Dracoimpery

Dracoimpery (Drakine Vendeía Akor, English Comfort of Mind's Strength) is a Soul Phantasm that refers to the manipulation or control of, or the dominion over dragons. A user of this power is known as a dracoimperist (Drakine dráki-tiir, English Dragon King).

This ability is chiefly Euthoran, having been born of a spiritual connection between dragons and humans that began with the bond forged between Skyking Shyr and Isden Aliira. It has since evolved/developed [...]

Function

Dracoimpery is usually associated with the ability to control dragons. It is only by imposing one's will upon the target that a dracoimperist can truly "control" a dragon. The most famous function of the Soul Phantasm pertains to the dracoimperist, or master, telling the dragon to perform a task. The dragon's brain subsequently forces it to comply. The dragon may resist, and may succeed depending on its willpower compared to its master's, but more often the master is the stronger.

Applications

Dracomancy

On Euthora, dracoimpery is more commonly referred to as dracomancy. In actuality, what Euthorans refer to as dracomancy is a distinctive subset of dracoimpery, born of the first Euthoran manifestation of the Soul Phantasm: spiritual and mental communication. Rather than exhibiting control over dragons, the original purpose of dracomancy was to create a psychic affinity with and establish an ability to telepathically communicate with dragons. As it was primarily the human dracoimperist who would benefit by seeing through the eyes of the dragon, the ability was termed "dracomancy", roughly meaning "divination of dragons," although the actual mechanics are more similar to telepathy or a low-level of hypnosis.

Dracomancy allows one party the ability to see perfectly from their mentally-linked partner's perspective, and thus allows one party to see things from a perspective that they would otherwise be unable to see from their perspective. For example, a dracoimperist would be able to view the vast distances and aerial viewpoint that a dragon is accustomed to seeing. Otherwise, it is primarily utilized for communication, allowing thoughts to be exchanged non-verbally between the master and his/her dragon.

Through prolonged exposure to a dragon's consciousness, a dracoimperist practising dracomancy will begin to increasingly find their thought processes changing to work as a dragon's mind does.

Familiar Bonds

Main Article: Familiar

With sufficient skill and discipline, an experienced dracoimperist may have the capacity to forge a particularly powerful bond with a dragon known as a Familiar link. A dragon bound this way is referred to as a Familiar, while the dracoimperist in question retains the title of 'master.' In most cases, the dragon in question must give its consent to being bound as a Familiar. This is not always the case, as shown by [...]

While more similar to "classical" Euthoran dracoimpery than most links, there are still crucial differences. However, one thing that remains the same is a powerful bond of friendship and loyalty forming between the two parties, and a tendency for pairs with longstanding bonds to begin to lose the ability to distinguish between their independent thoughts. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it allows for quicker communication on the battlefield and other stressful situations.

Familiar links stay almost completely true to the original function of the power, though the two parties were not linked in mortality and the bond was not so easily broken. Familiar links keep the spiritual component, but still emphasizes mental, and it was quite literally unheard of for a human to bond with multiple dragons via the original dracoimpery mechanics.

History

Dracoimpery was born on Euthora with the bonding of Skyking Shyr and Isden Aliira. This capability was passed down to their descendants- because Shyr is the ancestor of all Euthoran dragons, likewise all Euthoran dragons were granted the ability to forge the bond. Fewer humans were given the ability from Isden, but within a few generations it had spread to much of the human population, with some help from Shapeshifters despite the wilder race being unable to natively obtain the ability.

While dragons largely kept their half of the ability intact, the inevitable mutation of the trait within humans (in part due to breeding with Shapeshifters; this mutation from Shapeshifter DNA is also part of what caused dragons to diversify and later become weaker) caused a corruption of the power; the ability became extremely rare in humans, rather than a trait inherent in all of them, and became a variation of mind control via telepathy. In most cases, the spiritual component of the link was lost entirely, instead becoming purely mental and dependent on willpower.

Familiar bonds still remain the truest to original dracoimpery, as it keeps the spiritual component, although original dracoimpery did not force one party to follow the other in death, and could not be broken so easily. Shyr himself keeps a rather low opinion of humans starting from the late Radiant Era, considering them to be primarily at fault for the corruption of a "sacred bond".

Modern vs. Original Dracoimpery

While 'classical' Euthoran dracoimpery (what is now referred to as dracomancy) was a far more subtle ^{[in what way?]} mental link than links exhibited by modern dracoimpery, a bonded pair could still acutely sense each others' thoughts and emotions, shared pain, and oftentimes felt as if they were one single consciousness. As Isden once told Shyr, she could "feel his wings beat as if [she] were the one flying." ^{[direct quotation?]} Likewise, Shyr would often comment how pleasant it felt when Isden would run in pursuit of a prey animal, an action that he quickly grew too large to efficiently conduct.

The modern school of dracoimpery concentrates on the master overpowering the dragon's willpower with their own sheer mental force. In most cases, the dragon is absolutely forced to obey the commands of its master, leading to situations such as Koth Grimseeker nearly taking over Euthora by exercising an extreme amount of authority over its dragons. Conversely, the 'classical' school of Euthoran dracoimpery was much more communication-based in nature. Rather than exhibiting a degree of dominance over the dragon, a dracoimperist would mentally communicate an idea to their dragon's subconscious. It would then be up to the dragon whether or not to obey the "order."

Euthoran humans and dragons remain the only creatures that are natively able to make use of the power, however Shapeshifters may obtain it provided a human in their lineage has it, or a dragon obtained it via a master bound through a Familiar link. An example of this would be Jason Shaver, who is both half Darkwing Firedrake and the son of Mordicai, the Familiar of Cresius Tasque. It is also possible for an offworlder of Euthoran descent to inherit dracoimpery, as was the case with Lord X-Giga-X.

Trivia

• Dracoimpery has a long history of out-of-character debate over its nomenclature.