Ardiphore

Ardiphore is a cluster of six bright stars which are believed by many drakiss, especially in the northern reaches of Challaria, to be the first 6 Drakkun who keep watch over the drakiss and drakkun and who will return to intervene if catastrophe threatens. The cluster forms a ring of five with the sixth star in the centre having a pronounced reddish tinge.

The central star is known to the drakiss as Lonparber with the other five known as Manberbri, Carnewban, Briworlit, Marramsan and Hasbexeas though traditions vary as to whether they take the same positions each year or their order varies. In the southern reaches, where the constellation is visible year round, Manberbri is the one closest to the "celestial axle", about which the stars rotate.

Regardless of the mythic significance the constellation has two notable practical uses in the northern parts of Challaria: navigational and calendrical for the constellation is only visible in the summer months and remains close to the southern horizon. Myth and practicality merge for oaths and contracts are seen as most binding when they are made "under Andiphore", which is to say while the constellation is visible in the sky.

Location Type Constellation.
Continent None, it is celestial.
DiscoveryKnown from time immemorial.

The Mythic Significance

The Drakiss creation myth tells of a primordial clutch of 6 eggs form which hatched the first drakkun. They bred and thier offspring diverged to form the drakiss and the Drakkun. As first few generations passed it was clear that the First Ones possessed powers that were not passed down to their descendants, whose forms became increasingly fixed giving the species we see today.
As time went by thir descendents became resentful, blaming the First Ones for their more limited powers and the First Ones left Challaria to dwell in the skies, but keeping a watch on their descendents. In the southern parts, where the constellation is ever visible in the night sky this is a continued ancestral oversight, but further north, where the constellation is only visible in summer it is held that they roam the cosmos in a fruitless search for a better world as drakkun will roam Challaria in search of their preferred roosts.