Dre'yas, better known as Dreadwing, is an evil iron dragon and the primary antagonist of the Gold Digger series.
Appearance[]
His original form is that of an iron dragon, resembling a classic image of a dragon with a lizard-like quadrupedal body, large wings, and mauve scales. After the injuries he suffered at T'mat's hands, injuries which he refused to allow to heal properly in his paranoia, his body became covered by terrible scars, including a badly mutilated head that left his sharp teeth perpetually exposed. In his human disguised, he resembled a dark skinned man with short black hair and a beard.
Upon his fusion with Dr. Peachbody, he gained a younger-looking human form with long flowed black hair. Becoming part human, a 'demi-dragon, he lost his full iron dragon form and instead gained a hybrid form, resembling a giant-sized version of his human form partially covered in scales, with the claws and wings of an iron dragon.
History[]
Early History[]
Dre'yas was born in the dragon city of Civ-Alpha during the Age of Magic on Earth. As a young iron dragon hatchling, he protected an under-sized hatchling name T'mat. Over time their friendship matured into a strong affection. However, T'mat was a platinum dragon, the most magically powerful clan, and as she grew her power surpassed Dre'yas until she eventually became the strongest dragon in Civ-Alpha, and a rift grew between the two.
Though Dre'yas became the leader of the iron dragons, he grew increasing resentful and jealous of T'Mat's abilities and status, which peaked when T'mat was declared Brood Queen and supreme ruler of all dragons. Refusing to believe she was stronger than him and desiring to re-establish his dominance over her, he challenged her in front of her own court for leadership of their race, and was soundly defeated. Draconic law dictated that such challenges must end in submission or death. Since Dre'yas refused to submit, T'mat mutilated him and beat him to within an inch of his life to convince her subordinates he was dead. She banished him in secret and T'mat's mercy was the most bitter humiliation to him. Regarding his old self as having died, Dre'yas took up a new name - Dreadwing.
Overcome with new hatred and paranoia directed at his former companion, Dreadwing fled from the hidden lair that T'mat had left him in to recover, fearing that he would be held captive by T'mat upon her return. Scarred and unwell, Dreadwing settled into a hidden cave near the territory of the Woodland Elves, where he made contact with his old ally Phyrogoth and a pair of disgruntled royal elves, Tarkanion and Meshala, future rulers of the Woodland Elf and Plains Elf kingdoms. Phyrogoth intended to use Dreadwing to manipulate T'mat, while the elven royals desired to inherit the thrones of their long-lived parents sooner, thought to manipulate Dreadwing into fulfilling their ambitions. Dreadwing meanwhile planned to utilize all his supposed allies in a scheme of revenge against T'mat.
Seeking the Time Raft[]
When the magic of Earth began to fade, T'Mat advocated leaving the world to the humanoid races - the humans, elves, and dwarves - that had come to occupy it while the dragons had been in their long hibernation. Dreadwing conducted his own research into the fading of Earth's magic, and discovered that something deep below Earth's surface was responsible for draining away the world's ether energy. Dreadwing knew that the other dragons would depart the Earth for the world of Jade, a realm where magic was still strong, but he planned to wait out the changes on Earth. As an iron dragon he possessed technical skills that other dragons lacked, so he formed a plan they would not - he would seize one of the mysterious Enigma, magical machines that legend said were granted to the dragons by a human named Merlin, who had existed in ancient times long before humans had ever evolved.
As it transpired, T'mat had given the spell-key to unlock the Dea Temple, which contained one of the fabled Enigmas to the elven royals Tarkanion and Meshala. Dreadwing discovered that the Enigma in question was the fabled Time Raft, an Enigma that draconic legend told was used by Merlin to perform great feats of magic, and which granted the user access to the Time Magic Spell Circle, often considered the most powerful of all Spell Circles. because of the dragons incomplete knoweldge of how Enigmas worked, they had long believed the Time Raft to be broken, and therefore safe to hand over to the keeping of the elves, whom dragons seeing the elven regarded as both trustworthy and unambitious enough to guard the Enigmas.
Dreadwing, Phyrogoth, Tarkanion, and Meshala joined forces to retrieve the Time Raft and use its powers to fulfill their ambitions, and prepared to journey to Dea. As the temple was constructed to only allow the passage of humanoids as a precaution against curious dragons, Dreadwing and Phyrogoth shape-shifted into human forms, taking the aliases 'Mr. Drey' and 'Merlin' to join Tark and Mesha. They hired a guide named Senadra, an elf raised by dwaves and expert explorer, claiming they intended to map the temple for posterity. During the three-day journey to the bottom of the temple where the Enigma aly, Phyrogoth-as-Merlin found himself developing feelings for Senadra which the bawdy explorer reciprocated, though once the group's scheme of capturing the Enigma was revealed, Phyrogoth chose power over love and slew Senadra. Overcome with regret at his actions, Phyrogoth left himself vulnerable and was in turn slain by Dreadwing. Tarka and Mesha, believing dragons to be lesser bests that they could easily subdue, turned upon Dreadwing as they had planned all along, only to discover they had badly underestimated their companion. Dreadwing easily defeated the pair and turned them into his slaves, taking the Time Raft for himself.
Dreadwing buried Phyrogoth in the Sacred Dragon Tomb, using the fallen dragon's Mymior to create a guardian for him from Senadra's lingering spirit, later claiming it had been done out of a sense of obligation rather than genuine sentiment for his old friend.
Dreadwing's Massacre[]
With the power of the Time Raft, Dreadwing became all but invincible, and launched a devastating attack upon T'mat and her court. With his new command over time magic, he was able to slow or even time stop around him, making him impervious to all attack and impossible to defend against. He returned to T'mat's court, slaughtering her underlings and mutilating her body. When T'mat professed that she still loved him and was willing to forgive him, Dreadwing became determined to destroy her love for him and raped her. This resulted in the conception of D'bra and earned Dreadwing T'mat's undying enmity.
