Slyrak

Slyrak is one of the few known Eldwurms, a race of wise and powerful dragons. He is best known for merging his being with Davion by spilling both of their blood and allowing them to mingle, channeling his gifts through the Blood Route and into Davion.

War with Yulsaria
Many centuries ago, in the white and frigid lands of the north, this Frozen Witch Yulsaria ruled, summoning blizzards and hail storms upon those who displeased her. Commanding her armies of Ice Golems who snuffed out all warmth, she pushed southwards to expand her territory through conquest. Angered by her ambitions, Slyrak rose and melted this golem army with his fire breath. He then continued northward, burning away at Yulsaria's empire until it was destroyed.

Chronicle of Thesos: A Folk of the Keens
Although not explicit, the third missing dragon featured in this entry of the Archronicus is heavily implied to be Slyrak. It's uncertain if this incident happened after his fusion with the Dragon Knight known as Davion before that, but the former is more likely.

This incident involved two dead dragons: one big and one small—the latter of which was stated to be nowhere near fully grown akin to a wyrmling—dark blue in colour and both slain by immolation, evident in their charred corpses. Their corpses were found at the edge of the grain stock lands, owned by a grain farmer. Around the corpses of these dragons were the footprints of a larger beast, whose marks on the soil were large enough for a full grown Keen to lie down in. The trail of prints ended at the edge of the field, implying that the creature took flight there. Responding to the rumour that reached the High Bell about the pair of dead dragons, the Keen Thesos arrived at the scene and speculated that this was the doing of a grand dragon from the stories of old, who is said to still live in the southerly wastes.

With the good faith of his father's name and his promise of immediate removal, Thesos purchased the rotting corpse of the lesser dragon and hauled it behind his zonkey to bring it to his father's lands where he will study it. After several hours, he arrived at his destination with the dead dragon, ready to be examined. He spent several days disarticulating and boiling the corpse and spent a full night subjecting the bones to wax inurement. At last, the skeleton was ready for him to study in the great hall.

Thesos drew his observations with careful ink, noting the size and shape of each bone. He was surprised by the structure of its wing and the architecture of its shoulder. He discovered that the dragon bones were very light despite being very tough, and more like the bones of a bird rather than a creature with scales and teeth. It is interesting to note that this dragon skeleton resembles the form of Slyrak himself, implying that this dragon and Slyrak belonged to the same species.

However, the dragon's skeleton was not the main curiosity. Much to his surprise, Thesos found the fragments of an old shield in its insides. It intrigued him because dragons are known for carrying steel in their gullet to help gnash and grind their food for digestion. A dragon's gullet is also where they originate their flame breath so it perplexed him that they would also store steel or any similar material in the organ where their fire is generated. But what truly surprised him was the shield fragments. Piecing them together, these fragments formed a shield that bears a dragon crest, the seal of the Scaled Knights of Uthorian—an ancient and obscure knighthood that's seen only rarely in these parts today.

Death and Rebirth
Knight Davion's safari for his old foe Slyrak culminated with a disappointing reward: the dreaded Eldwurm Slyrak had grown senescent and frail, his wings tattered, his few remaining scales afflicted with scale-rot, his fangs ground to nubs, and his breath that once destroyed empires dropped nothing but gouts of harmless flame. Seeing no honor in committing dragon-murder on a weak and defenseless adversary, Davion prepared to leave his old foe to die in peace. But Slyrak whispered a plea into his thoughts so that the knight may honor him with death in combat. Centuries of fighting, only to end in sickness rather than at the hands of another in battle. Davion agreed and found himself rewarded beyond expectation for his act of mercy. As he sheathed his blade into Slyrak's breast, the dragon pierced his throat with a talon. Their blood spattered and mingled, allowing Slyrak to channel his powers along the Blood Route, imbuing Davion with all of his strength and centuries of wisdom. Slyrak's death sealed their bond and thus the Dragon Knight was born.

Personality and Mannerisms

 * Slyrak is known for his ire.
 * However, says that he lacks the temperament that the war god seeks in his mounts.
 * Like most dragons, Slyrak dislikes being used as a mount.
 * Like his fellow Eldwurms, Slyrak possesses centuries worth of wisdom.
 * Although he's mostly known for not being so discreet, Slyrak has an aspect of guile to him, as shown when he tricked Davion by exploiting his honor.
 * Like a stereotypical dragon, Slyrak often hoards gold in his lair. Davion inherits this tendency as well.
 * Slyrak's voice is just an altered version of Davion's own voice. This implies that Slyrak doesn't seem to have a voice of his own.

Dragons and Eldwurms
Slyrak is an Eldwurm, a wise and elderly dragon. Like his fellow sage dragons, he possesses great wisdom that he has accumulated over many centuries.

It's implied that the ancient iron dragon species is an ancestor of Slyrak's species, thus Slyrak is a descendant of them.

In Dota Underlords, Davion was enraged when he recovered from Anessix's power of enthrallment, which forced him to slay a bunch of dragons. As Slyrak, the dragon rallied his fellow dragon allies (seemingly composed of a thunder of black dragons) to exact retribution on the demon and avenge the fallen dragons.

Contradicting his act of rallying dragons to his side to fight a common enemy, Slyrak has also killed two of his own kin. He may have done this out of self-defense, hinting that dragons don't always get along with each other.

knew Slyrak long before he merged with Davion. When meeting the latter, Auroth will remind him that he's nothing like this Slyrak that she knew. She also states that he did something wrong before, and now its consequences are catching up to him. Whether she is talking to Davion or Slyrak or perhaps the both of them is unknown.

Scaled Knights of Uthorian
Long before he became the, Knight Davion spent years pursuing and hunting Slyrak. Following his fateful fusion with Slyrak, he realized from that experience that a deal with a dragon is dangerous, and that one must only commit to a dragon's deal if they are prepared to keep their end of the transaction.

His infusion with Slyrak gave him the abilities of the legendary Eldwurm himself. The source of his draconic powers, Slyrak's now flows through his veins, imbuing him with twice the vitality of an ordinary knight. Plus, Slyrak's blood is also what allows Davion to take on his dreaded and other dragon forms, thanks to its versatile, transformative powers that allow him to draw strength from more than just a single dragon. He also inherited Slyrak's power to. 's description states that his dragon talents are combined with his knightly skills, making him a vicious opponent in melee combat.

Now an ageless Knight thanks to the confluence with Slyrak, Davion's valor is fused with the wisdom of the Eldwurms and together they are the source of his nobility. This fusion of the Eldwurms' wisdom imbues him with their knowledge that they have accumulated over the centuries; as such, he now possesses powers and skills that are said to be beyond mortal knowledge.

The suit of armour that Davion wears is that of a dragon's. Seeing how most of Davion's equipment is dragon-forged, it could be safe to assume that this armor is forged from Slyrak. Within this dragon's armor, Slyrak lies slumbering until he's called by Davion. When Slyrak is in the world, Davion remains within him. He warns against waking the both of them in any of these two states, which may bring unknown but unpleasant consequences. The armor does not seem to be static, because it can become stronger. It's possible that the dragon armor is a living armor because it can be restored by Regeneration runes (although it may refer to the actual scales of Slyrak, not his dragon armor scales). Some of the gold that Davion collects is melted down for armor, possibly used to decorate it.

Just like his armour, his shield is made from the scales of Slyrak. With all of this dragon-forged equipment, it's quite possible that his sword Wyrmblade is also dragon-forged and sourced from Slyrak. The shield that Thesos found in the guts of a dragon looks to be the same as Davion's shield. This shield bears a dragon crest, which is the seal of an ancient order called the Scaled Knights of Uthorian. Seeing how this shield comes from Slyrak, this Eldwurm might have a relationship to the knighthood. Alongside his shield, Davion swears upon and invokes his sword Wyrmblade during battle.

When Davion dies in battle, he will blame Slyrak for failing him. He may also plea to be buried on the shield of Slyrak. Lastly, he will mention that his scales have fallen away when he dies. It's unknown if this refers to scale-rot or if the scales of his dragon armor have fallen off.

Acquiantances
A creature who is over millions of years old, sees the ancient Slyrak as a juvenile dragon. In Dota Underlords, it seems to be curious about Slyrak hiding inside Davion and it is interested in meeting him in the flesh. Puck may inquire Davion about his “condition” which might be referring to Slyrak inhabiting his body. It seems that Puck wishes to meet him so that they may “play” together. As a hostile, Puck threatens to rip out the Eldwurm from his vessel to fulfill its intentions with him.

Siltbreaker is impressed by Slyrak and perhaps his power. The fact that he's impressed by him but not the Nothl Realm says a lot about the Eldwurm.

has respect for the power of Slyrak.

Enemies
Fearing what could happen if nearby Dragons ever took a vested interest in White Spire, Anessix compelled Davion with her mind control to kill a bunch of dragons. Her control wore off and Davion returned to his senses, enraged by the demon's actions. To avenge the slain dragons, he turned into Slyrak and rallied his dragon allies to punish Anessix.

In Dota Underlords, seeks to kill Slyrak. Interestingly, Lich also did something wrong to Auroth, implying that he's hostile to the Eldwurms for some reason.

Yulsaria roused the anger of Slyrak when he eventually heard of her southward expansion. In response, he destroyed her and her armies with his endless flame.

Habitat
It is implied that Slyrak lives around the southern part of the world. According to Thesos, there are old stories about a grand dragon that some say still lives in the southerly wastes. He connected these old stories with the evidence of a grand dragon's presence that he found in the scene of a dragon attack on two lesser dragons on a grain farmer's field. The evidence included the charred bodies of the 2 dragons, which was surrounded by huge footprints that ended at the edge of the field, implying flight and thus an Eldwurm who's heavily implied to be Slyrak. This is supported by the fact that Yulsaria's southward expansion from the cold north provoked Slyrak, implying that she was headed towards his domain.

