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> [ShadowsOfEurope] The Legend of Smok Wawelski, How does this tie into Shadowrun?
booklord
post Jul 29 2004, 06:26 PM
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The most famous dragon in Poland, well known to every Polish child, is the legendary Smok Wawelski. To this day there stands a monument in the caverns beneath the castle of Krakow to Smok Wawelski, and people from all over the world come to visit his statue and hear his tale. This is the story of how the beast met his terrible end and how the city of Krakow got it's name.

Some centuries ago, in the dawn of Poland's history, there lived in a dark cave at the foot of Wawel Hill, along the banks of the Vistula River, a most horrible fire-belching dragon. Daily he rampaged on the countryside and threatened the terrified people of Kraków. He slew the innocent, devoured their domestic animals and plundered their belongings. His favorite food was small children and whenever he found one, he would gobble them up as fast as he could.

Nobody could prevent his hideous deeds. In vain the bravest knights of the realm tried to overcome the voracious dragon. But time and time again, before they could even draw their swords, the searing fire from the beast's mouth destroyed them. The people watched helplessly as one after another the bravest and best knights of the kingdom fell before Smok Wawelski.

The King of Kraków, desperately worried by the tragic situation in the city, sent his heralds far and wide to announce to the Royal houses and courts of Europe that whosoever could slay the dragon would - as a reward - marry his daughter and sit on his throne after his death.

Many great Princes and brave knights from all around central Europe, encouraged by such a handsome offer, and the legendary beauty of the king's daughter, quickly presented themselves to take up the challenge, but failed against the dragon. Time passed and the stream of bold and adventuresome fighters eventually slowed to a trickle, and still the dragon tyrannized the countryside and the people. It was a dark time for Poland.

The king gave himself up to despair, while the king's daughter wrung her hands and wept. After all, she could not expect to ever be married if the dragon slew all her suitors. The dragon-ravaged countryside steadily became poorer and poorer.

One cold morning a young peasant boy named Krak, a shoemaker's apprentice, showed up at the palace gates to present himself. He had bravely offered his services before this time but had been turned down when there were other more noble volunteers. Once again the courtiers laughed and pointed at his holey shoes and his tattered leggings, but by now the King was desperate and willingly accepted the challenge of such a humble peasant boy.

Not surprisingly the only member of the court with any faith in the shoemaker's apprentice was the sweet hearted Princess herself. For he was unusually strong, good looking and well mannered for a mere peasant and it was clearly apparent to the Princess that this was a man of honor and grace. Now this apprentice named Krak did not own a sword, let alone armor, He didn't ride a white charger or possess any of the other essential equipment of a knight errant. What he did have was intelligence, unusual culinary skills and a great deal of cunning.

The first thing Krak did was to go back to his shop to prepare for battle. When the townsfolk saw him they laughed at him and cruelly made jokes that he would be the next meal for Smok Wawelski. But Krak knew that the townsfolk would be singing a very different tune to him after slaying the dragon. Krak went into his shop and laid aside a torch and some fuel and then prepared himself for bed.

Later that night he rose and went out, taking the torch and supplies with him. Krak crept quietly out to the Dragon's cave. The Dragon wasn't there, so he explored the mouth of the cave and saw the great heaps of bones and treasure the Dragon had collected. He hid himself behind a rock and waited for the dragon to return.

When Smok came back, he quietly watched the dragon from behind the rock, and seeing the greedy dragon come back with a fat ram in his clutches he came up with a very clever idea. Krak returned home with a plan.

From the family recipe book, he prepared a menu: Three roast sheep with a stuffing of all the hottest spices and herbs he could lay hands on. Then he stuffed them even more with sulfur and sewed their stomach shut. The next night, by the light of the moon, he crept to the mouth of the dragon's cave and left the tasty morsels there.

When dawn arrived, The dragon came out of his cave and found what appeared to be fat juicy sheep just sleeping there. The dragon, thinking this to be a nice tidbit, and being greedy as well as stupid, gobbled them up in the twinkling of an eye. Very soon he started to feel enormously thirsty. When the fiery spices and the sulfur hit his stomach, his singular, driving thought was to quench his raging thirst. He quickly ran to the Vistula river which wound it's way round his cave and drank... and drank... and drank...

The dragon's throat and stomach burned so much he was forced to drink half of the Vistula River, and as a result, his stomach kept swelling and swelling and eventually it exploded, killing him, and setting the town and the surrounding countryside free from its grip of terror.

The shoemaker's apprentice married the king's lovely daughter, was gifted the stolen treasure that was in the cave, and after the monarch's death, ascended to the throne. The town he rescued from the clutches of Smok, the dragon of Wawel Hill, took its name from him, and bears it to this day with great honor - the old capital of Poland, Kraków.


So, here is the story of Smok Wawelski, the infamous dragon of Wawel hill. But how does this tie into the present day dragon known Calozerca? For this I write this piece of fictional speculation on the fictional world of Shadowrun.


The fourth age was coming to the end and the dragons were entering their hibernation. However one dragon known as Smok Wawelski refused. He felt that by refusing hibernation he would be able to amass great power and wealth during the fifth age while the others were sleeping. When magic returned he would use these resources to firmly establish himself as a dominant power. Using a large amount of blood magic and the sacrifice of many innocents he maintained his lair as a power site in spite of the low mana levels. Thus tales of his ravenous appetite and greed became legend. He also used this time to amass a great deal of wealth and artifacts.

But his reign was not to last. The immortal elves saw Smok as a threat and worked together to stop him. Using what little magic they could muster (no doubt tapping into the power site Smok worked so hard to maintain) they fought and defeated the dragon. But the elves had sworn an oath at the end of the fourth age not to kill any dragons while they were vulnerable during the fifth age. They feared the consequences should they break this oath and instead chose imprison the dragon. ( They told the locals he was killed ) And so the dragon remained. But now the sixth age has begun and the dragon, who has now taken the name of Calozerca, has been released. His first action was to create his own personal fiefdom in what is now called the Enclave of Carpathia. He now resumes his quest for power and for revenge on the elves who imprisoned him.
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Synner
post Jul 29 2004, 08:37 PM
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Amazing what a little research will turn up. ;) Good work, booklord.

There is in fact another legend regarding one of the knights who tried to challenge the dragon, failed and was gobbled up whole, but it is far more obscure and is the source of Calozerca's other nickname "Olophagus". You've caught the most famous one though. Nice work on the speculation... fits with what we got in both DotSW and SoE... now only time will tell if its right.

And the question remains... who released him and why?
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Ancient History
post Jul 29 2004, 08:50 PM
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Aw, you don't want to use the existing ED parallel Syn?

Anywho, this sounds like the origin of what Tolkein embellished as Farmer Giles of Ham.
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Sepherim
post Jul 29 2004, 09:48 PM
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Nice bit of fiction/speculation. Very inspiring. :)

And it even could be used as the layout for any other smaller dragon in case your games aren't set in Poland, since all around Europe stories abound about dragons, knights and all those things.
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mattness pl
post Aug 16 2004, 09:36 PM
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QUOTE
Calozerca
- WholeEater? looks funny without polish fonts :D
The same in polish: Całożerca (change coding in your browser to middleeuropean... I think ;) )
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Demonseed Elite
post Aug 27 2004, 08:17 PM
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And the question remains... who released him and why?


If you're one to follow Earthdawn connections, the ideas you end up with are scary indeed. >:)
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