The Shattered Dreamer: Voidsong #8

The final design of this year's Voidsong series is here!! I've been really looking forward to showing a fully drawn fyrdrakon for a while now, since folks who participated in the Zefylhalis dnd campaign have been hearing about them for some time! Fyrdrakons are a special companion species of intelligent, feathery dragon-like creatures the Zephyr associate with divinity. They accept only a handful of Zephyr as bonded riders and the bloodlines that keep fyrdrakons tend to be secretive about sharing! The name may be familiar to some of you guys because tiny toy versions called fyrdrakes are much more common and have been drawn as pets for past designs. :3c

ALSO!! the extra pet for this fella is a Gemnant, which I've been super eager to draw since it's been LITERALLY YEARS...anyway this Gemnant was created by a paragon aetherling crystal rather than a regular one, so it's the size of a dog instead of a baked potato (though I imagine it can shrink at will for convenience).

ALSO ALSO. enjoy meteor!fuzzly

The rest of the designs' lore and background info can be found here:

- 8: The Shattered Dreamer-

Designed by prince-corvidae, art by Alkemistry.

Species: Zephyr/Fyrdrakon Hybrid (Ahavyl)
Gender: Buyer's Choice
Tier: 5★★★★★

It’s said that something lives in the bell tower of Cor Teveros’ only remaining cathedral – something shadowy and dark. Common folk whisper that the entity lurking beneath the mythril bell can grant wishes — pull anything you desire from the aether and make it real. At a cost of course.  When this Ahavyl was a child, they used to look upon the tower from their windowsill in wonder. Their father had always told them tall tales, reading to them from storybooks while making shadowpuppets by candlelight. He’d even claimed that someday, they’d be big enough to ride their Fyrdrakon and discover the secrets of the tower all on their own. 

That fateful ride would never come to pass. The young Ahavyl’s dad was drafted to fight in Crossgate and he took with him the Fyrdrakon, as the Ahavyl was still too young to ride them. For years, they waited for their father to return – imagining his smiling face and guessing along with their siblings about how large the Fyrdrakon might have grown. They placed prayers for him on the family’s altar, went every day to church, and did everything a dutiful child should. 

But no news came. 

And then when the war finally ended – soldiers claiming to be from their father’s regiment knocked on their door. They said he’d been lost in the first year, that they’d watched as a Crossian sniper hidden in the snow sent both him and his mount tumbling into a snowy ravine. It’d been impossible to get close enough to confirm their deaths but the men knew regardless. There was no surviving long in that bitter cold. 

Distraught, the Ahavyl tore down the family’s shrine to Hesperia — threw out their prayer books and locked themselves away in their room. They’d been praying for a man already dead and not once, had they felt even a hint of that truth from their goddess. 

They were never really the same after that day. Their studies, their duties, all of it fell away to grief. Locked away in their own room, they did nothing but sleep and on rare occasions, paint the bell-tower that slipped so frequently into their dreams. 

As they grew older, a voice started to accompany those visions of the cathedral – soothing and kind, almost fatherly. They could never remember what was said in those dreams, only the feeling of shared loneliness. 

It was the meteor strike that finally gave them the courage to visit the church and its tower. They snuck away in the middle of the night and climbed the spiral stairs, strangely unbothered by all of the gang that laired there. Every Crow and criminal they passed was simply fast asleep. When they reached the top of the stairs, they met the voice from their dreams — a dark aetherling surrounded in pale purple smoke. 

He bid them follow, led them to the church’s shattered rose window — and offered a bargain. He would reunite them with their beloved Fyrdraken and some day, when he was strong enough – he would pull their father’s spirit back from the Pale.  They need only help his friend, the Lord of the church, free something from far beneath the city. And provide occasional snacks.

The lonely Ahavyl agreed. 

Now a creature of shattered glass, nightmare, and feathers — they fly the skies in search of their patron’s enemies, feeding off what remains of their dreams. The other gangs call them Sykarios’ pet assassin, a monstrous beast that creeps into otherwise peaceful sleep. They say they’re a crime against nature, wrapped in a pretty shell. But both the smiling Zephyr and the roaring imitation of a Fyrdrakon are happy. 

Together at long last, they’ll never be alone again. 

Owner: @Rare-Imaging

------------

Where to Find Me!

Commission Info: kem.carrd.co/

Links: linktr.ee/aethermancy

Art Discord for updates, projects, and commission openings: discord.gg/72EuRhpYwd