The Pearl Egg of Creation

The source of all life and magic on Dra'cora.

An egg in shape, the hard shell has a smooth texture. It is nacreous and iridescent, giving the Egg its "Pearl" name, and changes color with the lighting. It glows faintly, and is warm to the touch. Listening closely reveals a steady heartbeat, though some claim to hear two. Despite this, the Egg has never given signs of hatching.

Discovery

It was a shock to find the Egg sitting in a crater on the other side of the portal to Dra'cora one night, with two adult dragon skeletons curled protectively around it. One skeleton was a male western dragon, and the other a female eastern dragon. Given the size of the egg, many marvel that the mother survived laying it. Everyone expected the egg was dead as well, but more shockingly, not only was it still warm, it radiated magic, in a place where all magic evaporated in minutes.
In the clearing before the portal was a concerning sight: a scorched ritual circle stained with blood, the glyphs marred into illegibility. Nearby were three creatures: a weakened unicorn with a fresh scar over his chest, a sickly newly-reborn phoenix, clearly lacking the ashes she needed to eat after her rebirth, and sleeping soundly between them was a baby dragon, hours old, still blind and deaf with sticky egg fluid.
The unicorn and phoenix were questioned about these disturbing scenes, but refused to give details, so the spell would never be remade and misused. All they would say was the Egg had birthed the hatchling--the shell repaired for use in the spell--and the dead dragons, close friends, were its parents. Both creatures fully recovered, and raised the hatchling as their own child.
After the Egg was found to harbor a life-giving terraforming spell, it was declared a protected artifact, with it and the dragon bones housed in a place of honor within Dra'cora's first settlement.

The Terraforming Spell

When first discovered, there was a small patch of grass growing around the Egg and dragon bones, with a dome of breathable air surrounding that. Within hours that patch doubled in size, and changed into different terrains: sand, snow, bare soil, etc, spreading out like the spokes of a wheel, until the entire crater was covered. This place is considered sacred. Past those crater walls, however, the hodgepodge of ecosystems only became more jumbled the further out the spell went. Other craters became lakes (fresh and saltwater) or valleys.
The pattern of material covering the terrain as the terraforming spell passes over it has eluded Dra'corians for years. The features generated don't weather the original terrain underneath, but form layers over it. Unknown to them, the spell uses tidal forces, but was designed with those from Earth in mind. Dracora's tidal forces are more complicated, thus the spell generates climates haphazardly instead of by temperature range as it would have normally. Anything from forest, to savannah, to tundra, to swamplands, to deserts could show up.
Despite popular belief, the terraforming is not completely random. For example, places of extreme heat, such as deserts, and places of extreme cold, such as tundras, are never seen created right next to each other without at least one other, different climate in between them to act as a buffer zone.
Although the spell moved quickly during the founding of Dra'cora, it slowed noticeably after the portal collapsed a few decades later, and has remained at that reduced speed except when both moons are in the sly together. The most common thought is the spell was drawing extra magic from Earth. Thankfully, it seems the spell will continue until it covers the entire planet.
Dra'cora's biosphere dome holds an atmosphere like Earth's, with breathable air, but thick enough that humans would find it "soupy". The Egg's magic also makes up for the planet's seeming lack of a magnetic field. The rest of the planet outside the dome is known as The Void and is uninhabitable, with the space between the two called Void's Edge. Traveling through Void's Edge is like climbing up a tall mountain. Vegetation is noticeably stunted the further out one goes, and on hitting the timberline, all growth stops. Beyond that point the atmosphere only gets thinner and colder, merging seamlessly from there with The Void's thin nitrogen.
After the founding of Heartholt, once The Egg's magic had spread far enough to provide room, Dra'corians took to penning their livestock--what would eventually become Beasts--around it. The magic aided in breeding larger, hardier creatures. What they didn't realize until later, was that the magically enhanced growth also affected the animals' minds. There are concerns that the Egg might be in danger, with the increase in strange animal behavior over the past few decades. Some wonder if it should have doubled guards, or be moved and hidden for safety.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Unknown.
This Egg is the source of all environmental magic in Dracora, and the power source of its terraforming spell and life sustaining atmosphere dome. Beyond that dome of magic is a frozen planet with an unbreathable atmosphere. If anything ever happens to that Egg, both spells will fail and everything will die, suffocated and/or frozen to death.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Rarity

Unique

Weight

128lbs

Dimensions

6ft long, 4ft in diameter

Base Price

Priceless

Related Myths

• How the Sky was Made

Significance Magical, Environmental, Cultural