Valna, Bringer of Decay

Bringer of Decay, All-Annihilator, Ender of Life, Emissary of Despair, Mother of Hopelessness, First Among the Last, Herald of the Final Decimation

Personality

Valna has an insatiable thirst for destruction, decay, and entropy, and sees herself as the conduit of these forces. She spends the vast majority of her time sleeping beneath the earth and, as she does not dream, takes comfort in the abyss of emptiness found there. Because of her singular drive for destruction she does not occupy her mind with the machinations that so many dragons take part in, instead allowing the turning of the world to provide her with opportunities to act as the force of nature that she is. She holds virtually all living things with disdain, including her ilk, and troubles herself not with meddling in their affairs. When she hunts she targets highly populated areas with the strongest signs of developing civilization, laying ruin to any signal of prevailing life. Though she does not seek out followers, and claims not to hoard material possessions, her vanity drives her to accept cult-like followings for periods of time and drives her to take things that are valued by others as trophies of her victories.

Domain

Valna claims the expansive wastes of Callum-Thea as her core realm, and is in many ways one with the natural forces of that land. She nests within a network of tunnels she has burrowed beneath a particular region that is referred to by the indigenous peoples as the Voidlands. Within these lands swirling, deadly sandstorms whip across the land and in doing so conjure a ceaseless howl of inescapable noise. No rain has fallen for thousands of years and no plant life finds refuge there. Those who enter these lands do not dream, and cannot be raised from the dead, whether through divine power or undeath. Cracked earth, barren rock formations, and the bleached bones of all those who dare to venture here stretch as far as the eye can see. The sky above the volatile sandstorms are often blackened by the shadows of massive buzzards, which feast upon the fallen and each other. Adjacent to these lands is an ancient ruin, The Vault of Qyrix. Valnas tunnels have breached its subterranean walls and she covets all of the mysteries contained within as her own.

History

The age of Valna’s existence is unknown, and stretches far beyond the current cycle of civilization. She has slumbered through the rising and falling of organized society and only seeks to flatten it during her waking hours. At some point early in the current recorded histories Valna heard the prophecy named the Inear and the line: “On the day that the moons are sundered, and the skies darkened, a great wyrm shall emerge and herald the final decimation.” caught her attention. She has come to believe with some great conviction that she is destined to bring about the permanent end of existence on Arcis, to demolish it entirely into the homogeneous chaos that she yearns for, from which no life could ever again emerge.

Hoard

Valna claims everything within the Vault of Qyrix as her own, whether or not she has actually been able to retrieve it. Its many treasures both fair and foul are not listed here, but she has taken a few artifacts back to her nest where they have joined the rest of her secret hoard. While many dragons surround themselves with their hoard within their nesting chamber, Valna has secreted it away in a cavern far beneath her nest, which can only be accessed by a long descending tunnel that she keeps hidden.

• A large mound of carved ivory coins depicting a forgotten leader. Plundered from the treasury of an ancient kingdom that fell beneath Valna’s wrath.
• A massive ebony statue of a renowned Thri-kreen warrior.
• A set of three hide tapestries, painted in blood.
• Two obsidian obelisks, broken off at the base, etched in Deep Speech.
• A collection of wooden spears and clubs, inscribed with arcane runes and imbued with magical power
• An ancient, ornate, and heavily read copy of the Inaer.
• A dagger embedded in a mound of stone with a blade made of the same anti-existence material as an Orb of Annihilation. In legend the blade is known as the God Slayer.
• A massive chest made entirely of contiguous wood of strange origin. The opening mechanism is obscured, like that of a puzzle box. Within the chest are a few items recovered from the vault of Qyrix:
  • A robe so black it appears made of shadowsA blood-red crystal about one foot in length containing the essence and intelligence of a foul being.
  • A small sculpture made of black metal and of strange, abstract and eldritch design
  • A silver mirror. The reflections cast within seem to have a mind of their own.