Dreadwing subsequently went on a rampage, laying waste to dragonkind and killing thousands, until the entire race feared him. Eventually, exhausted by his efforts, he went into hiding to rest, secluding himself in an ancient cavern undiscovered by any dragon or humanoid on Earth. To prevent the Time Raft from being tracked, he deactivated the relic while he slept. Upon awakening however he found that he could not reactivate the artifact, and spent centuries hiding in his lair trying and failing to re-awaken the Enigma.
First Encounter with Gina Diggers[]
Millennia after his massacre, Gina Diggers discovered Dreadwing's lair and began exploring it with her sister Britany. Dreadwing schemed to use Gina to reactivate the Time Raft for him, and sent his slaves Tark and Mesha to capture the explorers, pretending benevolence and offering them treasure in return for aiding him. The elves knew that Dreadwing would become an even graver threat if he could gain full mastery over the Time Raft, and planned to betray him.
When Gina finished repairing the Time Raft, the elves revealed Dreadwing's true nature to her and Brittany and the four planned to rebel together. However, Dreadwing had secretly scryed his slaves' intentions and was prepared for their betrayal. After a battle with the dragon, Dreadwing attempted to employ the Time Raft, unaware that Gina had booby-trapped it. The Time Raft exploded and flung most of Dreadwing into Chronospace, leaving behind his skeleton.
Pawn of the Ancient One[]
Dreadwing, torn from his skeleton and sent falling through time for what seemed like an eternity. In his fall, Dreadwing perceived that the Time Raft had in fact been created by Gina's older self, the Ancient One, explaining the ease with which the young explorer had been able to learn its secrets. Dreadwing next caught of a glimpse of the near future some ten years after his encounter with Gina, where she and her allies fought a desperate battle against a terrible threat to the entire universe - the remains of the previous universe whose phantom mass was encroaching upon reality, slowly consuming everything. Dreadwing recognized that his visions were being brought to him deliberately by the Ancient One, who desired him to understand the threat that all reality faced.
Dreadwing's body was pulled out of Chronospace by Dr. Peachbody, who had previously been marooned five hundred millions years in the past during Earth's Paleozoic period. Dreadwing recognized that the Ancient One had arranged for Peachbody's presence specifically to draw him to that era, and that they had both been manipulated by the Ancient One as pawns. Seeking to use Dreadwing to become more powerful, Peachbody used his Fusion technique to absorb Dreadwing. In psychic conversation with one another, the two villains learned they had both been laid low by Gina Diggers, and agreed to use their combined intellect together on a plan for revenge.
Forging Negative Infinity
Peachbody/Dreadwing decided that without the means to move through Chronospace, they would try another tactic, and began to work on a magical instrument designed to augment time-space distortion magic, intending to use it to bend the flow of time and accelerate their return to the modern era. They dubbed their creation Negative Infinity. Made of ceramic twine laced with metallic threads and resembling a giant yarn-ball, Negative Infinity contained a model of the entire universe and was essentially a 'voodoo doll' for reality - using the device could edit reality itself. Ignorant of magic, Peachbody did not realize the full potential of Negative Infinity, but Dreadwing did. As the two worked, Dreadwing's essence began to feed off the aura of Peachbody, gradually gaining strength and influence over their shared form while weakening the doctor's.
Seriously, he's the worst.
Unbeknownst to Peachbody, Dreadwing attempted to use Negative Infinity to reach across space and time and arrange an accident that would break Gina's legs, only for his actions to be negated by the intervention of the Ancient One. Visited by the Ancient One, Dreadwing reazlied that Negative Infinity was infact intended to be one half a single machine, the Infinity Engine, designed by the Ancient One to save reality from the doom threatening it. The Ancient One retains ownership of the machine's other half, Positive Infinity. Dreadwing understood then that control over the Infinity Engine passed back and forth between the machine's two halves when used, enabling the Ancient One and Dreadwing to make respective 'wishes' using the Engine to change reality, with Dreadwing likening it to taking turns in a cosmic game of chess. The Ancient One wanted to give the Infinity Engine to Gina to help her save the universe, while Dreadwing wanted to use the Infinity Engine to gain control off time and space and get revenge on Gina and all his enemies.
Angered by the Ancient One's manipulations, Dreadwing at first nearly destroyed Negative Infinity out of spite, but realized that doing so would only deprive him alone of control over the Infinity Engine, and resolved instead to win his cosmic chess-game with the Ancient One, seeing her as his true enemy and manipulator. His ultimate goal became to steal her power with Fusion and gain absolute dominion over the cosmos.
The Long Sleep[]
Dreadwing/Peachbody elected to hibernate through the ages until the time was right for them to use their creation again. They set up a secure hidden lair in a mountainside which would come to be known as Tibet, and spent hundreds of millions of years in slumber, waiting for the Ancient One to make her own 'wish' and for control over the Infinity Engine to revert to Negative Infinity.
Some twenty-five million years before the modern era, a time traveling Gina and Brianna Diggers accidentally stumbled across Dreadwing's lair and disturbed the hibernating Dreadwing/Peachbody by examining Negative Infinity. In their hybrid human-dragon form, Gina did not recognize the combined form of their former foe. Gina and Brianna struggled against Dreadwing/Peachbody until the arrival of Britanny, which enabled the Digger Sisters to escape back to their own time. Dreadwing/Peachbody subsequently returned to their hibernation after this encounter.
Over the eras, Dreadwing would challenge Peachbody to games of chess, during which times he would continue to feed on Peachbody's aura, until the canine's essence had been reduced to tatters and his mind nearly gone. Now powerless, Peachbody was ejected from their combined form and left to die in the prehistoric wilderness, while Dreadwing retained sole mastery over the human body Peachbody had left him with, leaving Dreadwing as a human-dragon hybrid.
