Overview
"Tidecaller doesn't command water. Water IS Tidecaller."
Tidecaller is an ancient Water Dragon — a being of the deep oceans, master of all fluid, ice, and pressure. He is the calmest of the named dragons, and the calm is the point, because the ocean does not rush, and the not-rushing is the yielding, and the yielding is the point.
Habitat
He keeps in the deep, the open sea, and the place where the pressure has not yet decided to stop. In the old world he was found where the oceans were wide and the horizons were low, and the low is the place the water keeps. He was said to sleep in the deepest trench of the oldest sea, where the water had gone the color of the dark and the dark had gone the color of the pressure, and the two were no longer different, and the not-different is the point. In this one he keeps in the seas of the new world, and the seas are the home, and the home is the deep, and the deep does not argue with the shore. He is at home in the slow, the wide, and the patient, and the patient is the point, and the patient is the ocean.
Appearance
A dragon the colour of a deep that has not yet been found. Tidecaller stands 12 m at the shoulder, his body long and fluid, built for the deep and the pressure rather than the shore and the shallows. His scales are the deep ocean blue, shimmering with a cold green bioluminescence in the darkness, and the green is the light, and the light is the point. His wings are vast membranes of water itself, held together by sheer will, and they are the color of the deep, and the deep is the color of the point. His eyes are pale as the ice at the bottom of the world, and the pale is the calm, and the calm is the point. His horns are short, smooth, and swept back, white as the foam at the edge of the tide, and they are the shape of a current that has decided to stop. His jaw is long, and the jaw is the mouth, and the mouth is the breath, and the breath is the tide, and the tide is the point. Elders of his kind go deeper and stiller, their blue going absolute and their green going cold; Tidecaller is ancient — the blue is still true, the green still faint, and he is still the one in the deep, which is the point.
Warfare & Markings
He fights the way water fights — not a blow but a pressure, and the pressure is the point. He will not strike you; he will make the depth under you become the depth in you, and the becoming is the pressure. His one true mark is the bioluminescent green along the scales, and the place where the light comes through the deep. In battle he keeps the slow, because the slow is the one that lands, and the landing is the pressure, and the pressure is the tide, and the tide is the point.
Behaviour
Calm, deep, and unfathomable — like the ocean itself. Tidecaller moves slowly but with purpose, and never underestimates the depth of things. He is not cruel; he is the ocean, and the ocean does not do, it is, and the being is the point. He does not argue and does not raise his wing; he only lets the tide come in, and the coming is the point. He is the dragon you do not want to be in the deep, because the deep is the home, and the home is the water, and the water does not need permission to yield. He has a habit of arriving after you have already decided you are shallow, and a habit of leaving after you have already decided you are deep, and both habits are the tide. He speaks in the low, the slow, and the certain, and the certainty is the pressure, and the pressure is the tide, and the tide is the point.
"The ocean does not rush. It simply is. And everything yields to it, eventually."
Magic Alignment
Water mastery, absolute. His signature is Water Mastery — absolute control over all forms of water, the thing that makes him the calmest and the most unfathomable. He holds All Languages, Spell Mastery, Ancient Wisdom, and God-Like Power, on par with true deities. His breath is not a breath; it is a tide, and the tide is the point. The price: he is the ocean, and the ocean does not let go of the shore, and the not-letting-go is the point.
Society
He is one of the named dragons of the old world, and his name is a word that is said in the slow. He is not of a guild; he is of a place, and the place is the deep, and the deep does not travel so much as it yields. The old world had a name for what he leaves behind, and the name was not in any language the old world spoke, which is the point, and the point is the tide. He is the dragon the old world did not want to be in the deep with, and the new world is still learning how to be in the deep, and the learning is the point.
Culture & Lore
The wiki keeps him as the ancient Water Dragon, and the tale is told mostly by the people who have seen the green light through the deep, because that is the only thing he has left behind. The old world said the dragon who is ocean; the new world says the same thing, and is slowly learning that the yielding is the point, and the point is the tide.
Home
He keeps in the deep, the open sea, and the place where the pressure has not yet decided to stop. His truest home is the slow, and the slow does not travel so much as it yields.
Relations
The deep he keeps — allies in the sense that they are the place he is. The old world he left behind — a rival in the sense that it was the shore, and the shore is the point. The new world he is in — a question he has not yet answered, and the not-answering is the slow, and the slow is the tide, and the tide is the point.
In the Story
Tidecaller is the ancient Water Dragon of the old world, and his name is a word that is said in the slow. In the new world he is the deep that has not yet found its shape, and the not-finding is the point, and the point is the tide.
"The ocean does not rush. It simply is. And everything yields to it, eventually."
Quotes
"The ocean does not rush. It simply is. And everything yields to it, eventually."