Llyn Goldfire

King Llyn Goldfire

Llyn Goldfire, who held the titles of both Warlord and King during his life, was the founder of the Kingdom of Aētheli. He was the instigator of the War of the Gift and responsible for the creation of the Beast Shifters.

Personal History

Llyn Goldfire resided in the Tangled Jungle for several centuries prior to the War of the Gift. He was among the purist faction of dragons residing in the area that opposed the use of blood magic, even in its supposedly benign application in animal husbandry. Llyn rose to the rank of Warlord over the Goldfire family with the descent of the previous warlord into hoard sickness. While Warlord, Llyn focused on fortifying his eastern border. Goldfire lands were located along the Coastwall Mountains, just south of where the jungle transitions into desert. Their holdings encompassed a key crossing for trade and travel, and the Goldfires has grown extremely wealthy at this crossroads. However, in BKY128, several clans of dragons that had previously pushed into the Coastwall Mountains and seized territory from the gryphons were pushed back. Incursions from these families into Goldfire lands prompted skirmishes between the clans. Llyn Goldfire refocused his attention on fortifying his borders, building watchtowers throughout Goldfire lands and pushing his territory further east to encompass the Sunspire. Llyn was able to secure his lands and repel the incursions, forcing the displaced dragons to find other territories to claim.
In BKY73, the Bloodblight broke out across much of the Tangled Jungle and Drywind Desert. The Goldfires, as purists who had never practiced the magic and therefore had no tainted livestock to mutate and cause a danger to the clan. However, the spread of the blight through the jungle's wildlife was something Llyn saw as an extreme threat. He took extreme measures, burning a swath of jungle around Goldfire lands that acted as a dead zone, ensuring that any blighted creature that attempted to cross would be detected and destroyed immediately. Even with these extreme measures, the blight began to be carried by bats and birds, and King Llyn began to believe that the jungle would never be free of the disease. In addition, the dragon clans who had been forced out of the Coastwall Mountains had reported rich veins of gold that they had only begun to mine before they were forced out.
Faced with a possible existential threat on one side and the possibility of much richer lands for the dragons on the other, Llyn began building his strength. He called in clan members that had been scattered throughout dragon territory and began working to build favor with other nearby clans, persuading them to side with his cause. The first house to give their allegiance to the Goldfires was House Hammerscale, a clan of drakes who had been historical allies of the Goldfires due to the trade networks maintained in Goldfire lands. Llyn later persuaded the neighboring wyverns of House Nightvenom to ally with his clan by offering them the rights to certain spoils within conquered territory. In addition, Llyn approached several of the purist clans who were at the forefront of combating the Bloodblight crisis, including House Moonsliver, the amphiteres who maintained a great deal of the written history of the dragons. Llyn additionally convinced House Richclaw, the dragons that had been previously driven out of the Coastwall Mountains, that he could help them successfully re-take those lands.
As his military strength grew, so did the Bloodblight crisis, as it began claiming the lives of more and more dragons. The clans who had previously utilized shaping magic in their agricultural practices and were the root of the Bloodblight began banding together to eradicate it, but it was estimated that this could take several more years due to the dense nature of the Tangled Jungle. Blighted creatures had successfully crossed some dragon borderlands near the mountains, and the gryphons began to make incursions on dragon lands, searching for the source of the abominations.
The incursions were the excuse Llyn needed to launch his attacks. The strength of his military and scale of the organization took the gryphons by surprise - while border skirmishes had been common between the gryphons and dragons of the past, large-scale military conflict was not something the gryphon clans were prepared for. After forcing his enemies to retreat, Llyn was able to sucessfully seize the portion of the Coastwall Mountains near his borders. This event, the Battle of the Gold Cliffs (BKY24), is considered the opening of the War of the Gift.
Throughout the war, Llyn proved to be an adept strategist and military leader. However, he was also ruthless in his goals, and after conquering a small portion of the Coastwall Mountains, began to eagerly pursue a conquest of the rest of the range. It is possible that Llyn began suffering from the earliest stages of hoard sickness at this time, as his strategies began to be far more focused on seizing territory and eradicating it of its previous residents than making strategic strikes on resource-rich locations. As the war raged on, the population of dragons began to dwindle. Despite the Bloodblight having largely been wrested under control, several dragon clans had been rendered extinct by the disease, and many others were severely weakened. Llyn's military allies also suffered losses, and the vast amount of conquered territory was beginning to be difficult for his armies to effectively manage.
Llyn had by this time dug into a permanent encampment at the junction of the Coastwall Mountains and Sentinel Peaks, at the northern edge of the Drywind Desert. He had spread many of his generals thin by directing their forces toward the displacement of Horsefolk and Finfolk species out of the territories he had claimed. Losses among the dragons were beginning to mount more rapidly, and Llyn began to become increasingly paranoid. Certain clans that had declined to lend their efforts to the war were declared to be enemies.
As Llyn was forced to contract his military strength and consolidate, it seemed that he would be unsuccessful in his ultimate goal of conquering the continent "between the seas." It is at this time that some contemporaries of Llyn suggest that he began to descend into true hoard-sickness, becoming wary even of his allies. However, he was still a capable commander, and made the decision to focus his contracted forces on conquering the northern portion of the Coastwall range. This shifted focus away from the Stormbreak Prairie and Tangled Jungle, allowing his enemies there to begin to regain their footholds. While the campaigns in the northern mountains were producing successful results, the progress was slow and Llyn was increasingly impatient.
In the winter of BKY3, under the guise of a diplomatic conference, Llyn summoned representatives from each of the still-extant dragon clans ostensibly to discuss their collective future. The war had now worn on for two decades, deaths were mounting, and despite the gold-rich areas that had already been seized, Llyn was still motivated to continue. When these representatives had gathered at Llyn's fortress, he barred them inside and presented his plan.
Llyn proposed that the dragons were losing the war because they were too few, after being ravaged by the Bloodblight. In a shocking reversal of his lifelong opposition to the use of blood magic, Llyn laid out a ritual that would draw on the power of the dragons and the magic of transferrence to empower the animals of the continent with the abilities that had previously been unique to divine beasts: intelligence and the power to shapeshift. He claimed that although the ritual would be draining, the number of gathered representatives were sufficient to power it to its completion as long as they were selective about which animals they targeted.
Many objections were raised to this proposal. Some dragons attempted to leave, but were prevented by the well-laid trap Llyn had created within his fortress, a combination of blood magic and loyal soldiers. Several of the dragon clans who Llyn had previously declared enmity on due to his purist stance against blood magic were eager to join in on the plan, seeing Llyn's change of heart as a vindication. With their assistance, Llyn was able to subdue the opposition and begin the ritual. Llyn had not originally planned to kill the other participants in the ritual, but as the spell wore on and demanded more and more power, he saw no other way to complete his plans. Turning the ritual onto its participants, Llyn drained them of their magic and life force, and unleashed the effects of the ritual on the continent of Amara.
The changes took effect immediately, with a percentage of the animal population changing into shapeshifted forms and grappling with newly granted and confusing intelligence. This was the creation of the Beast Shifters, and Llyn immediately went to work creating propaganda about his actions and their existence. The representatives from the clans who died in the course of the ritual were said to have nobly given themselves to the cause. A fake treaty signed by the clans was produced, and Llyn declared himself king. He re-tasked his generals and the dragons under their command with approaching the newly-created beast shifters and explaining their origins. He concocted an alternate explanation for the war, commanding that the beast shifters be told that they were given the Gift for their own protection, lest the other divine beasts destroy them utterly. Beast shifters rapidly began to be enlisted in King Llyn's cause.
King Llyn tore down his fortress, burning it with dragonfire to ensure that any secrets it held were lost forever. He then relocated to the southern shores of the Great Glass Lake, a location he believed to be strategically advantageous in eradicating the horsefolk from the prairie. He founded the capital of Dragonhearth in this location and enlisted House Hammerscale in the construction of Goldfire Castle on its shores.

