Sorcerer-Prophets and Drakes

When the Kol-Dawi turned in desperation from the Ancestor Gods in the far-off days of myth, their former masters laid upon them many terrible curses. One of the most horrific is the Curse of Stone, reserved for Daemonsmiths; those who defy the ancient taboo against the use of magic. The more they delve into the mastery of the supernatural, the more difficult they find everyday tasks of the mundane. First, their joints begin to seize, losing feeling and stiffening. As their power grows, they find their skin turning first ashen, then gray, its fleshy feel turning tough and craggy. Eventually, even the most powerful of Daemonsmiths find themselves as little more than statues, unable to move, to speak, to breathe. Over the years, mages have cast magics and brewed potions in their dark towers, trying in vain to find a cure for this condition. The only known way to stave off this curse, but for a while, is to cast living beings into the temple fires at the heart of each ziggurat. Thousands of enslaved captives perish in those fires to buy the Sorcerer-Prophets precious days of life.

Those who take on the study of magic hold a position of great power and influence in Kol-Dawi society, ruling each Ziggurat and sending their legions out into the world to conquer and enslave. While younger Daemonsmiths will venture out of the towers to oversee the military commanders, it is rare for the great Sorcerer-Prophets to go abroad. Those that do ride in shuttered palanquins carried by dozens of slaves, or else on the backs of great beasts. In the days of yore Daemonsmiths rode Lamassu, but it has been many years since any of that race were seen alive, and now dragons are the favoured mount of many. At great cost of lives, the twisted drakes of the dark powers are captured and bound to the will of the Sorcerer, their barely-restrained ferocity making up for the mage’s own slow and grinding movements. When the Kol-Dawi go to war, the Sorcerer-Prophets strafe the field with hellfire and swoop from above to snatch some unfortunate to a cruel death in the dragon’s fiery maw.