Voun Mountainbreaker, the Great Dragon-king ((Vow-hn))

God-king of Ardetus

  The goal of this research is to compile all of the primary references and knowledge relating to Lord Voun that is available in the library of Ardetus. The collection stretches from 4 Metah to 50 Metah.   Voun Mountainbreaker, also known as Lord Voun, was the god-king and founder of Ardetus. The first written record of his existence is in the oldest scroll in the collection: The Risen City; written around 4 Metah. The Risen City details how Lord Voun -at that time just Voun- wandered the wastes left by The Andier and built the first city in the new age; a city named Ardetus. In his wanderings, he experienced -as the text describes it- "an awakening and an ascension to godhood" that gave him his earthshaking Magic. Using this earth magic, he subjugated the tribes of survivors wandering around the Bacainn mountains and formed them into Ardetus. The last note in the text is that when an attack came to Ardetus, Lord Voun sunk the whole city beneath the earth to shelter his people, creating the Old district in the process.   The second text of interest is Ardetus at War, a text written in 19 M detailing the battles that Ardetus had fought up until that point. One of interest includes the battle of Redcliff, where Ardetus was faced off against an army of Spola in 5 M. The army of Spola was taking a defensive position in Redcliff valley in the Bacainn Mountains, the city of Spola behind them. The Ardetinian army effectively put the city under siege and decimated the opposing army in their weakened state. However, when Spola refused to surrender Lord Voun responded by disassembling the mountains forming the walls of the valley; burying the city under thousands of tons of stone. It was this event that earned Lord Voun the epithet: Mountainbreaker. Even when the tattered remnants of the Spolan army surrendered, Lord Voun put them to death. The writer of the text posits that Lord Voun had technically won the war, but had failed to achieve his mission of assimilation in his rage. The writer also states that the slaughter of Spola is what prompted the forming of the Elvish Coalition and Mavanish Empire; directly leading to the first territorial war. The second battle noted is a naval battle occurring in 17 M, during the first territorial war. The navy of the Elvish Coalition was docked in the Brair Islands, preparing to ambush some Ardetinian convoys. What they hadn't expected was that Ardetinian agents had been recording and reporting the movements of their enemies, and the Ardetinian navy was en route. The Elves were caught entirely by surprise, and half of their forces were beneath the waves before the others could get out of port. There was a catch: on the shore was a famous Elder Elf wind mage named Ambekan. It is generally agreed amongst scholars that Ambekan was the first Air Dragon-king. Ambekan summoned a typhoon that demolished a swath of both navies, despite wind mages on both sides attempting to wrest control from him. Lord Voun engaged Ambekan directly, and the fight between the two eclipsed the naval battle below them. Spanning multiple isles and ships of both allegiances, Lord Voun chased down the elf and slew him with a stone spine through the heart.   The next is The King and the Demon, written in 32 M. It details the demise of Lord Voun at the hands of a "Fire demon". The text begins by recounting how the great forests in the southwest began to burn to cinders in swaths by the hands of a fire demon, who was named Scrios for the Ardetinian word for 'destruction'. The demon eventually emerged from where the great forest used to be, leaving The Cosancoga Desert in it's wake, and began trekking towards Ardetus. Lord Voun, worn and tired from the three decades of constant war, set out to face Scrios alone. The two met west of Eadomhain Lake, and their battle supposedly raged for three days and three nights; creating The Scrios Crater in the process. Lord Voun struck Scrios dead and threw the corpse, still burning with unnatural fire, into the crater left behind. Voun Mountainbreaker made it back to Ardetus before succumbing to his wounds. It is interesting that the author mentions repeatedly that Lord Voun was "of the same kind" as Scrios.   The last text I will be referencing is The Dragon-king, written in 50 M. The text is not a historical account, but instead a historically speculative look on the topic of the king of Ardetus. The author lays out evidence totaling a scroll length of seven feet in favor of their conclusion that Lord Voun was the first "of those draconic humans that appear in the cities". They conclude by referring to Lord Voun as "the great Dragon-king", coining the name of the species.