The Great Elemental Dragons

Yaga and the Holiday Hotel

Aria's call for help at Frostval leads you after Yulgar to an abandoned hotel on Mount Otzi, where a Memory Leech offers guests solid imitations of lost loved ones while feeding on their warmth. Valencia hears the apology she wants from her father. Tara and Victoria meet the family they lost, and Fa tries to hold on to her memories of La and Re. Song's notes expose the trap, along with an unexplained bird-faced witch and red threads around the false Abel who confronts you. A guardian of Nature separates Aria from the false Lark. You then confront Yaga in the neighboring room and rescue Aria. Your friends break the imitations, and Aria casts vines into the darkness to help you escape the mirror, using a lullaby Tara had taught her to guide you toward them. Together, you destroy the hotel's Mockingbird heart. Victoria remembers Lynaria singing the same lullaby and gradually forgetting its words, but is unsure whom her mother had written it for.

Aria's Research and the Great Dragons

At Dragonrune Hall, Aria invites you and Valencia to help locate Lore's Great Elemental Dragons for her thesis. Valencia is interested in their hoards, but her affection for Aria and memories of returning to Yulgar's inn also bring her along. You warn that some Great Dragons may be as ruthless as Akriloth, while others may not want to be found. Lady Celestia sends her student Argento, a Dragonlord and defender of Termina Temple, to help with the search alongside his Metal Dragon partner, Rhein, who can carry you to any location your research establishes.

Discovering that her Champion's gift lets her speak directly with animals, Aria helps you follow their accounts and a lost expedition's journal from the Tree of Life to Deleuze Tundra, where you learn that GenoKratos, the Great Dragon of Earth, died and its Nature and Metal offspring divided the body. Following traces in the Yokai Isles to Vivaldi Cavern, Koschei Yaga's empty den, you assemble the history of a once-playful Nature Dragon trapped in decay, rejected by Terrane but loved by GenoKratos, who carved a companion for the lonely child. Aria wants the statue brought to Dragonrune Hall despite the attention it may draw from Yaga. When Argento translates its name, Arianne Vivaldi, its resemblance to Aria's makes you fear an obsession neither of you yet understands.

You follow the legend of Hyonix and her Dragonlord, Demien, who supposedly rescued her while his brother Sinclair hid. A stolen chest, opened with keepsakes tied to Hyonix and her bloodline, leads you to Sinclair Cove and a less certain history. Hyonix's partner drowned himself after his brother's death, leaving her with only his pearl amulet. Comparing the legend with letters from Ashray, you and your companions suspect that the brothers exchanged identities. Valencia suggests that the brave brother may have done so to give the timid one a chance to grow. You believe the loving bond with Hyonix never freed her partner from that first lie. Hoping to draw Hyonix out of isolation, Aria takes the amulet to Dragonrune Hall.

When you ask why other Dragons followed Akriloth, Galanoth, now Champion of Fire, gives you the surviving generals' location but chooses not to renew the fighting. Argento takes you to King Eldfell, who mourns his daughter Uriax. Eldfell recalls a star-born flame threatening Lore during the Avatars' wars: Akriloth stood against it, while the Champion of Fire fled. Eldfell blames that abandonment for Akriloth's contempt for humans, bitterly contrasting Fiamme's former favor for Dragons with her choice of a Dragonslayer as Champion. Offering the gem she once gave Akriloth as a memento, he asks to be left with his surviving kin.

In Skye, you learn that the Elven royals claimed ownership of Volgritian through descent from Haeos's favored Champion. After they stole his eggs and tried to make him a royal steed, Volgritian killed the would-be rider. Haeos and the Energy Elementals helped imprison him. Aria realizes you already know where he is, but agrees to visit only with his consent. At Termina Grove, the recovering Dragon struggles to speak and is ashamed to be seen wounded. You had promised to protect his privacy. He asks you to keep a broken golden chain and remember what happened. Aria promises not to ignore such cruelty, even if Terrane is responsible.

With Professor Mueran's help, you begin the search for Dekanor, the Great Dragon of Darkness, by listening to Slimes, Frogdrakes and Dreadspiders accuse him of tormenting small creatures. The investigation then begins to follow you: an undead shopper's receipt leads to notes threatening the researchers you know. At Ashray, witnesses report that Fa saved them before the Dragon carried her away. You find her safe in LavaRun. She describes the encounter as roughhousing, but regrets drawing his attention to Termina Temple. Back at the grove, you find Volgritian unharmed but agitated and a letter threatening him and a pale lady nearby before inviting you to Greif's Playhouse.

At Greif's Playhouse, you, Aria and Valencia find a ruined temple arranged like a dollhouse. A recording played by the damaged doll called Greif's Little Brother tells you that Dekanor is mourning Greif, his Dragonlord, though his idea of a recent death spans an immense stretch of mortal time. He has not heard from Voidstar since, and Aria's title does not entitle her to intrude. Unless you have come about an Elemental War or an apology from Voidstar, he wants you gone. After Aria admits that her research has crossed boundaries, you suggest talking it over at Dragonrune Hall. Above the temple, a pair of purple eyes watches from the darkness.