Some twenty-thousand years before the modern era, members of a Mongol tribe began dreaming of Dreadwing's lair and created replicas of Negative Infinity using woven mammoth hair and metallic threads. These 'Tibetan Chaos Coil' replicas provided a magical image of the location of the lair, and could even open portals to the lair allowing the Mongols to stash treasures there. It was one such replica that had been used by the Digger Sisters to travel through time and arrive in the lair, accidentally appearing there twenty-five million years in the past.
Gathering Power[]
The new hotness.
Awakening at some point in the modern era, Dreadwing began a universe-spanning campaign to acquire the resources necessary to overthrow the Ancient One. The demi-dragon began targeting artifacts, treasures, magical power, servants, anything and everything that would help him achieve his goals.
When the wererat elders Gothwrain and Sherisa attempted to 'retire' to the pocket dimensional paradise of Myth Arcadia, they discovered that Dreadwing had in fact created the dimension to be his base of operations. Dreadwing enslaved the pair of wererats and moved Negative Infinity to his new lair, naming the dimension Xanadu.
During an escape attempt from the magical prison in the realm known as the Retreat, the villain Tirant was slain by an outraged T'mat believing she'd in fact been attacking Tark and Mesha, who had likewise been attempting to escape. Tirant's demise awakened the power of Array, the villain's lover, revealing her to be a living Enigma, the Summoner. Outraged, the Summoner attacked T'mat and nearly slew her until Tark and Mesha sent her into dormancy using Engima control spells T'mat had given them as part of the pact of safekeeping the Time Raft. The Summoner was left abandoned in a collapsing planar corridor as the Retreat fell into oblivion, only to be claimed by Dreadwing. Dreadwing maintained control over the Summoner and her magend creations by swearing to restore Tirant to life in exchange for her servitude.
Gothwrain later attempted to empower the assassin Zero to slay Dreadwing, leading the assassin to the original Soul Edge blade, an Enigma known as the Ancient Sword, a weapon crafted by the Ancient One herself. Dreadwing confronted Zero along with the magend Shrike to capture the blade, though before he could secure the weapon he withdrew upon sensing that Gina Diggers had discovered the Gigliathon, a terrible weapon from prehistory that had been created by the same race that had also created the dragons.
Dreadwing journeyed to the Labyrinth in search of Gina's team and the Gigliathon, pursued by Zero. Dreadwing enslaved a Labyrinth psi-snail and its symbiotic psi-kobold hive, using them to attack Gina's team and provoke them into pursuit. During the attack, he confronted Monty, recognizing him as his old comrade Phyrogoth reborn. Manipulating Gina's allies into pursuing him, Dreadwing lead them into Zero, provoking a conflict between his enemies. In the chaos, Dreadwing seized control of Gigliathon and escaped with it back to Xanadu.
The Game Continues[]
Dreadwing's post-wererat snack fashion.
Years later, Dreadwing's lair was invaded by the wererat thieves Mikki and Mynny, who had accidentally activated Gina's Tibetan Chaos Coil while robbing her home. Transported to Xanadu, the pair attempted to steal some of Dreadwing's vast treasure horde, drawing the attentions of Dreadwing himself. Dreadwing discovered that the wererat pair possessed a unique ability between the two of them that granted them extraordinary good luck when they were together, such that they were almost impossible to threaten. However, because the wererats had willingly taken some of Dreadwing's treasure, which the demi-dragon had laid a cursed enchantment on, they became vulnerable to Dreadwing's magic. Dreadwing absorbed the two using Fusion, granting himself their extraordinary luck power.
A short time later, Dreadwing brought Gigliathon to the Annihilus, an ancient pit of time-space chaos located in hyperspace that had claimed countless star-faring shipes and interdimensional planes-crawlers since the universe began. Dreadwing used the helpless starship fleets caught in the Annihilus to restore Gigliathon's power. When tormenting the alien captain of one such fleet, Dreadwing discovered that absorbing the wererats had caused him to develop kleptomania, compelling him to steal the alien's wallet. Dreadwing adopted his hybrid demi-dragon form intending to consume the alien captain, when he was alerted by Gothwrain that the Ancient One was finally making her first move with Positive Infinity.
Dreadwing returned to Xanadu to examine Negative Infinity and witness the Ancient One's wish. Dreadwing perceived the Ancient One wishing for the creation of Dr. Peachbody's alternate future, ensuring the events of their shared past would play out unchanged. Dreadwing perceived that the Ancient One had taken no steps to guard herself against Dreadwing's subsequent wish and began to gloat over his impending victory, but was suddenly attacked by the psi-kobolds of Labyrinth that he had previously antagonized. When battling with the psi-kobolds, Dreadwing realized in horror that the Ancient One had infiltrated Xanadu and now stood next to Negative Infinity, stealing Dreadwing's wish for herself. The Ancient One then advised the psi-kobolds to abandon their direct attack on Dreadwing, as his recently acquired luck made him impossible for them to slay. Instead, the Ancient One encouraged them to steal Gigliathon, which they promptly did, leaving an utterly disillusioned Dreadwing to remark that at least things couldn't get any worse. Dreadwing then realized with horror that Mikki and Mynny were still conscious within his essence, as the two phantom wererats informed Dreadwing they were now 'haunting' him.
Dungeon crawling.
After these setbacks, Dreadwing subsequently rashly attempted to infilrate an Enigma temple on Earth in an attempt to capture a sentient Enigma - Luxor, the Enigma of Wards, an ancient magical prison containing some of the deadliest monsters and criminals from Earth's Age of Wonders. T'mat and D'bra alerted their allies Gina, Britanny, Tark, Mesha, and Monty and rushed to confront him. Though Dreadwing initially manipulated them into distracting the temple's defenses, they guessed at his scheme and launched an attack upon Dreadwing himself. Dreadwing easily overpowered Britanny and held her captive, before suddenly screaming in horror at the sight of the werecheetah's eyes and retreating in a panic back to Xanadu. As Dreadwing lay shivering in abject terror in his bed, the spirits of Mikki and Mynny informed him that the gaze of werecheetahs invoke absolute soul-crushing terror in wererats, and apparently also demi-dragons who absorb the essence of wererats.
