Vjofr Balbr

Prove to me your worth. Do so, and I will bestow upon you my favor. Even should there be only one drop of my blood in your veins, I will make you my child.

— Saynleh from "the Voice of the Wild"

The Children of Saynleh

Spawned in the pre-history of the native Arrhynsian races, before the Dragon War and the Shattering, the legend of the Children of Saynleh was born. In it, the dragon god reveals his deep desire to have children who embody his own character, and he entices dragonkind to follow his ways, promising to reward those who prove their characters by turning then into dragons in truth. The most complete record of the promise of Saynleh is captured in the "Voice of the Wild", written by the ancient dragon Rouda and looted from one of his lairs by human raiders when he was nuturing young with the female dragon Vindr.

The Legend of Vjofr Balbr

The Legend of Vjofr Balbr is told in excruciating detail in "The Rise of Alsnotr Gæta", a ballad recorded in the archives of the University of Elven Antiquities's Bardic College from which this brief account has been extracted.
The legend begins with the foolishness of a dwarvish sneak thief who set her sights on a dragon's hoard - and not a wyvern or dragonborn, but a full grown adult male silver Dragon, named Volsom who held hoard in the elven castle Remunel in the land of Anterra, a land that is no more. Vjofr Balbr was a bold dwarf, and skilled in the ways of treachery and slight of hand as all living thieves must be. She snuck into the castle, and pillaged Volsom's hoard while the dragon was on patrol guarding his mate and her young.
Unfortunately for Vjofr, Volsom returned to his lair before she was able to escape, and the thief was faced with a fearsome problem - a full blooded adult dragon in battle rage. Unprepared to come face to face with the monster, Vjofr nevertheless had a few tricks up her sleeve. She set fire to the castle draperies which made smoke, and under it's cover, she slipped on a cloak of obscuration, which allowed her to move without being seen.
Dragons however, are keen of hearing and smell, and though Vjofr was quiet, her scent was delicious. Volsom knew she was present, but he could not trace her movements as she sought a way of escape. Unfortunately the only escape possible required passing in front of the enraged dragon. What she did find in her search was the massive kitchen space equipped to prepare a feast for a Lord, including a huge fireplace filled with long dead ashes. Vjofr, having once been a kitchen drudge, filled several pails with water and ashes and hoisted them up over the kitchen and typing them together with a rope which she fastened to her waist. She then positioned herself opposite the door, picked up a pail of ashwater, drew her sword, and called out to the dragon.
Vosum followed her taunts, rushing into the kitchen where he was met with a pail of ashwater in the face. Blinded with his eyes and skin burning he let loose a bellow. Vjofr jumped up and sliced the rope around her waist to let the buckets of ashwater fall on the silver dragon. Smoke filled the room as the toxic fire water smote the dragon's scales. He roared out a billow of fire, but blinded, he barely caught the edge of Vjofr's cloak and she was unharmed. She rushed at him then and slid under his belly and skewered him in his wingpits, seeking his heart with her blade. But the dragon bit at her and pierced her with his ferocious teeth, but it was too late. Her blade had found his heart. Then the great silver dragon rolled onto the dwarf crushing her beneath him, but driving her blade deeper into his chest and severing his heart in two. He was defeated, but his vengance on the sneak thief was brutal.
As Vjofr lay dying of her own wounds, she cursed the dragon and his god Saynleh. "I took him", she whispered to the dragon god in fevered spite. "Your vaunted dragon child could not stand against my boldness and ingenuity. I fought him with naught but my wits, my courage and what I found in his hoard. I am so much more than he."
Vjofr was heard and Saynleh deigned to answer her.
"You believe that to be a dragon is to show only boldness and cleverness?" he whispered to the dying thief cruelly. "How pathetic your small soul is. The pre-eminence of my children is complete. But you are right that this one was unworthy to fall to such as you, and you did indeed show the smallest whisper of dragonkind in your ferocity and quickness in battle. Thus, as a reward, you will not die today as you ought, but you will be granted more life as one of the blood of my people - at the place your arrogance and character deserves."

2490069125 by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI

And with the god's words, Vjofr felt her wounds close and healing run throughout her body. Her health returned, but with it, burning pain seared through her. The heartblood of Vosom rose up from the floor and she was submersed in it. It poured into her through her wounds as her body reknit itself. It folded and shrunk, crushing her inside itself, deforning her limbs, compressing her skull. Her nose and jaw lengthened into a snout, and her ears grew long. Her spirit within her became crushed and mean and stupid.
She had become a kobold.
"So shall you be until the end of your days," said Saynleh, "for I have granted to you an obstacle and opportunity. You now bear in your veins the gift of Saynleh's children, the blood of dragon kin. Honor it well and live. Despise it and you will die belonging to no one. I know what I expect."

