> [!success] Integrated > This lore drop has been processed and integrated into the vault. > See: [[Location - Dracan-Shrine]] **LOCATION - Gryth - Norn - Nornika** **DRACAN-SHRINE** Dracan-Shrine is a small but densely populated town situated within the country of Nornika, perched in the far north-western reaches of the frozen continent of Norn. As one of the northernmost human settlements in existence, it is home to a society that has remained uninterrupted for at least six thousand years, potentially making it the longest-standing continuous human culture on Gryth. The town is physically isolated by a great and treacherous frozen mountain range, a barrier so formidable that outside travel is considered practically impossible, leaving the inhabitants to develop in near-total seclusion from the shifting politics of the rest of the world. The people of Dracan-Shrine are defined by a total and absolute worship of the draconic species. While they hold a deep reverence for all dragons, the White Dragons are their most sacred and revered deities, viewed as the pure embodiment of the northern frost. This devotion has physically and magically altered the populace; they possess soft, pale blue skin and are deeply infused with ice magic. Their culture is a totality of draconic reverence, where grand priests wear armour crafted from dragon skulls and the bones of wyrmlings, and the community constructs massive, shimmering shrines out of permanent magical ice. At the heart of their religious life is the great statue Ixinath, which is actually the frozen, mummified corpse of an unknowably ancient dragon. Ixinath is said to still speak to his faithful in their sleep, guiding the specialist warlocks who serve as the town's priests. This intense magical infusion grants the Dracan humans remarkable draconic abilities, with some possessing ice breath and others even manifesting wings. From a young age, they bond with drakes, becoming the most proficient riders in the world. This mastery has allowed them to become the only non-dragon beings to ever reach the legendary Dragon Island in the Far Beyond. According to their lore, this island is the site where the great prismatic god-dragon, Drascaris, fell during the Divine War. Legend says his corpse split into the demigods Velmora and Rastaat, the avatars of light and darkness, and the island remains a warm, magically shielded sanctuary swarming with dragons amidst the blistering cold oceans. Despite their isolation, the people of Dracan-Shrine harbour a fierce and ancient hatred for the Dragonborn of Pymandi. Their creation myths paint the Dragonborn not as cousins, but as a perversion of true draconic glory; a disgrace to the dragons of old that must be shunned or destroyed. While technically a part of the loose nation of Nornika, Dracan-Shrine exists as a bizarre, living fossil of a society, left entirely to its own devices and obsessed with a history that predates almost every other civilization on the material plane. ![[Pasted image 20260217214937.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260217214943.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260217214948.png]]