[center][h1][b]Veles Sirrisushan[/b][img]https://i.imgur.com/YFt2gpr.jpg[/img][/h1][i][h3]The Dragon of Plethwi, Plethwi’s Serpent, Plethwi’s Dragon, The Dragon of Curses[/h3][/i][/center]

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[b]Potency:[/b]
Plethwi’s Dragon is not merely a figurative title - Veles is, following a certain curse from his former master, transformed permanently into the great monster of the ages. Veles has for much of his life since been stuck in this draconic form and has become dangerously competent in his new form. His dragon form is of the archetypal saurian kind - four limbs plus two wings, ability to breath intense flames, claws and tail. His scales are extraordinarily tough, with his upper scales almost completely impervious to mortal weapons, while his ‘vulnerable’ underbelly may require vast numbers of thrown spears and javelins to fell him, as if he were a Mammoth. While the oral traditions and stories of him often compare him to serpents and of deathly speed, in truth Veles is in fact a slow flyer and moves rather like an unstoppable mountain or armoured stone than as lithe blades amongst grass, as the stories go. The stories of speed as such, rather are likely inspired by the shocking terror and suddenness of his attack, which often comes at the dead of night.

Compounding his bestial might and catastrophic flames is his retained intelligence as a sorcerer, including even his ability to continue his use of the sorcerous powers he possessed as a human and which Plethwi instructed him in use, though now as a immense dragon, Veles often requires mortal hands to aid him in the preparation of rituals and ingredients - particularly in the formation of curses, which he specialises in. Much like the curse placed on him by his former master the sorceress-goddess Plethwi, Veles is able to bind others into numerous and often gruesome curses. In particular, Veles favours the use of a form of Geas, a cursed magically binding contract that compels others into its terms at risk of horrific punishment from the curses embedded within. In general, for Veles to perform his curses or ‘witchcraft’ as other users of Plethwi’s magic have called it, he requires the acquisition of often exotic ingredients - strange herbs, precious stones, items or substances associated with the target, and for larger more complex curses, intricate casting circles with ethereal languages that instruct in the curses construction.

Veles, as the Dragon of Plethwi however is not merely a user of this witchcraft, but also a severe victim of it. Plethwi did not merely curse her former apprentice with draconic form and think this curse of great endowing power was the true punishment - but rather the intricate nest of geas’, compulsions and hidden curses embedded into the impossibly complex curse, designed to turn him into an enslaved beast and pet for any whim she could fancy. While Veles eventually escaped or broke enough of these geas-bound conditions, it has inevitably led to him being afflicted by a number of curses that have either altered his body, mind or soul. 

Beyond his personal power, Veles also possesses considerable geo-political influence. While Veles himself is no official king or chieftain of any state, he rules a dispersed network of tributaries and autonomous vassals that have come to either bow to his will willingly or submit through overwhelming force. These vassals provide him tribute, often sums of gold and resources, or large quantities of food, or ‘women of regal birth’. The third tribute in particular derives from one of Plethwi’s geas conditions when she bound him to her, which was that he must funnel his magic powers only through a woman of regal birth and noble bearing, which once was herself, but now he kidnaps princesses and chieftains daughters or otherwise receives them as tribute.

[b]Ambition:[/b]
Upon his transformation into a dragon, one enslaved to the will of his former master, his most desired wish was to be free of his curse. Even after breaking away from Plethwi’s control, he continued to try to find the means to free himself and transform back into a man. However, as the years became decades, and then finally centuries, his ambition to return to humanity faded, either from acceptance of his new form, the corrupting influence of Plethwi’s curses on his mind providing new and wildly diverging instincts and desires, or simple frustration and hopelessness at the irreversible curses strength.

Now, Veles is driven by a combination of bestial compulsions (despite his human intelligence) and the remnants of vaguely remembered dreams and ambitions he possessed when he was still human, such as his desires to master magic from his passionate youth or collect all the ancient artifacts of the dead gods, as was often what he did when he accompanied Plethwi in her travels to secure said powers. Revenge too, against his treacherous master is a desire built up deep within the hidden recesses of his mind, even if the remnants of Plethwi’s curses on him forbid him from even thinking of killing her.  This desire itself is conflicted also, due to the complex relationship he had with Plethwi, as well as the bizarre nature of her betrayal and the inciting of Dyeus the Thunder God and himself into ‘battling eternally for her favour’.


[b]Life:[/b]
Once, over a century ago, Veles was but a mortal man. Born on the palace-isle of Menea to a handmaiden, he was discovered as a child by the almighty travelling sorceress Plethwi. Plethwi, sensing great potential for sorcery in the boy persuaded the king of Menea to force his mother to relinquish him to her tutorship. Veles accompanied the sorceress Plethwi through his youth, adolescence and young adulthood until finally, his master betrayed him, deciding to turn one of her most complex curses ever made, one in which he assisted in crafting the foundations for, on him. 

The reasons of her betrayal are only suspected by Veles - perhaps she grew tired of him, or felt threatened by his rapid learning of her magical arts. Perhaps the reason really was what she told him after he broke free from her enslavement, that she would forgive him for some vague past transgression and ‘win her heart back’ if he slew the mad barbarian warlord hero she sent after him, a ‘test’ that would become the century-long vendetta it is today. Perhaps she did it out of pure maliciousness, or just because she could.

Regardless, as every year passes, Veles the man fades away ever more distantly and so Veles the Dragon of Plethwi replaces him, obsessed with hoarding gold and artifacts, demanding tribute from mortal kingdoms and collecting maidens of ‘regal birth’.[/hider]