Breeze Between the Boughs: The Book of Dragons

A set of supplementary notes on the narrative verse collection "Winds of the Forest," with materials excerpted from various documents. Describes the stories of Mondstadt's dragons.

—Book of Dragons—

Selected from Musk's "A Customs Study of the Land of Wind," commonly rendered "Local Customs of the Wind."

...

The North Wind Knight's "Wolf," the Dandelion (Lionfang) Knight's "Lion," the Knights of Favonius's "Eagle," and Dvalin—"the Wind Dragon"—have long been regarded as Mondstadt's "Four Winds of Guardianship."

After the Lionfang Knight liberated Mondstadt, the Knights of Favonius were founded, and the North Wind Knight joined, the tradition of the "Four Winds" took form in Mondstadt—while Dvalin is older still.

About a century ago the whole continent passed through a chaotic age. Dark power spread and advanced, polluting all it met. In that time barbarians bred on the land and beasts ran wild. People's living space was compressed within city walls; the wilds were full of danger.

That time was especially hard for Mondstadt. The Lionfang Knight's inheritance was vacant for lack of one qualified to hold it; the Knights of Favonius, worn by hard fighting, also lost talent. Then a mighty corrupted beast, the venomous dragon Durin, struck Mondstadt.

The prayers of Mondstadt's people finally woke the Anemo Archon's will, and that will summoned the wind dragon Dvalin. As Mondstadt's last guardian it fought Durin.

The outcome is plain: Durin's corpse still lies on the snow ridges south of Mondstadt. The process can no longer be examined. Legend says the wind dragon bit through the venomous dragon's throat and fell from the firmament with it. Durin's corpse embedded in cold snow and ice; Dvalin was recalled by the Anemo Archon and sank into sleep.

...

People once believed the wind dragon would wake when needed and guard Mondstadt.

But in peaceful ages faith in the Four Winds faded, and the corresponding temples were abandoned.

[Someone's annotation: When we at last discovered that the strange pest "Stormterror," with which the Knights had fought several times, was Dvalin of the Four Winds, hatred-driven opposition had already formed and could not be reconciled. Waking after a century, it could surely only feel this city's betrayal...]