Later, Dreadwing and his magend slaves discovered an abandoned dimensional vault belonging to the Ancient One and schemed to steal the vast repositories of mana that have been stored there. Dreadwing over-exerts the magend Corsica, causing a disaster that burns out the mana and spoils his efforts. Outraged, Dreadwing tormented his magends, prompting near-rebellion from Summoner before Dreadwing was able to manipulate her back into subservience. Summoner and Sherisa later conferred, with Sherisa revealing that the Ancient One has vanished from time and space, and that this would certainly prompt Dreadwing to attempt to seize her greatest sanctuary - Jade-realm, specifically the Nomad Artificer archive cocoon hidden deep below Jade's surface. As the sanctuary was too closely guarded to raid secretly, Dreadwing would have but one option to seize it - conquer Jade outright.
The Dreadwing Campaign[]
After having discovered that the Ancient One had seemingly vanished from all time and space, leaving her holdings and resources unguarded, Dreadwing decided to launch a campaign to seize her largest repository of power for himself, said repository being nothing less than the colossal mana vault at the core of Jade-realm. Requiring an army capable of conquering an entire world, Dreadwing begins dealing with the Wild Magi of the Astral Rifts. He also dispatches Sherisa to Jade-realm to begin another related scheme.
Sherisa was sent to raid the treasury of Jag's Lair, deliberately allowing herself to be captured so that she could deliver a Chaos Coil to the leader of Jag's Lair, the weretigress Councilor Xercie, luring her and her Edge Guard allies to Xanadu. Dreadwing captured the Edge Guard and entreated Xercie into aiding him in infiltrating Jade-realm in exchange for transferring a portion of his magical power to Jag's Lair, which she could use to alleviate the realm's hardships. Resentful of T'mat and the other authorities of Jade, Xercie accepted. Dreadwing and Xercie traveled with the magends Corsica and Natale, a magend of architecture, first to Jag's Lair, then to Dwoemer Spire to recruit the orkrist reaper-mage Serpentus.
Dreadwing had Xercie bring him to Jag's Lair with her balance magic to avoid alerting the defenses of Jade to his presence. While in Jag's Lair he deliberately revealed his intentions to rescue Serpentus to Xercie's fellow citizens, earning her their enmity. Infiltrating Dwoemer Spire, Dreadwing and his thralls found the captive Serpentus, who revealed that Jade's mage-council had been planning to turn him over to Jag's Lair to face justice for his attacks upon the werecat citizens. The reparations that the orkist had also intended to make over Serpentus' attacks would have granted much needed to resources to Xercie, meaning she had never needed to bargain with Dreadwing at all. Remorseful, Xercie triggered the cave-in of Serpentus' prison in an effort to kill them all, but Dreadwing's enhanced luck spared them, and Xercie became Serpentus' prisoner and play-thing.
Jag's Lair subsequently came under attack by various interplanar horrors and alien threats that Dreadwing had deliberated lured there with the mana resources he had granted Xercie, including a colossal elder Abyssalisk. Gar and Sheila Silvear infiltrated Dreadwing's lair to free his Edge Guard prisoners, coming into contact with Gothwrain and Sherisa in the process. The two wererats revealed their enslavement to Dreadwing, but aided the invading siblings in freeing the Edge Guard, though for their own agenda.
Dreadwing, Serpentus, and the captive Xercie escaped Dwoemer Spire, discovering that Jade-realm's forces had rallied to the defense of Jag's Lair, and were organizing under D'bra in response to Dreadwing's threat. Furthermore, he discovered that his Edge Guard prisoners had escaped. Dreadwing became outraged at this outcome, revealing that he had sent spies and bribes to various Jade-realm nations in an effort to turn them against one-another, only for D'bra's impassioned rhetoric to turn the tables and unite Jade-realm against him. Dreadwing vowed that he would destroy even his own daughter if need be. The magend Myria suddenly informed Dreadwing that the elder Abyssalisk had retreated from Jag's Lair and penetrated Xanadu, but rather than feeding off Dreadwing's stored mana was instead bridling at the lingering traces of the Ancient One he had found there. Discerning that the Abyssalisk was the offspring of a mated pair of beasts that the Ancient One had slain, Dreadwing realized that he had found a new ally.
Battle with Jade-Realm[]
When the Wild Magi of the Astral Rifts began an attack upon Jade-realm in retaliation for their trespasses into Wild Mage territory, Dreadwing took advantage of the situation alongside his new Abyssalisk ally. Dreadwing schemed to support the Wild Mages against Jade's forces once the magi became desperate enough to accept any aid. While watching the battle, Dreadwing's extraordinary luck caused him to sense the presence of the psi-kobolds who had stolen Gigliathon from him, discerning that they had hidden the war machine in the nearby planar void left behind by the destroyed realm of Retreat. Dreadwing resolved to later return, recapture Gigliathon, and avenge himself on the psi-kobolds.
As the Wild Mage attack on Jade-realm faltered, D'bra approached the Wild Mage commander Harrus to sue for peace. Harrus was then suddenly assassinated by Dreadwing's thralls Ranis, Myria, and Serpentus, with Serpentus mystical taking the form of Xercie to carry out the deed, while the magends were disguised in their human forms. Taking the team to be Jade-realm assassins, the Wild Mages went berserk and assaulted Jade's forces with renewed ferocity. Dreadwing himself moved to support the Wild Mages and attacked D'bra directly in his hybrid form, only to be confronted by Rhoaton, Armsmaster of Jade and champion of the shadow elves. As Dreadwing and Rhoaton began their duel, the Elder Abyssalisk began to assault Jade's forces alongside the Wild Magi.