Reign

The reign of King Llyn continued for 87 years after the founding of the kingdom. He was instrumental in the drafting and implementation of the Book of Gold, the foundational laws of the kingdom. However, shortly into his reign, Llyn began to decline noticeably. His council, mostly comprised of his loyal generals from the war, began to take a more and more active role in running the kingdom. By YK46, the Advising Council was recognized as the ruling body of the kingdom, and the power of the crown began to wane.
Other members of House Goldfire began to strategize in order to retain their power. The boundaries of the kingdom had by this time been defined, and the High Noble Houses established. Regional governance was beginning to settle and the Goldfires saw and opportunity to swiftly control the burgeoning economy of the kingdom to their benefit. Two of the major players in the first transition of power within the kingdom were Princess Ysabet Goldfire, First Lady of Daybreak and her brother Kutho Goldfire, who would eventually succeed his uncle Llyn to the throne. House Goldfire quietly spread word through the other dragon houses that King Llyn was suffering from more severe signs of hoard-sickness, which set the stage for political approval of their actions to eventually remove the king.
In YK87, after several decades of the Goldfires politically maneuvering opinion in favor of this abdication, King Llyn fully retreated from the public eye and disappeared from the records. Theories abound as to what truly happened to him after this point. Some suggest that he was quietly assassinated by his family as the hoard sickness took hold of him. Some suggest that he left Dragonhearth for destinations unknown and was eventually killed by his enemies. Some suggest he may even still be alive. His impact on the continent cannot be understated, and his legacy endures in the form of the Kingdom of Aētheli.

Legacy

Among beast shifters, King Llyn is considered their life-giver. Loyalty to House Goldfire has persisted throughout the centuries due this belief. King Llyn is celebrated as a savior, as blessed by the gods, and as a wise ruler whose tragic descent into hoard-sickness provoked sympathy throughout the populace. Statues of King Llyn are commonly found in town squares. The most common rendering depicts King Llyn reaching out a hand to a beast shifter who stands in their newly-Gifted shapeshifted form, surrounded by other animals who raise their faces toward him. The image of benevolence and blessing reinforces King Llyn as a venerated figure among the beast shifter populations. Some beast shifters may even invoke King Llyn like one would evoke the spirit of an ancestor, for guidance or protection.
The remaining dragon clans have much differing and varied views of King Llyn. In the years immediately following his abdication and the ascension of King Kutho, several other dragon clans died out into extinction, leaving only a handful of remaining dragon clans, the majority of which were loyal to the Goldfires during the war. Whispers of Goldfire treachery and the destructive greed of King Llyn persist over the centuries, although they are spoken very quietly. However, some dragon clans view King Llyn's actions as distasteful but ultimately necessary, particularly clans still residing in the Tangled Jungle who spent the early days of the kingdom eradicating the remainder of the Bloodblight from their lands. House Goldfire has produced six of the kingdom's nine monarchs to date, and have maintained a political stranglehold over power on the continent.

Current Status

Unknown, believed dead

Species

Dragon

Family

Royal House of Goldfire

Aligned Organization

Aētheli