The Trials of Vjofr Balbr

As all know, Kobolds live but a twenty year span. The god had perhaps been generous that she had been given healing, but Vjofr was not grateful for her new body and the challenges it presented. She was not one to waste opportunity though, so she set about scavenging the dead dragon's lair. In it she found a magic sword and book as well as many gemstones as is normal for the horde of a silver dragon. These she took, and found her way to a local Kobold tribe.
Many are the verses of The Rise of Alsnotr Gæta. Each details a tale of obstacles overcome and character proven as Vjofr Balbr proved herself against many obstacles presented to her by both outsiders and dragonkind. As each challenge was met, Vjofr grew in the finest aspects of dragon-like character, until finally, one day, she again captured the notice of Saynleh. Well pleased with her progress, he transformed her body again, with great burning pain as the dross of her kobold flesh was burned away from her body to make it match the spirit she had proven resided in her.
She passed from kobold to dragonborn.

by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI

But now, Saynleh watched her carefully, and he visited hardships upon her that tested her, and when she failed, he opposed her all the more, but she rose again to his hand. And when she succeeded, he was well pleased with her and rewarded her with the change she craved. And Vjofr Balbr grew to love the pain that the transformation of her body earned from the dragon god, and she pursued the fire in her veins that burned the dross from her soul. She grew tall and long. She moved with grace, and her skin glistened silver in the sun. But though she became a beautiful dragonborn, Vjofr Balbr yearned to feel the wind beneath wings and she redoubled her efforts, for mortality weighed heavily upon her. She sought out battle, and grew bolder and stronger and fierce. She sat at the feet of scholars and mages, and learned great skills from master craftsmen. She tolerated nothing in herself less than perfection, and searched out weakness and drove it out. And the other Dragonborn learned to shun her presence. She searched for purity and beauty and held it, nutured and protected it. She learned wisdom and perceived value where others could not see it. And she lacked but one thing.
Pride.
And then, one day, when she was in the midst of the court of the dragonborn, a silver wyrmling came upon her, and seeing her, he cried out in rage.
"You are Vjofr Balbr, naught but a despoiler and thief. You have no dragon blood of your own, but have stolen the blood of my father. You live only a lie, dishonorable and contemptible soul that you are." And Vjofr Balbr bowed her head, for though she pursued a dream, she knew the wyrmling's words were true, and her striving was for naught, for she had no dragon blood of her own, but only that which Saynleh had taken from Vosum to give to her. She was but a bold thief, and unworthy of the notice she had recieved. And the wrymling made to eat her, but Vjofr Balbr would not raise her sword to defend herself.
Then as the wyrmling opened his mouth to consume her, he spat fire at her and burned her flesh until it was black. He pierced her through with his teeth and crushed her chest in his jaws. But he did not swallow her, but spat her out upon the ground, and he tread upon her with his taloned feet so that her broken bones thrust through her skin. But she did not resist him and said to him, "So it is."
And then the wyrmling drew up, and in the presence of all, grew in stature and length and magnificence and power, and behold! There was no wyrmling, but the god of the dragons himself stood before them, and all who were there from dragonborn to ancient dragon trembled before his power and might.

The Birth of Alsnotr Gæta

And Saynleh raised up Vjofr Balbr from the ground and licked the blood from her wounds, tasting it, and he spoke to her.
"This is my blood in truth. You are mine in all but pride, and that my children need not. Come and be my daughter, Alsnotr Gæta."
And before them all, the crushed and broken dragonborn healed. Her bones were straightened, the piercings of Saynleh's teeth closed and and her body was remade. Her skin glistened with irridescent silver scales, but once healed, her body did not stop changing. She grew longer and broader and muscles rippled across her torso. She grew long strong talons and great teeth as sharp and as pointed as an dwarven sword. Her eyes grew fierce, and great wings sprung from her back. They were broad and graceful and she yearned to take flight.
Then Saynleh laughed with joy, and he lept from the ground into the air, and called to her. And she spread her wings and followed him, and all the dragons flew after them.
And thereafter, Vjofr Balbr was no more, but only Alsnotr Gæta. And Alsnotr Gæta was the most beautiful and fiercest and wisest of Saynleh's daughters, and she brought thirty wyrmlings to adulthood, and became most Ancient amongst her people, the dragons.

by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI