View source for Theme:FFAC-1 Bahamut

=BAHAMUT: THE SKY-GIVEN-FORM=

In the first days of the war, the Sky-Given-Form was the fiercest opponent of Chaos, save Odin. Bahamut’s children are no less furious, no less dedicated, no less staunch and loyal to the cause of Creation than their father himself. When Bahamut gave itself up to become the First Sky, it took into itself a secret of immense power and danger. That secret the dragons are sworn to safeguard, and that secret is the reason for their existence. So they soar through the Sky-Given-Form that is their father, never leaving its boundaries - for even a moment’s hesitation might cost the world something it can never retrieve.

But the affairs of mortals are as dangerous to the secret as the affairs of Chaos. It is for this reason that the Dragoons were founded - the Dragon Knights in their Aeries. They are trained from a young age to master the powers of the dragons, to act as the hands of their masters in distant lands, and to hunt down the Enemy wherever they find it.

This document primarily covers the Dragoons as an organization, as the dragons lack a true “culture” - being as they are closer to demigods than people - and the Aeries are primarily Ramuhan cities that just happen to fly.

The semi-official “leader” of the Dragoons is General Julius Highwind (Dragoon/Paladin), who officiates the day-to-day of the Aeries and presides over the military forces of Bahamut. 

==OVERVIEW: THE SKY-WARDENS==

The Dragoons are the wardens of the Sky. They master the power of dragons to achieve great strength and dexterity, the ability to soar through the sky in single, massive leaps, the capacity to breathe fire (or lightning, or…) upon their foes, and the sacred power of Bahamut to detect The Enemy in all its forms.

This is a long and arduous process, best begun at a very young age. Children of no particular import, frequently orphans, are brought in by the Dragoons to be trained as new wardens. These children are trained then to be loyal first to the Dragons, then to the Sky-Given-Form, and finally to each other. The children swear loyalty to one of the Dragons, whom from that point on is master, mentor, and handler for the rest of that Dragoon’s life.

When the children are approximately six years old, they begin training in the martial aspects of being a Dragoon. Physical strength, endurance, and dexterity are pushed to the absolute limit by the dragon teaching the child. They are taught the specialties of aerial combat - of flying high above your opponent, of crashing down upon them like a hammer, and of surviving the counterattacks long enough to get away from them. During this time, the children are very subtly imbued with a trickle of their master’s power, enhancing their physical abilities rapidly.

At ten, the children add breath lessons to their regimen. They are taught by their dragon master to harness the element that best matches them - generally by racial subtype - and draw upon it for a blast of energy from the mouth. This is known to be the most difficult step of training, as humes are not readily capable of expelling fire or lightning from their bodies without magical aid. Many trainees wash out at this point, consigned forever to be little more than guardsmen for the Aeries. Those few who master this step - which frequently takes upwards of four years - are officially Dragoons.

Once a Dragoon trainee has completed the breath lessons step, he or she is officially made a Dragoon. There is no great ceremony, nor any great fanfare - instead, the dragon master bestows upon the Dragoon a boon of some sort, unique to the dragon and Dragoon’s relationship, and assigns the Dragoon their first official mission. These special objects can be anything from a unique suit of Dragoon armor to a spear made of power to the projection armor of the legendary Dragoon Man. Rarely do the provide magical benefit on their own - these items are mostly symbolic, identifying the Dragoon as a graduate and a Dragon Knight instead of a Dragon Trainee. 

==MISSIONS: THE HAND OF THE SKY==

The Wardens of the Sky are rarely bored. As the representatives of the Dragons in all things, the Dragoons are called upon by numerous nations as neutral problem-solvers and intermediaries, using the neutrality of the Dragons to avoid dangerous political problems. Furthermore, the Sky-Wardens undertake secret missions of stealth, observation, and elimination of things that might threaten Bahamut, the Great Secret, or Galianda as a whole.

It is most common for a Dragoon to have one primary mission for his entire life, and then a series of sub-missions related to that primary duty. These primary missions are frequently very broad in scope, and left up to the Dragoon in question to handle as he or she sees fit.

Dragoon trainees are never given Missions. Similarly, those who fail at breath training are also not given missions. Only true Sky-Wardens get such sweeping, comprehensive trust from the dragons.

==THE GREAT SECRET==

Even the Dragoons aren’t permitted to know the Great Secret.