Hail Solo and Greetings from Balthasar Balefire

​Hail Solo and greetings, Intrepid Readers!

My name is Balthasar Demetrius Merebor Fumus Vezzarrhuk’ti Balefire Drake. I apologize for dragon names are particularly unwieldy things, more inclined to instruct than to name. The linguistic scholar of both Old and Reformed Draconic, who is familiar with the runic alphabet of the Sojourners, may glean copious information from such an appellation. I realize this is a small group of frumpy individuals that does not include you, dear reader. Take solace in knowing that most dragons are ignorant of the nuances, and name more from tradition than from understanding.

My acquaintances call me Balthasar, and as we are getting acquainted, I invite you to do the same.
You are here because of your interest in the World System, that is Solo the Ringed Mother, and her nine children and the moons they represent. I am delighted to have this opportunity to educate and elucidate the finer points of that system so that you might find yourself immersed in both legend and history. There is nothing so wonderful as a curious mind tempered with academic rigor. To that end, allow me to introduce myself further so that you may feel confident in me as your guide.

By imperial reckoning, I was born on Tyrsday, 52nd of ‘Iberne, deep in Tyrian winter, in the 1478th year post-Sojourner. My father, Demetrius Drake, was a junior member of draconian parliament, and owned a manse in Merebor, a small hamlet outside of Aerodyne, the capital of the moon Flynt. It was there that my mother bore me, her third child and only son.

Tyrsday, 52nd of ‘Iberne 1478 PS is also the date draconian parliament signed the Treaty of Matrimony and Aetherial Regulation, ToMAR, binding the humans of House Callire to the ruling Stormcloud clan of dragons. This treaty recognized the authority of House Callire as Emperors over the moons of Tyre and Flynt and insured that the Empress would always be a daughter of the Stormclouds. Draconian parliament retained the ability to pass domestic legislation, but, more importantly, created a monopoly on aetherial magic and maintained our connection to our dragon forms on the aetherial plane of Holoxia, but I am getting ahead of myself.

​My mother, Cecilia Drake, burdened me with this official draconic name:

1. Balthasar: My unique surname given by the Aelwyfe, a dragon mystic, who consults the liver of a sheep and compares her findings to the astronomical charts.
2. Demetrius: My father’s name, and the male name of my family for twelve generations.
3. Merebor: The village where I was born.
4. Fumus: This name does not come until a dragon turns fourteen, enters the academy, and joins a fraternity.
5. Vezzarrhuk’ti: This is the name of the blue dragon to whom I am bound through the ceremony of Xiamentarisia at the conclusion of the academy. Dragon names themselves are complicated, but briefly the ‘rhuk’ ending indicates the blue color, while the ‘ti’ indicates draconic nobility and is exceedingly rare. Vezzarrhuk’ti is a dragon far outside my station, and the results of my Xiamentaresis were quite scandalous at the time, but that is a story for another day.
6. Balefire: My clan’s name, like Stormcloud, Lightfire, Venomhold, or Bronzewater. Draconian clans fall within a strict hierarchy, and Balefire is a second-tier clan.
7. Drake: My family name within my clan. These are matrilineal and a clan often contains twenty or thirty families.

 
My purpose here is to convince you of my credentials to be your guide through the World System, and so I gloss over my childhood in Merebor, except to say that it was strikingly regular for a young dragon from a second-tier house. My father was ambitious, though not often successful in his ambition. My oldest sister wed into the Bronzewater clan, had two children of her own, and upheld the tradition and honor expected of a noble dragon’s wife. My middle sister refused to marry and became an Aelwyfe. She died tragically when just seventy-three, a very real and very private grief in my family.

After the academy and the bonding with Vezza, I followed in the footsteps of my middle sister, which is to say I disappointed my parents by not following my father into politics, but rather I accepted a fellowship to the Academy of Alchemical Sciences on the moon Highgaard. I was a studious pupil and rose quickly from neophyte to acolyte to apprentice. I earned the golden crucible, an indication of a first-level master in just twelve years, the fastest any student ever earned such accolades.

