Nyrne
No creature is more mysterious or misunderstood (except perhaps the The Chimera) than the Nyrne. A magnificent beast said to resemble a multi-headed dragon.
It is not surprising as, according to legend, the Nyrne IS a dragon. In fact, Nyrne is not a species but the name of a dragon itself. It is said Nyrne, one of Ronat’s closest friends and the mother of all Green-Crested Genials, was charged with protecting the world from those who might harm it. In order to achieve her goal, she was gifted the power of insight, allowing her to look beyond the veil.
I’m unsure what “look beyond the veil” entails, but many stories claim she could read minds and see the unseen. Not only that, but she could extract thoughts and memories from others and take them into herself. She would look into the minds of other creatures and remove any thoughts or desires to harm the world.
After a time, Nyrne became plagued with the dark thoughts she extracted. To protect herself, she split her head in two, an empty vessel in which to store the dark memories and allow her to remain herself. However, this trick did not last long. She was eventually forced to create more heads until finally after the fifth head had been born, they began to think for themselves.
Nyrne became conflicted. She was unable to think for herself and was constantly burdened with inaction and indecision.
But when the All-Mother created our bodies, they were designed to be piloted by one mind. Nyrne.was unable to think but also her movements became erratic, writhing around like a snake, darting to and fro as if unable to make up her mind.
Unfortunately only one of the five heads was plagued with evil intent and Nyrne was soon unable to resist the temptation.
But rather than become the very thing she had been charged with stopping, she ripped off her wings and hurled herself into a deep ravine. The clashing heads, unable to make up their minds, would be unable to climb out again.
This is where things get dicey. For while that is one end to the legend, there are variations claiming she beseeched Ronat to seal her away who trapped her beneath the sea and the aquatic dragons, Aquarian Short-Snouts, were created to guard her prison and ensure she never escaped. Another says she removed the heads entirely so that they could not control her and that is how snakes were born.
Either way, there has been no evidence that a multi-headed dragon ever existed.
What a sad and incredibly unfortunate character this is! One cannot help but notice the parallels between Nyrne's abilities and those of oracles and wonder if there is some connection between the two. Perhaps she is the mother to more than just the race of green-crested genials? Do each of the races worship or revere in some way the creatures that are responsible for their existence according to myth? Like if I was to spit on Nyrne's memory, would a Genial separate my head from my shoulders? Another thing that jumps out immediately here is that, much like you said in the author's notes, perhaps the split personalities of this star-crossed dragon were represented metaphorically by the additional heads instead of literally. Which again goes back to the oracles being able to dive into other's memories, perhaps too deeply in this case as the very first Oracle had to learn as she went along. Something I've noticed you do so often with the most well-meaning and generally well-liked dragons is that they almost universally meet brutal and/or violent fates. Very sad to see the best of the dragon species, those who love and are loved, be met with these ends. :( Lyndria's Mother, Shai's sister, Aeris, Nyrne, and any others I've forgotten at the moment.
Hmm. I hadn't noticed that. Interesting. It's always the good ones, isn't it?
Unfortunately, it seems so. Do the dragons have something like...a roving storyteller or somedragon that at least tries to keep their cultural history alive by passing these myths and legends on to others orally? Is this a role that the oracles had been meant to fill? Is that the true cost of the ancient war? A cultural amnesia that made the dragons easier to control. It wouldn't be too dissimilar to what European colonists have done to aboriginals around the world in real life. A broken society is an exploitable one. Or all these tales nearly lost to history except for the words of this human narrator? Ernest Hemingway has a quote that I believe could be loosely applied here: “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.” Isn't it even sadder when that happens to an entire culture's past? Doesn't this bother the dragons? Without an identity to call their own, it is easy to see how domesticates have arisen. Is this the source of some of the rage that always boils just below the surface of the dragon's behavior? Perhaps the plan to bring strength back to the world of dragons that is not one of brute force as I'd assumed, but a cultural revolution to make them proud of their entire species instead of at the individual level. That could fit with why it was so incredibly dangerous for Aeris to be teaching them to read. Ach...listen to me ramble. I've really gone into the deep end with that train of thought.
It's a good train of thought! :D I've often thought about these same things while writing this story. A lot of what you mentioned speaks a lot to Aubrey's character (more on that soon) Another thing that I haven't really touched on yet is the humans themselves. They were once a part of this culture that they violently broke away from and now reject their past selves while trying to carve their own identities. I can't say too much but I will say that the true cost of the Great Rebellion will be covered more extensively in the LEGACY series. Right now Lyndria is on the edge of the conflict but eventually there will be a deeper dive into the various groups and what they gave up in the for their independence. But by all means, ramble. Pick it apart. I'm very interested in these deep explorations of concepts and real-world parallels. It's exactly what I was going for when I wrote it.
It is a good point to bring up the humans and their reactions in this. The humans with their greater record keeping and collective memory don't seem to have taken their freedom well. Fear of losing it once more seems to have led to a kind of paranoia and an overwhelming urge to control and dominate. Inexorably making the situation worse with a species that by and large would rather die than be dominated. Backfiring really by making the situation far more volatile that it needed to be. Their identity is still inextricably bound to the dragons despite how badly they like it not to be. Rejecting their past has made the humans as weak and fragile as the dragons are for having had their history destroyed. Really, they need to work together to solve this. But to do that there must be a figure that both sides could rally around to begin a long and painful healing. Would there be a dragon that could accepted by the humans, or a human acceptable to the dragons?
perhaps. We'll just have to see.