Adieno

Adieno was born to a pair of great mages, and raised in a lair in which there was no greater accomplishment than to discover a new spell, or master some new form of magic. These ideas were driven into him early in life, and set his life on a path he'd never regret.

One day, while pouring through his family's library, searching for new secrets or hints that might point to a discovery, he stumbled upon a sealed chest. Inscribed into the top of it was the phrase, "Open me only if magical prowess is paramount, for like the mind, once opened, I cannot be closed."

This piqued Adieno's curiosity, and so he set about performing a ritual that he suspected might break the seal. To his surprise, it had no effect. He tried numerous other incantations, spells, and rituals, but none seemed to have any visual effect. Finally, throwing his claws up in frustration, he kicked at the chest, which toppled onto its side and fell open with ease.

To Adieno's horror, something began to ooze out of it, slinking swiftly towards him. It was a deep, purple, ooze-like substance, and it did not look pleasant. He cried out and scrambled backwards as hastily as he could, but could not outrun whatever the slime was.

The muck covered him, from the very point of his horn, to the tip of his tail, and for a moment, time stood still. Adieno felt a brush against his mind, sending him into a panic. The brush became a push, and a foreign consciousness broke into his mind.

His family discovered him hours later, but he was no longer the same dragon he had been. Though he was no longer completely covered in the purple slime, some trace amounts remained on him, dancing in strange patterns across his scales. Whenever he channeled a spell, the ooze would glow with a strange, disconcerting light that held until he released the spell.

His personality had chilled, and he seemed to have knowledge about strange and ancient matters he had no reason to know anything about. Clearly, whatever creature he had encountered had merged with him, but how much of the resulting dragon was Adieno and how much was the creature was beyond anyone's guess.

He soon found that his family was too far below him to contribute to continued learning, and set off to explore the ancient ruins spread across the world in hopes of finding something new, something interesting. Along the way, he would stay in camps or villages for sometimes up to months at a time, often siring children and discovering old folktales where he stayed. Neither his legacy nor the local legendlore could keep him in place for long, though, and he continued to journey, searching for the place described by the being in his mind where he might tap into an ancient magic. There, and only there, would he consider a permanent home.