The Tempest Order: History [Part 3]
The Tempest Order: History [Part 3]
Back again with lore from The Tempest Order, my Flight Rising dragon clan! Check out these links if you missed any previous installments:
The Aesian Era
The Aesian Era was defined by and named for its leadership — the trio of generals at the clan’s head: General Athanasia, General Paramnesia, and General Cryptesthesia.
A detail many retellings of the clan’s history skip over is the actual nature of Athanasia’s relation to her two new co-leaders, as well as their relation to each other, which is important to note here:
General Paramnesia was, in fact, the second hatchling Athanasia and Carnage had taken in as permanent members of the clan. The first was Tenebrific, who was more of a son to Athanasia than any of her blood-related progeny had ever been. Paramnesia and Tenebrific grew up alongside each other as close friends, and many dragons believe that had circumstances been different and the clan’s factions not split their loyalties after the Burn, they would have become mates.
Though Tenebrific and Paramnesia both had their loyalties to Athanasia, the nature of the conflict and Paramnesia’s solution to it put them at odds in a way their relationship would never fully recover from.
General Cryptesthesia meanwhile was not raised by Athanasia. They were roughly the same age when they met, and up until the events of the Death Era and especially the Burn, they were friends and very close confidants. Athanasia’s paranoia drove a wedge between them until she felt she could no longer trust his judgment, which arguably led the clan down the bloody path they had taken.
Notably, Cryptesthesia and his mate Clairaudience were the third and fourth dragons to permanently become part of the clan — joining not long after Athanasia and Carnage had taken in Tenebrific and Paramnesia. Athanasia trusted him and Clairaudience to watch over the hatchlings, and because of this he spent a decent amount of time around Paramnesia and thought of her as not unlike a daughter.
Growing up with the influences of two very different dragons had taught Paramnesia the importance of kindness and a caring nature, but also the capacity to be stubborn and harsh when needed.
These dragons were not strangers; they knew each other well and had all watched each other, and the clan, grow into what they were now. All of them cared very deeply for the Tempest Order and its future, but they didn’t all agree on the best way to pursue that future.
The rule of these three Generals was meant to be a way to fix or alleviate this problem, allowing for each of the Generals to represent a different subset of interests and solve problems with the majority interests at heart. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen as cleanly as they’d hoped.
Though the bond between the Families had been mended on paper, in practice there were still tensions and rivalries that would not be quelled by mere words. This was only spurred on by the fact that Cryptesthesia and Paramnesia all too often presented a united front, meaning that though they represented the two smaller families, they could control the majority of the clan’s decision-making.
Athanasia was dangerous left unchecked, and they knew this. They were desperate to never let the clan sink to the level of the Death Era again, and in doing so ended up aggressively checking Athanasia’s power at every turn, causing even more resentment and anger to fester within her as well as her warriors.
The Tempest Order was no longer young by this point, and neither were any of its Generals. Still, they were not prepared for what the future held in store.
Though the first famine was over, its effects on the clan were not. Even with a steady influx of food returning, famine had brought with it weakness, and weakness brought disease.
They called it Breathrot — an often deadly infection of the lungs that struck with little warning and even less remorse. Hatchlings were affected the most, with a later strain spreading to adults. Panic ensued — The Cryptic Family had foretold further consequences of Paramnesia’s actions, but no one had anticipated the scale at which they would hit.
Very few that contracted the disease would survive it, even adults. Many dragons were exalted, sent to the Spire in the hopes that their deity and his followers might know a cure that they didn’t, but the ultimate fate of these dragons remains unknown.
It was horrific and moreover seemed to have no distinct method of infection. It was never clear who would get it until they were already dying.
Athanasia, Cryptesthesia, and even Paramnesia were all parents by this point, and all of them lost many hatchlings to breathrot. Athanasia in particular had become intent on growing her family and thus its power within the clan, but instead saw several nests of hers completely wiped out by the disease. It came to a point where she began to suspect and accuse Cryptesthesia and Paramnesia of having somehow caused this to torment her, or even the Immortassacre Family as a whole.
It is worthy of note that Breathrot did affect the Immortassacre Family at a disproportionately higher rate than the other two factions; however, it should also be noted that the Cryptic Family was almost entirely consistent of Cryptesthesia, Clairaudience, and their children, and Paramnesia’s faction of hunters just didn’t have as many couples as the Immortassacre did.
Still, it didn’t change the fact that so many of the warriors’ hatchlings were dying, and the Order’s weakened state was starting to be taken advantage of by other clans in the area.
Once again, Athanasia felt the pressure of a world intent on crushing what she had created between unfeeling claws.
Thus, the Immortal Guard was formed from the ranks of her best, most loyal warriors: Tenebrific, Amain, Brio, Bolide, and Credence. Each of these dragons was a protege of hers, someone she and Carnage had trained with extensively and trusted deeply. Their job was to protect the three generals and their interests, but this was not the entire truth.
You see, in addition to the Immortal Guard, Athanasia had secretly chosen three of her proteges to swear something called the Myrmidonic Oath — a vow to hold nothing and no one in higher regard or importance than Athanasia.
The first was Internecine, a venom-fanged warrior with a silver tongue and little restraint in using it. The next was Virion, a fierce and relentless combatant whose spirit and fire took after Athanasia quite strongly.
And the last was perhaps an odd choice — a young dragon named Anthophilous. She honestly couldn’t hold a candle to the hunting or fighting prowess of the other two Myrmidons. She had been a scout for some time, a rank that was a part of the Cryptic family back then, but had transitioned to being a warrior in an attempt to prove her worth and be seen as strong in the eyes of her fellow clanmates. The life did not suit her, but her desperation for validation in the eyes of her clan made her easy for Athanasia to manipulate.
