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The Mar have fought the Drakes for resources for centuries, but even the wizards fear those rare times when the Drakes organize an invasion. To better understand why, read the book.

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Fire-breathing guer

Some mapmakers tell tales of Drakes that live beyond the Fens of Reur — so far from civilization that certain tribes don't even recognize Mar as an enemy or threat. The most common creature they describe is a wholly remarkable guer race, which they call fire-breathing guer or, more commonly, draxi (singular is drax).

The drax apparently has a long neck and tail like a thunder guer that manages to support a head as large as that of a snatching guer except with even larger teeth. Its hide is apparently as tough as that of a snatching guer, as insensible to pain as a thunder guer's, and covered in poisonous barbs similar to those found on the on the tails of a spiny-tailed guer. They have the claws of a snatching guer and the bony spike of a jabber guer. They are as social, articulate, and vulnerable to flattery as striped guer. Not only are draxi as huge as striped guer, they have bat-like wings that allow them to fly only a little less clumsily than an insero.

That's right — Drakes the size of a mature striped guer that can fly. This is where the description of the drax finally departs from stealing the parts from other guer. Draxi apparently live in caves at the base of the Northern Peninsula, sleeping on piles of hoarded iron, copper, silver, and gold that they collect obsessively for no discernable reason. Not only do they hibernate in the winter, they apparently sleep right through most summers, only waking when the summer is especially hot to hunt for big game (including thunder guer).

Let's not forget the most important attribute of them all. Draxi breathe fire. No, they don't need magic to do it, because everyone knows Drakes can't use magic. It is inconceiveable that any living thing could metabolically produce fire, and yet Mar who should know better have written long papers speculating on the best way to spot one of these fire-breathing guer. No one has even seen a skeleton of one of these guer, and yet I occasionally hear stories of mapmakers romping around in that dangerous part of the subcontinent in suicidal quest for a creature that doesn't even exist.

Always the argument is the same. How can I prove the fire-breathing guer doesn't exist? Logically, I don't need to. Until you can produce a live specimen, or at least a corpse, I don't have to believe any wild stories about imaginary Drakes.

(Contributed by Weard Hakan Ebutor)