EarthDawn - The Age of Legends
The Denairastas were a clan of Dragon-kin Humans, the children of the Great Dragon whose name they share. They were the rulers of the city of Iopos, and for a time were worshiped there as living Passions.
When Denairastas set about building his ideal Name-giver society, he knew that strength could be generated quickly through constant competition. He began to teach his children that they needed to compete with each other to earn his favor. The Denairastas excelled in the magical Disciplines, and he began to reward them for achieving greater and greater magical power, pushing them to expand their knowledge and abilities. He also encouraged guile, misdirection and even treachery, as long as it achieved the goals he set for them. His children quickly mastered all these arts and more. Any children who did not master them were either slain by their brothers and sisters or destroyed by Denairastas himself for being “weak”. There was no place for weakness in his vision of the future.
Before the Scourge, Denairastas moved his children into the city of Iopos and began to sow the seeds of their ascension to the throne of Iopos. During the Scourge, the Denairastas battled the Horrors who managed to breach the citadel, defeating them with tremendous displays of magical might. Their power so impressed the residents that before the end of the Scourge, the Denairastas had taken rulership of the city from the hereditary rulers, supposedly by popular demand of the people. The new ruler, Uhl Denairastas, was a master propagandist and manipulator as well as being an accomplished Wizard, Elementalist, and Illusionist Adept. Like his sire, Uhl played his children against each other, forcing them to compete for his favor within the city.
During the Second Theran War, Uhl and his sire began to set the stage for their conquest of Barsaive by occupying the city of Jerris and it’s airship construction facilities. Uhl’s nephew Gellad Denairastas took stewardship of the city, aided by his assistant Mara Corovan. Their rule was brutal, inspiring certain leaders within the community, notably Chardis Morningfall, to create a rebellion against them. They sent word out into Barsaive that they needed heroes to aid their efforts, and attracted the attention of The Passion’s Champions. The Passion’s Champions assassinated Gellad, but in the process attracted the attention of Denairastas himself, who instructed Mara to keep a close eye on them.
Denairastas tried more than once to convert the PCs over to his cause, and failed each time. Finally, he captured them and drug them to Iopos in chains, where he could take his time brainwashing them at his leisure without interruption or interference. He was eventually successful, although some clones of the PCs managed to escape with the aid of Charcoalgrin.
Having secured his heroes, Denairastas sent them and his children to continue the planned subversion of Barsaive. The Denairastas children tricked, won, bargained or stole their way into positions of power across Barsaive, and spread chaos and confusion wherever they could not infiltrate. They were very nearly successful, until the cloned Passion’s Champions returned to Barsaive and began to unravel all their carefully laid plans. They slew or drove off Denairastas children who had taken over positions in Barsaive and drove back their armies from the very gates of Throal, finally driving them back to Iopos. When the combined armies of Barsaive laid siege to Iopos, they used their vast magical knowledge to try and defend the city, shooting down Sky Raider ships and making the approach to the city nearly impossible. Only the Passion’s Champions were able to break their defenses and breach the walls, allowing the armies of Barsaive to raze the city to the ground. When the Passion’s Champions finally slew Denairastas himself, his surviving children scattered to the far corners of the earth, their power and influence finally broken.
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