The Weeping Dragon

The Weeping Dragon is one of the four escaped Dreadgods on Cradle. It’s cult members are called Stormcallers.

Origins

About two or three thousand years old, “born” of a dreadbeast, long after the time Ozmanthus Arelius lived. A failed research experiment to control hunger aura. Created by Subject One in the Labyrinth under Sacred Valley. It escaped.

Descriptions

• Too powerful for anyone on the planet to kill. Even Monarchs cannot kill it. Thankfully, it sleeps a lot.
• “a long blue serpentine dragon that travels on thunderstorms, and sleeps on miles-long beds of clouds”

• “a kilometers-long azure dragon flew on a violent storm, moving like a hurricane toward a small kingdom” (Suriel’s view, Unsouled, ch 6)

• "Ziel saw the shining dragon that flew on unnatural stormclouds of madra." (Uncrowned, ch 14) "He remembered the storm rolling in, flashing blue and gold as living lightning slipped in and out like fish in the sea. The majestic roar, as the Weeping Dragon approached. He had watched the horizon then, awed by its majesty." (Bloodline, ch 16)

Sightings

Some years ago, probably before the Cradle series began, the Weeping Dragon flew over the region where the Dawnwing sect school was located, on the Iceflower Continent.

In Book 1, Unsouled, while hovering far above Sacred Valley, Suriel saw the Weeping Dragon: “On another hemisphere, a kilometers-long azure dragon flew on a violent storm, moving like a hurricane toward a small kingdom.” (Unsouled, ch 6)

Abilities

It creates unnatural and severe storms. Hurricanes. Storm clouds of madra. Lightning. Thunder. Rain. It can cause massive floods, landslides, etc.

Madra

Hunger and storm. Aspects: Storm Techniques: Living Lightning

Smaller Dragons

The Weeping Dragon is hungry. It sends out smaller dragon spirits of lightning madra. Hungry. Always hungry.

"The Weeping Dragon had brought with it lesser dragons, spirits of Stormcaller madra, which had been repelled by the Dawnwing sect’s defenses. Until the Stormcallers themselves had torn those defenses down. Then he’d seen hungry lightning tear men apart.. . .The dragons were spirits of lightning madra. They had no blood. When they were destroyed, they splattered into blue essence and gold sparks." (Bloodline, ch 16)

Cult

The Weeping Dragon is followed by the Stormcallers, led by the Sage of Calling Storms. This is the thug who mangled Ziel’s spirit and led the slaughter of his Dawnwing sect. Ziel remembers it:

“He’d known all about the Dreadgods, of course, but their sect was ancient. Well-defended. Protected by scripts and constructs. How much danger could they be in? As it turned out, they had survived the Dreadgod itself. But not the scavengers that fed in its wake.” (Bloodline, ch 9)

Greatfather Peak, Sacred Valley

The residents of the valley appear to know nothing of the dreadgods, except for maybe the ancient sacred beast, a snowfox called Elder Whisper. Nonetheless, the Weeping Dragon’s type of aura has been associated with the Greatfather, one of the four holy peaks surrounding Sacred Valley. The Dragon River runs down this mountain and into the valley. Elders at the Holy Winds School refresh and strengthen themselves in the rich aura of the sacred pool, Greatfather’s Tears. This is because there is/was a core of lightning aura at the base of the mountain, until Reigan Shen began his scheming.

Water pools up there, cascading down the cliffs in a stream known as the Dragon River. Fueled by the water aura at the top of the mountain, storms wrack these slopes year-round, and the Holy Wind School maintains shelters for unlucky travelers caught outside. Favored Holy Wind elders can bathe in the pool known as Greatfather’s Tears, regenerating their vitality of body and spirit. (Unsouled, chapter 12)