And so it begins...

Lillianna tried to calm the agitated reaver down. She didn’t need the powerful drake bucking her off in the middle of the desert while a rogue dragon was near. The animal shifted on the high dune sending cascades of sand down the steep sides. His neck bristled with spines and he chattered a series of clicking growls as he skittered side to side. Pieces of some unrecognizable carcass were strewn over the sands. But from the decay she determined it was more than a day old.

With a quick visual sweep of the horizon of the pale blue skies she swung off the squawking reaver. Well trained despite its nervous nature, the drake reacted to the movement by slinging downward and leaning to the side for the young woman to dismount. Her tall leather boots sank ankle deep in the silty sand. The hot air still felt cool on her sweat dampened leggings. She slogged through sand over to one of the larger boney chunks of former dragon food and kicked it over. The bones were deeply furrowed from large teeth spaced widely apart. It was definitely a mature dragon and probably male. One that knew better… one that knew he wasn’t in home territory… and one that didn’t care. She needed to get back to Bonner’s Fast and report the intrusion.

She quickly climbed the slippery dune back to Dart, her reaver drake and favorite mount. While Dart was quite large, roughly 50 wingspan, he wouldn’t last long against a mature dragon. Physically, the reavers looked like young dragons, but there couldn’t be a larger difference in cunning, intelligence and ferocity. Wild reavers were quite dangerous, but you could count on them to react like other animals—attack when hungry or threatened, but not for sport. This dragon was probing. He wanted to see who was home and if there was chink in the defenses on this fringe outpost. If he sensed weakness he would not hesitated to wipe out the Fast and set up a roost for himself. He probably wasn’t far away. Dart chattered and leaned one wing down again so she could mount. Then she heard it and her heart skipped.

The unmistakable challenging roar of a dragon rolled like thunder over the dunes. He was a lot closer than her estimate. Too close.

Yet More Dragons...

For most of humanity, life is not much changed by the dragon rule. Interaction between the common populace and the dragonkind are rare. The dragon lords work through networks of vassals, retainers and servants. The human overseers possess great power inside their territories. Most are fair and just, but each is entirely loyal to their dragon masters. In general, the needs of their villages and lands are taken in to consideration and delivered to the best of their ability. The dragons are not typically cruel out of nature—at worst they can be thought of as “unaware” that humans sometimes suffer. Benevolence isn’t unknown, just exceptionally rare. All dragons guard against rebellion and disloyalty. Few have any qualms about causing humans harm when necessary.

Dragons appear to live forever. Humans do not live long enough to detect their signs of aging. Some dragons have seemed to disappear, but the causes are always murky. Most times it is believed that a dragon is killed by another dragon for land, power or wealth. It is not unusual for a dragon lord to disappear for a decade at a time. Many a careless overseer has lost his life after poorly managing his dragon lord’s lands and assuming his lord’s death. Humans have learned to strictly adhere to their lord’s instructions with autonomy. What the dragons do in these long stretches is the topic of many a tall tale. Some claim they sleep, some believe they walk in dreams, some think they return to the home lands, some say they change to human form and spy among their followers. Indeed, many dragons are known to magically assume human form. Lady Astralan takes great pleasure in perpetually staying in the form of a beautiful woman. She rules as a Queen over her lands and is known to take many human lovers. While vain, she is an intelligent ruler and generally considered one of the most empathic dragon rulers.

Active dragons require a great deal of food. They prefer meats, but can subsist on virtually anything. Even so, a small village can sustain a single dragon under normal conditions. Dragons are neurotic hoarders by nature. They obsessively secure more and more resources “just in case.” They only stop when they bump in to the boundaries of another dragon. But since resources in the nine kingdoms are relatively plentiful and the First Accord still stands, dragons rarely fight over boundaries.