Rhoaton managed to challenge Dreadwing and detonate the demi-dragon's mana reserves, leaving him without fuel for his spells, but Dreadwing reverted to his human form, converting his hybrid form's power into mana to restore his magic, and caught Rhoaton offguard. Rather than slaying Rhoaton outright, he created an elaborate series of torturous spells to torment the champion with, in his words a 'Rube Goldberg abjuration'. Before he could trigger his spellcraft, D'bra arrived with a spell cannon lens taken from a Wild Mage fortress-ship, provoking Dreadwing into attacking her with a mana flare that shattered the lens.
Dreadwing assumed D'bra had been intending to use the spell lens to amplify her natural platinum dragon beam attack, and taunted his daughter by pointing out that a platinum dragon's own organic spell lenses could not be enhanced in such a way. D'bra revealed that she had in fact been hoping to simply bait Dreadwing into attacking her so that the shattered lens would be tinted by Dreadwing's aura. D'bra then attacked the Elder Abyssalisk, using the broken lens fragment to make it seem as if her attack had come from Dreadwing. Outraged at the perceived betrayal, the Abyssalisk counter-attacked Dreadwing with colossal force, driving the demi-dragon into an emergency retreat.
Dreadwing later held court at Xanadu for the Wild Magi of the Astral Rifts, hoping to solicit their aid in his campaign to by playing on their fears of Jade-realm forces invading their territories. However, an agent of Jade-realm disguised amongst the Wild Mage leaders spoiled the conference, provoking Dreadwing into a duel. Though Dreadwing easily slaughtered the Jade-realm mage, the Wild Mages became fearful of further conflict with Jade and Dreadwing and fled back to their personal holdings, abandoning the war and leaving Dreadwing without his intended army.
Dreadwing later dispatched Serpentus to strike a bargain with Vladimir of the Realm of the Undead, having Vlad transform some of Jade-realm's strongest monsters into undead revenants to destabilize the sentient forests of the realm. Brianna's presence in the forests of Kuru Steppe thwarted this scheme when she armed the local intelligent wildlife with an arsenal of ordnance weaponry.
Dreadwing's Xanadu was later penetrated by Roxy Rabinowitz, aka Dark Bird, in her stolen living fightercraft after she had been sent through an unstable dimensional portal by her step-sister, Beatrix Rabinowitz. The jet-plane crashed directly on top of the unsuspecting Dreadwing, almost crushing him though he managed to change into his hybrid form to survive. Having been frozen in interdimensional stasis during her journey to Xanadu, Roxy had become fused with the technology of her living jetplane, arising as a towering living machine filled with hatred for her step-sister. Dreadwing subsequently inducted the new Dark Bird into his forces.
Dreadwing's Fall[]
Some time later, Dreadwing prepared a dungeoneering expedition to Jade-realm with Serpentus and Sherisa, catching D'bra offguard as she had been expecting another military action. Dreadwing sends his thralls to the Gusden Mines, the holding place of the Magic-Sapper Enigma. Dreawing himself moves to the Crimson Pillars, ancient ruins whose purpose had long been forgotten to most of Jade-realm. When Serpentus perished in his efforts to capture the Magic-Sapper, the Crimson Ruins mysteriously activated. Dreadwing triggered the soul stone dias and forged a mystical link between it himself, intending to use the Magic-Sapper to carry out a ritual to unlock the ruins. Upon being informed by Sherisa that Serpentus had perished and the Magic-Sapper lost to their enemies, Dreadwing furiously ordered Sherisha to recover the Magic-Sapper at all costs.
Leashed to the Crimson Ruins, Dreadwing came under attack by Jade-realm's strongest elite forces. First a team of alicorn guardians attacked Dreadwing, injuring him and forcing him to call upon Summoner for aid. As the Iron Stampede minoaturs attacked, the spirit of Serpentus possessed the corpse of one of the slain alicorns, but was destroyed when Dreadwing attacked before he had realized it was Serpentus. The minotaurs were then reinforced by a contingency of dragons as Summoner arrived with the magends Shrike and Tungsten, with Dark Bird forcing her way onto the battlefield as well.
As Dreadwing's forces clashed with Jade-realm's defenders, Dreadwing called out to the spirit of Serpentus and ordered him to pass into the soul stone dias of the Crimson Ruins and unlock it from within. Serpentus successfully unlocked the ruins, triggering the sudden appearance of enormous mountains of 'black ice' that rose up around the Crimson Ruins, engulfing them and Dreadwing while driving back his enemies. Dreadwing revealed that the Crimson Ruins were an ancient college for lich-craft, and had accepted Serpentus as a new lich. The 'black ice' rising from the Crimson Ruins scattered all it touched throughout dimensions upon contact with its interdimensional facets, while Dreadwing, Serpentus, and Dark Bird entered a planar corridor through the substance as per Dreadwing's plan. Dreadwing snatched the body of a female minotaur healer to use as a vessel for Serpentus' spirit. He explained to his followers that the substance forming the foundations of the Crimson Ruins was 'time amber', and could be used to reach Dreadwing's ultimate goal - the core of Jade. The interdimensional facets of the time amber on the surface also served to open the way for the hordes of the Umbra to invade Jade-realm.
Serpentus has a cow, man.
Dreadwing, Serpentus, and Dark Bird traveled the time amber's planar corridor, deciding to prey upon the various 'facet realms' found within the time amber to replenish their reserves of power. Dreadwing and his slaves attacked the kingdom of the gnuom queen Suprema, imagining an easy victory but encounter stiff resistance from the tactically brilliant monarch. Impressed, Dreadwing decided he desired to absorb Suprema with Fusion to assimilate her strategic talent. Suprema's resistance allowed her people to flee while burning out Dreadwing's mana reserves and crippling Serpentus and Dark Bird, outraging the demi-dragon, but Suprema convinced him to spare her by revealing that the Ancient One was sleeping at the core of Jade and that Suprema knew her weakness. When Dreadwing dropped his guard to absorb Suprema, she sprung a trap on him with the spell Curse of Clans, causing all of Dreadwing's greatest enemies to become magically aware of his location and have magical gateways opened for them to attack him. Dreadwing subsequently forcibly absorbed Suprema with Fusion.
