Welcome to Lotas, the fourth world from Mizar. The binary stars work together to light the world, much like the people of Lotas must work together to survive. Humanity arrived here by accident when a colonial class vessel was forced, do to system failures, to find the nearest habitable world or risk drifting through the void of space forever.
They had scientists and environmental engineers to help them alter existing plants and animals, as well as modify Earth based species, to help make their new world more hospitable. As it was a colony ship, they were equipped with everything they needed to establish a moderate sized, minimal technology colony in just a few years. There were specialists in every field that would be needed to make a foreign world a home. That was good news.
The bad news came soon enough. Just three years after their arrival tragedy fell from the sky. Long string like creatures fell from the heavens, devouring every living thing in their path. It was a rain of death! The only safety was under inorganic mater or well beneath water. Less than one in three humans survived the destruction. But they survived, and they learned.
They named the mindless destroyer Score, in light of the marks left upon the land. Over the years they learned predict its coming and goings. Score fell upon Lotas in cycles of about eight years and then not for the next two hundred or so years. The summarized that it came from a heavenly body that revolved around the same two suns. Score drowned in water and froze quickly in icy weather. But fire was the best way to destroy it. And fire they had.
The early settlers had found creatures capable of eating the score, thriving off that deadly enemy that was clearly now a part of their ecosystem. They also found the Drakes. These little flying lizards were capable of breathing fire! But only in small quantities and the creatures were flighty at best. The surviving geneticists and eco-engineers set to work modifying and breeding a creature that could work with humans and clear the skies of Score. They called them Dragons!
Now, 1056 years after the Arrival, the fifth cycle of Score is about to fall on Lotas. Society, lacking the ability to maintain the level of technology the Settlers once had while struggling to survive, has reverted to a medieval like state. The need for protection from the deadly Score forced people into stone structures and caves, limiting their travel. Caves and stone keeps became population centers, practically city states, called Keeps. The leaders of these places became known as Lords, and the lands were called Keepings, and each were named after the Lord or local features.
Much knowledge was lost during that first, horrific cycle. The survivors, seeing how much was already lost, save what they could by forming Crafts to retain and teach the different skill sets most needed for survival. Seven Major Crafts, and a multitude of minor Crafts formed. Each took up the archaic apprentice-journeyman-master format. Each Craft recognized one Craft Master as their leader and spokesman on the Great Council.
And of course, there were the Dragons! As they bred true to design the flying creature grew to mammoth proportions. A full grown dragon could have a wingspan wider than a river. Telepathic, they were bonded to riders at birth. Together the pair would fly and fight the Score. Wings of dragons, consisting of no less than ten flew together in groups of seven to form Flights. Several Flights could belong to a single Sky, all under the leadership of the Queen Rider/Dragon and her Consort Rider/Dragon. Each Sky was named after, or in similar fashion to the local Keep, and looked to that Keep for sustenance.
So, it is that you come into this world that is ever so delicately balanced on the hard edge of survival. The day of Choosing draws nigh, when the youth of the Keeps are presented to the Lords, Masters and Riders to have their futures decided. What will you be?
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