Phoen's Shield
or
The Sun God

Appearance:
The Shield of Phoen travels across the sky during the course of the day, from sunrise to sunset. To most cultures it is known as the sun. Some societies know it by different names, especially in the far north, where the sun hangs in the sky for the majority of the winter.

The four stars of the Sun God twinkle slowly in the night sky. The Sun God is Phoen's constellation, the nighttime reminder of his sovereign reign over day. It is shaped like a wide sunburst.

Location:
During the day, the Shield of Phoen is visible in the sky as the sun.

At night, the stars that form the constellation of the Sun God remains in the sky as a reminder of Phoen’s vow to the drakes and the other Arkati to stand vigil over the world against the return of the Ur-Daemon.

Lore:
During the final phases of the Ur-Daemon war, the Arkati slowly became more involved as the drakes lessened in number. The power of the Ur-Daemon equaled that of the drakes, who had long ruled over Elanith. The drakes had never encountered a being or beings with power enough to threaten them. The Ur-Daemon introduced a new emotion to the drakes; fear. Some drakes died, others went into long hibernation, and others went mad, their minds not able to cope with the powerful new emotion.

Thus, the Arkati were conscripted into service against the Ur-Daemon. Kai is the most renowned in action against the enemy, but the other Arkati also had active roles in the closing battles of the war. The roles each of the Arkati played depended greatly upon the roles their drake mentors had chosen.

Kai followed a drake that was a ferocious combatant against the Ur-Daemon. This drake was called Gledh’manaak, which translates as "Angel of War" in an ancient elven dialect, which is related closely to the original tongue of the Arkati. His scales shimmered like burnished metal all along the length of his serpentine body and he had a mane that was long and plaited, each strand almost like fine mithril wire. His wings were wide and vespertilian, topped with a pair of long grasping claws, with membranous skin a translucent veined silver. His maw was filled with steely teeth like sword blades and his claws could split stone with each mighty swipe. His eyes were like pools of mercury, resting atop the horned length of his snout. In the midst of battle, the drake’s eyes blazed with fires like those of the sun.

Kai’s drake had a sibling. Where the war-drake was silvered, his sibling was golden. The gold drake’s mane was long and loose, likened by mortals to the mane of a lion. His wings were graceful and feathered, like a hawk or an eagle. His breath was pure and cleansing, a scourge of fire that purged his enemies from the field. His eyes were pools of molten gold that raged with the same purifying fire as his breath. During battle, arrayed beside his mortal followers, who died by the hundreds, tears of molten metal dripped from his eyes as he mourned the deaths of his mortal armies

.

The Arkati named this drake Shu’raax, which means "Claws of Fire." As with all the drakes he chose his own path and devotion. He served Elanith as sentry, watching the planet from a place among the stars, wreathed in a corona of flame, scouring the world for the activities of the Ur-Daemon.

Rare among the drakes in his beliefs, Shu’raax believed the Arkati and the mortal races deserved the protection of his race and thus he chose his place in the sky to protect them. When the Ur-Daemon doused the light of the sun with their foul magicks, Shu’raax replaced it in the sky, guarding his Arkati and mortal charges.

Beside these two drakes, their Arkati followed them, fighting as zealously as their draconic teachers. Kai and Phoen were steadfast allies during this time and many Ur-Daemon fell under the razor edges of their blades.

During one battle, Phoen and Shu’raax fought without Kai and Gledh’manaak beside them, leading an army of the mortal races. The losses were heavy, both amongst the Drake armies and the Ur-Daemon. Finally, Phoen and Shu’raax stood against one of the greatest of the Ur-Daemon, Kharuugh-Ur.

The monstrosity was powerful beyond belief, with oily black skin, huge bat-like wings, horrible talons, and a mane of writhing and hissing serpents, whose fangs dripped a virulent poison. His eyes burned with sickly green flames and his tusks dripped with foul ichor. His weapon was a huge blade of glaes, tempered in the blood of a fallen drake during the early stages of the war.

Shu’raax and Kharuugh-Ur clashed violently. The ground beneath them trembled with earthquakes. Their rage shattered mountains and, with its magicks, the daemon rained poisonous fire down upon the drake, destroying the landscape for miles around.

Phoen attempted to fight beside his drake mentor, until the forces of the Ur-Daemon grew so numerous that his demise was near certain. He took shelter until the battle was over.

The drake and the Ur-Daemon waged a ferocious battle on one another. Their blows rained down in a torrent of ferocity, until both of them lay wounded and dying.  

Kharuugh-Ur’s forces lay decimated, but the great Ur-Daemon’s foul breath still rattled within its malformed chest. The Ur-Daemon’s arms had been torn from its torso and great furrows of flesh had been torn from its body. Its tarry-black blood dripped slowly from the wounds, scorching the ground as it fell.

Shu’raax’s wings were both broken, his right eye was gouged from its socket, and a cavernous wound split the scales and bones of his chest, baring the muscle of his heart. The drake was dying.

Phoen finished off the daemon with a slash from his flaming veil iron dagger and then knelt beside his ancient friend, taking one of the drake’s massive claws in his hands in a gesture of comfort.

The drake ordered Phoen to present his shield. The drake spoke softly, his dying breaths rattling in his massive lungs. He told Phoen that he would not survive his grievous wounds and that there would be no drake willing to take his place as sentry in the skies.

Shu’raax told the young Arkati that it would fall upon him to ferret out the Ur-Daemon and guide the draconic armies to their foes’ hiding places. Shu’raax had foreseen the fall of the drakes after the war and Phoen would oversee the rise of the mortal races after the dragons were gone.

Phoen nodded slowly then gasped in shock as Shu’raax plunged a claw into his pulsing heart, exposed by the great wound Kharuugh-Ur had torn in his chest. The drake’s life’s blood poured over the veil iron shield Phoen bore. The drake’s essence, contained in its final drops of blood, slowly transformed the shield into a disk of the purest solar fire.

With his dying breath, Shu’raax asked Phoen to swear to replace him in the skies. Phoen’s fear was great, as he knew, firsthand, the might of the Ur-Daemon. But, he also knew that without a replacement for the drake Shu’raax, the drakes would not be able to stave off the tide of the Ur-Daemon hordes that ravaged the world. The Arkati nodded solemnly to his oldest friend and with a drop of his own blood, mingled with the blood of the dying drake, sealed the pact.

As a tribute to his mentor, Phoen also kept a long lock of the drake’s mane. Plaited and hung with several ornaments, he still wears the braid as an adornment on his armor, hanging loosely from one shoulder. As he left the battlefield, Phoen raised the blazing shield the drake had bequeathed unto him. A gout of the searing fire erupted from its surface, scouring the bodies of the Ur-daemon, the drake, and any others who fell upon the field that day. The entire field became a huge funeral pyre that blazed so brightly it was seen hundreds of leagues away.

As Phoen flew away into the darkness, nothing remained on the field save a few piles of windblown ash.

From that day forward, Phoen has stood sentry in the skies above Elanith. The pure fire of his shield was so intense that many more Ur-Daemon were revealed and then destroyed by the dragons with Phoen’s guidance.

Phoen’s actions inspired more Arkati to become active in the war and, alongside the drakes, they were able to restore the true sun and dispel the gloom the Ur-Daemons had wrought on the world. The clear night skies slowly revealed glimmers of stars long concealed by the daemonic darkness.

The elven scholars who survived the war eventually named one formation The Sun God, to honor the drake Shu’raax’s sacrifice and to remind the followers of darkness that Phoen’s might awaits them at dawn.