Venyra, the Desolator (Vuh-nigh-rah)

Summary

Not all lands or peoples are accepting of those with mixed blood, and anaxials often faced the worst prejudices of all. Like so many others, Venyra was born into a time of strife. Her parents, the human Honchi Chabei and the dragon Haranyra, scorned their powerful families by coming together. Unwilling to abide such a union, the lineage of Nyra and the Honchi family conspired. They hunted Venyra's parents for years, and finally caught them not long after her birth. In the ensuing struggle to escape, Chabei was slain, and Haranyra permanently maimed. He and his infant daughter were dragged in chains back to Votyoger where the Nyra ancestral home awaited.   A lineage that arose to power during the age of the Imperium, the Nyra were rabid purists. Venyra and Haranyra were cast into the slave pits beneath the Nyra's mountain. Traitors, exiles, malformed children, and more were eternally doomed to those dark depths. There they'd mine, manufacture, and toil for the Nyra until every drop of blood had been ground out of them. No pity would be spared for Haranyra and his daughter, even as direct descendants of the Nyra matriarch, Nyranawl.   It would be in those pits that Venyra grew. For her, hardship and struggle were facts of life. Where others broke, adversity only fueled her vigor. Wounds and pains that brought her down one day vanished by the next, and her all the stronger. Such unreal prowess intimidated the other children, who were sickly and always struggling. Still, seeing their hardships, Venyra would shoulder their burdens as well. More rations for them and her, in the end.   Venyra's unfaltering strength grew into a local legend, enamoring newer slaves in the pits. Something of a folk heroine, she turned into an easy target for the overseers. Impossible quotas and demands led to torture and public shamings, a brutality made by dragons for dragons. Countless others broke from it, but not her.   No matter how many times they pushed her to the brink of death, Venyra endured. In a few short days, she would bounce back and work harder. The overseers, increasingly livid at her stubbornness, found new ways to torment her. When everything they tried eventually failed, their hateful gazes turned upon her father next. Whether to beat or starve him, they'd finally found a weak point in Venyra's invincibility. Unable to bear her father being tortured, a newfound rage sent Venyra teeth and claw against the guards, and their savage brawl tore the pits asunder.   It soon reached the ears of Nyranawl herself, and the matriarch descended with her guard. She took a liking to the opportunity before her, for Venyra had overthrown dragons countless years and centuries her better. More than that, being an anaxial, no one would think the supremacist Nyra would be responsible for her. So, Nyranawl cut a deal: destroy her chosen enemies, and so long as Venyra succeeded, she promised Haranyra would be fed and kept alive. Having no other choice, Venyra could only do as Nyranawl bid.   Set to task, Venyra descended from the oppressive mountain and, for the first time in her life, beheld an open sky and verdant fields. With that illusory taste of freedom, Venyra finally understood her father's colorful stories. Bitter resentment clawed at her throat, and the burning hatred for the Nyra festered deeper within her heart. Though she could've run away, the thought never crossed Venyra's mind. So long as her father and friends remained beneath the mountain, she had to play Nyranawl's game.   Vicious decrees bound her: no friends, never talk to anyone, only keep whatever she took for herself, and so on. Though she vaguely knew Nyra observers stalked after her to keep watch, they never once helped. Perhaps, in a way, Nyranawl was punishing them as well. So it was that wayward Relentless, errant dragon huntresses, and other nuisances became Venyra's 'martial practice'. Each of them very different from the overseers she'd long studied, and each encounter left her at the brink of death. Still, she survived, and by the sixth winter in Veltrona's unforgiving wildernesses, Nyranawl assigned her first target: the border trade city of Hunera, sat on a mountainous passage between Votyoger and Aerthen.   Sneaking into the open-gated city, Venyra saw the wonders of others and their lives. People smiling, laughing, and struggling in all their own ways; so familiar and yet so different. But, if she was to save her father and friends, such people would all have to die. That alone gave her the strength to press on, and so her flames arose in Hunera. As the city burned, Venyra fought and slew its defenders in a ceaseless and unstoppable rampage. Not one posed a challenge, for she'd broken her hands upon dragons again and again. Such weaker species didn't even register as a threat. By the dawning of the next day, Hunera laid a smoldering ruin, its scattered survivors spreading their tales.   