Description
Ciysemmris is simultaneously a blue dragon Inaethri and the possessed Incari mountain, Tepen-Chirnōkta
(TEP-inn chur-NOOK-tah), with which she has become merged. For aeons she has been slumbering, blanketed in the sediment of that ages that have gone by while her massive body has been coiled about the mountain peak that is named for her. The very summit of the mountain is formed by her horn. Crackling with energy, it frequently unites earth and sky through the lightning it both releases from its utmost point into the clouds, and collects from them in turn.
Her body has grown into the mountain where she settled to sleep, crystals forming in her scales, storms brewing at her horn which serves as the uttermost peak of the mountain.
Personality
Ciysemmris is driven and maternal in equal measure, with an insatiable urge to accumulate lore, and an identically imperative drive to guide her children — creatures that share her blue dragon blood — to power and success so that they may better serve her interests. Her messages seem cryptic to outsiders, but her children implicitly understand the intentions in her dreams and omens.
While the Dreaming Mountain is physically present and readily accessible to her clerics and devotees, her consciousness is divided between countless places in time and space as she explores the astral plane. As such, conventional communication with her is impossible - at least until she wakes up - and the best way to hear her thoughts and intentions is to speak with one of her priests.
Abilities
Before her Inaethrid, Ciysemmris was a great wyrm blue dragon with mastery over divination and conjuration magic. Her powers over the sky and storms near her lair had developed to the point where she could — and did — drown an ancient red dragon in a conjured typhoon out of an otherwise clear sky. In the legend, she used her lightning breath to split the sky open, and the deluge that formed crushed the unfortunate red before it had a chance to speak a mote of flame.
Since her Inaethrid, the Mother of Storms' power has only grown. Her dominion over Ruagkoruma is nearly absolute, to the point where all other Inaethri within it are subservient to her. Her mere presence brings the life-giving rains to the fields, and her displeasure can censure not only rebellion but also prosperity. Her clergy profess that it is only because she wants her children to grow strong by cutting their teeth on worthy challenges, that any creatures exist at all within her Realm without her blessing. Although communication with Ciysemmris happens more through primal intuition and mystic kenning than conversation, she can bestow tangible power and boons to those who earn it.
Her dreaming is so deep and lucid that she is able to swim the Astral with impunity while her body has remained in brumation for millennia. Sacrifices of other dragon parts keep her tether to her physical form strong, and empower her; any true dragonkind or beings created directly by the power of true dragons sacrificed there eventually withers and dies for no apparent reason, its life force siphoned away by her, clean bones left behind like mystical dermestid beetles have feasted. Ceremonial items and instruments are made from the bones, so that when sound is made with them, it is as a praise to Ciysemmris with each breath or strike.
Worshippers
"The Eye of the Storm is upon you. The past, the present, and the future are Her domain, as all exists under the eternal sky. For Her, the mists are parted, and all truths laid bare. To Her, all scales are gathered, and all dragons take their place of worship at Tepen-Chirnōkta's feet, to add their greatness to her own. This is not prophecy. This is destiny."
— from the
Truths of Kaviir
In Gylidd, the devotees of the Dreaming Mountain are typically referred to as "Ciysemmrans" by others, but the true demonym for a worshipper of Ciysemmris is "Semmayer"
(SEM-mah-yer). Within Ruagkoruma's borders, worship of Ciysemmris is so ubiquitous that the term is rarely ever used; if one is Ruagkorran, it is simply assumed that they are Semmayer, and it is only other faiths that deviate from this norm that need to be labeled. The faith is based upon the stones of Tepen-Chirnōkta — the entire mountain is a holy site — but religious exclaves exist in other Realms, the most famous of which is the shrine of Aviirunfed (Gylidder Draconic for "the place lightning first touched") in
Dantawyr,
Gylidd.
Being that Kaviir and the rest of the Ruagkorran pantheon are subservient to Ciysemmris, loyal powers that reinforce the hierarchy, their worshippers are also her worshippers.
As an Inaethri, Ciysemmris is
loved by her zealots,
respected by the other cultures of Ruagkoruma and Gylidd, and
feared by not only her enemies but a healthy combination of all three. She is a lynchpin of the Ruagkorran leyline, the focal point of nearly all faith and culture, and deposing or replacing her would be synonymous with the destruction of modern Ruagkoruma itself - which could also mean being swallowed up by the Brume as the cultivation of the leyline is undone.
