Jaania's Thorns

Maar is a smoldering, smoking mass of rock and glass that lies in the middle of the sea between our continent and Azaveyr. The Five Sisters stand tall over glittering plains of obsidian glass and belch fire and smoke into the reddened skies every century or so. Dragons roost in the peaks and craters of the Sisters, safe and warm in the scorching heat.

On the northern edge of the western peninsula, a once grand city lies in ash and ruin. Not even dragons dare go there. Wind and ash moan through the eerie, silent streets that are lined with obsidian statues. Statutes of citizens and livestock, rodents and insects… they all stand frozen in time as the ash and cinder of the ruins of Pelekoa swirl around them.

It’s said that if you visit Pelekoa on a night when the wind is calm and the waves are asleep and you stand perfectly still, with bated breath, you can hear… very faintly… if you strain your ears and hold your breath… the muffled beat of ten thousand hearts.

Pelekoa, was once a small but shining city that survived for almost a thousand years on the edge of the fiery, inhospitable island of Maar. The citizens and the dragons lived in harmony until, years ago, one young adventurer crept too far into the fiery depths of Maar and was fooled into revealing Pelekoa’s greatest secret. When the Great Fire Dragon burst forth from his lair, not the Guardians of the Fire Tower… not the dragonkeepers… not the few DragonLords that had bonded with dragons from the peaks… none of them could stand against Akriloth.

Now, everything that lived in Pelekoa stands frozen in time as a monument to the beginning of the Great Fire War.

Tephra and Limu are the last citizens of Pelekoa. The twin sisters could only watch in horror from the deck of the ship taking them to Dragonsgrasp as Akriloth destroyed their town in a rain of fire. They survived, while everyone they knew and loved was encased in dragon-fired obsidian. The tears and horror have turned to hope, though… as a woman who was once trapped in ice now walks among the living again.

The twins now stand with The Rose and have become Ahimsa and Tipu, Jaania’s Thorns.

Special thanks to Laken who created the original artwork for the twins!

The gates to Swordhaven don't open this week, but they will soon.