Who was actually involved in the summoning of the Brown Dragon, and what did they originally hope to achieve?
Sources
We have five sources, of varying reliability and detail (usually inversely proportional!).
All are from "King of Sartar".
CHDP
The Argrath Saga
Minaryth Blue
The Grazer Kings List (KoS 115)
The list of Feathered Horse Queens (KoS 228)
The Sacred Kings List (KoS 159-162)
CHDP
We have one main account: CHDP. And as usual, we cannot regard it as reliable for anything to do with either
Argrath or Kallyr due to its known bias. I do not intend to to quote the account in full here. The only person
noted as being present on the Orlanthi side is Minaryth Purple, though it is clear that others were there.
It is said that Orlaront Dragonfriend did not know the Dragon, which may imply that he too was present.
Kallyr is noted as having reacted fast after the event, gathering troops, but again is not stated as being present
(though remember the CHDP bias here!). Argrath is not mentioned. With my usual confidence in CHDP,
I expect this to mean that either he was not present, and Denseros could not manage to re-write events to
pretend that he was, or that he was present, and his actions were so embarrassing as to be unmentionable.
The Argrath Saga
This was written so long after the event that it merely echoes the CHDP tradition: in this case no new material
is added:
Argrath wished to liberate the people of his home from Lunar oppression. However, they were powerful
with their evil moon magic, and Argrath knew he needed something extraordinary to defeat them.
He conspired with Orlaront Dragonman, the son of Ingolf, and with the Purple Seer, and they awakened a
tremendous dragon which had been sleeping near the lunar headquarters. The monster attacked the people there,
and devoured the leaders and magicians of the imperial host. The assumption that anything done in that period was done by Argrath is evident here.
The Purple Sage is Minaryth Purple. Orlaront is unlikely to have been physically the son of Ingolf, as they are
separated by several centuries, but may well have been the one who rediscovered the draconic secrets that
Ingolf knew, and to have been following Ingolf's path.
Minaryth Blue
1625: Orlaront raises a dragon, King Blackmoor is destroyed, clay/harmony/earth. I follow Asborn Four-born.
We burn the plantations. Which confirms that Orlaront was believed to have been involved, and gives no further information on
the conspirators. It may imply that Leika was not involved, since given Minaryth's obsession with her,
he would have mentioned the fact. The date clay/harmony/earth agrees with CHDP.
The Grazer Kings List
Jandetin the Avenger was next, and he defended his lands and entered into the dragon conspiracy.
He summoned the sun to fill him, and he danced in the dream part of the ceremony where the dragons of the world
destroyed the Lunar leaders and army. That way he avenged the murderers of his family. This seems fairly conclusive to me, though whether Jandetin was one of the seven who interrupted the ceremony,
or part of a supporting ceremony elsewhere, is unclear. "Summoned the sun to fill him": the sun is hardly part of
the constellation of Orlanth's Ring! Tatius took the part of the sun in the Lunar ceremony, so I'm not sure whether
Jandetin was a "plant" in the Lunar group, or was part of another, related, ceremony elsewhere.
The list of Feathered Horse Queens
This implies that the FHQ of the time had something to do with the Dragon, though quite what is hard to say:
The next queen was "With Bitter Heart", for she sent her own son to avenge the tribe upon a vile foe.
She helped him become warped, in shadow, and and then deserted him when his task was done. She encouraged war bands,
and was the first to send vendref clans away, in migration. She fought against her own sister, but was betrayed
by the worm within herself. When Jandetin the Avenger danced, she was slain when it came out of her womb.
She was alone, without prayer or weeping of the people, yet the Goldeneye came for her."
Note that worm = dragon, and the FHQ is an earth priestess. A worm coming out of her womb could mean a
dragon coming out of the earth, with an implication that she caused it. The Goldeneyes coming for her would
then mean that despite none of her people being on her side, she was in fact in the right. Alternatively, she
was on the Lunar side, and was eaten by the Dragon. The Goldeneye came for her because despite her actions,
she was still Queen. To sort out what side she was on, we need to find out what her son was doing, and who the
"vile foe" was. "Warped, in shadow" makes me think of the Kygor Litor adoption rite, though I know of no troll
links for this period. I wonder if Jandetin was her son, myself, though it's hard to see how she could have
"deserted" him: after his "task was done", she was dead.
The Sacred Kings list
This is a mixed bag of Tarsh kings. It includes a king called "Unstey". I omit the dates given for him,
as those in the rest of the Sacred Kings list are wildly inaccurate: he may be anywhere from the early days of
Tarsh to the Fourth Age. But the description does sound familiar: "He was the king who did the Dragon Dance
with the High King, and made all the flowers burst into blossom when the blood of his royalty rained upon the
ground." Now, much as I dislike theories based on the idea that two people with vaguely similar names must
be identical, I should point out that "Unstey" sounds a lot like "Annstad". And Annstad of Dunstop was a king of
Tarsh (after Mularik), and was also Argrath's Fertility-Bringer. Judging from the effect he had on Jareel,
he had a very strong connection with fertility and all that goes with it: and must also have been a remarkable
warrior, as he led the wing for Argrath in more than one battle.