Nyranawl, thrilled at the results, burdened Venyra with more and more orders. Be they other ill-prepared cities, villages, or the dens of hated people, Venyra destroyed them all. The telltale wake of ravenous flames sweeping across the veltron fueled the nightmares of many. As her attacks accrued, and ever greater names laid at her feet, her baleful reputation spread from Voytoger to Aerthen. Greater foes followed, and Nyranawl demanded ever more terrible enemies be slain. For the sake of her father, and her dwindling circle of friends, Venyra suffered. For every impossible thing she yet survived, she grew ever stronger.   The years crawled by.   In her return to the Nyra mountain after a decade long excursion, Venyra was unexpectedly dragged to the summit. There awaited Nyranawl, the many 'trueblood' Nyra, and her almost dead father. Thrown into an arena built to the purpose, Nyranawl praised and lamented Venyra's prowess. However, her penchant for surviving had built a dreadful name across the lands, and that brought attention the Nyra didn't want. Nyranawl, thusly, rewarded Venyra with the honor of becoming entertainment. Her father had failed to, after all.   Jeering Nyra warriors lined the arena, each eager for bloodshed. Venyra, indifferent to them all, saw only her broken father, gasping for air. He begged her to flee, but Venyra couldn't bear leaving him behind. The deep hatred festering in her heart at last boiled over, for no chains remained to hold it back. Alight with erupting flames, she bid them to come and die by her hand. The first to answer met Venyra head on. In those frightful seconds of life and death, Venyra slammed past the warrior's arms, brutish strength and savage experience her means. Dragon or not, armor or not, her fist broke through metal and scale, and flames so great even one of Nyra blood soon ignited.   The clamorous audience fell silent beneath the wails of the warrior Venyra broke upon her knee. The other warriors barreled forward, arrogantly rushing Venyra with murderous eyes. They brought forth claws, spears, magics, and more; all to fail against Venyra's unfaltering scales and relentlessly devastating assault. Soon enough, the rising stars of the Nyra laid dead at her feet. The watching dragons howled in terrible fury, clambering from their seats. What should've been a grand show instead saw their many young dead, slain before their eyes. An enraged Nyranawl herself descended to the arena, Grand Armor and all, to finally put Venyra down.   Thunder rung out as Venyra's fists greeted the matriarch's, the veltron underneath trembling. An elder dragon millennia old bore down, and with stunning awe, Venyra took it all and more. Fueled by her endless, erupting rage, Venyra tore apart Nyranawl and her vaunted fortitude. The other Nyra watched on, dumbstruck by the sight. It would become Venyra's final blow that not only slew Nyranawl, but split the very Nyra mountain itself. The world-shaking quake sent the Nyra's entire home falling in a calamitous landslide. It was the chance those trapped in the slave pits below long awaited. Together, they sprung a mighty uprising to finally depose the Nyra.   Dragons against dragons and more overthrew their captors, slaughtering the panicking Nyra. With the help of once-kind older slaves, Venyra fought through and away from the mountain, carrying her father upon her back. The freed slaves parted in the following days, fleeing to lives once remembered. Venyra's freedom, however, came at a terrible price. Her father, mortally wounded and fading away, laughed with her in triumph even as tears fell. He yet warned her be careful, for her mother's murderers still lived. Far to the east, in the idyllic lands of Nerzin were friends of his, and they would surely help her. In his last words, he bid her to live life wonderfully, and look beyond what the Nyra had done.   So Venyra buried her father in a wide, open field beneath the boundless sky.   Alone, she wandered aimlessly northward into Aerthen, following old paths. Though she knew eastern Votyoger well, the peoples there only remembered the desolation she had wrought. No one believed her innocent and no end of enemies came seeking her head. Forced to fight and kill, Venyra's only solace came from her father's words. In them, the tales of her mother and those who betrayed her invigorated Venyra with newfound purpose. Through the months it took to reach the Barrier Sea, her doubts were buried beneath the singular purpose of bloody vengeance.   