The Iron Dragon

Chapter 1. How it all started

(review of the past!)

( 25- 38 Year of the 5 Age /Reven Age/ )

I didn't know who or what I was back then. I was born into a world that just wasn't ready for someone like me. Had it been many years later, I might have had the chance to have a family that would have loved and accepted me for who I am. However, time is not something you can negotiate with and so I probably wouldn't have had what it meant to be a loving and happy family, maybe many things would have been different or...no, everything would definitely would have been different if I had been born as something else. In order to explain it more precisely, I should probably go back a little further in history to a time that was probably not as easy as I would have liked it to be back then. I was born in majestic Antiva. The land of wealth, wine and nobility. Antiva is a country that you can never really forget, as its special characteristics attract visitors, merchants and nobles from far away. And many find it difficult to turn away from the beauty and the prospects of wealth.

I also remember this beauty as I felt it then and as I still feel it today. It is a country which is always in bloom because of its warm north-eastern climate, as it has rarely been seen. The flowers bloom, the grass is always green and it seems as if the warm sun shines down on you at any time. The capital is near the coast and offers wonderful views of the bay of Rialto. The trade in Antiva has been described as legendary because of its abundant resources, especially the wine trade, which is one of the largest in Thedas, because of its fertile vineyards. As beautiful as these pages in Antiva shine, everyone is aware that this beauty is not only due to luck, love and good humour, but also because it is ruled by the powers that have the most wealth. Wealth is power, so it is in many parts of this world and always will be. Those who were blessed with wealth could determine how trade was conducted in different areas with a well established stock exchange or the sudden disappearance of another influential family and this was a normal everyday life in Antiva.

It is said that here and there people die, that this is perfectly normal, some would even say and in Antiva it was the case that people died more often. What could be a good reason for this is that the notorious crows, a not very small group of assassins, always made sure that certain people disappeared and were either not found at all or were found dead much later. On the whole, one could say that Antiva was probably the most beautiful place where one could stay. Death, disappearances, gambling and wealth and all this in a wonderful environment. And all this with a good glass of wine in your hand. What could you possibly imagine to be beautiful? Exactly in this country I was born right into a family that had only got the best of an existence in Antiva. Wealth, influence, power and a ridiculously magnificent estate in one of the best streets that could have existed. The Vaumorts family followed a reputation that had always been respected and that had been maintained for many generations. They enjoyed high esteem and wore it with true greasy arrogance. 

The perfect life of the Vaumorts seemed almost boiling over and became even more perfect when the young, from the outside happy, newly married couple announced to the family that they were expecting a baby soon. The almost clichéd joy of the couple could not have been greater, an inheritance for such a famous family was a real blessing. And that was the point where things were about to change. My parents, both human, had probably not expected to produce a son who did not seem quite human. To make it clear what I am talking about, I should mention the very rare dragon gene, which is able to skip many generations or simply never show itself, which in most cases it does not. But in my case it showed itself and that not exactly inconspicuous. Already shortly after my birth differences to a human could be seen.

If I did not have the round pupils of a human being, but rather a slit-shaped pupil, my eyes were of an unusually bright blue, which frightened many who saw my eyes for the first time. My parents knew that something seemed to be wrong with me, but they did not have an exact definition of what I was. During this time, they kept me hidden from the public in case I posed such a danger, or worse, a disgrace to them. After endless meetings that seemed to have no end, and which I did not worry about because I was too young for all this, my family decided to contact the wisest people they had heard of who could possibly help us. And for all of them, the answer was the same every time, every time again, the same shocking answer for my parents.