------------- Famous Dragonmasters - Aurrianna fen Tanthalus

At the height of the siege of Dragaard, near the end of the War of the Wolf Hordes, the Shabrundi Dwarven cannons began to bombard Castle Dragaard itself. Everyone in the city below knew that if the castle fell, there would be nothing to keep the Wolf Hordes from sweeping down the mountain pass and taking the city. Panic set in everywhere. Everywhere but on the battlements of Dragaard that is.

Amidst the chaos of the early morning assault, Duchess Amanda Aeriel Hayes Augustine led the Carellonian forces to repel the invaders. But just at the pivotal moment, as the cannons began to break through the castle's magical defenses and the combined power of the Coven of Fenris began to erode the powerful magics of the Blue, Brass and Bronze Dragon clans, a shimmering gate appeared on the battlements. After a short message from the other side of the gate, Duchess Amanda turned to her trusted second, gave her command, and stepped through. Only later, when the Dwarven cannons fell mysteriously silent and then turned on the Wolf Hordes did the forces of Dragaard know what had happened. Amanda had joined the rest of the Silver Gryphon in destroying the Black Witch and with her, the Coven's control over the Dwarves of Shabrund.

But those present on the battlements that day witnessed something even more memorable, the making of a true hero in Carellonian history. Aurrianna fen Tanthalus, long a friend, lover, and appointed church guardian of Amanda Hayes, was thrust into the spotlight. It was she who commanded the valiant, if doomed defense of Castle Dragaard. She repelled assault after assault on the castle gates, and held until the power of the Coven had been broken and the Wolf Horde army's discipline broke. After eight assaults on the castle that day, Colonel Aurrianna Tanthalus of the 2nd Dragon Wing, bloodied and exhausted, stood with her Dragons, still holding the gates.

In the years that followed, the Dragon blood in her veins, a side effect of all Dragonmasters, began to change her. Her early days as a mercenary, her days as a pirate, even her dabbling in sorcery and flirtation with being a Weaponsmaster were forgotten. Her lifelong loves faded, though bittersweet memories filled the places where Colonel Matthew Compton and the Khangan Ambassador, Kor, had once been. She watched her beloved Amanda become Queen, and trade years of life for lasting youth. But her youth was because she was no longer truly human. She retired as Force General of the Carellonian Dragon Forces, and some say, disappeared into the mountains to live out eternity as a Dragon,... perhaps the greatest Brass Dragonmaster in history.

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