earth, all, as her journals supposedly revealed, in the name of peace and stability for her people.
Johanna is survived by her daughter, a perfect genetic copy of Johanna; it was the only way she and her wife could have children.
Arwen never married, or had children of his own, but raised a black dragon orphan as if it was a child of his own. He would go on to be a powerful mage in his own right, writing several treatises on magical theory with Johanna via correspondence from his old home of Beregost, where he served once again in the town guard for several years. His ultimate fate is unknown; he simply disappeared one day. However, shortly after, daemonic cults and abyssal incursions sharply fell, and those who were unlucky enough to enter and return from the lower planes tell of being rescued by an ancient man, clad in armor of blue flame, astride a winged beast with scales like black glass.
The Dunwoods are now a prominent family of artisans and merchants in Beregost. Every generation, at least one Dunwood joins the townguard, and eventually departs to find their fortune.
Of all of the Heroes of the Tyranny of Dragons Crisis, the least is known about Adrik. Historians have puzzled over the exact nature of his origin, based on the limited records in the Dwarven libraries of his birth. Many scholars attempted to draw a lineage between Adrik and the priests or prophets of ancient metallic dragon religions, but first hand accounts suggest that his heritage was more likely from a White dragon, frustrating historians with this conundrum to no end. Regardless of the circumstances of his birth, Adrik was known to be a powerful ally in the fight against those who, by blood, he should have sided with.
Many speak carefully about the later details of his adventures, as the followers of the resurrected Golden Scales religion hold their version of the tale very closely to heart. The Golden Scales hold that as he freed and attuned to the artifacts of their ancient religion from the clutches of the Cult of the Dragon Queen, he began to speak with the divine word of the Creator, the Dragon God Asgorath, using His power to work great magics. Historians disagree, claiming little evidence for this belief from the contemporary accounts of his colleagues. Regardless, the records do reflect that Adrik was largely bemused by the following that sprung up around him and his deeds.
Adrik spent most of his life wandering the world, perhaps searching for his origin. It's unknown if he was ever successful. He had no children of his own blood, but adopted a number of Dwarven infants orphaned by the crisis.
Cora Lightburrow, a disgraced servant of Bahamut, fell in the final battle with Tiamat. Priests and scholars disagree on whether her soul was eaten by the fiend or ascended to the side of the Platinum Dragon once again. Only Bahamut knows, one supposes, and he is not readily accessible for comment.
Rex died peacefully in his sleep of old age, six years after the end of the crisis. His gravestone in Beregost still stands.
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Topic: D&D 5e: The Tyranny of Dragons. IC Thread: A Much Delayed End. (Read 122745 times)