The Shining Wyrm

8.ii

Over the course of a year of observation I’ve seen with my own senses much that was already known by me to be true and much that was common knowledge among sorcerers to be false.

To start with I am uncertain that we have the full understanding of what the category of “Tyrant Wyrm” truly means.

All encounters thus recorded available among the circles of Wizardry and even available to the more mundane practitioners and historians give conflicting reports. That there is even such a thing as a Tyrant Wyrm is brought up for debate by some accounts.

But I can attest to the observation of my own Eye and my truth born of the waters and the earth.

The subject has, by well corroborated accounts of her family and other witnesses, been cognizant at least since the moment of hatching. Superstitions and gryphoncraft traditions aside, regarding the importance of who was first witnessed by the subject upon her hatching it is quite evident that by now the familial bond is as strong as any made by birth or blood.

If not significantly stronger.

When a sibling of the subject was threatened by a monstrous boar1 she intervened and suffered significant injuries in his defense.

During the necessary recovery and care of the subject after this altercation several further discoveries were made.

The flesh of the subject is not actually conventionally alive as such matters are understood. It is vital, active, it feeds and breaths and exhales, its waters move and the earth of it writhes as any living matter should.

But all of this is secondary action to the true vitality within.

The subject was bereft of breath of air for longer than any save winter sleeping frogs and other swamp children could survive.

Furthermore I have observed the subject readily breathing water and air as easily between each other. Although she has reported that the vitality2 goes out of her baths sooner than cool streams or ponds.

I can also attest that, although bruising, strain and dislocation was accomplished by the assailant, no blood of the subject was spilled, no bones broken and no tissue fully torn apart although signs of great strain and greater pain and exhaustion was present.

It is my conclusion that the most damning injury was actually the collapsed throat of the subject as though breath was not necessary for life, its lack did seem to impair action.

To further reinforce my observation of her bond to her guardians and their own child3.

She is submissive and accommodating those she views as her parents and brother. Loyal to their interests to the absolute best of her ability.

This ability is also worth noting precocious for a human of her age but not outside the realm of all possibility.

Despite having grown to twenty-six feet in length from snout to tail as of the writing of this report the subject is still a juvenile in perspective and personality. Furthermore by my own observations she is still growing.

One thing of some surprise that was found with the subject is that she is able to perform workings of sorcery by means heretofore never witnessed or recorded by any within my known circles.

As any practitioner to reach the station of Wizard could discern, via my truth I can ascertain and know the workings of mortal sorcery and even the presence of divinities.

The subject however performs workings whole cloth and directly in a manner like no other I have experienced. It is the closest in experience to the sense of the world when a feral wyrm takes flight or breathes flame. Or when other monster-descendant beasts such as Gryphon, Pegasi or Wind Serpent attain lift.

But all of those acts in the world are wild and instinctive things, blunt and simple and above all ephemeral. Whereas what the subject has done by accident dug itself into the firmament to a degree and density in the nature of things that I would swear it was an act of an enchanter sorcerer deep enough into their truth to be all but lost to mortal reason.

And this was accomplished completely unintentionally!

She has left a mark in the world where water still dances more than half a year later from when she set it in motion! 4

Furthermore I have seen no signs of the effect diminishing or requiring any reinforcement since it was put in place. It acts as readily on natural rains as it does well water fetched in a pail on hot dry days.

This is not the only act of sorcery the subject has demonstrated by far, just the most overt. She has also shown clear awareness and ability to learn and eventually recognize the preceding effects of a sorcerous pathing to her presence. Even ones explicitly meant to go unnoticed even to other sorcerers with their subtlety.

There are also several indications that none of her abilities that had been assumed to be instinctive or natural workings of the flesh are actually automatic.

She has proven ability to vary and alter the nature of her workings for flight in manners not present in any flying monstrous beast known to me.

And then there is the most fundamental art of every Wyrm. The proof that the subject is indeed Wyrm and not some exotic Lair Spawn Beast.

The Vanquishing Breath.

The Rebuking Flame.

The Aetheric Forbiddance.

Among the circles and the lores written by and known to them it is given many names but to be close to its presence consistently and habitually I can attest brings no familiarity or habituated assurance of safety.

It is as unsettling and humbling now a full year with the subject as the very first time I felt it when I was barely changed by my truth.

But in that the character of the subject’s destroying breath departs from the uncontrolled violence used by other Wyrm.

While just as destructive and all erasing of any workings of mortal sorcery or matter as any of the Feral Wyrm, it is like her flight in that it is not static or constrained.

The ferocity of its power is a tool which the subject wields with as much assurance as a mortal might shape their hand.

It can be narrowed, delayed or otherwise altered in its delivery or effect in subtlety and wroth.

The Subject, when questioned on its nature and malleability, speaks of it as one with the force that strengthens her scales, buffets her wings and even lifts and moves her body.

The depth and versatility to which she ascribes to her ‘Wyrmflame’ is one that any sorcerer should find deeply familiar.

For it is spoken in the same breath and manner as we all discuss our own truths.

Furthermore when Jaksa the Red foolishly tempted fate by ignoring the Deep Truths of the world, he proved that there is indeed no working which can take hold of the Subject’s flesh that is not welcomed by her and voluntarily allowed at every turn.

The Subject is at minimum to be considered SOME degree of sorcerer above simple practitioners and hedge magisters as any mortal might practice.

Whether it can be said that all so called Tyrant Wyrm were also such Sorcerous Wyrms I cannot say as I have witnessed no other.

But I find it as further evidence given that the category is wholly insufficient.

1 Investigations are ongoing as to whether it was a direct lair spawn or merely a descendant there of.

2 I make note that there is something here that touches upon my own deep truths that has yet illuded my powers of explanation. Some waters thrive while others are of rot. Yet others will preserve. I have struggled to convey the nuance and nature of these self-evident facts to my peers but to hear it from her perhaps there is a vital substance that varies from one to the other? I intend to contemplate this within my waters when my assignment to this task is done.

3 This is a very unreasonably small sized family for the nobility of this region and there is no sign of curse or other infirmity in either parent. Perhaps there are effects from the nature of a Wyrm which saps some motive element required for the quickening of offspring in mortals? Perhaps even in other beasts as well? I have yet to observe any diminishing of the livestock or villager’s fertility but I have only observed for a year.

4 See diagram and notes of the exact ritual performed by the subject in the supplemental figure attached. While the duration of nearly eleven hours and accompanying supplementary actors in its enactment might be a factor that would certainly produce a working of considerable power the stability is far beyond normal mortal sorcery.

-Research Notes of Tsulogothulan Weird of the Uloghai Bog on the nature of the Tyrant Wyrm.