An Account of the Stormmind Incursion of 888 C.E.

Archived in the Department of Draconic Studies, Arcane Lyceum, Crestfall   The event now formally designated The Stormmind Incursion occurred in the year 888 of the Current Era, marking the most devastating aerial assault on Crestfall. Records preserved across multiple departments, Arcane Defense, Conclave Proceedings, and civilian testimonies, confirm that the attack was initiated by Azergos the Stormmind, an ancient blue dragon of extraordinary intellect and arcane capability, the prime of his flight. His assault was neither spontaneous nor solitary: it constituted a coordinated multilateral strike involving at least four other draconic entities, most notably Acnogar the Vile, an ancient black wyrm of historical infamy.   The confrontation began shortly after dusk, when the Lyceum’s western wardline detected an anomalous rise in atmospheric conductivity. Apprentice witnesses stationed in the western observatories first alerted senior staff to the formation of an unnatural storm spiral over the River Crestfall. The storm’s rotation was not geophysical in nature; diviners later concluded that its origin point was an arcano-spatial tear generated by Azergos himself.   Archmage Craezar Vane, then High Theorist of the North Spire, was reportedly completing the final sequence of a classified binding spell at the time of the alarm. Upon receiving notice, he arrived at Sunspire Plaza. Four other archmages answered the call: Elmareth the Red, Beren Valthos, Havren Doss, and Ysolde Mare. All five rose to form an aerial intercept before the dragon crossed into central Crestfall.   Azergos emerged from the storm spiral soon after, fully manifest and already discharging controlled lightning through the cloud strata. Eyewitnesses describe a creature “large enough to eclipse the western quarter,” possessing a mastery over storm-aspected magic that far exceeded that of his known chromatic kin. His opening proclamation, preserved through several crystalline scrying records, condemned the Lyceum for “meddling with the boundary between minds and storms,” though his precise meaning remains a matter of scholarly debate.   Simultaneously, three lesser dragons deployed across the western battlements:   Voruthrax, a green drake, dispersed toxic vapors through the infantry lines gathering near the river bridge.   Sharakkar, a red wyrm, set ablaze the granaries along the southern outer ring.   Myrthul, a white drake, neutralized an entire squadron of battle-mages with frost breath before they could ascend.     These secondary strikes prevented ground forces from supporting the Conclave and forced the Lyceum’s defenders into a fragmented response pattern.   The Conclave’s initial intercept was met with overwhelming force. Azergos’s descent produced a shockwave that disrupted their formation immediately. During the early exchange, Archmage Beren Valthos attempted to counter a high-pressure arcane compression attack by manifesting a skyborne stone barrier, one of the most advanced applications of geomancy on record. The barrier failed under the impact. Beren was disintegrated in the resulting detonation, becoming the first Conclave casualty.   Shortly thereafter, Azergos unleashed a second attack: an anomalous null-auditory pulse, a form of soundless resonance now categorized as draconic psionic thunder. Ysolde Mare, positioned closest to the blast, was killed instantly when her layered shields collapsed.   Surviving records indicate that Azergos’s combat doctrine emphasized psychological degradation as much as physical annihilation. Numerous direct quotations preserved through scrying crystals show the dragon taunting the mages, referencing their teachings, doctrines, and even personal weaknesses, all while maintaining near-total control of the combat tempo.   At this stage, only Craezar Vane, Elmareth the Red, and Havren Doss remained airborne. Detailed post-event interviews reveal that Craezar was actively maintaining a sophisticated, mentally-held arcane pattern, believed to be the same binding spell referenced earlier, while abstaining from offensive casting whenever possible. His role during the mid-stage engagement was therefore primarily defensive and coordinative.   The battle escalated further with the arrival of Acnogar the Vile, who ascended from the lower stormbank and positioned himself under Azergos’s direct command. Acnogar’s participation marked a rare documented instance of cooperation between chromatic elders, suggesting a temporary alliance brokered under conditions still unknown. His first major action, delivering a poisoned tail strike, severely wounded Havren Doss, compromising the Conclave’s ability to maintain triadic spell structures.   Analysts agree that at this moment the strategic calculus shifted decisively against the Lyceum. With two Conclave mages dead and a third grievously injured, the defenders’ capacity for sustained aerial resistance was effectively broken. Nevertheless, Elmareth and Craezar continued to delay the dragons’ advance, successfully drawing their attention away from the civilian districts long enough to allow large-scale evacuations from the western quarter.   