The Weeping Dragon

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

The Four Beasts

The Weeping Dragon, the Wandering Titan, The Bleeding Phoenix, and the Silent King. Plus, the imprisoned first Dreadgod, Subject One

“They are...disasters. Four monsters, big enough to blot out the sky, hungry for destruction, and so powerful that the most advanced sacred artists in the world have to join forces to drive them off. Drive them off, you understand. None of the Dreadgods have ever been killed.” “They're sacred beasts?” “Corrupted ones. Like the dreadbeasts of the Desolate Wilds, they were warped and twisted by their own powers.. .They're scattered all over the world. They burrow into a secure location and wait for decades...but when they wake up, they're hungry. Fortunately for humanity, no two have woken at the same time in centuries. But the last time they did, they destroyed the original Blackflame Empire.” (Skysworn, ch 7)

Dread Wars

A Monarch cannot withstand a Dreadgod. In the Dread Wars, the previous generation of Monarchs was all but eradicated, with only two out of twelve surviving following a combined attack on the Wandering Titan, which woke up the rest of his brothers.

Origins

Dreadgods are about two or three thousand years old, long after the time that Ozmanthus Arelius lived. They are a failed research experiment, unintentionally created by a researcher dubbed Subject One. Dreadgods formed as a result of experimentation in hunger aura and dreadbeasts in the Labyrinth under Sacred Valley. It escaped. See also hunger madra. See more details at Subject One

Dragon 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)

Intelligence

• The Dragon is not as self-aware as the Silent King but he's smarter than the Phoenix or the Titan

From the author, Will Wight:
Some Dreadgods are more intelligent than the others. The Silent King is always aware,
he's always self aware, and he's the smartest one. And the Weeping Dragon actually is
the second most self aware. The Bleeding Phoenix is third. And the Wandering Titan is
just kind of an idiot. (https://www.abidanarchive.com/events/25/#e1860)

"The Weeping Dragon was technically capable of thinking at a level far beyond the ordinary human, but it had been centuries since it was more than a beast. Once, the Dragon had thoughts, plans, ambitions. Once, the Dragon had a name. The Dragon dreamed of these times, and in its sleep, it wept for what was lost. Rain fell from its bed of clouds, watering the land. Then its dreams changed. More memories came: of its predecessor, its form beautiful and white and hungry. The one who had infected it with the hunger that could never be satisfied. In its dreams, the Dragon was furious at its ancestor for passing on this curse. Though it knew that the original’s fate was far worse than its own.. . (Reaper, ch 23)

Dragon Sightings

• Before book 1, the Weeping Dragon flew over the region where the Dawnwing sect school was located, on the Iceflower Continent (see theory, below)

• Before book 1, "Tiberian approached his neighbor, Reigan Shen and proposed an alliance. Shen responded with violence. True battles between Monarchs are rare, and this one destroyed much of the Rosegold continent. In the end, even the Weeping Dragon was drawn in, and Tiberian was struck down. Leaving House Arelius leaderless and in ashes." (Report, in Wintersteel, ch 10)
• 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)
• In book 4, Skysworn, Eithan says “the Weeping Dragon was sighted only last year on the Iceflower Continent.” (Chapter 6)
• In book 4, Skysworn, chapter 18, Report: "The Weeping Dragon sleeps in the upper atmosphere, on a miles-long bed of clouds. It has not been long since it last woke, and it is still weary. Though the power of the Phoenix prickled its spirit, it will take more enticing bait to rouse the Dragon from its slumber."

Flight, Iceflower to Rosegold

Theory. Some readers theorize that the Weeping Dragon flew over Ziel’s sect on the Iceflower continent en route to the Rosegold continent because he was drawn to the lightning madra that Monarch Tiberian Arelius used to battle Monarch Reigan Shen. (See Report on Tiberian Wintersteel, ch 10). Tiberian died, and Eithan came through the portal to the Blackflame Empire. In book 3, Blackflame, ch 10, Eithan and Cassias confirm that Eithan arrived almost 7 years ago. That could narrow down the timing of the Stormcallers attack on Ziel’s Dawnwing Sect.

Fan-art: Tiberian, lightning master, by Kandra. Jazzy Kandra.

Abilities

It creates unnatural and severe storms. Hurricanes. Storm clouds of madra. Lightning. Thunder. Rain. It can cause massive floods, landslides, etc.
But, like all four monsters, the Dragon tires easily and just wants to feed and sleep. Or, as Dross tells Ziel, “Dreadgods don’t fight to the death. If the prey takes too much energy to beat, they back off.” (Bloodline ch 18)

Madra

Hunger and storm madra, maybe.
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 a Dreadgod cult, parasitic power-hounds calling themselves 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)