Vaulix: Dalonian Godfather of Compassion

Story by Runa on SoFurry

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Art - Ahro

Writing - Runa

Vaulix - Runa

Oh my skies....after literally four years since I had got my first full sketch of this beautiful beast, I finally have an image that can properly replace my old, sketchy first reference (which is still perfect for the shape, form, and dimensions of my cockatrice, but completely wrong on the feather colors) which can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6745654/

Seriously, words cannot describe how overjoyed I am at how well the artist did this picture. I've had that original image ever since it was posted, and other artists - good as they may be - never quite emulated the alluring yet compassionate feel that Tiel did on the original attempt. They never get the head shape right, and never really showed how he was supposed to look (and that was made worse by the fact that I kept changing his colors, and will continue to alter his wing colors as time goes on). Now, I finally found an artist that is not only amazing enough to do his shape and form right, but with so much skill with colors and shading that she could do it justice, and so much patience that she put up with literally weeks of me nitpicking the fuck out of her altering the colors as we went along.

Seriously, I cannot recommend this artist enough right now. A full two person commission of this quality is only 120 plus XXX premium, that's literally only 60 per person, and you get something THIS good with a goddamn background!

She'll do basically anything except the usual suspects (no underage, scat, gore, etc), so feel free to hit her up! She's open for commissions, tell her Runa sent you!

Vaulix is one of the original Founding Dalonian Godfathers, and the one responsible for what compassion that group has for their world. He is the inspiration behind Bad Dragon's cockatrice (though they ended up using a wholly different mascot, as they had a rule about using people's avatars as the toys they made, resulting in Cyr's breeder being reworked, and me being amazed they still use my gryphon).

Anyway, here's a brief, Abridged version of his backstory, who he was before he earned the rank of "Dalonian Godfather", and what impact he has on the world I've created:


Vaulix isn't like the other gods of Dalon. No, he's unique amongst the bunch in that he never, ever wanted to control or dominate others. He was the peace keeper. The healer. The lover. Never been a fighter, never felt the need for it or benefit of it, especially not with such worldly abilities.

As one of the original three of the founding Godfathers alongside Ilorek and Keran, with pet Ceylon (unbeknownst to be sentient at the time), Vaulix acted as the voice of reason and compassion. Where Ilorek wanted nothing more than to learn the subtleties of how magic worked and how it could be used and manipulated to achieve everlasting life, Vaulix desired only to help others and use it for healing purposes. Where Keran wanted to use advanced magic to control others and gain power, Vaulix wanted to use the research they were embarking on to make the world a better place. Even once the eleven had spent literally more than two centuries with an iron grip on Dalon, it was Vaulix who proposed a more peaceful solution that allowed the gods to retain power while still giving people the freedom and autonomy they deserved.

So in essence, Vaulix is the group's healer. The peacemaker. While the others are interested the manipulation of magic in order to gain control, power, knowledge, admiration, recognition, or money, he wanted only to help others. Vaulix wanted knowledge from the get go, but only in order to use it to heal others, to offer help where he could. Truly, he was a sort of a self sacrificing god.

Even before he joined the gods, he was a Tehgolize noble in the service of the general's army, acting as the prime healer for his wounded as well as a teacher to instruct the squires and other magic users how to heal. In fact, he was so good at instructing others how to use magic to seal wounds and regain energy that he started teaching knights and combatants how to heal themselves on the field. His expertise helped the nation of Tehgol gain a significant foothold on all three of the neighbouring nations of Arrenthen, Untheria, and Chimme, despite Tehgol lacking the richness in resources that any of those nations possessed.

However, after a decade or so of war, the King of Tehgol tried for a particular brutal attack over the mountains towards Arrenthen, resulting in thousands of casualties that Vaulix himself wanted to prevent. This, coupled with his willingness to heal the 'enemy' made the King turn on Vaulix, demanding he be captured and brought in for interrogation (which really just meant he intended to beat the kindness out of the poor cockatrice.)

Vaulix may have been a lover, not a fighter, but his magical ability coupled with his intimate knowledge of Saurossin and Oairian biology made him a formidable foe in any fight, even if he was just defending himself. They say the resulting mess from the strike force the king sent after him was rancid enough to make that battlefield uninhabitable for a full year after the fact. After that, Vaulix disappeared from the continent, never to be seen by that king or his ancestors again.

It wasn't until Vaulix met Keran and Ilorek on his travels that he felt a connection with another. Keran was a wise professor at a magic academy, teaching a variety of topics involving the history of magic and its effects on the world. Ilorek was one of his students, an incredibly adept and eager young hippogryph with an incredible knowledge of chemistry and physics. Once they all met up and had a chat about their respective scientific endeavours and knowledge (Anthropology, History, Sociology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and even Vaulix's extensive knowledge of warfare), they realized that, through manipulation of magic, they could create new magic that could give them what they needed in order to make the world a better place, not just for them but for all.

That is how, before they were gods, the Dalonian Godfathers were formed. Those three Academics and their pet gryphon soon began travelling the world looking for others who could help them broaden their knowledge, and offer them what they needed to advance their studies. They didn't want or need people interfering in their plans or getting involved, so they kept it a secret to all but those they deemed worthy, and those three were what started it all.

However, in their lengthy travels a few of Vaulix's more secret truths began to emerge. Despite him identifying as male in the strictest form (with a masculine voice and demeanour), it was later discovered that he was actually hermaphroditic, with genitals and organs for both male and female of both of his species. As a cross breed composed of Saurossin and Oairian (dragon and avian), he posessed the male genitals of a dragon and the female internals of an avian, which meant he was not only blessedly endowed, but possessed a vaginal canal that led to a clutch that produced a single egg once every three months.

This was something Vaulix was not happy to share with others because for the longest time it caused him genuine pain. Due to his genetics and with the help of the two scholars that became his closest and most intimate friends, he was able to learn that he was an anthropomorphic creature with the egg production of a feral beast. In other words, he was producing eggs that were dozens of times too big to comfortably pass through his birth canal. For about a week before his body rejected the oblong orb that was about the size of a large sports ball, his belly would become somewhat distended with the shape of it, distending his organs in such a way it was hard to eat or even move for days at a time. Imagine a mammal (perhaps a human) giving birth to a newborn, but instead of having the benefit of being able to pass the head, body, and limbs in a row, the baby was all bundled up in an egg. Not only is that far thicker than the pelvis can comfortably pass, but the hard shell ensured that the poor cockatrice was in agonizing pain for the entire ordeal.

That's why he kept it to himself for so long. He was able to use his magic to lessen his pain and aid in the passing of his tri-monthly egg production, but he still needed privacy during it, and didn't want the soldiers witnessing him in his weakened form. Had he been caught off guard at the end of his cycle when weakened by the egg's obtrusive nature when the Tehgolize King wanted him brought in for his punishments, he likely wouldn't have been able to avoid the soldiers and the entire world as we know it might be different.

However, with the aid of friends who care about him as much as he cares about them, Vaulix eventually was able to put all that behind him and focus on honing his magical craft. Now, Vaulix lives each of his lives as a sort of travelling love guru, sharing his passions and helping others unlock their own compassion. He travels from nation to nation, liberating people from repression and teaching the world that all kinds of love is preferable to any kind of hate or ignorance, and if that means using his immense powers to let you live out your fantasies, you better be grateful, for any intimate time spent with Vaulix the Cockatrice is not a time that's likely to be forgotten, not in your life or his.