Athanasia had secretly begun putting the pieces in place to reinstate her power, having gotten a taste of what it was like to share and finding it bitter on her tongue.
Just as the first wave of breathrot had begun to wane, the clan slipped into a second famine — even with the healthy members of the Dejacurse family hunting, there just weren’t the kind of resources they needed to thrive. Many began to blame this on the fact that, unlike the Immortassacre and Cryptic Family, who both had a second in command, Paramnesia had never appointed a Captain for the Dejacurse Family.
With the backing of the Immortal Guard, Internecine stepped up to help. She worked out temporary negotiations with other clans for food, as well as used her fighting prowess to take down prey much larger than the average hunter thought possible.
When talking about who ended the second famine, often it is Internecine to whom most of the effort is accredited.
Already well respected by this time, her acclaim skyrocketed after this, being appointed as the leader of the Immortal Guard and even rumored to be in the running to become the Captain of the Dejacurse Family, despite having been raised a warrior rather than a huntress.
It was a thought that was met with some controversy. Though well-liked and renowned clan-wide, Internecine was still Immortassacre, not Dejacurse, and furthermore had close ties to Athanasia. Would promoting her to a leadership role in a Family she’d never been a part of be wise? Or even fair?
Paramnesia kept quiet about it. She didn’t want to make Internecine her Captain, but pressures from all directions were convinced that she wasn’t capable of running the Family by herself, and the pain and devastation she’d caused from her initial hunting strike only weighed on her as proof. Her inability to prevent or bring her clan out of the second famine did her no favors either.
Wild speculation claimed that she was only holding back on her answer so she could announce Internecine’s formal promotion to Dejacurse Captain at that year’s anniversary of the clan’s founding, but no announcement ever came, nor would it.
Soon after the anniversary, a day came that would end the era.
What started as a sourceless rumor gave way to sudden, violent truth: Athanasia was intent on taking back her power. Today.
News spread quickly that rain-soaked morning that something had gone wrong in the Generals’ most recent council. The Immortal Guard kept a perimeter around the Generals’ tents clear as a massive crowd gathered outside, all of them witnessing as Athanasia emerged. Behind her, Virion and Internecine dragged Paramnesia and Cryptesthesia’s bloodied bodies out. They had been beaten within an inch of their lives, still breathing but only barely.
Speaking to the crowd, she announced her ascendancy and spoke of the future she envisioned for the clan — strong, healthy, wealthy, and immortalized in their reputation. She promised a new Golden Era, claiming she had learned from her past and would not repeat her mistakes.
She promised that the future was bright, but their potential would never be reached so long as Paramnesia and Cryptesthesia combated her every attempt to strive towards it.
As a show of faith, and a favor to a pair of old friends, she had no intention of killing Paramnesia or Cryptesthesia, and would not attempt to drive them from the clan. Part of it really was about their relationship, but much of it also had to do with her pride — wanting them to live to see a clan she built that didn’t need them to be stable.
Athanasia would retain the sole position of General, while her three Myrmidons would finally fulfill their true purpose: becoming the leaders of each Family, now referred to as Captains.
Virion became Captain of the Immortassacre Family, which came as no shock to anyone who had seen her train and knew what she was capable of. The warriors, many of them still staunchly loyal to Athanasia, were proud to serve under one of her greatest proteges.
Internecine became Captain of the Dejacurse Family, which was met with some upheaval, though less than expected. After all, Internecine was well respected and trusted by many of the hunters, and seen as much more capable of keeping the clan from starving than Paramnesia had been.
Anthophilous became Captain of the Cryptic Family, which was odd considering she had no talent for magic of any kind, but considering they knew her to be sensitive and empathetic beneath the stony exterior she wore, she wasn’t the worst captain they could have ended up with.
The coup was received by a Tempest Order that was weak, disease-ridden and having just barely recovered from starvation. For as much opposition as there was, it wasn’t enough to rally behind and anything substantial was quickly silenced by Athanasia’s loyalists. The Order was tired and hungry, yearning for stability and rigidity that many dragons saw in Athanasia.
Whether they believed her claims or not, they were desperate to rise from the stagnation, and no one else was stepping up with the drive to actually do that. Some dragons fled in the dead of night. Others were just… defeated. They had nowhere else to go, and just had to cling on to their place in the clan and hope things would get better.
There are a lot of differing opinions as to the legacy of the Aesian Era.
The long lifespan of the era was defined by the Generals and their struggle to keep disease, infighting, and each other in check. What had begun as a promise for a better life had yielded effectively no results. The clan stagnated for years as it fought off annihilation from several angles both outward and inward.
Many argue that the oligarchy could have worked if Athanasia had been willing to work with Cryptesthesia and Paramnesia, or else if they had not been so aggressive in denying her input. Some believe that it was simply doomed to fail from the start.
There’s a compelling argument to make that the oligarchy could have worked had it not been formed in the fallout of the Death Era and carried with it the baggage all three generals brought to the table. — Or that it could have worked with three different dragons, or if it had been that way from the start, or a thousand other ‘ifs’.
In the end, we’ll never know if the oligarchy could have worked the way it had been intended to. We will never know if the Aesian Era was doomed to suffer a violent end, one way or another.
All we can know is what happened: it ended.
The sun set on the Aesian Era and dawned upon what is considered the current time period in the clan’s history: The Immortal Era, and an entirely new host of unfamiliar trials and troubles.