Dreadwing being a dick to Natale, and therefore entitled to absolutely no mercy whatsoever in what comes next.
Dreadwing made his way to Jade's core, informed by Summoner that his magend forces and treasure mymiors had been entirely depleted of mana by their battles. Dreadwing was none-the-less exultant at the prospect of seizing the power of the Ancient One contained in Jade's core. Upon arrival, Dreadwing was informed by the absorbed spirit of Suprema that one enemy remained in his path - Zero. The undead ninja had used a shard of time amber planted in the Labyrinth to reach the core of Jade-realm, and had been waiting for Dreadwing. Zero informed Dreadwing that Gothwrain had orchestrated Zero's arrival, the sorcerer having been aware of the properties of time amber for some time before giving that knowledge to Dreadwing.
Dreadwing and Zero engaged in battle - with Dreadwing's mana reserves depleted, he instead began using etheric power derived from his own hatred that he had been storing for eons, reserved for use against the Ancient One. However, since Zero was not the true source of Dreadwing's hatred, he was able to avoid the worst of the attack and began dealing deadly wounds to the demi-dragon. Dreadwing's hate-attack nevertheless damaged everything created by the Ancient One, including Zero's sword and the mana vault, triggering an eruption that gravely injured both Zero and Dreadwing. As Dreadwing hid in an effort to ambush Zero, the Curse of Clans activated and brought Rhoaton, Brittany, and D'bra directly to Jade's core. Distracted by her grudge against Zero, D'bra rushed to attack the undead ninja, drawing Brittany and Rhoaton to support her while Dreadwing made his way to the mana vault.
Sometimes fate is cruel, but the person she's cruel to is a total wad, so it's okay.
Reaching the heart of the vault, Dreadwing began absorbing its power, rapidly healing his wounds. At the same time however, Mikki and Mynny emerged from Dreadwing's essence and began absorbing energy as well. Suprema, also absorbing the power, informed Dreadwing that his efforts in reaching the well had forced him to call upon the spirits within his fused form so much that his own spirit had weakened while they had grown stronger. From within Dreadwing's spirit, the essence of Benji suddenly emerged, overpowering Dreadwing and canceling their merged form with Fission. Their form split, and Mikki, Mynny, Suprema, and Benji were all restored to their original forms, while Dreadwing was left in his original pre-Fusion state - an iron dragon without a skeleton.
Summoner and Natale arrived, revealing that Suprema was also an Array-magend, a tactics magend. Natale informed Dreadwing that Gothwrain had learned of the path to Jade from her. Summoner departed with the helpless Dreadwing as her prisoner.
Dark Bargain[]
Behold... Galvatro-I mean Dreadwing!
Reduced to a ginormous boneless throw-rug, Dreadwing was forced to endure the torment of having his head prop up the bed of Gothwrain and Sherisa, the two former slaves having taken over the realm of Xanadu. When the Umbra, via it's herald and avatar Cheetah, offered a portion of its power to members of Gina Diggers' rogue's gallery, the were-rats latest bout of bed-squeaking snuggletime drove Dreadwing to accept the Umbra's offer immediately. His lost skeleton immediately replaced with the Umbra's crystalline growths, Dreadwing towered over Xanadu as a reborn demigod, laying waste to his former domain. Cheetah ordered Dreadwing to attack the realm-ship of Oblivion, reminding all the villains that they belonged to the Umbra, but Dreadwing gleefully declared that he belonged to nobody.
Knowing that the Umbra and many of its slaves and enemies dwarfed even his strength, Dreadwing schemed to dispatch the Umbra and secure omnipotence for himself by building up his own forces and making bargains with other powerful, ascended beings. He decided to target the Explorer's Society as they were celebrating a rare visit from Madrid, fresh off a bout of exploration in the Astral Rifts. Intending to capture a number of the heroes and use them as barter with their many powerful enemies, Dreadwing unleashed a horde of the Umbra's enslaved crystal warriors upon the celebration. Most of the the heroes were blind to Dreadwing's presence due to his ascended status, but Madrid was able to perceive him. Dreadwing was briefly distracted by Cheetah reinforcing her earlier orders, forcing Dreadwing to attack Oblivion. He rapidly scoured it with his new powers and enslaved the gaoblin populace as more of the Umbra's crystal slaves. Dreadwing then subsequently tore Oblivion from quasi-space and sent it hurtling towards Earth, before returning his attentions to the attack on the Explorer's Society. After the defeat of his slaves, Dreadwing discerned that Madrid was aware of his presence, and what's more discovered that Madrid was in fact the being destined to become the 'Ancient One' who had tormented him so.
Having expended much of his new might in the attacks on Oblivion and the Explorer's Society, Dreadwing fixated on Madrid. He attempted to coerce her into informing the rest of the Explorer's Society of his existence in an affort to strengthen his presence in the material plane - as an ascendant god, the more mortal beings aware of his existence, the more power he could recuperate. However, it transpired that Madrid had been in contact with the Summoner and her magends for years, before Dreadwing's attack on Jade, and Madrid informed them of Dreadwing's presence. The magends attacked Dreadwing in force in the dimensional bubble he had been occupying, alongside their trump card - a coldly focused former Brood Queen T'mat, equipped with Engima weaponry of unparalleled power. With his own powers still badly depleted, Dreadwing was utterly defenseless against T'mat's merciless assault.
Diving into an astral sliver dimension to escape, Dreadwing only succeeded in cornering himself. As T'mat started cutting her way into the dimensional sliver, Madrid contacted Dreadwing and advised him to surrender completely and throw himself on T'mat's mercy, to begin the long road to redemption that she had traveled, as his only hope for survival. Furious and humiliated, Dreadwing still refused, even as T'mat began hacking his primordial form apart.
