You stay seated at the table, but this time, there is no file. Instead, your gaze travels up, right onto the piercing stare of two eyes gleaming in the darkness, glittering like fractured obsidian teeming with otherworldly light...

“I suppose this was inevitable, wasn’t it? After all you have done and learned, your search has led you back to me... Your curiosity has led you far and wide, my friend, but tell me, what have you truly learned? All these files... all these souls... you have scoured them all with such a rapt attention that may even mirror my own... but... you can sense it too, can’t you? The desperation that lies there? The pain? The fear and sorrow that plagues these dragons...? It’s no illusion, my friend. They are suffering out there, all alone, without any prospect of hope in this cursed land...”

The figure leans closer, close enough to make out the rugged details of their blackened scales...

“But... know this... I alone have the power to correct it... Look at me. Look into my eyes. Do you recognize me? NightmareWhisperer? Battleclaw? No? Then, allow me to tell you a tale... One about a dragon betrayed by the very family he had sworn to protect, from fear, from pain. Centuries ago, when the one they call Darkstalker, who’s very name filled the land with fear, walked amongst us.”

A set of black claws rest upon the table, one holding an amulet, another a statue.

“I had been born with a gift. Not a curse. A gift, of unfathomable, unrestrained, uncontested power. I had not known it at the time, but it would be my greatest pride and my most painful insecurity. But... at the time, such power was feared, hated, all for the dragon who’s name now stains legend. But... I hadn’t wanted to use my gift for evil. No. Such actions disgusted me. When I realized my potential, I swore to use it for good, to topple the tyrant that placed threat to all life.”

The amulet shimmers faintly, pulsing a rich, sapphire light. Battleclaw’s face softens slightly.

“Unfortunately... I was to be betrayed, deeply, and without warning. My own family... my mother, my sister, my closest friend. They had turned against me out of fear, fear for what I held, not for who held it. I... do not blame them. I only resent the fear that dared possess them...”

He rolls the statue loosely in his talon, claws twitching.

“But... now I am presented a new opportunity. A new reincarnation. Pyrrhia... it still burns before my eyes. War still rages and dragons die with pitiful, noble, but meaningless cause. They surrender their fate to powerless religions like the Moons or the... Watchers. Yet... the fear of the past has abated. I... I have the chance now to construct something new. Something marvelous. A new world, where peace is but insured...”

His claws glide across the table’s wood, and through the seams and cracks, the map the continent is formed before you.

“However... first I must wipe away the ash and rot that continue to stir in these seven kingdoms... It is simply, a requirement. I... do not make myself out to be a god. I am as mortal as you are. I believe all have a right for freedom and safety. It is for that reason however, that I must ensure my goals are not to be impeded in any capacity. You... understand, do you not? That sacrifices must be made for the greater good? I am willing to do what it takes for the future of Pyrrhia... It is an oath I swore many centuries ago... and I will see it to its end...”

“...No matter the cost...”