Atlas

Imarel Travel Guide - by T.A. Saunders ©2010 v1.2

Draconic Empire Aune

Aune is the last known city of the Van'su people and remains much as it did then, with vaulting towers, fitted with open rooftops for the winged Van'su to land and enter the structures. Looking much like very ornate nests, these spires pepper the area and surround what was once a vast library of Van'suian cuneiform scrolls. The Van'su were explorers and scholars mostly, having few real enemies until the Shar'Vaire turned militant. Save for the occasional Masoq raid which they handled quite well given their advantage with flight, life in Aune was a quiet one, filled with learning and discovery.

Around 8695 BF, it had become clear that the Shar'Vaire were intent on not only stealing their advanced magical knowledge on planar travel, but to eradicate them as a race. Having no real defense, besides those Van'su willing to fight for their homes, most simply fled to other planes or some believe may have teleported themselves to Ishaela. Aune was just another city in the great northern reaches of the Van'su republic that would have been destroyed utterly had the Dragons not found it first. The deal Thanaxiscar made the terrified Van'su was simple: Serve the dragons and live in peace, or be left to the Shar'Vaire and destroyed. With the extinction of their own kind now a grim reality, the council of Van'su agreed to submit themselves to the dragons as their servants.

The arrangement has not been an all-together bad one. The Van'su have no desire for material wealth and seek only knowledge; the Dragons desire material wealth over all other things and have vast amounts of knowledge. Van'su act as scribes of draconic history and are often chosen by dragon nobles to be personal chroniclers of their bloodline. Van'su also act as house wizards, enchanting dragon lairs for their masters with traps and defenses. Van'su also entertain their draconic masters with their beautiful songs that have brought the great Wyrms to tears at times. The Van'su of Aune are not required to live with their masters — indeed, most dragons prefer that their slaves keep to their own city and come to them only when summoned.