Final Confrontation[]
Dreadwing barely managed to avoid his doom once again, plucked away by agents of the Umbra to confront Gina Diggers at the Castle at the Edge of Infinity. Having cornered the Umbra there with a weapon charging enough power to destroy it completely, Gina only needed to wait out the clock until she could win the Time War and save the universe. The Umbra responded by unleashing its final agents - Shadow D'bra, an alternate timeline duplicate of D'bra, Trixie Rabinowitz, a rival archaeologist that had claimed the next greatest portion of Umbral power next to Dreadwing, and Dreadwing himself, mutilated by T'mat and infused with ever greater energies by the Umbra.
Enslaved to Trixie via an enchanted leash, Dreadwing was turned loose on Gina as a living siege weapon. However, Gina had already taken control of the Castle's reality-warping magi-tech, leaving the Umbra's agents powerless against her. Dreadwing discerned that his power reserves were not being replenished by the Umbra, realizing that the Umbra was nearly entirely out of energy. Gina confirmed as much, explaining that the Umbra had been held off from feasting on the universe for so long that it was on the verge of starving to death. Dreadwing further discerned that so many of the Umbra's past efforts to attack the universe had in fact been thwarted by Gina even now, using the Castle's powers, and many of her own archeological expeditions had involved machines and artifacts that she was currently building and placing for that purpose using the Castle - Gina's own history had been the roadmap needed to thwart the Umbra entirely. Dreadwing realized that he and even the Ancient One had only ever been pawns in the true battle between Gina and the Umbra, and Gina had all but won already.
Gina offered the villains a way out of the Umbra's grasp if they rejected it's false promises, but Dreadwing realized why the Umbra had chosen the three agents it had. The control leash around his neck vanishing at the revelation, Dreadwing seized Shadow D'bra and Trixie and consumed them with a final Fusion spell, reconstituting his half-dragon hybrid form and gaining all of their powers and abilities. His intellect amplified by Trixie's, Dreadwing realized that just as Gina had access to the Castle through her former incarnation Gloriana Jones, Dreadwing also had access due to his own former incarnation, Dredgewing. The two began to wrestle for control of the Castle, and through it control over reality itself.
Dreadwing's Defeat[]
Stalemated over control of the Castle, Gina still attempted to wait out the clock on building the energy needed to slay the Umbra, but Dreadwing employed the perfect counter-move - opening the original time-space corridor Dredgewing had carved to the Castle so that Dreadwing could lure Brittany there. With Britanny predictably responding to the opportunity to aid her sister, she was promptly taken hostage by Cheetah and held between Gina and the Umbra. Dreadwing convinced Gina to turn over the weapon she intended to slay the Umbra with in order to spare her sister.
Dreadwing seized Gina's weapon, but discerned that Gina had programmed the weapon to return to her control if either she or Brittany were harmed. He convinced the Umbra to enhance his powers further so that he could re-write the weapon's contingencies, and the Umbra reluctantly agreed, draining power from Cheetah to give to Dreadwing. Sensing the dragon's treachery, the Umbra further compelled Dreadwing to kill first Gina and then himself. However, draining Cheetah allowed Britanny to free herself, and Dreadwing immediately warned her to get out of his line of fire. As she did so, Dreadwing turned Gina's weapon on the Umbra and fired, fatally injuring the entity.
Dreadwing revealed to the dying Umbra that Gina had programmed the weapon to empower Dreadwing to break the Umbra's slave enchantments, contingent on Britanny's safety. As soon as she had responded to his call for safety, Dreadwing had gained the power to break free, though it had damaged him greatly, and had taken his shot against the Umbra. Now Dreadwing was wounded but free, while the Umbra and Gina's weapon were both down to their last spark of energy. Gina snatched the last spark of power, only for Dreadwing to brutally injure her with a devastating attack, forcing her to reatreat into a warp-field bubble. As Dreadwing tore away at the bubble, full control over the Castle began to pass to him, giving him nigh-omnipotent power over all reality.
Goodnight, Dreadwing. You were the absolute worst.
Even as Dreadwing gloated over his ultimate victory, Gina revealed her final trick - using the last spark of energy snatched from Dreadwing's claws to power up her lastest invention, the Gina-Mobile Mark: Infinity. Flooring the accelerator, Gina drove the Gina-Mobile out of her warp-bubble and right into Dreadwing's face, magi-magnetically bonding him to the vehicle. Driving at top speed through the Castle into the Umbra's dimensional grave, Gina rammed the Umbra's dying form with Dreadwing's body. The draconic horror, already half-smeared across the hood of the Gina-Mobile, gave one last futile scream of denial before being shredded to pieces by the crystalline fragments around the Umbra's form, the shards piercing his head and ending his evil mind at last. Dreadwing's pulverized and perforated carcass was subsequently oblivionized as Gina crashed the remains of the Gina-Mobile into the Umbra. The resulting detonation erased the last phantasmal energy traces of the final clash between Gloriana and Dredgewing that were sustaining the Umbra, finally putting an end to their ancient conflict and the threat of the Umbra both.
Personality[]
Powers and Abilities[]
As an Iron Dragon[]
As a dragon, Dreadwing possesses great physical size and strength, and innate knowledge of magic, though iron dragons possess the least aptitude for magic of all the dragon breeds. Dreadwing's technical knowledge exceeded that of other dragons. Dreadwing was capable of casting low- to medium-level spells. He possessed an innate non-magical flame-breath weapon. With his wings, he is capable of flight. He was also capable of shape-shifting into the form of a human, losing his draconic attributes while gaining human ones, and retaining his knowledge of magic.
Powers with the Time Raft[]
Dreadwing obtained the Engima known as the Time Raft, using to gain access to the Time Magic circle of spells. Time Magic allowed him to alter the flow of time around himself or enemies, allowing him to instantly cast spells that would ordinarily take years of preparation, as well as age the energies of his opponents into uselessness. He could move faster than any enemy could react, or immobilize physical and magical attacks in time. Dreadwing lost access to these abilities when the Time Raft was deactivated and he could not discover how to turn it back on.