Yet, the western lands of Nerzin, Aochen, breathed a life she'd never known into her veins. The peoples greeted her with reverence and respect, and a fear only the powerful earned. In asking for knowledge on her mother, they asked for her aide; surprisingly, just to kill beasts or other 'challenging' problems. So did she earn respect, and with it followed attention of its own. Powerful people came seeking challenge, whether to hone themselves or profit from her death. Venyra met them as she did every other foe, and her renown grew from the frightful cowards that yet escaped her. Upon their words others came, either for revenge or the same glories the first fools sought.   In battle she'd lived, and through battle she'd grown. Venyra took them all on, trudging across Aochen into Tomu, one bloody conflict after another. It would be the arrival of one woman, and her bizarrely unique magic, that her world flipped upside down. Quite literally, if only for a moment. Venyra pitted her boundless strength against the mage's seemingly limitless magics, and for the first time in her life, she'd been fought to a standstill. Blow-for-blow she'd been matched, and neither side could win. It utterly befuddled her; a situation so incredible Venyra struggled to understand it at all.   To her even greater surprise, her supposed-enemy took to talking to her.   Thus marked her first meeting with Velandra. As their strange 'battle' dragged on, she apparently came to understand Venyra's plight, and so made an offer: in return for being her sparring partner, Velandra would help with Venyra's search. A fair trade, supposedly, as Velandra had deeply enjoyed their 'spar' thus far and wanted more. Wary of many things, but hoping to avoid bloodshed, Venyra tentatively accepted the unusual deal. The problem remained that she wasn't sure how Velandra could help at all.   Velandra simply laughed and swept her hand in a welcoming bid toward the sky. There Venyra watched as the low clouds darkened and parted. A great land descended, shrouded in misty streams, adorned by an even grander castle. Upon her magic did Velandra whisk Venyra away, taking her skyward into the unbelievable world of her palace. The friendly peoples there greeted and respected Venyra, seeking conversation and honorable bouts of skill. Delicious foods both quaint and extravagant flowed freely, while libraries, forges, and workshops opened their doors for her; liberties the Nyra never allowed.   It resembled everything her father once spoke of in his own daring adventures. Perhaps, in some ways, even more so.   Velandra would make good upon her word, and so Venyra upon hers as well. Whisked to and fro across Nerzin, Venyra searched and listened for those responsible for her mother's death. Time's ceaseless march washed away so much, and her search turned into a long, slow affair. The longer she stayed with Velandra, the more the fantastical palace grew into a home of sorts. Peace, in a quiet and implacable way, soon welcomed her; something so fragile Venyra remained afraid of it.   In a confusing and ever changing world, vengeance remained Venyra's only purpose. Yet, her father's dying words ever lingered upon her mind. He had begged her to look beyond and be more than the awful suffering he couldn't save her from. To embrace a life that she'd never seen nor lived. Endless doubts plagued her if such a thing was possible, and pursuing vengeance only quieted them so much.   Whatever that sort of life would be, the her who lived in it would have to figure it out.   Until then, Venyra still had enemies waiting to become ashes.    

I fought for my father and the others, no matter what anyone else says. They faded away until only me and him were left. Nyranawl always laughed and gloated about it. So I made sure to come back, for him and to piss her off. Harder problems always followed, but life's just hard. Or was then, anyway.   It got much easier after I split her in two. Heh.   But, people don't care about that. I'm the one who did the killing, so it's my fault. Haven't met one who'd do differently if they lived my life. It's not like I enjoyed it.   Then there was you being weird and talking to me. The ones back in Aerthen wanted revenge or glory. I cross the sea and the ones over here want my blood for some damn reason. Everyone wants a piece of me, but you're bored and like to fight?   Sure, there's your whole 'transcendence' idea. You want to be more; so do I. Your way of saying it is, uh, nicer sounding though.   What am I after? Whoever killed my mother won't be an easy kill. And there's no end of people getting in my way, either. Only way to deal with both is to get stronger. Yeah, there's more to life–I'm not an idiot. That's just how things are for now.   Instead of fussing over that, you think about what'll happen when I win these 'spars'.   Heavens or not, I don't lose.

— Venyra, speaking to Velandra. While their first meetings proved rough and quite tumultuous, the two found common ground in their lifes' struggles. In spite of their abrasiveness, they eventually kindled a deeply loving romance.