Drake rider

A Drake rider is one of the Wanderers. It released its core in some earlier Unsealing, and a heart demon settled into the empty foundation. It cannot hold ground. It comes out of the Mist each Turning and rides for whoever pays.

Its kind serves in Pyre, the affinity of fire, destruction and war that Undon, the Unmaker holds. Dragons belong to the affinity-born, the native life that grows where an affinity runs strong, and each kind has its own card and its own cost. The Bloodkiln drake is the hardest bargain among them. It is no corpse, yet it eats people to keep its body, so it costs population and cannot be sent away.

The rider fights hand to hand and grows stronger and harder to kill the longer it serves. In time it lends the army courage before battle. Later, the dragons in its employer's army strike and strike back harder while it rides with them. The card shows what each stage adds. Drake riders say a drake will carry the demon because the two are alike: hungry things that have learned to hold a shape.

It costs geld and a little mana to keep, more as it grows, and it leaves when the pay stops. Kill one, and its service ends for the Turning. The soul goes on, and so does its kind.

The riders say the demon wants to fly high enough to touch the Scar, and that every drake it rides is one more step on that climb. Whether a rider can be freed is not known.

Player-visible facts