Serpukhov

Feel free to reference or use this location in your lore, but please don't edit this page. Thank you!Serpukhov is a meeting place in the Abiding Boneyard.
The Kunguru, the Asroka of Demarr, and the House of Wulfs meet at Serpukhov annually. Structures built around and drilled into a vast ribcage in the Wasteland north of Hellswell Undercroft hold spontaneous markets, temporary housing, and conference areas for leaders to address grievances, discuss alliances, and request aid. The three tribes have a contentious history (like all Plagueflight tribes), but have forged a tentative alliance to survive.
==Lore==
====Nomadic Tribes====
While Plagueflight values survival most of all, they do recognize that strategy is above senseless violence, and that in order for a tribe to survive they must care for one another. It's a common misconception that Plagueflight tribes are barbaric, who live together out of necessity but are independent to the point of total selfishness. Some think that Plagueflight dragons don't care for anyone but themselves. In reality, a society like that could never survive, and surviving is what Plague does best.
Plagueflight tribes are fiercely loyal to one another. In fact, loyalty is equal to resilience in traits Plagueflight values. Tribes can be the size of a city or the size of a single family, but either way, they are protective of each other to the extreme. Of course, those who do not provide for the tribe to the best of their ability are not immune to banishment.
Annually during the Riot of Rot all tribes meet at Hellswell Undercroft, to negotiate allyships and trade (and celebrate, of course). There is a loose centralized Plagueflight power, but that mostly deals with foreign affairs and mediation. For the most part, tribes keep to themselves, and govern themselves how they please. This means there are often seizures of power within larger, newer tribes, making these unstable. Most do not last long-term. The ancient tribes are those that are more akin to houses, made up of a family or sometimes a fusion of families.
Plagueflight also values honor, but has an unconventional definition. Debts are taken as a matter of life and death, since they often are, and both the strength of the individual and actions to protect the group are favorable. Prowess in the wasteland and in battle is infinitely more important to reputation than wealth or power status. All tribes have different systems, but the most common is that leadership is decided through combat rather than birth; anyone can lead, but must prove themself.
====The Wulfs of Orenheim====
The Wulfs are a tribe that have gone through periods of plenty and famine, but have gotten through it all. They are a historic actor in many Plagueflight civil wars, and though they are not a family or clan like many tribes of a comparable size, the Wulfs have a strong sense of unity and loyalty to one another.
The Wulfs are known for their powerful warriors, who wear skull masks and striking body paint. They have conquered and absorbed several smaller houses, such as the Kellemn, the Pokliam, and the Ferriok. They hunt in traditional Plagueflight fashion, in large roving packs.
Orenheim, where the tribe originated, is the region to the south and west of Rotrock Rim. The Wulfs make a yearly migration in the fall back to Orenheim, but for the summer and spring they reside in the northwestern Boneyard, between Rotrock and the Undercroft. In the winter they move farther west to the border with Starfall, where rather than a desert there are dead, decaying forests and huge fungal structures.
Mostly nomadic, the Wulfs do have permanent lodgings at Serpukhov, and some members choose to stay there year-round. The tribe allows it for now, but there is fear that those who stay will find they prefer the company of the other who stayed from different tribes, and break off to join them and form a new Serpukhov tribe. Plagueflight values loyalty, but not when it becomes foolish.
====Disabled Plague Dragons====
Many other flights expect Plagueflight to be cruel, leaving their disabled compatriots to die in the Wasteland. Like many myths around Plagueflight culture, this couldn't be farther from the truth.
Plagueflight takes extremely good care of disabled dragons. Plague is known for its innovative prosthetics, including both mechanical and biological. Wheelchairs, prosthetics legs and wings, canes, Plagueflight has it all. Metal prosthetics are usually used by dragons born in other flights, while biological prosthetics are mostly used by Plague mages. Biological prosthetics can be reused from corpses, or plucked from the living Wasteland itself. They are usually difficult to use unless the user already has experience with Plague magic. It's far more common to use partly reanimated body parts, but there are some plant and animal species and even some geobiological formations smattered in the wasteland that can be grown into the correct shape to fit a dragon perfectly. Some dragons use a metal prosthetic in the meantime while they personally grow their own biological one; these can be used seamlessly.
Survival of the fittest, yes; it would stand to reason that any dragon who is born with a disability or acquires one that makes it difficult to survive would not be considered "fit." However, that individualistic idea of Plagueflight is deeply inaccurate. Perhaps a disabled dragon couldn't survive on their own, but Plagueflight's collective nature is their greatest tool for survival. Plagueflight is fit due to their care for one another. Most dragons, even those one might consider to be "fit," would not survive a day all alone.
====Plague Warfare====
In the Scarred Wasteland, war happens nigh constantly. The flight is fractured into thousands of clans with no central control, and those clans fight one another for a multitude of reasons. Resources in the Wasteland are scarce, so fights break out over food, hunting grounds, coastal land, fresh water sources, and sheltered areas, especially in the Boneyard. There are also hundreds upon hundreds of inter-clan grudges, held for years to decades to centuries. History is quite important to Plague dragons, and that includes every clan their clan has ever fought and why those pustules deserved it and still do.
Plague clans vary in fighting style in the extreme. Some clans are cold and calculated, executing military maneuvers with precision. Some are senseless berserkers who go into frenzies on the eve of battle. All clans have a traditional fighting style that is passed down for generations, undergoing evolution, as all Plagueflight cultural elements do, to make them the strongest they can be.
All clans have their own decoration, too. Most Plagueflight warriors wear the bones of their enemies, but some have particular battle dress.The Wulfs of Orenheim wear bright red body paint made of crushed flowers mixed with blood on their skull spoils and edges of their wings in hypnotic patterns. The Kunguru wear ceremonial robes when preparing for battle, which connects them to local spirits and gods in the hopes of a blessing. The Asroka warriors wear wooden masks outside of battle, taking it off only to fight and, privately, to eat. The mask may only be removed in the presence of others outside of a battle if that dragon is immediate family.
Category:Communal Locations
Category:Plague