Gracchos Turn Drake Champion Lore
They ignored my talents. My strengths. My skills. For years, they denied me my rightful rank. And then, they lost our entire empire. It falls to me to claim it back, and once I’ve succeeded, I will never relinquish it.
Gracchos was always strong. That was something his royal cousins, Ramantu Drakesblood and Pheidi Tealcrest, and his uncle, Dragon Emperor Undrakar, could not deny. He never lost a wrestling bout, was a master of the atalat, and was unbeatable on the pitz court.
He thus never understood why, time after time, he was overlooked for senior positions. He was an eager and natural warrior, one whose exploits on the battlefield inspired Legion-comrades to push and attack with greater aggression than any others. Ramantu, Pheidi, and others steadily climbed the ranks or earned special commendations. Gracchos languished as a lowly commander of small line-infantry units, told he was not ready for higher station due to his outbursts of emotion. Such behavior was unbecoming of a senior officer, he was told. Petulant envy grew to malice.
This jealousy was Gracchos’ undoing. When he was captured alongside thousands of other Dragonkin during their disastrous invasion of Anathraad, Siroth saw his impotent rage, his impetuosity, the weaknesses that had stymied the Dragonkin’s progress, and turned them to his favor.
Gracchos was easy to manipulate. He wanted the Dragonkin Empire for himself, felt he deserved it, and his desire to fulfil his ambition easily outweighed any loyalty to family and people he might have once had. Seeing Gracchos as the perfect pawn to mold, Siroth flattered him and made him a Demon, granting him power he’d never had before.
In every one of Siroth’s subsequent wars, Gracchos was at the forefront, culling mortals with his twin sickles, the Chaff-reapers. He cared not for killing Lizardmen, seeing them as weak, and undeserving of a place in the world and empire they had lost.
Gracchos met Kurosa the Covetous during Siroth’s disastrous Third Great War. She was a powerful agent of the Shadow God, conducting missions of espionage and sabotage to wreak havoc. At the time, he dismissed her as cowardly for her underhanded tactics, but in later years, when she complained bitterly of Siroth’s failure to conquer Teleria, he paid attention.
For her part, Kurosa saw the same things in Gracchos as Siroth did: his temper, frustration, physical strength, and desire for power and recognition. He was the perfect blunt instrument before which treats could be dangled. For her work, having such a ferocious killer at her disposal was helpful indeed. She asked that he play a major role in her assault on Teleria.
Gracchos was not so foolish as to not guess that Kurosa sought to use him. Regardless, he elected to follow her. He agreed with her plans, and saw her as a means to an end. If anything, he decided, he was using her. If she succeeded and Siroth did attack Teleria in the wake of her assault, he would have a new Dragonkin Empire of his own, as he’d always desired.