Dragonwilds:Lacrussa

Template:External Template:Infobox NPC Lacrussa was a Template:RSL dragonkin scientist and a former assistant of Template:RSL, who resided in Dragonwilds:Ashenfall and was known for her experiments with dragons and magical technology.Template:CiteJournal Her legacy is particularly tied to the Dragonwilds:Dragonkin Vaults and the creation of the titan wyrms whose bones now litter the Dragonwilds:Stormtouched Highlands. Lacrussa had the elemental power of ice Template:CiteJournal

Lacrussa was the only Dragonkin to resist the allure of magic, insisting that science was the greater power, capable of almost anything with time and study. While other dragonkin of Ashenfall wore elaborate mage robes decorated with precious stones and shining metals, Lacrussa refused such ornamentation. She wore her dragonkin mage robes plain and undecorated as a small act of rebellion, claiming that magic would always be overcome in the end. She did, however, use alchemical techniques to enhance the defensive power of her robes—something the other Dragonkin soon came to copy, proving, in her mind, the superiority of science.Template:CiteJournal

Beliefs

Lacrussa held gods in low regard, dismissing the very concept of divinity entirely. Rather than viewing them as true deities, she saw them through a purely scientific lens—as powerful creatures whose essence had been changed and ascended, with flesh and soul merged into a solidified form. She left matters of faith to the priestly caste and considered religious belief to be the domain of primitive beings.Template:CiteJournal

History

Lacrussa was one of the dragonkin who came to Ashenfall, seeking freedom from their kin's. The group had finally escaped persecution by their own kind, who had been hunting them due to Lacrussa's sibling (Dragonwilds:Viika) being a seer.

Lacrussa's primary focus was scientific experimentation, particularly the creation and control of dragons. She was accompanied by other Dragonkin, including Rasthin, Avisk, and her sibling Viika, who was a seer.Template:CiteJournal Later she found a Dragonwilds:Salve Crystal and stole the recipe for creating a Dragonwilds:Salve Amulet, fascinated by its properties.Template:CiteJournal

During the Dragonwilds:Human-Garou War, Lacrussa was amongst the dragonkin that allied with the goddess Dragonwilds:Lougrim to help her and the Dragonwilds:garou fight against the humans and their Dragonwilds:bandosians allies. In exchange for the aid, Lacrussa asked for Lougrim's blood in order to create better dragons.Template:CiteJournal When the alliance was a success, leading to the garou's victory over the human and bandosians, Lougrim held her end of the bargain, donating blood to Lacrussa. With this, she now had the means to create better, stronger and more useful dragons. She began experimenting, infusing these bloods with dragon eggs. Avisk would later interfere with her work, forcing himself to her experiments, to work together, suggestion she needed to fuse certain dragons for better results.Template:CiteJournal He would mess with some of the brood, adding rune essence into the them.Template:CiteJournal Despite Lacrussa's warning in trying to maintain a single headed dragons, Avisk ignored her, which led to several of these brood to die, all but one.Template:CiteJournalTemplate:CiteJournal

A multiheaded dragon was born, showing no signs of madness for having multiple minds. Instead she found that it would work as one, unified in a way.Template:CiteJournal She learns that the dragon was able to spread the rage across herself, weakening the effect, causing her to express other emotion and behaviours, such as curiosity, reason and even wit.Template:CiteJournal Lacrussa would study her more.

While continuing on her experiments, she stumbled upon something that would twist and reanimate the dead under the earth. She used the salve amulet to fight against the undead that would invade her laboratory. She would continue this from time to time until the start of the Dragonwilds:Dragon Rebellion, where she met her end by Kuldra.Template:CiteJournal

Creations and experiments

Titan Wyrms

Lacrussa was responsible for creating the enormous dragons whose bones can be found in the Stormtouched Highlands. These gargantuan creatures were powerful enough to have potentially ended the Template:RSL themselves, possessing wingspans capable of blotting out the sun and claws strong enough to tear down fortresses. They were ultimately destroyed in a battle against a powerful mage who commanded lightning.Template:CiteJournal