The Northern Wastes see a bit of combat as there are rogue dragons to contend with and resources are scarcer. Dragon lands tend to be larger in this zone which makes infringement easier to accomplish and harder to detect. Humans find it difficult to settle in these lands thus reducing the manpower a dragon lord can muster for patrolling and farming. These waste lands are the home to the Sharptalon Alliance. The second largest dragon territory, the Northern Wastes was originally three small kingdoms—including the Cadeir’s capital fortress in the Razorpeak Mountains. Without the sustaining magics of the fallen wizards these lands have steadily declined. Now it is dominated by large deserts, rocky wastelands and salt flats. It is in these lands that the legends say the Cadeir will appear first to reclaim their fortress and herald the coming of the new kings and queens. The Sharptalon’s make the most extensive use of reavers to help control the region.

Here Be More Dragons...

Arcane even before the Ascension, the Cadeir remain a secret organization. Originally composed primarily of witches, wizards and enchanters, the group wielded great indirect power over the nine kingdoms. Many viewed its influence as a necessary evil. Overtly the body claimed to act only in the best interests of humanity, but many of its number practiced black arts. Witches whispered in to the ears of strong men who would lose all resolve. Cherished sons and daughters lost in battle could be restored to life, but then carried a terrible debt to the Cadeir. Common folk would often call debts impossible to pay “a Cadeir’s Price.” Bargains with the wizards were seldom what one expected.

After the Ascension the Cadeir organized the first real resistance to the dragons. Indeed, they were the only organized force to bring down more than one. But the dragons learned quickly the limits of their magic and attacked in force. The Cadeir’s mountain fortress was razed to ash. Its members hunted and declared outlaws. The practice of all magic by humankind was forbidden—punishable by death or worse.

After the fall of the kingdoms the Cadeir continued to oppose the dragons. The once austere body now lives only underground. Still, they remain powerful with vast spy networks. The dragons try to root them out at every opportunity, but new cells always pop up. The Cadeir has for centuries tracked the heraldry of the old Kings (and two Great Queens) through the ages. Most of these heirs are ignorant of their heritage. The Cadeir go to extravagant ends to protect these individuals until they themselves have children. These families appear to be unusually lucky in life, unaware they may be surrounded by Cadeir handlers. One day the Cadeir hope to restore the noble lines. The dragon lords can never be completely destroyed, but hope remains that humans can establish some free lands. Few truly know what is left of the noble lines or even of the Cadeir sorcerers. Even those that guard the heirs do not know what line they guard. Legend and myth shroud the original purposes. The mission is passed down from guardian to guardian only by word of mouth. Always the tale is the same, “a time will come… a champion will appear… a herald will be revealed… the time of men will return… guard the noble lines.” The more educated populace views the Cadeir as a cheery fairy tale. When “followers” are discovered there is never a connection between groups leading the dragon lords and their vassals to believe the organization is broken and leaderless. Organized resistance against any of the alliances hasn’t been seen in a 1000 years. The Cadeir are lost and their mission a failure… so it would seem, yet hope remains that someday the leaders will reveal themselves and bring about the new age of peace and freedom.

Dragons exhibit a range of temperaments and charisma similar to humans. Some rule through fear and cruelty while others appear to genuinely like humans. Indeed the most successful alliance, The Unity, has maintained the noble monarchy of the land it claims. The royal family has no official power, but is well treated and, at least, appears to be highly influential to the Dragon King, Zamir, High Command of The Unity. Officially, King Daven is chief advisor of human affairs and high general of the human army in service to The Unity. Regardless of the titles and wealth retained by the royal family, the concerns of dragons rule the day. Human considerations are always secondary. Many villages have starved so that dragons may feed. Dragons may kill or hunt anything, including humans, unless they are the property of another dragon. Even then the issue is between the dragons to settle for damage to property. The chains of slavery are in many cases very light, but they are chains none the less.

Here Be Dragons...

If I were to write about dragons...

Over 4000 years ago the rift opened that spewed forth the dragons. Some died instantly, others fought one another, most flew off in to the night. The months that followed were dark days. The Great Kings fell one by one. Even the mighty Cadeir could not muster enough old magic to slow the attacks. Humanity was quickly subdued… and then awed. The dragons were not mere monsters, but keenly intelligent and calculating. Some were even compassionate, even if still arrogant. They fought each other for control over lands, resources and wealth.

