A Study of Wyrms

Purpose

The notes of esteemed royal scholar Sora Glowbeam on the strange occurrence of the Draconic Invasion and the ambassador from the wyrm's homeland. In it, she speculates about the strange nature of the wyrms and the possible effects the ambassador's knowledge of magic could have on the Skydweller's recovery of their own forgotten wisdom.
(She rambles on for quite a bit without saying much of anything, so here's a concise version for the reader):

1. More Dragons

She talks a bit about the origin and anatomy of the wyrms, and even speculates that there could be more worlds connected to our own with different types of dragons, something I've never even thought about. Does that mean that we might have another Invasion - this time by flying sea serpents? Oof, can't express how much I'm not looking forward to that. And she wonders about their desire for treasure - which makes me think. If they love treasure...what do we love? Flying? The sky? Magic? It seems a natural trait that each type of dragon would have something which they look for and guard. What is that for us?

2. Portals

She wonders about the portal to the otherworld - the one where the wyrms came from. The symbols carved into it seem to be similar to the patterns made by our own portals. Does that mean that the otherworld is in a pocket dimension? That doesn't make sense, though - if pocket dimensions get too large, then they collapse in on themselves. There's no way that a dimension that small could house so many hostile wyrms. So is it a portal to a different world entirely. If so, why is it connected to our own world? And are there similar portals located around the globe?

3. Other Worlds?

What is this other world like? Does it have a magic system similar to our own? If that ambassador would actually hold a real conference with us, could we recover some of our own knowledge of magic? Perhaps set up a covert trade system? They don't seem to have any way to bottle dragon breath, and even if they could, it would only be the fire. Could we trade some of our own for metal? I should hope so - I personally can't even see why we're giving so many swords to our Guards. At least now we know how to make them the right way.

Read the Document

A Study of Wyrms

If there's anything that I've learned from a lifetime of research, it's that you can't explain everything - especially when you live in a magical society floating in the sky. But I just feel like there's something more that's going on with this whole wyrm business, so here are my meeting notes from when us scholars - me, Jace, Nightflight, and Scrolly sat down to try and figure it all out. Future me, if you're reading this, you can't complain about the handwriting or the chaoticness of it all - not when I went through all the trouble to borrow a Scrivener Quill from the queen and have it paraphrase our entire conversation and thoughts. I even went back and put names in front of all the people who spoke!
*also, a little side note - I don't know why the Quill insisted on writing so much about my annoyance and frustration with the boy - what's his snout? Steven or something boring like that. Well, I don't like him - oddly familiar with Prince Noble for some reason, way too arrogant just because his brother's a so-called king, and apparently, he's helped kill a dragon before! Not one of us, and I know that we're battling the wyrms as well, but still...*
Anyway, without further ado, here's our notes:

Main Questions:

• What's the deal with the wyrms - why is their anatomy so different from ours? How come they like treasure so much, and why aren't they open to negotiations with us?
• What are the details of that portal? The markings, the magic - does it connect with our own portals?
• What about the kingdom beyond the mountain? Do they have a magic system, and does it connect to our own means of magic?
• Is there any way to begin negotiations with this other kingdom? Are they willing to open up, perhaps a trade system, or a few of their own scholars to discuss with us?

So - lots of things. Doesn't make it any easier, now that we've got to deal with this whole other world - and what if there's other worlds, too? What if there are other pocket dimensions that we haven't discovered yet, filled with other magical creatures. Or...will we? The king hasn't expressed all that interest - just a few discussions with that kid, and of course his usual determination to free the sky of this plight. Dumb wyrms. Way to ruin our reputation.

Thoughts & Theories

Scrolly's a lot more interested in the wyrms themselves than anyone else He's had the Monitors collect a number of different texts that detail ground dwellers' thoughts about dragons. A lot of the modern ones sound a bit like us, which is interesting, if not alarming, and definitely not useful. Some of the older ones seem more reminiscent of the wyrms - like the ones from the writings of that Tolkien guy. If you go too far back, you'll see a lot of different types of dragons, which makes me wonder...are there more out there? Could it be that from drake ancestors came us dragons and wyrms, with leviathan and wyvern cousins? If so, where would they live - in our world, or in other worlds connected to our own?
Well, that's not important to our study right now. Mostly, he's noticed that these wyrms seem to be the more old-fashioned, regular concept of dragons. Smart, flying, huge - barely any color to their rough scales, with exposed underbellies, only breathing fire, and absolutely vicious guardians of their vast hordes. Well, that would certainly explain why they're so obsessed with treasure. Our only question - why did they leave their homeland to come here, especially if they had such huge troves of treasure already?
Which brings us to our next question, which Jace and Nighflight were both very interested in - how did the wyrms get here in the first place? A portal...a portal much too small for them - and only activated upon Smoke Mountain's eruption. Was the eruption a result of their breaking free, or the cause of it. Was it something on our side of the portal, or their side? And how can we ever expect to find out, especially since all these Charters are dying during their investigations of it.
Ah, well, we'll have to work on that. I'm more curious about the land beyond the portal. What's it like there - do they have magic there, too? It makes sense - how else could that boy Steven or whatever be able to survive our environment, and how else could they know how to deal with the wyrms. My only question is if they have more rules and a limited span of their magic, or if it's as mysterious and wide-ranged as our own.
Also importantly - what are their resources like? Steven mentioned magical herbs; do they have ones similar to ours, or are they different. We know they're exceptionally fine smiths, so trade systems with them would give us access to vast quantities of metal. I'm personally hoping for that - do you know how hard it is to have people constantly working on how to manipulate wood so we can use our own tools?

Bother - that didn't help at all. Not even a theory as to what's going on, and even a few more questions. Well, I'll have to review this ilater and see if I can add onto it.

Close

Type

Record, Research Notes

Medium

Paper

"I'd say one the best and hardest parts of being a scholar is that there's always more to learn - almost too much. No matter how hard I work, and even if I don't retire, I'll never discover it all.
"Yes, this is about that boy! Perhaps if he would tell us more about his world and those wyrms, we could settle this all for good!"

- Sora Glowbeam

Related: