When Ryuujin broke free of Xavian and threw in with Tikor’s defenders, he eventually came to a problem the rogue dragon hadn’t planned for. He had children. The Dracon were his — born of dragon blood, mortality, and Etherforce — and they were going to need guarding. Ryuujin couldn’t be everywhere. So he split himself.
The Four Pillars are the result. Each one is a clone of Ryuujin, but only along a single line. One piece of him in its truest form, separated out and given its own shape and its own name. Honor in one. Wisdom in another. Bravery in a third. Harmony in the last. Together they’re the eternal guardians of the Republic of Vinyata, and they work for the Dracon the way a father works for children he wants to outgrow him.
The Pillars don’t run the Republic. They mostly stay out of its way. They cast tiebreakers when the Council of Ryuujin gets locked up, mediate between Dracon groups when something is about to spill over, and step in only when the situation requires somebody who can’t easily be argued with. Unity was the thing Ryuujin asked them to keep alive in his children, and unity is what they show up to defend.
They share something the Dracon don’t fully understand. The Four work independently most of the time, scattered across their own strongholds outside the Web, but when one needs the others the rest are simply there. No messages sent. They also hoard the most dangerous artifacts of Vinyata together in an underground vault called the Fifth Cellar, equidistant from each Pillar’s home. Nobody outside the Four has been inside it.
The Four
- Seiryu, the Azure Dragon — Honor and Justice. The unofficial leader, though he denies it. The only known living dragon on Tikor.
- Genbu, the Black Tortoise — Wisdom and Understanding. Old Gen to the Dracon. Master tactician, professional teacher, occasional pedant.
- Byakko, the White Tiger — Bravery and Sacrifice. The Pillar of the People. The one the Dracon actually want to see at the festival.
- Suzaku, the Vermilion Bird — Harmony and Grace. Forged last, out of the Painting of Harmony, to heal the cracks the War for Tikor left in her brothers and sisters.