As a Demi-Dragon[]
Upon being flung back 500 million years to Earth's Paleozoic era, Dreadwing was absorbed by the villain Dr. Peachbody with the Fusion technique, which Dreadwing discerned was a lost spell circle. He also gained access to Peachbody's Fusion technique for his own use. After spending centuries fused with Peachbody, he devoured much of the villain's aura and partly canceled their fusion, expelling Peachbody's original canine self while retaining the human form of Peachbody's genetically augmented human assistant Benji, making him a 'demi-dragon'.
Dreadwing lost his iron dragon form while gaining a dragon-human hybrid form, resembling a giant human with draconic wings and claws. His hybrid form retains the great size and strength of his iron dragon form, as well as his flight capability.
Due to his travel through time, Dreadwing exists outside the flow of ordinary time, and does not appear to age. He was able to spend millennia working on his Negative Infinity machine in Earth's Paleozoic era, and was able to hibernate for hundreds of millions of years. His genetically augmented body may also serve to retard his aging. He still seems to require eating, a claimed to love the taste of a particular intelligent alien species for their lobster-like flavor.
Over the millennia, Dreadwing has expanded his knowledge of magic and gathered vast reserves of mana and magical power, which he stores in mymiors in his extradimensional lair, Xanadu. His increased knowledge of magic grant him high-level spells.
Dreadwing gained the ability to convert his own emotions, specifically his hatred for his enemy and manipulator the Ancient One, into raw etheric energy which he stores in a dimensional stasis pocket bound to his being. He is able to summon forth this gathered enmity as raw destructive force, which is particularly damaging against anything the Ancient One has created, such as weapons and machinery, and presumably the Ancient One herself.
One of his most noteworthy abilities is the Fusion spell he assimilated from Peachbody, allowing him to fuse himself with other living beings to absorb their knowledge, abilities, and even their very souls. Dreadwing's overwhelming will and personality allow him to retain full control over the fused form, eliminating virtually any influence his victims have over the resulting fusion, other than granting Dreadwing the specific abilities he desires.
Abilities Gained Via Fusion[]
Dr. Peachbody - Dreadwing existed subservient to Peachbody, due to Dreadwing's grave injuries at the time of their initial Fusion resulting in Dreadwing's aura being greatly reduced compared to Peachbody. Over time however, Dreadwing slowly built up his power by nibbling bits of Peachbody's essence without the canine noticing. Dreadwing eventually overpowered and expelled Peachbody's canine form from their merged body. Dreadwing retained Peachbody's vast genius and scientific knowledge.
Benji - Dreadwing's human form retains Benji's genetically augmented strength and chi-manipulation abilities, as well as knowledge of Benji's 'doggy-style' kung fu martial art. Benji's mind was seemingly totally dormant within their shared form, to the point where Dreadwing believed the human had genuinely perished long ago. It was later revealed that Benji had been conscious but hidden deeply within Dreadwing's essence.
Mikki and Mynny - A pair of wererat thieves who possessed a curious ability to greatly enhance their luck when the pair was in close proximity to one-another and working together towards a shared goal. While their luck ability shielded them from being slain, they left themselves vulnerable to Dreadwing's magic when they stole some of the demi-dragon's magically cursed treasure, and Dreadwing absorbed them via Fusion to gain their luck. Dreadwing thereafter possessed enormous good fortune, enabling him to seemingly miraculously evade injury, and stumble across various treasures and advantages through unlikely coincidences.
As a side-effect, Dreadwing also assimilated the wererat prediliction for thievery, compelling him to pick-pocket those nearby. The spirits of Mikki and Mynny would occasionally emerge from within Dreadwing's essence to converse with him or to pick-pocket others when the demi-dragon was distracted, to Dreadwing's annoyance. Since no one but Dreadwing could perceive the two, when the demi-dragon would berate his wererat victims, it appeared as if he were speaking to thin air. Despite Dreadwing's overpowering will, the wererats were possibly able to avoid being fully consumed due to their innate luck.
Dreadwing also inadvertently assimilated the wererat vulnerability to the gaze of werecheetahs, causing Dreadwing to be afflicted with supreme terror whenver he looked into the eyes of a werecheetah.
Suprema - Dreadwing attained Suprema's impressive tactical brilliance, though the gnuom-magend would manifest from Dreadwing's essence to converse with him directly whenever he called upon her abilities. Dreadwing was unable to fully subdue Suprema, and she ultimately engineered his defeat from within.
As a Demi-God[]
Through an infusion of energy from the Umbra, Dreadwing was elevated to 'primordial' status, a demi-god-like degree of power that was said to allow him to 'smash worlds' and 'crush stars.' First taking on a colossal draconic form of Godzilla-like stature with crystalline bones and energy wings, Dreadwing then adopted a humanoid form festooned in fanged maws, before ascending into higher dimensions. As a primordial, Dreadwing utilized prana as a power source, a cosmic energy an order of magnitude greater than ordinary mana. Capable of operating outside normal time and space, Dreadwing found it difficult to focus on events taking place from the mortal perspective, likening it to 'solving an ant's rubik's crube with tweezers'.
Dreadwing's primordial form was unable to retain most of its prana energy while operating on the mortal plane, leaving Dreadwing drained and vulnerable when he attempted to do so. After being gravely injured by T'mat, Dreadwing was rescued and further empowered by the Umbra, leaving his mutilated primordial form even more distorted. He reconstituted his wounded body by using Fusion to consume Shadow D'bra and Trixie Robinowitz, taking on his familiar demi-dragon hybrid form.
Abilities Gained Via Final Fusion[]
Shadow D'bra - Consuming Shadow D'bra, an alternate timeline duplicate of his own daughter, healed Dreadwing's wounded body.
Trixie Robinowitz - Consuming Trixie granted Dreadwing her knowledge, nudging his own understanding of science far enough to allow him to seize control of the magitech systems of the Castle at the Edge of Infinity. As a human, she also enabled Dreadwing to regain his demi-dragon hybrid form.
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
