:: Random Item—Gunnr Fangs of Nyarai ::

Gunnr Fangs of Nyarai

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/30/15

Apparel: Earrings

Condition: Large, Cold

Culture: Leonian

Color: Bronze

Keyword: Gun

You stand among the Werewolf spectators inside the henge of stones, waiting the arrival of Jarl Saga. You hear the howls approaching, and soon the Jarl’s procession enters the henge. The last to enter is Jarl Saga herself, snarling ferociously and trailing thin clouds of chilled air from her snout. Through the grayish-white haze, you see a pair of long bronze teeth stretching her earlobes, the buffed brown metal gleaming in the moonlight. As the Jarl’s war-dance brings her closer, you actually feel a chill coming from the adornments. Something about the Jarl’s taste in accessories suddenly has you on edge.

The Leonian culture widely accepts stretching the skin—especially the earlobes and bottom lip—with various curved teeth or tusks. The most recent incarnation of this practice uses boar tusks that are then carved with designs unique to the Leonian’s pride and stained using natural dyes. Anciently however, before the Leonians migrated south from the Akkedis Desert, the massive teeth of dragons were used. In those days, the size of the teeth worn in one’s ears represented the extent of one’s bravery; the larger the quarry, the more dangerous the kill.

One ancient Leonian, Nyarai, was credited with hunting down Nihar, the largest dragon in the Akkedis Desert, a creature that breathed chilling clouds of ice. Nihar and Nyarai’s pride had been at war for years, and as the Alpha Nyarai at last decided that it was his duty to dispatch Nihar before it could do any more harm. The battle was ferocious, but Nyarai returned the victor, and claimed the right to wear the Nihar’s teeth in his ears. But the dragon was so enormous that Nyarai could only wear its smallest teeth, thus earning the Alpha his title: Nyarai the Humble.

Over the centuries Nihar’s teeth were passed down from one Alpha to the next. At one point they were even bronzed and engraved with a pictorial representation of Nyarai’s epic battle with Nihar. Somewhere along the way, however, they came into the possession of Jarl Saga of the Fenrir. Having heard of Nyarai’s legend and the war he waged against the frost-breathing dragon, Saga renamed the ornamental jewelry the Gunnr Fangs of Nyarai, after the Werewolf word for “war.” Somehow, after all they have been through, the bronzed teeth still bear the chill of Nihar’s hoarfrost.