Elmareth’s final stand is one of the most cited episodes in Lyceum military scholarship. With Havren incapacitated and rapidly descending toward the river, Elmareth expended the last reservoir of her power to weave a barrier of incandescent scarlet sigils around both herself and Craezar. The spell, a variant of Phoenix Ward forbidden for general use due to its soul-consuming cost, briefly halted Azergos’s advance and forced Acnogar to break off his circling assault. During these moments of reprieve, witnesses recorded Craezar shouting for Elmareth to withdraw; she refused.   As Azergos shattered the outer layers of the ward, Elmareth enacted her final act of service. Through a condensed burst of searing arcana, she projected a long-range telepathic distress call, an ancient, formal signal of draconic hostility, directed toward a single recipient: Gonthrax the Radiant, an elder gold dragon known to be Acnogar’s ancestral foe. This message required the total unraveling of her life-thread to broadcast at sufficient range. Elmareth perished as the last glyph of the Phoenix Ward collapsed, her body transmuting into a cascade of crimson light that scattered across the storm.   Her sacrifice proved decisive. Moments later, a bloom of golden mist coalesced above the northern rooftops. From within it emerged Gonthrax, whose very presence disrupted the storm-winds, fracturing Azergos’s cloud formation and diminishing the cohesion of the storm spiral. Records indicate that Gonthrax did not acknowledge the human defenders; his attention was fixed entirely on Acnogar.   The two ancient dragons clashed almost immediately, plummeting together through several layers of the stormbank in a violent tangle of wings, claws, and corrosive breath. Their duel carried them eastward, away from the central theatre, leaving only Azergos engaged directly with the Lyceum. Civilian accounts describe the sky turning alternately gold and black as the combatants exchanged breath weapons, each blast igniting fresh air currents or corroding them into voids.   With the secondary dragons either driven off or routed by Gonthrax’s arrival, the battlefield contracted to a singular confrontation: Craezar Vane versus Azergos the Stormmind.   Although alone, Craezar did not attempt a conventional battle. Surviving fragments from his personal journal, donated posthumously to the Department of Theoretical Arcanum, suggest that he had already accepted that no direct offensive spellcraft could overcome Azergos’s natural and augmented defenses. Instead, he committed fully to the completion of the arcane pattern he had held mentally since the battle began: a binding spell of unprecedented complexity.   Eyewitnesses report that Craezar began to recite an incantation in High Sidonic, not a language traditionally used for battlecasting. As he spoke, the storm intensified unnaturally, drawn inward as though the air itself was being folded into the forming spell. Azergos, sensing the shift, launched a catastrophic discharge of stormfire directly at him. Craezar countered with a triple-layer sigil shield; two layers collapsed instantly, but the third held long enough for him to finish the chant.   The sky above Crestfall cracked with a sound described in multiple testimonies as “the tearing of a great page.” From Craezar’s outstretched hands unfurled a vast sheet of spectral parchment, inscribed with runes that shifted like living script, the earliest recorded manifestation of what would later be named The Tome of Craezar. The binding enveloped Azergos mid-lunge, spiraling around him like a tightening funnel of light.   Azergos resisted with apocalyptic force. Lightning tore through rooftops, arcing across the plaza; several wards flickered dangerously, nearly failing outright. However, the spell was already anchored. The spectral pages wrapped around the blue dragon’s form, constricting until both light and wyrm collapsed into a single point, then vanished.   That moment marked the end of the Stormmind Incursion.   Across the battlefield, the remaining dragons reacted immediately. Diviners later confirmed a sharp psychic rupture, likely the mental link Azergos maintained with his brood, triggering panic among the surviving chromatics. Acnogar disengaged from Gonthrax in a sudden evasive burst, fleeing westward over the river. Gonthrax pursued for several miles before breaking off; according to his later testimony to Lyceum envoys, Acnogar “chose cowardice over legacy,” and was therefore unworthy of further chase.   Freed from their commanders, the lesser dragons scattered. Gonthrax reportedly destroyed at least two before departing in silence, leaving Crestfall to tend to its wounded and reckon with its dead.   The Stormmind Incursion remains the most thoroughly studied draconic engagement of the Current Age. Though strategically catastrophic and personally tragic, it is widely accepted that without Elmareth’s sacrifice and Craezar’s unprecedented binding of Azergos, Crestfall would not have survived the night.   Inaccuracies and differences to other texts of the same event have been noted, read with caution. - Arcanist Timbers, 1323 C.E