| This article is about Gwyneth's Highborn form. You may be looking for The original Gwyneth: Gwyneth. |
"I've embraced my heritage."
Gwyneth - Winged Vanquisher is a highborn strength-based ranger hero of the Draconis faction with the continuous damage role.
Background[]
The scent of living beings wafted through the air, carrying an odor of weakness, ineptitude, and inferiority. I couldn't be more familiar with that stench. Without a doubt, it was humans.
How dare those vile pests trespass on my domain?! Well, it was time for me to get up and stretch anyway. I'd been dormant for over a decade as I licked my wounds.
I looked down at the scar on my chest. Even after so long, it remained unhealed. A layer of blue-white crystal had condensed over it, stinging me day and night like a long-acting poison.
As a Rogondin, my stone-like scales render me virtually invulnerable to mortal weapons. Unfortunately, they're brittle before the blistering breath of Highborn Dragons.
I remember clearly the one who inflicted my chest wound; it was a blue-white Highborn Dragon. One night, more than ten years ago, my tribe and I were plundering a human village. There we encountered a Highborn Dragon disguised as a mortal and accompanied by a servant carrying an infant. I sensed keenly that the infant was actually a Draconic hatchling that had been magically disguised. Her draconic aura could never escape my detection.
"First I'll kill you, then I'll swallow that little hatchling whole." After delivering this vicious provocation, I lunged at the Highborn Dragon.
The battle was tooth and nail. The Highborn Dragon was descended from a more powerful bloodline, but we made up for this disadvantage with our numbers. After a savage scuffle, I dealt a fatal blow to the Highborn Dragon-but at the cost of exposing my chest to its Crystal Breath. When the dust settled, I was the last survivor of my tribe.
As for the Draconic hatchling, her servant managed to escape town with a group of humans. I could have annihilated them, were it not for my grievous wound And given the chance, I never would have let her escape. Fortunately, she was still young and harmless.
I know not why the Highborn Dragons have re-appeared on this continent, but even after a thousand years, my hatred for them burns as bright as ever.
During the Age of Arcana, as it is known by humans, ancient mortals had once tamed the Highborn Dragons. They used dragon blood in their alchemy to create a new species they called the Dragolites, one of whose tribes is mine-the Rogondins.
We Dragolites were cursed from birth Humans saw us as their failed experiment, while the pure-blooded Highborn Dragons scorned us, seeing us as a corruption of their bloodline-lowly beasts created through the vile alchemy of mankind.
Highborn Dragons managed to resist human enslavement, yet turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Dragolites. It was as if our very existence shamed them.
Only a few Highborn tribes were willing to accept the Dragolites. Eventually mediated by the goddess Dura, some Dragolites allied with the Highborns, and together they traveled to Dragon lsle, a paradise Dura had created for them, far away from the human world.
But my tribe never set foot on Dragon Isle. We, the Rogondins, are notorious among the dragons. Accompanied by my fellow tribesmen, we have slain many of the Highborns who so despised us. Just as they saw our existence as blasphemy, we in turn spared them no mercy.
And so, while most dragons departed for Dragon Isle, we remained in the human world. In the countless years since then, we witnessed the collapse of human civilization. After making a vain attempt to rival the gods in power, the humans descended once again to lowly mortality. Meanwhile, our tribe took revenge on humanity, ravaging their lands, venting our fury, and leaving a trail of terror wherever we went. Humans had once enslaved us, but now we strike mortal fear into their hearts! What irony!
The scent of those humans drifted closer and closer. Licking the scar on my chest, I felt they'd come at the perfect time. My fury that had simmered for over a decade could finally have its release!
As the humans came into view, I could see that they were fully armed and armored. Carrying banners depicting their royal emblem, they appeared like some kind of royal hunting party-except that now they were the prey.
They were better trained than any human forces I'd fought before, but facing a dragon like me, they soon broke ranks.
Amidst the chaotic battle, a strange aura suddenly caught my attention Emanating from a young girl among the human legion, it struck me with a great sense of familiarity. I watched as she picked up a special longbow. I'd seen humans use such weapons in previous battles, but with their meager mortal strength, it always required several people to operate them.
Nonetheless, that young girl drew the longbow to its full length, all on her own! Keenly aware of the limits of human power I knew for certain she was no mortal!
Proving my suspicions true, her aura grew stronger and stronger until it pinned me motionless. Without a doubt, it was a Draconic force that could only emanate from the blood of a Highborn Dragon!
As if time had slowed down, I watched her arrow as it zipped toward me before piercing my scales and lodging itself inside my skull. Just before I lost consciousness, an image appeared in my mind: the Draconic hatchling who had been rescued by that servant all those years ago! Ah-the irony of it all!