Morphology, physiology, and whatnot
The picture on the right is Thesos' drawing of a skeleton of an adolescent dragon that he found dead in a grain farmer's lands. This dragon had dark-blue scales, just like the bigger dragon that was also found dead beside it. Obviously, this is not Slyrak himself, but what they both have in common is the identical shape of their bodies. From the skull to the tail, this young dragon's skeleton looks awfully similar to Slyrak's form; as such it can be used to tell Slyrak's internal morphology. There may be some differences in their forms because of the age and size difference between this relatively small wyrmling and the Eldwurm Slyrak, though.

In Thesos' observations, he noted that the bones of this young dragon are very strong yet lightweight. He compared this dragon's bones to the bones of a bird rather than a "creature with scales and teeth". Perhaps Slyrak's own bones might be heavier than this dragon's, or not.

Just like most dragons, this young dragon had an organ called a gullet. This gullet is where a dragon generates its flame breath (or ice breath in some dragon species ) but it's also where they gnash and grind their foods using the hard material that they consume and keep in there, such as steel and iron, before digesting it. It's implied that this dragon had a large and tough gullet because somehow it was able to swallow into its own stomach what appears to be the Shield of Slyrak itself. Said shield was found broken in the young dragon's stomach, suggesting that its gullet was strong enough to grind metal. Slyrak may have had all this too, with a few differences given his size and power.

Also, a Dragon's remains (such as a ) still retain the powers and properties that it had in life, therefore making it more valuable than the wealth of the most prodigious dragon hoard. As such, Davion's armor and shield is made from the scales of Slyrak himself. An example of dragon remains retaining their properties is the blood of grand dragon Vyxia, which is hot enough to heat metal and it still retains its heat even after her implied death. Fiery blood may be a general characteristic among dragons, including Slyrak, since the fermented concentrate of a generic dragon's blood is also used to brew strong and spicy elixirs, further implying that their blood is fiery.

Another general characteristic that he may have had is volatile and explosive saliva, something that's found in other fire-breathing dragons. This is uncertain, though.

Powers
In his last moments living in a pure but frail form, Slyrak had the ability to speak directly into the minds of others. He used it to slip his whispered voice inside of Davion's thoughts and pleaded the knight to honor him with death in combat. In layman's terms, he is a telepath.

Slyrak's immortality is based on his ability to reincarnate in another body. Allowing himself to bleed at the hands of his killer and shedding his slayer's blood too, Slyrak gave his power out along the Blood Route where his blood and Davion's blood mingled, imbuing the latter with all of the Eldwurm's strength and centuries of wisdom. The Dragon's death sealed their bond and the both of them were reborn. A rogue aspect of Spectre states that Slyrak will live again even after Davion's death, possibly referring to his reincarnation.

Like most dragons, Slyrak has the ability to. In life, he has burned many other knights to a crisp, destroyed the icy empire of Yulsaria and might've incinerated two dark blue dragons—one big and one small, the latter of which resembled his form—on a grain farmer's property.

Slyrak's is a powerful bodily weapon. His tail is tipped with a flat kite-shaped tail lined with three small horizontal spikes on both sides.

Along the Blood Route, Slyrak transfused his to Davion, transferring all of his strength and wisdom. His lifeblood also grants Davion twice the vitality of an ordinary knight, regeneration, and transformative power that allows him to turn into a dragon. For a chosen few who have received dragon blood, the magic runs unusually thick, its effects are magnified and distorted. In these rare recipients, the reach of the transformation is extended, drawing strength from beyond a singular dragon, and reaching way back into the oldest ancestral strains of dragon, such as eyeless armored dragons that once terrorized whole kingdoms and raged wars across the countryside. No longer in his own pure body, Slyrak's existence in this plane now depends on Davion manifesting him through his. Besides his legendary breath of fire and his crimson scales, Slyrak can also appear with green scales and an acidic spit or blue scales and a freezing breath. Once he acquires, he can now appear with sable scales akin to the black dragon species, and his projectile breath becomes a dark orb. Its description says that Davion's and Slyrak's powers combine when the latter springs forth.
 * This seems to imply that the eyeless and armored iron dragons are the ancestors of Slyrak's species.
 * Reaching into the depths of Slyrak's blood's power allows Davion to draw strength from the oldest ancestral dragon strains, replacing Slyrak with an iron dragon.
 * It's possible that Slyrak's different forms are actually different dragon species, classified by their scale color and breath attack. Seeing how they all have the same appearance even with the difference in color and powers, Slyrak and the dragon forms may belong to a common species. This is supported by the fact that Slyrak is not a unique specimen, since the lesser one of the two dark blue dragons mentioned in Thesos' logs resembled the body of Slyrak. Further supporting this is the power in Slyrak's blood that allows Davion to draw strength not just from a singular dragon but also from the oldest ancestral dragon strains, implying that his dragon blood gives him access to a vast and diverse lineage of Dragons that Slyrak belongs to.
 * When meeting Sir Davion, will compare himself to the former, saying that the both of them are "always changing". He may be referring to Davion's transformative power and how it's not limited to just one form of dragon, just like Morphling's unlimited forms. This may further explain the various forms and powers that Slyrak might have when he springs forth from Davion.