​Master Andros Victorinus invited me to collaborate with him at the Institute of Alchemical Sciences he had founded in Polaris, the new imperial capital of the moon Maxon. Maxon was the new, Imperial name for the moon previously known as Seniphet and is still sacred to Djinnar, God of Destruction. I should note that the Empire, under Emperor Justus Callire I and Empress Valyrie Stormcloud Steelwing, was expanding and I hid from the politics and the turmoil by throwing myself into my studies.

My time under Master Victorinus was short. While he was one of the most renowned and notorious alchemists of his day, he was also a tyrant, and we soon parted ways on acrimonious terms. I found it difficult to find another posting and unwilling to return home and admit defeat, I traveled to Thail, the seat of the Empire on the moon Tyre. There I enrolled in the University of Thail, receiving dual degrees in history and mathematics. I received an invitation to study at the Society of Astrologia temple in Caelia on the moon Karis. There I authored my dissertation on the theoretical physics of blending astral and aetherial magics for navigation in both interlunar and trans-world system navigation.

It was during my time at the Society temple that I first met Sofiya Holythunder Spandrel. She was teaching a year-long course on aetherial magic as part of her training in the imperial diplomatic corps. Holythunder is a first-tier clan, and the imperial diplomatic corps became the preferred pathway into draconian parliament after ToMAR. We would encounter one another often over the decades, eventually marry and have a child, Rehka Balefire Spandrel, before we parted ways, but that was still a century in the future.

When I completed my thesis, I entered what I refer to as my itinerant period. My dalliances with Sofiya fizzled out when she returned to Aerodyne. I was broke. My parents had grown weary of sending entreaties and had cut me off from the family’s coffers. I was one of the most educated souls in the World System but had almost no prospects. Members of the Society ridiculed my thesis for containing unproven alchemical work and theoretical mathematics. The Alchemical brotherhood dismissed it for its over-reliance on aetherial magic, outlawed to anyone but dragons, and requiring innate natural talent no alchemist had discovered how to replicate.

​A dragon counts his life in centuries, and you, dear reader, need not account for every year of my now over two hundred years of life. I could fill volumes with my travels over the next decades. I joined several archaeological expeditions through my contacts at the University of Thail. When the Empire invaded Behl, the military conscripted me into the wind rider division of the air force with other dragons from lesser houses and the Pteran-riders from Highgaard. I lost a respectable number of years after the Behlian campaigns to drink and darker alchemical arts. ​

​I returned home after I burned the remaining bridges. My father was ailing, and my mother needed help in looking after both him and the estate. My surviving sister secured a professorship for me at the Mechanical University of Aerodyne, where I authored fifteen books including:

• Blood of Gold: The transmutation of gold and aether and its applications in golems.
• Aerodyne: A Pre-Imperial history of blimps, dirigibles, and other airships
• Life Among the Stars: Theoretical applications of astro-aetherial alchemy with trans-World System repercussions.

A small, very erudite audience read the books, but it guaranteed tenure at the University, and it brought me back into good standing among the political elite in Aerodyne enough that marrying Sofiya was only a minor scandal.

I write now from Drake’s Apothecary in Goldwynd Alley in the peripatetic city of Solvigant on the moon Xys. My daughter Rehka and I first arrived here twenty years ago during a particularly tumultuous time in draconian politics and in my relationship with her mother. To this day, I cannot quite put my finger on what drew me to the traveling desert city, but over the last twenty years, Solvigant has become my home. My apothecary keeps me busy and connected to the overlapping worlds over magic, scholarship, and alchemy. It has been a second home to my daughter, Rehka, and a wonderful place to watch the empire grow and morph without my affecting my work.

​As you, Intrepid Reader, prepare for the coming story in Steam and Stars Book 1: Children of Solo by the World System chronicler Andrew DH Moore, I am excited to have this space to delve deeper into the mysteries of the World System. The mysteries, magics, and lands of the moons of Solo are vast, and every day brings new discoveries. Join me in exploring this beautiful web of life, so that we may all better understand the characters like Adison Faide, Theodore Vanguard, and Solomon Broc who populate our stories and fill our lives with adventure.