Alma

The quiet, contemplative founder of the clan, who started life as a Guardian. Alma keeps to herself and her studies, saying little to the clan except through Taishan. She takes service to the Lightweaver very seriously, though for herself she prefers to serve from afar. Thanks to Alma's influence, her clan is a major source of new acolytes to the goddess, to the point where exalting scolarships are one of the primary sources of clan income.

Though she is aloof, when she does speak, her clan listens. Her Search nearly ended with the clan itself as her Charge, and though she realized later that Lightweaver Herself fit the bill better, for a time the clan was known as Alma's Charge. How it remained nameless for some time before finally becoming known as the Intersection of Points is another story.


One fine day, Lemeza brought back a Light Runestone from his gathering expeditions. Alma took it as a sign, and some while later, when the clan's coffers could bear it, she bought a set of scrolls.

Now the clan's founder is a shimmering Pearlcatcher, one of Lightweaver's children, but she still has a Guardian's heart and still considers the goddess her Charge. At the centre of her pearl is the runestone.


One day toward the end of winter, she and Taishan had a long discussion. The eventual result of it was the pair of them taking those of the clan who would follow on a pilgrimage to live under different gods, especially ones that the two of them often didn't agree with.

Some dragons remained at the Intersection, and both Alma and Taishan promised they would keep in touch and would return one day. As the spring grew around the Sunbeam Ruins, the pair of them left, a trail of dragons following them on foot and on the wing.

The first god they would honour would be the Stormcatcher. Though many dragons at the Intersection came from the Shifting Expanse, and though a good number of the acolytes over the years had been studying to be interns, the Stormcatcher's particular interactions with His employees never quite sat right with Alma.

And so to better understand the world, Alma moved her family and people to the outskirts of the Stormcatcher's land.


Shortly before she returned to the Intersection with the other pilgrims, a fog came over her mind, settling down like a dreary dream that she only occasionally opened one eye to look out at. Oxytocin said it was an acute onset depression, and had a diagnosis for its cause. His prescription: plenty of sunlight to bask in, for as a Light dragon through and through she had perhaps spent too long under the Stormcatcher's clouds.

She listened, for he was her elder and very wise, but made little of it. Taishan stayed with her, his own visions clouded by his mate's condition. The Clan at the Intersection neither grew nor shifted, or if it did, the clan's founders were unaware.

Life on Sornieth went on without them.


Alma was stirred from her dreams when the winds blew the wrong way, an Emperor rose, and the gods spoke again.

She was jolted into alarm and anguish when the Lightweaver - when her very Mother - said that Her first children were a mistake, to be 'rectified.'

It caused such a stir as the Intersection of Points had never seen. Many of the clan's most venerated members were Imperials, and moreover the Lightweaver's decree went against everything Alma believed in. She had learned the clan was not her Charge, but still she loved each member and took joy in how so disparate a band of dragons had come together to make one of the most powerful clans in the region. Many and varied was the Intersection, and Pearlcatcher or not, formerly a Guardian or not, Alma had never felt ill will toward her Imperial clanmates and allies.

As debates on what if anything the clan should or could do about the changes ravaging the world or about the Lightweaver's words ran long into the sunlit night, Alma listened.

As debates ran long into the next weeks and months, Alma listened.


One day, over a beetle salad, she looked at Taishan and said, "We're going to summon a Light Sprite."

Taishan blinked his visual eyes and carefully swallowed. "We are?"

She held gaze with an intensity Taishan had rarely seen. "We are. We know Sprout and Tidesinger return to their gods as the fancy takes them. And we know they usually bring back gifts."

He nodded, slowly. Valightine was often chattering with even more excitement than usual over the fascinating plants her Nature Sprite companion brought back from her visits to the Labyrinth, and as often as not Tursiops would return from training new acolytes with wagonloads of fish spotted by the Water Sprite who usually accompanied her. And he remembered Tursiops telling him that Tidesinger had been distressed even before the Water dragons had reported their god missing and the bubbling prophesies no longer rising. "A Light Sprite, though... they don't come easily."

"Knowledge never does."

"True, dear, true." He gulped down another hunk of meat from his own meal. "It has been a while since we cleaned the stores out. I'll have a talk with Rouge tomorrow and see what resources we can pool."


It was a great many resources, as it turned out.

The Clan at the Intersection brought together every surplus harvested and every spare piece of clothing they could, sent calls far and wide for degrees at the college for dragon and beastkin alike to be paid for in precious stones, everything dedicated to this one goal: to summon a Light Sprite and have a liaison between the clan and the reigning god of the land. Over months, the great hoard was piled and massed at the edge of clan grounds and guarded from marauders, consecrated by the clan's prayers, everything from Elder Shul's contrite prayers for forgiveness to threatening prayers from Kurnaz who worshipped none of the Eleven. Above all, they were consecrated with Alma's earnest, hopeful prayers to her Charge the Lightweaver.

The hoard was was guarded at all times. But one day, the guards all happened to look away for one moment, one single moment, and in that instant the hoard vanished, replaced as the guards looked back by a tiny, shimmering Sprite.

Alma had made a habit of always being close to the summoning hoard, and she was the first dragon who regained enough of her senses to slowly approach the visitor.

At length, Alma extended a talon. The Sprite approached, alighting on one claw and folding her wings, long ears alert at the face of the dragon above her. Alma slowly let herself smile, then grin. "Welcome," she said, softly to avoid either startling or dislodging the Sprite. "It's an honour to meet you." She dipped her head low, letting the Sprite stay high above it on her claw. "I am Matriarch Alma of the Clan at the Intersection. Many and varied are we. May I know your name?"

The Sprite was silent for a long time, but Alma was patient. Finally, in a voice like a tiny bell, she said, "Shimmer."

Alma closed her eyes and smiled.

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Custom progen! She's named after but is not particularly based on a character from the Firebringer trilogy.


Permafamiliar: Shimmer the Light Sprite

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Needs: Some lore for her Primal!