Vault Guardians

One of Lacrussa's proudest achievements was the creation of the Vault Guardians, constructs that protected the Dragonkin vaults scattered throughout Ashenfall. She discovered that rune essence, when properly prepared, could be refined into a powder and then inscribed across stone and metal to create complex magical effects. The vault guardians were reflections of living beings, a power belonging only to the Elder Gods.Template:CiteJournal

Whilst the guardians lacked intelligence, they were incredibly strong, with attacks powerful enough to topple almost any threat. During the dragon rebellion, Lacrussa regretted that she could not send the guardians beyond the magical enchantments of the vaults, as the magic that animated them only worked within those walls.Template:CiteJournal

Bloodwood manipulation

Lacrussa was very fond of bloodwood sap, which she used to shackle dragons to her will. Bloodwood trees grow only in places steeped in violence and produce a sticky red sap of raw emotion, amplifying feelings and conveying anger, fear, or hatred across a much greater range.Template:CiteJournal

Dragon-wolf Hybridisation

Lacrussa attempted to hybridise dragons with mammals, specifically dire wolves, in order to create a superior creature. While rapid hybridisation failed due to the biological incompatibility between reptiles and mammals, she instead engineered a slow breeding process over generations.Template:CiteJournal The experiment was eventually considered a failure, and Lacrussa intended to incinerate the remaining specimens, but Viika released them all instead.Template:CiteJournal

Kuldra

With Avisk's interference in her work, the two were able to create Kuldra, who showed promising results despite having multiple heads.

Relationships

Viika

Lacrussa had a close but complex relationship with her sibling, the seer Viika. She loved her sibling dearly and had broken them free of the gilded prison they'd been raised in, which had made her an outcast to her people. However, she also acknowledged that she would never truly understand them, as Viika was prone to behaviour that Lacrussa could not comprehend.Template:CiteJournal

Viika and Lacrussa had different views on the vault guardians. While Avisk questioned whether the guardians had souls, and Viika was once found laughing with one, Lacrussa maintained that they were tools, nothing more, though she sometimes doubted this position.Template:CiteJournal

Avisk

Lacrussa had a deeply antagonistic relationship with Avisk. She found him irritating and resented his interference in her scientific work, considering him an amateur who lacked understanding of proper scientific methodology.Template:CiteJournal

Avisk's ambition and obsession with transcendence led him to repeatedly attempt to sneak into Lacrussa's laboratory.Template:CiteJournal

Their relationship became irreparably damaged when Avisk experimented on Viika, permanently injuring them. Lacrussa vowed revenge.Template:CiteJournal

Brakka

Dragonwilds:Brakka was a Template:RSL architect who came to Ashenfall with Lacrussa and gained the elemental power of earth. There was some tension between them, as Lacrussa often ignored Brakka's guidance, though they were part of the same group that fled their kin's traditions to forge their own path.Template:CiteJournal

Rasthin

Dragonwilds:Rasthin was a Template:RSL who came to Ashenfall and gained the elemental power of fire. She encouraged Lacrussa's dragon experiments, searching for ways to make them into a more potent force. Rasthin also shared the blood of the goddess Dragonwilds:Lougrim with Lacrussa for her experiments.Template:CiteJournal

Zorgoth

Lacrussa was a former assistant of Template:RSL before coming to Ashenfall. Zorgoth was a Dactyl elder who created dragons on Ungael with the goal of eradicating humanity. Following Lacrussa's departure, the competence of his remaining associates declined dramatically, suggesting she had been a valuable member of his operation.Template:CiteNPC

Kranon

Lacrussa had a complex relationship with Template:RSL, a Template:RSL priest she knew before coming to Ashenfall. She used a riddle he had posed to her as the basis for the lock mechanism protecting her laboratory, suggesting they had conversed at some point in the past.Template:CiteJournal However, Lacrussa held the priestly caste in low regard, dismissing Kranon contemptuously and viewing religious approaches as inferior to science.Template:CiteJournal

Another dragonkin (Dragonwilds:Brakka) also recalled speaking with Kranon prior to his corruption, where they discussed the eccentricities of timeswept seers like Viika.Template:CiteJournal