Activities
Although Ciysemmris is at least as old as the Ripple (25,000 BAI), Ruagkoruma — and thus direct access to her and the holy mountain — was sealed away from the rest of the world by the Brume since the Shift (14,190 BAI). Until now, worshippers of Ciysemmris in other realms showed their fealty to the Mother of Storms by hunting dangerous dragons and praying to her for guidance.
Unbeknownst to most, the truly faithful gather the dead or subdued dragons in secret to altars built to honor her. These sacred places hold shards of her horn, scales from her flesh, stones from her mountain, or other such potent artifacts that act as conduits for her presence. Eventually, the dragons' bodies then wither away, inexplicably reduced to clean bones over time, in emulation of the consumptive rites performed in Ruagkoruma in the presence of Ciysemmris. With each sacrifice, the Dreaming Mountain's strength grows, as the powers of the dragons are added to her own. Outside of this imperative, Ciysemmris' only instruction to her children is that they grow strong under the instruction of her priests in anticipation of the day her Realm is revealed once again, and her plans can enter a new phase.
Divine Realm
Ciysemmris is exceptional in that her physical form has always remained on the Material Plane even after her Inaethrid, and the ancient civilization that has served her for all these millennia has galvanized her power and influence to the extent that the Realm itself is as close to a "heaven on earth" for Semmayer that is possible. At the focal point of her power, the epicenter of her telluric lair, Ciysemmris is capable of exerting immense control — when she must. Although responsive to the calls of her devoted clergy, she uses her power to spread far her senses, ever hungry for knowledge and for places to send her children as the manifestation of her will. Semmayer souls are subsumed by Ciysemmris, and then either reincarnated and reborn, or dreamed into an entirely new existence; in either case, there is little need for an afterlife elsewhere, and so little is known about her Divine Realm in the Outer Planes.
Possessions
As expected of a dragon, especially one of such advanced age and worship, Ciysemmris' accumulated hoard is vast and her possessions countless. With two devotees firmly entrenched in
Borsival's coterie, the success of the Coteric Dominion directly benefited her in both the remains of dragons slain by the Adamant Lord and in the claiming of their own hoards.
History
Ciysemmris is believed to have been hatched sometime around the beginning of the Inaethrite Era, and grew to the apex of mortal power over the source of the Age of Faith. Their past is a closely guarded secret from those living outside the Realm of Ruagkoruma, but what is known is that they gathered strength, resources, and lore from other dragons. As their knowledge and powers grew, they focused on divination and conjuration magics, considering the art of being in the right place at the right time the best path to longevity and dominance. They hoarded not only secrets, but their people, enforcing strict border policies for their Realm.
Just before the Ripple - when the chaos of the Inaethri of Myzelis were at a fever pitch - Ciysemmris saw visions of the Advent of the Brume. They foresaw the leyline network, and realized the importance of
Gylidd island and the
Heartwood Forest within it. They sent Semmayer out to the island that would one day host Gylidd, and instructed the faithful to embed themselves as a culture on Gylidd so that when the Brume came, Ciysemmris would not be completely cut off from the heart of the leylines.
Millenia later, when the mortal
Borsival - who would one day become the head of the Coteric Pantheon - began to make a name for himself standing against flights of brume dragons sent by
Vrokíva to destroy Gylidd Syn Aethri, Ciysemmris foresaw the human's success... and hubris... that would lead to the Shift. Tapping into the cultures seeded thousands of years earlier, Ciysemmris doted upon a Semmayer cleric of her faithful named
Kaviir, and his bodyguard Anhan, charging the Distant Thunder with joining Lord Batroc's crusade. In addition to gaining a stronger foothold in Gylidd through infiltration of the Coteric Pantheon of Inaethri that followed, the Dreaming Mountain was also able to secure a steady supply of dragons to subsume, and the wisdom of her cleric also tempered Borsival's actions to prevent total catastrophe.
In the years since, Ciysemmris' role - even through Kaviir - has been purposefully small. The borders of Ruagkoruma have been sealed by the Brume for some time, and as the Age of Emergence develops it is not yet clear when or even if the mists will part between that Realm and the rest of Myzelis. It seems that the Dreaming Mountain is waiting patiently for an opportunity to make her next move.
