Dyrsin¶

"I have not partaken in your festivities. When I do, I will be announcing something."
— Dyrsin, the standing response to every Drakaër invitation, repeated verbatim for two generations

The Cynwäll ambassador in his Tower — the colossal elven spire that dominates Cadwallon's Upper City and lent its name to the Drakaër fief at its feet. The PHB calls him "a secretive character whom very few people have met" and notes that there is no embassy in the strict sense — only him, alone in his Tower, never partaking in any festivities unless he has something of importance to announce. He has been there longer than living Cadwë memory. He is the closest living link the city has to the Cynwäll civilization on whose ruins it stands.

What the PHB Establishes¶

No formal embassy. "The Jewel of Lanever also hosts a Cynwäll ambassador who lives in the tower that dominates the upper city. There isn't an embassy in the strict sense of the term and the ambassador himself is a secretive character whom very few people have met. He never partakes in any festivities unless he has something of importance to announce."
His Tower is older than Cadwallon. "Well before men began digging the foundations of their first buildings... the high Cynwäll tower dominated the sea."
The Tower hosts dragons. "One can often see Lanever dragons glide across the sky of Cadwallon to visit their titanic kin in the Dyrsin Tower." The dragon-landing area on one of the pillars is, in practice, the only public way in and out of the Tower's upper levels.
He is a Cynwäll elf — Ways of Light, Dragon culture; the ancestral Light branch of the elven race; physically taller and stronger than other elves, with no fear of heights
He is not the city's only Cynwäll — there are other Cynwäll residents (the Tower's small household, scattered scholars, dragon-keepers) — but he is the only one with diplomatic standing and the only one the city's elite ever sees

What He Looks Like¶

The few who have seen Dyrsin in person — diplomatic insiders, the dragon-keepers, three Dukes across his tenure — describe him in remarkably consistent terms: a Cynwäll elf of indeterminate but unmistakably old age, very tall by elven standards (well over six and a half feet), silver-haired and silver-eyed, robed in the muted greys and dragon-greens of pre-Cadwallon Cynwäll formal dress. He speaks Cadwë fluently and with a slight Cynwäll cadence that Cadwës find unnerving rather than charming. He does not smile.

How He Lives¶

Alone in the Tower — staff are "probably constructs," per the open-secret of Drakaër court rumor; no living servant has been documented entering or leaving in the past three Peers' tenures
Receives no visitors casually. Every audience is requested formally and almost all are refused.
Dragon-only access. The Tower's upper levels are reachable practically only via the dragon-landing pillar; the lower levels are sealed by Cynwäll mechanism the Guild of Architects have never replicated and have stopped trying to.
Has not slept (per his own claim, made once, to a Cynwäll-curious Daïkinee scholar). Cynwäll do not require sleep in the human sense; whether Dyrsin's personal hours-of-stillness amount to none at all is unclear and may be Cynwäll humor.

What He Does¶

Watches. Dyrsin's Tower has line-of-sight over the entire upper city, the harbor approaches, and a substantial swath of the lower fiefs. The Cynwäll regard Cadwallon as simultaneously theirs (the buried city) and not theirs (the Cadwë state) and dangerous (the Ophidian Vestiges, the sleeping god beneath). Dyrsin is the watchman.
Speaks for Lanever — but only when Lanever needs to be spoken for. He has formally addressed the Duke perhaps a dozen times across his tenure. Every address is preserved verbatim in the ducal archive and none has ever been ignored.
Custodies the dragons. The Lanever dragons that visit the Tower are received by Dyrsin personally. The relationship between Dyrsin and the dragons is the closest thing to a peer-relationship he has in the city.
Knows what is in the Cynwäll Ruins underneath. He does not say. He has prevented several deep-shrew expeditions from reaching specific sites — including a Tractor-related survey two years ago — through a single quiet communication to the Duke each time.

What He Wants¶

The Free City to survive long enough to outlast whatever wakes beneath it. Dyrsin's interest in Cadwallon's stability is specifically eschatological: he wants the Free City to be still standing on the day the [[Labyrinth]] opens.
The buried Cynwäll city to stay buried. Most of the time. The Walled Library is a special case (see below).
The dragons to be safe. A small thing relative to the rest, except that for Dyrsin it may be the largest thing.

Why Dyrsin allows the Walled Library

Of the buried Cynwäll sites, the Walled Library is the one Dyrsin allows the shrews and the Order of the Chimera to reach. The other major Cynwäll sites are sealed by his arrangement with the Duke; the Library is not. The reason is the living Ophidian S'ylice in the Library's coiling depths — Dyrsin needs the Library to stay reachable because S'ylice is the only living source on Vortiris's remaining plans in the Labyrinth, and Dyrsin needs that intelligence as much as Cadwallon does. He cannot reach S'ylice directly without breaking the Cynwäll's ancient compact with the Ophidian remnant. He needs Cadwës to do it for him.

Dyrsin and Johann of Drakaër

Dyrsin knew Johann personally. In the Cynwäll way — the way elves who saw a founder still remember him in the present tense. Dyrsin is the reason Johann got the dragon. The thing Johann found in the ruins and returned to the Cynwäll, Dyrsin personally received. That artifact is in the Tower. If asked, Dyrsin would not deny it. Nobody has yet asked.

Relations¶

Albanne Drakaër — the present Peer of his host fief. He receives her formally twice a year. She has never been inside the Tower; she has been received on the dragon platform.
Duke Den Azhir — has spoken with Dyrsin five times in his reign; every conversation matters
The Cynwäll — his people; he speaks with the (small, scattered) other Cynwäll residents of Cadwallon as he sees fit, which is rarely
Johann of Drakaër — founder of Drakaër; a man Dyrsin remembers as if recently
S'ylice — Ophidian; he cannot meet her directly; he watches the Library activity through Cadwë proxies
The Lanever dragons — his actual peers
Sophet Drahas — Dyrsin has never communicated with Drahas. The relationship is the most studied non-relationship in the city's diplomatic history.

An audience requested

Dyrsin requests, through formal Drakaër channels, an audience with a free league — not with the Duke, not with the Peers, but with a specific company of free leaguers. The request names the company by its blazon. The reason is not given. The acceptance is non-negotiable: he will send a dragon to fetch them.

The Tower opens

The Tower's lower-level seal — sealed by Cynwäll mechanism since before Cadwallon was founded — opens once, briefly, for reasons Dyrsin will not explain. The opening is witnessed by Albanne Drakaër and noted in her log. Whatever came out (or in) is now in the city. Dyrsin will not be drawn on the subject. The Open Hand tarot-mages are panicking. The Closed Door are not. Both reactions are information.