The Ring of Orlanth
The CHDP descrption tells us that there were seven Orlanthi (or possibly a multiple of seven?) who directly
interfered with the ceremony, forming the Ring of Orlanth. Others may of course have been involved, but elsewhere.
Of the seven, Minaryth Purple was one. Orlaront was probably another. Jandetin is known to have danced,
though apparently taking the part of the sun, so not as part of the Ring.
The Ring of Orlanth is described in "Elder Secrets" as a constellation.
"... has seven orange stars and one prominent green star, called the Dragon's Head. It appears at the
edge of the Middle Sky when it rises, never appearing in the Lower Sky. It takes one full week to travel upwards
along the sky dome into the Pole Star. Because it travels upwards as the sky dome turns, when viewed from below
the constellation traces a spiral air rune in the sky each week. It disappears for a week before appearing again." It is also noted of the constelation Draconis Stella that: "...the green star in Orlanth's Ring was once
part of this constellation. The Orlanthi have a popular myth of how their god conquered the Father and Mother of
Dragons and left the remains in heaven."
Polaris
CHDP makes it clear that the Lunar ceremony was led by a choreographer who was a Polaris priest.
Careful study of pronouns indicates that in fact two Polaris representatives were present, one of each gender.
Since in his myth Polaris is married to the goddess of dance, the Polaris priestess may have in fact been
representing her rather than him.
"Pole Star, the ceremonial choreographer stood there, utterly lost in prayer and concentration,
and the folks of Orlanth's Ring did not disturb him with their own prayers until they could not help it.
The circled called for Orlanth. The Pole Star priestess opened her eyes, and she saw the Orlanthi rising,
up into the air, bearing their bleeding corpses among them."
Why did the Orlanthi try not to disturb the leader of a ceremony they were trying to stop?
One reason that has been pointed out to me is the movements of the stars. In the sky, Orlanth's Ring moves
towards the centre of the sky until it reaches Polaris, when it vanishes. Perhaps the Orlanthi ritual depended
on the presence of the Polaris priest until it reached its climax.
Another idea is that the Orlanthi were trying not just to disrupt the Lunar ceremony but to use the power
from it for their own purposes. (Which implies that they had other purposes, which may imply that they intended
to summon a Dragon).
Perhaps even both ideas may be used. They were using not only the power, but the Polaris presence.
For what purpose? Back in the section of KoS on Orlanthi myth, we have a story of how, at the start of the
Greater Darkness, Orlanth's stead was attacked by Chaos. He lost the fight, and his tribe escaped.
"A dragon was there. Pole Star helped." This isn't exactly detailed. But the Orlanthi in 1625
certainly believed the Lunars to be associated with Chaos. If they wanted a dragon to aid them in their fight,
this would be an obvious myth to call on. "Pole Star helped". The Orlanthi don't have a strong Pole Star
tradition: as god of formal military manoevres, he doesn't have a great deal to offer them. Kallyr had a personal
link with Polaris (examined elsewhere), but would not have been able to find enough
Polaris initiates to give her the support for a ceremony of this size. If they needed a Polaris element in a large
ritual, their only option was to hijack a Lunar ceremony.
To my mind this strongly suggests that Kallyr was present, and was using her link with Polaris to take control
of the Polaris element of the Lunar ceremony. Since Polaris was the choreographer, this would effectively give the
Orlanthi group control of the entire ceremony. They would have needed a few of their own people to take the places
of key elements on the Lunar side, which may be where Jandetin (representing the Sun) comes into it.
(Tatius, representing the Sun for the Lunars, had already collapsed by this time and would be giving no opposition).
I believe they intended to summon a dragon, using the Lunar power, but did not have any control over which
dragon would appear. That was down to the Feathered Horse Queen, supporting them from elsewhere. As an Earth
priestess, a Brown Dragon, connected with the element of Earth, would be the obvious result, and the date
clay/harmony/earth reinforces the Earth link.
Note that the myth only states that the dragon "was there". It does not say which side it was on, if any.
And the Brown Dragon tried to eat the Orlanthi as well as the Lunars. It was not until many years later and
Argrath's recovery of EWF secrets that the Orlanthi could command dragons.
Who was there?
Can we reach any conclusions from this as to who was involved, and who led the group?
Actually present at the ceremony: Minaryth Purple, Orlaront.
Involved in the ceremony, not necessarily part of the Ring: Kallyr, Jandetin, the FHQ, Annstad.
We know there were seven in the Ring, so clearly we are missing some names here.
In particular, was Argrath present? Later sources all assume he was: but then,
they also assume that he was king from 1625 onwards, and that it was he who lit the Flame.
Minaryth Purple and Orlaront are listed among his Companions: but they are also listed among Kallyr's.
The most telling point to my mind is that CHDP does not mention him. Given the slightest chance, Denseros
would have described his deeds there in glowing terms, no matter how minor they may have been.
The lack of mention may indicate that he was not there at all, or that his actions were such that mentioning
them would have been embarrassing. Personally I can't imagine what he could have done that would have made his
actions too embarrassing to mention. Merely being present but not the principal would not have been enough:
Denseros happily re-wrote the relighting of the Flame to make it seem as if Argrath did it. Descriptions of
Argrath's actions around this period make it seem more likely that he was in Pavis while the Dragon episode
was going on.