<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 2.65em;">Sir Luxor Engels</span><br/><br/><strong>Username:</strong> Shihong<br/><strong>Race:</strong> Dragon<br/><strong>Age:</strong> 1,371<br/><strong>Sex:</strong> Male<br/><strong>Orientation:</strong> Pansexual<br/><strong>Preference:</strong> None</div><br/><strong>Personality:</strong><br/><br/>Cautious.  Discreet.  Shrewd.  Above all, patient.  Sir Engels did not rise to a position of such affluence and adoration by acting rashly.  His current influential status is the culmination of centuries of careful watching, waiting, planning, and manipulation of events, humans, and even other dragons.  His is the way of the puppeteer, hiding behind the veil of anonymity and tugging the strings of history in subtle ways until achieving his own enigmatic ends.<br/><br/>It is extraordinarily difficult to define Luxor's actions as righteous or malignant when viewed as a whole.  If a war is started that consumes entire nations with its bloody fire, who is to say that such a thing was not meant to happen?  One may condemn him for the lives lost, but what if the survival of those nations had led to a far more cataclysmic conflict?  Debating the morality of past deeds is a concept alien to one whose eyes so carefully scrutinize the future.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong><br/><br/>Born among the simmering sands of Egypt, Luxor was no stranger to the concept of change.  The land itself was an uncertain place that could never be trusted.  One had to rely on one's own mind in a place where the earth had no definition or discernible pattern.  His father had long since fled to cooler continents, and his mother abandoned him to the desert as soon as he had learned to hunt.<br/><br/>Alone and without guidance from his own people, the young dragon became introspective.  He would often stare out at the shifting landscape for weeks without food or water, doing nothing but attempting to predict the movement of the dunes under the tempestuous desert winds.  He had no explanation for why he was compelled to do such a mindless task, but he did so with such intensity that his black scales became bleached white by the harsh rays of the Egyptian sun.<br/><br/>For twenty years did this cycle of contemplation and communion continue, until at last a great change came over him.  He awoke from a deep slumber and looked out at the world and found a familiarity that he had never known before.  Each particle of sand had their place and destination.  He could see it with perfect clarity, see exactly where every individual granule would be minutes or even hours before it arrived.  He no longer watched, but participated in the endless pandemonium of life.  Luxor could be still no longer.  He would need to become as malleable as his homeland required of him.<br/><br/>For years more did the dragon wander the endless wastes, but no longer was he a figure of quiet observation.  He had looked into the sands and thought he understood the world.  Now he sought to understand the body he would use to walk it.  Luxor ran over dunes and arid plains simply for the sake of feeling muscles flex and strain from the glorious strain of movement.  He soared through blinding skies to experience the wind rippling through feathers and hair and scales.  He tore animals to pieces and exulted in the way flesh gave before his talons and blood tasted as it poured over his tongue.  From his mouth he poured a flame as white as milk and hot as dry ice over the ground just to watch as sand solidified and became incomprehensible sculptures of writhing glass.  He<em>lived</em>, in the most primal sense of the word.<br/><br/><div align="center">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/1/15/Dragon_of_Light.jpg)</div><br/>One day he came upon a lone traveler out of Egypt as he sat in the shade of an oasis.  The man's skin was deeply browned by the sun and had the texture of wrinkled leather.  His eyes were blind.  He wore only rags, and his possessions consisted of a few jugs of water and a pipe from which issued a faint green smoke.  Luxor stood before him with a fascination he had not felt since his first years of life.  He had never before seen a human. The strange animal seemed different from the ones he slaughtered for food.  As was his way of dealing with all new sights, the dragon sat and waited. After a time the man spoke, and this is what he said:<br/><br/><em>"I welcome you, Great One.  Your journey here has been a great many years in the making.  You have seen much, and yet so very little.  That much we share in common."</em>The man smiled, and the wrinkles of his face seemed to creak from the effort.<br/><br/>Luxor said nothing.  He somehow understood the man's words, yet could not speak them in turn.<br/><br/><em>"I do not mean to judge you, oh Great One.  You seek an understanding that few will ever know, whether their skin be of scales or flesh.  The path you have started upon is the correct one, but even you cannot yet predict its ultimate destination.  I humbly offer what guidance I can give.  Now, if you will permit me...</em>The old man's milky eyes widened.<em>"Let me tell you of my kin."</em><br/><br/>Thus began the lessons that would form the foundation of Luxor's future exploits.  Beneath the verdant palms he was taught the languages of the civilizations formed by the ones called Men.  The laws of society were laid bare before him, as were the ones of human nature and conflict.  His mind was opened to the full vastness of the world and its inhabitants, and to his place therein.  He had become but a grain of sand.  But now he could see where the winds would take him, and with his wings and mind control them.  With enough time, even the smallest specks of rock could again become a mountain.<br/><br/>The man that walked into Alexandria in the early decades of the 700s was like one from a dream.  He bore the marks and garb of royalty, though no one had ever before seen or heard of him.  He walked the streets and laid his hands upon the sick and and dying, and in an instant their health was assured.  He became known as a healer of those who had thought themselves damned by the powers that be, and great wealth was bestowed upon him by nobility that had been stricken by a wasting sickness.  No illness seemed beyond his power.  Lost limbs became whole, once shrouded lepers could look at the day with flawless skin, and barren women conceived children of great beauty and strength.  For a time there were those who worshipped him as a god.  A very short time.<br/><br/>Such miracles could not be overlooked by the magical beings of the world.  It was not long before Luxor's work drew the attention of other dragons.  