Winged Vengeance is a Great Russian Black, a massive black dragon whose ancestors used to inhabit the central and northern Ural Mountains. Great Russian Blacks were also commonly referred to as Silver-Blacks because of their silver teeth and talons. Winged Vengeance is the last of his kind. By the time Winged Vengeance was born, Great Russian Blacks were already being hunted to extinction. Wealthy land barons of the region preyed upon the fear of common folk, decrying the mighty black dragons to be murderous and evil. In truth, the land barons were simply greedy; they wanted the vast wealth within the gemstone caverns where Silver-Blacks often had their lairs. But it was easy to turn villagers’ fears into hate, and whole armies were raised to kill the Great Russian Blacks.

Once all the adult dragons were vanquished, the greedy land barons enlisted the help of Goltavasha, the Dark Witch of the Urals, to kill the remaining hatchlings. She was the only one strong enough to break through the black aura, the protective cocoon of magic that each Great Russian Black is born with. The Dark spell Goltavasha cast was this: while she could not reach out with magic and kill the hatchlings, she could separate each hatchling from its inherited memory. With their parents gone and no memories to guide them, the remaining hatchlings proved to be easy prey for the marauding hordes of mercenaries.

Winged Vengeance was the only hatchling to escape the annihilation. He grew up alone, fighting every day for his very survival. Cut off from his dragon memories and thirsting for revenge against the humans for what they had done to his kindred, he declared himself to be Winged Vengeance and began exacting a terrible price on the humans in and around the Urals. After five decades of combating him and losing, local armies laid a clever trap at the small town of Pegorska. Winged Vengeance barely escaped with his life. Weary from constant fighting and with his spirits crushed, he found a deep cavern and went to sleep for 150 years. Woken up again by accident, Winged Vengeance ventured once more out into the world, highly intelligent and curious as his kind were known to be, but also with a smoldering rage that calls out for the blood of humans in payment for all they had done to the Great Russian Blacks.

Update: as of the beginning of fall, thanks to the good magic of the elfin High Priestess Tylia, Winged Vengeance is growin once again. Four hundred feet does not seem large enough to face his current and future enemies, and so he has had to summon help. What price he may ultimately pay for this decision, however, remains to be seen.