The First Dragon War lasted well over 200 years. At its end the once large kingdoms were shattered to small city-states each with a dragon lord often supported by its own kin. The dragon lords themselves banded together under several alliances that seemed to shift with the wind. The most stable alliance being The Unity which was generally opposed by three other bands led by individual dragon lords that maintained control of roughly a dozen dragon lines each. New boundaries were defined in The Accord which was sworn by all the dragon lords. Basically a pact of non-aggression, The Accord, forbids direct warfare between dragon lords, but little else.

Dragon bloodlines remain small. Most bloodlines only have a single member—the largest bloodlines have less than twenty members. Dragons do not require large social groups and only seek one another during times of war or defense. Most are content to live off their lands and avoid contact with other dragonkind. The eldest dragons have tired of warfare. Few young are allowed to hatch leaving only the unbonded dragons to stir up trouble. The unbonded are the younger dragons in a bloodline. They are not lords of the land and must rely on their matriarch or patriarch for survival. The relationship is reciprocal as the unbound add strength to the reigning dragon lord in times of conflict. Some serve with honor. Some plot for rebellion. Most dragon lords rule alone.

There are a small number of completely rogue dragons with no lands or lords. They wander the fringes and waste lands. Occasionally they challenge a weakened dragon lord and depose him. However, they are just as often killed in the attempt.

The Cadeir have classified many races of dragon most of which are part of the classification, draconis nobilis. These are the intelligent being which now control the known world. There are also several lines of, draconis liber commonly known as reavers. These dragons possess only animal intelligence and are used as beasts of burden, war mounts, attack dogs and other similar functions.

DON'T BUY NETFLIX

After 6 months of fighting with Netflix over their mistake I have to now officially discredit their service and practices.

The whole story...

We recieved a gift membership to Netflix. We were thrilled. After the 3 months was up the giftee was so happy she'd gotten us a good gift she upped the membership another 6 months. Unfortunately, she didn't tell her husband. We he notice the "double" bills he called Netflix to dispute the extra charges (our gift membership) not realizing his wife had bought it for us. Netflix prompted canceled our service and placed a block on our account preventing any further rentals.

This all occurred about 6 weeks after we'd recieved the second "gift". So when we found the block we called Netflix and were told we'd have to have the giftee call and fax some information to them. We did. The block was never removed. For three months we were unable to rent any movies. Unknown to us, Netflix continued to charge the giftee. They assumed we were still using the service and we assumed something was broke, but no one was getting billed. Once the giftee discovered the error they contacted Netflix again to dispute 3 months of charging with no service. Netflix refused. We (and they) canceled immediately.

Three months later we thought we try it again--we really liked the service. We re-signed up and were pleased to have all our previous settings/preferences. Then we recieved another block less than 24 hours later. Upon contacting Netflix again... we were told we'd have to contact another group during business hours to re-join.

Sorry... I'm done trying to give you money Netflix. I got a job. I don't need to spend another 20 hours on hold and faxing you paperwork so that you can take more money from me and not offer me service. Granted the first mistake wasn't Netflix, but after six months being unable to resolve the issue when we've called, faxed, called, changed credit cards, resigned up, called and still been blocked is inexcusable.

DO NOT BUY NETFLIX. Or if you must DO NOT USE GIFT MEMBERSHIPS. Netflix has no ability to resolve billing issues and will just block your service at anytime and never give you credit. It was a semi-good deal at $10 a month. It's stupid at $20 a month (okay $17.99 +tax). Too bad... Spread this far and wide. Tell everyone since this is the only way Netflix will take any action to improve their billing service.

Mambo Dogface to the Banana Patch

I'm in my garage typing away on my laptop wirelessly connected to my high speed internet while smoking my pipe on a fine day that makes you think of an early Spring.

My car needs a brake job... so does my mini-van. My wife is in bed with the flu. My kiddo has recovered from said flu and will be hungry soon. My house is a mess and my other two kids are coming this weekend. My mom is also coming down. I have dishes to wash probably before I can fix supper and, of course, the permanent pile of laundry.

But damn the clouds are beautiful right now. Fluffy white and tinged pink from the setting Kansas sun. The tabacco is sweet and the evening just starting to cool. The squirrels are fat. Life must be good.