Wokma (wok-mah)

Summary

The enigmatic people of misted lands, seas, and oceans, wokma are a water-aspected variant of dragonkind. They're remarkably distinct for their complete lack of draconic wings and the addition of very long, air-buoyant 'whiskers' that emerge from their faces.   It is said long ago the wokma had a distinct homeland, a relatively isolated place that was since destroyed in a calamity. Historians have trouble figuring out where it was, as much of the wokma accounts prove difficult to match to anything certain. The sheer scale of time involved could simply mean that whatever was left behind simply changed, as Veltrona is wont to do. Still, despite the enormous distances and time between the many wokma cultures, this detail serves as a singular, unifying point of reference.   Any who may have even lived in such a time themselves are either dead, or so far into isolation no one can readily reach them.   What can be said for certain that is among all dragonkind, the wokma were the ones to go farthest into the realms of magic. Ancient mistresses constructed vast libraries, arranged enormous schools, and operated esoteric laboratories that saw all kinds of work done. For many lineages, it became a foregone conclusion that the wokma would probably end up running most of their magical research to some degree.   As it would be, the wokma didn't have a fascination with magic as a source of power, but as a means to understand the world. Their perception, senses, and very being interact with existence in a different manner than others. As one human sought to describe it thusly: "they (wokma) breathe color, see a vast canvas, and paint upon it with their whole being". Indeed, the uniqueness of this view is so stark that other species often have trouble comprehending the conveyance of wokma-based magical arts.   The permanence of things are said to be somewhat different for them as well. Even the youngest of wokma can command magical talent to alter and change the world around them. To the wokma mind, things exist as they are, but will not 'always' exist that way. Change is a certain inevitability to form that will eventually happen, whether by their hand or others. The most permanent sorts of existences to them tend to be other people and animals, as magic cannot easily change them.   Perception itself can be a key to existence, and so the perceptions of other peoples proved alluringly attractive. The others were understandable, but just different enough the wokma were insatiably curious of their point of view. The foundations of this desire created a very 'open arms' cultural idea they largely embraced. In trying to see through these new, foreign eyes, they gained even more insight into themselves. From there, trade, cultural exchange, and much more ever followed.   For most wokma cultures, life became one of the most precious things to protect and treasure. It lent them to being surprisingly kind guardians, and brutal avengers. Still, it was also difficult for them to connect to other species, even other dragons. Overcoming this hurdle is a constant source of strife and troubles. The commonality that many other species took for granted required constant work on the wokma's behalf to achieve.   All things being said, the wokma built their homes in places of great mana richness, just out of the way but not too far into desolate regions. Many of their lands became regarded as 'misty', as things like frequent fog, rolling weather events, and other localized disturbances became the norm. For the unprepared, the locales were eerie and disturbing, with things not seeming quite right or very real.   Considering everything else Veltrona could throw at a person, the weary regard and concern most people gave such lands was rather well-founded.   While notions of mysticism and superstition, ill-informed or otherwise, surround the wokma, they are yet a people in their own right. They adopted the ways of their new homelands, changed and grew as all others do, and so birthed countless new cultures. Something that would become sorely affected by the age of the Imperium.   Imperious, ever seeking stronger foes to triumph over, challenged her brutal might against wokma magic. Though many sorts of spells, tricks, deceptions, and more stymied her efforts, she proved ever unrelenting. Indeed, the more wokma she fought, the more Imperious found a way through even their most arcane and esoteric of magics. In the end, many of them laid dead, and those who survived did so only in servitude.   A decision that, to later generations, can be hard to conceptualize–even more so that a single individual could really do so much. While Imperious very much represented an unstoppable force, it was the vast apparatus around her that solidified her gains. Other dragons pressganged the defeated into service, often holding the victims' family members hostage, threatening dire retribution, or even promising to whisper into Imperious' ear. Those who bought in and became oppressors themselves only benefited, further driving a rift in dragonkind.   The wokma were no different, and so despite their great individual prowess, they couldn't muster the collective might to continue fighting. As their lineages were decimated, torn apart, or changed, they stewed in bitter, hateful silence. They did as Imperious bid, and so crafted new magics for the Imperium to utilize. Thanks to their own skillful maneuvering, the wokma largely stifled war-centric magical development their traitorous kin worked on. Some, with ignoble sacrifice, did so at the cost of their lives so that others might be spared such horrific magics.   So marked their long, centuries-drawn insurrection against Imperious and the Imperium at large.   Ultimately, their fate fell to Hal-Joren, Principle Supreme of the Imperium, and her insidious plan to topple Imperious once and for all. Originally seeking to turn the World Gate against Imperious, her goal had been to use the gate as an enormous bomb to kill Imperious and sever the invasion portal permanently. However, when Imperious disappeared alongside Aerintor, the plan went awry. The Imperium rapidly descended into anarchy as oppressed peoples rose up, and many dragons too joined alongside them.   Hal-Joren and her cohorts instead changed the World Gate from a bomb and into a source of energy. It would still be destroyed, but they would use its titanic reserves of mana to fuel a complex magical array. In laywoman's terms, a barrier that would separate Aerthen and Hal-Joren's homeland of Nerzin from each other. Unfortunately, she grievously underestimated how much power the World Gate possessed, and the calamitous scope of its subsequent detonation.   If one was to be asked, then the blame for Tyrant's Sea, the Barrier Sea, and the Great Darkness can all squarely be laid at Hal-Joren's feet. The surviving wokma elders looked upon the results of their magics being turned to evil ends, and so swore to prevent such from ever happening again. When the other dragon survivors of the Imperium called out, summoning all dragonkind for a summit meeting, almost all the wokma went. That very meeting would later become the foundational beginnings of Votyoger itself.   The wokma elders, once among the 'intellectual elite' of the Imperium, committed earnestly to building Votyoger into an instrument of protection, balance, and justice. To not only hunt down what Imperial loyalists and their wretched kin remained, but to stop anyone who might become another disaster like Imperious. It would not only be their vast magical repertoires that aided in such, but their intimate knowledge of how the Imperium worked, top-to-bottom.   Secure in the belief that their worthiest would stand vigilant, many wokma left to whatever remained of their homes in Etzli Cuauhtla, Nerzin, Fauverngarz, and Aerthen. Some took their survivors and migrated farther away, while others sought to rebuilding their destroyed legacies. Many sought seclusion from the wider world, frightened by what harm they, or others seeking revenge, might do. So it became that for centuries the wokma kept to themselves where they could. Outside of Votyoger, few could be found.   Time marched onward, and as the wokma healed, new blood came into the world. These wondrous youths soon wished to see all the world and its myriad possibilities. Though their war-scarred elders held great reservations, eventually they relented. The younger wokma thusly walked out of their ancestral homes, eager to see what they could, and experience even more. Their elders followed along with as watchful guardians, haunted yet by horrors they'd never speak aloud.   So it was, the wokma at large returned to the world stage, reserved in many ways, but slowly changing.