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Dragnipur

Page history last edited by Eloth 14 years, 3 months ago

Dragnipur

 

A two-handed sword, forged by Draconus the Elder God, now wielded by Anomander Rake, who took it from its maker and trapped his soul inside the weapon.

 

"Dragnipur,"  said Draconus,  "is nobody's womb.  Kadaspala, this was to be a cage.  To keep Darkness in and Chaos out.  One last, desperate barrier – the only gift we could offer.  A gate that is denied its wandering must find a home, a refuge – a fortress, even one fashioned from flesh and bone.  The pattern, Kadaspala, was meant to defy chaos – two antithetical forces, as we discussed –"(TtH)

 

‘Forged in darkness, it chains souls to the world that existed before the coming of light.' (GotM, p.323)

 

'A two-handed sword was strapped to Rake’s broad back, its silver dragonskull pommel and archaic crosshilt jutting from a wooden scabbard fully six and a half feet long. From the weapon bled power, staining the air like black ink in a pool of water. As his gaze rested on it Baruk almost reeled, seeing, for a brief moment, a vast darkness yawning before him, cold as the heart of a glacier, from which came the stench of antiquity and a faint groaning sound' (GotM, p.155)

 

'Raised high, the sword groaned awake, chains of smoke writhing from the blade. A terrible sound as of wheels creaking filled the air andbehind it arose a chorus of moaning filled with hopelessness' (GotM, p.477)

 

'The black weapon seemed almost invisible, as if it swallowed all light that found it.' (GotM, p.501)

 

Silverfox and Paran re: High House Dark, Holds, Kurald Galain and Dragnipur

 

Silverfox: 'I have thought long and hard on this...Anomander Rake is Knight of the House of Dark...yet where is the House itself ? Before all else there was Dark, the Mother who birthed all. So it must be an ancient place, a Hold, or perhaps something that came before Holds themselves. A focus for the gate into Kurald Galain . . . undiscovered, hidden, the First Wound, with a soul trapped in its maw, thus sealing it.’

 

Ganoes Paran: 'A soul...or a legion of souls...Before Houses there were Holds ... Both fixed, both stationary. Settled. Before settlement...there was wandering. House from Hold, Hold from...a gate in motion, ceaseless motion...A wagon, burdened beneath the countless souls sealing the gate into Dark...’ And I sent two Hounds through that wound, I saw the seal punctured...

 

(MoI, UK Trade, p.119)

 

...In his (Paran's) mind he returned to that fraught, nightmarish realm within the sword Dragnipur, the legions of chained souls ceaselessly dragging their impossible burden . . . and at the heart of the wagon, a cold, dark void, from whence came the chains. The wagon carries the gate, the gate into Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness. The sword gathers souls to seal it . . . such a wound it must be, to demand so many souls . . . (MoI, UK Trade, p.121)

 

 

Paran and Draconus in Dragnipur:

 

Draconus: 'He (Anomander Rake) is too merciful, too merciful to wield Dragnipur. The situation is growing desperate...Dragnipur needs to feed...There are those who, at long last, fail in pulling this burden. They are carried to the wagon, then, and tossed onto it – you think this preferable? Too weak to move, they are soon buried by those like them. Buried, trapped for eternity. And the more the wagon bears, the greater its weight – the more difficult the burden for those of us still able to heave on these chains. Do you understand? Dragnipur needs to feed. We require . . . fresh legs.'

...

 

Ganoes Paran: ' What will happen if the wagon stops, Draconus?'

 

Draconus: '‘Project your vision, mortal, onto our trail. See for yourself, what pursues us.’

 

Pursues? He closed his eyes, yet the scene did not vanish – the wagon lumbered on, there in his mind, the multitudes passing by him like ghosts. Then the massive contrivance was past, its groans fading behind him. The ruts of its wheels flanked him, each one as wide as an imperial road. The earth was sodden with blood, bile and sweat, a foul mud that drew his boots down, swallowed them up to his ankles.

His gaze followed those tracks, back, to the horizon. Where chaos raged. Filling the sky, a storm such as he had never seen before. Rapacious hunger poured from it. Frenzied anticipation.

Lost memories.

Power born from rendered souls.

Malice and desire, a presence almost self-aware, with hundreds of thousands of eyes all fixed on the wagon behind Paran.

So . . . so eager to feed . . .

He recoiled...

 

Ganoes Paran: '‘Draconus...you have made a very unpleasant sword.’

 

Draconus: '‘Darkness has ever warred against Chaos, mortal. Ever retreated. And each time that Mother Dark relented – to the Coming of Light, to the Birth of Shadow – her power has diminished, the imbalance growing more profound. Such was the state of the realms around me in those early times. A growing imbalance. Until Chaos approached the very Gate to Kurald Galain itself. A defence needed to be fashioned. Souls were . . . required...Chaos hungers for the power in those souls – for what Dragnipur has claimed. To feed on such power will make it stronger – tenfold. A hundredfold. Sufficient to breach the Gate.'

(MoI, UK Trade, p.731-2)

 

Inside 'The Warren within the Sword'

 

'A rubble-strewn plain beneath a dead sky. In the distance to his (Ganoes Paran's]right, the groan of massive, wooden wheels, the slither and snap of chains, countless plodding footfalls. In the air, a pall of suffering that threatened to suffocate Paran where he stood.... Leaning figures, stretched chains. Beyond them, a hundred or more paces distant, loomed the terrible wagon, massed with writhing bodies, clunking and shifting over stones, swallowed in a haze of mist.'(MoI, UK Trade, p.730)

 

'Through the gloom he could make out figures on all sides, each shackled with long iron chains, leaning forward as if pulling at an immense weight. The ground underfoot was barren, lifeless. Overhead there was nothing but

darkness. Beneath the constant creak of the chains was a heavier sound that Paran could feel through the soles of his boots. Alone unchained, he fell back towards the source of that sound, passing chained figures, many of them not human. A shape appeared, hulking, pitching. A wagon, impossibly huge, its wooden wheels taller than a man...‘Where are we?’

‘The Warren within the Sword. Did not Dragnipur take your life, too?’

(GotM, p.352)

 

The Death of Anomander Rake 

The Gate of Darkness wandered no more.  Was pursued no longer.  The Gate of Darkness had found a new home, in the heart of Black Coral. (TtH)

 

Dragnipur was shattered by Caladan Brood's hammer after the death of Anomander Rake (TtH)

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