Healing was an extraordinarily rare gift for a wyrm to possess, and many a dragon desired such a power to be at their disposal.  A group consisting of those who had been crippled or injured in battle set their sights upon him, eager to regain their former power by any means necessary.<br/><br/>In their desperation they set themselves upon Luxor as he wandered through the deserts beyond the sight of the great city.  Their appearance did not surprise him.  Indeed, it was his flame that made the first strike despite their ambush.  It struck hot and true, piercing through weakened scales and incinerating flesh from within.  Organs boiled, bones blackened, and blood evaporated into a crimson haze.  Those who managed to lacerate his skin were shocked as wounds closed before they had a chance to bleed, even as their own wounds erupted violently beneath the white dragon's claws.  By the battle's end twelve of the would-be kidnappers lay dead or broken upon the rock, and the remaining three were too beleaguered to flee.<br/><br/>To them he offered an ultimatum.  They would join under his command and obey him without question, and in return be healed of their wounds both new and old.  Refuse, and they would be killed without hesitation.  The eldest ones, a red and green dragon, agreed without question.  The last, a black, accepted only after swallowing his considerable pride.  So it was that Luxor became acquainted with the other dragon septs, and Arturis the Bloody, Helena Verd, and Menga of the Coals.<br/><br/>He vanished from Alexandria that very night, taking his considerable riches with him.  The others traveled with him under the guise of servants and bodyguards, and served him more or less dutifully.  Arturis' renewed strength far outpaced that of Luxor's, but his honor and shame towards his previous underhanded tactics would not allow him to seek revenge.  He used his considerable experience to train Luxor in the arts of combat, both as a human and a dragon.  Helena offered much in this regard as well, though her philosophy relied far more on improvisation than tried and true tactics.  She also held many insights into the workings of the criminal element of the human race, specifically that of fraud, assassination, and theft.  Though the two courted for some time, nothing serious ever came of it.<br/><br/>Menga provided something that Luxor was the most eager to learn: the history and politics of the septs.  Before he had lost an eye and a leg he had been a somewhat influential figure in inter-sept diplomacy, and had much to teach his new master of the world his parents had deprived him of.  Menga had a tendency to lord this advantage over the other, eager to accentuate his ignorance of the world.<br/><br/>For centuries they traveled together across the globe, interacting with dragons and humans alike, as well as many other species.  Their destinations were always chosen by Luxor.  They formed ties to many places and peoples, and amassed a fortune that went mostly unused and hidden away in various locations.  Whatever plans their master had, he never told them.  Often his actions seemed pointless or absurd.  They never were.<br/><br/>One day the four were walking through a forest without clear aim or intent.  It stretched onwards for miles, and contained an ecosystem so diverse that it brought to mind the dark jungles of hoary Africa.  They traveled for days until the others finally realized that he had been leading them in circles.  The revelation caused Menga to curse at Luxor in frustration.<em>"What lunacy is this!"</em>he cried, daring to push the other man against a nearby tree.<em>"Would you waste our time so frivolously?  We stroll about for days!  To what end?"</em><br/><br/>To this Luxor replied,<em>"Why Menga, I have heard these words before.  Do you not recognize this place?"</em>He swept an arm out towards the canopy far overhead.<em>"You asked me the same questions many years ago, when I walked these same lands planting seeds in the very soil beneath your feet.  This forest is the end of which you speak."</em><br/><br/>The black dragon's animosity would only grow from that point onwards.  Luxor's mind seemed incomprehensible and alien to him, fueling a fuming hatred that lay in the pit of his heart.  He no longer had anything more to teach his master.  While the others had accepted their fate as underlings and "companions", his pride would not allow him to lower himself any further than a life of servitude already had.  But with their protection and Luxor's uncanny ability to predict, he would need to bide his time.  So he waited.<br/><br/>It was not until the rise of the dreaded black wyvern Baltic that his chance finally arose.  The mighty beast threatened the autotomy of the other septs to such a degree that even Luxor with his policy of careful detachment could not ignore the threat of domination.  He was among the first to officially join under the banner of the Silver Dragons in protest of this egregious display of power.  Only when Menga thought his master to be sufficiently embroiled in the politics and what seemed to be an impending war did he make his move.  He led his black brethren to Luxor's Mediterranean estate with the intent to slay him, only to find Arturis and Helena waiting for them.  It had been they that predicted Menga's treachery, not Luxor.  They had sent him away the night before on some false business venture and remained behind to meet the traitor face to face.<br/><br/>The ensuing battle completely destroyed the colossal mansion.  Firestorms turned both marble and gold into a molten sea that consumed the grounds in their entirety.  The two were outnumbered and outmatched, but they fought on despite the gallons of blood that boiled out from wounded veins and severed limbs that cooked and blackened in the otherworldly heat.  The sunlight that began to rise from the morning horizon paled in comparison to the hellish scene, but before midday the land began to cool once more.  Arturis and Helena lay together amongst the corpses of their killer's, barely recognizable under the gore.  Menga had survived the battle unscathed, allowing his allies to fall in his stead.  Everything for miles had been turned to ashes.  It was with a perverse pleasure that the black dragon looked out upon the forests that Luxor had waited years to see grow reduced to charcoal and grey soot.  It stood as a symbol that his much despised master was not as infallible as he had been led to believe.  But though his image of perfection had been shattered, the silver dragon yet lived on.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>Engels Corp.  The world's leading manufacturer of medical technology.  Founded by the renowned chemist Sir Luxor Engels in 2003, the corporation quickly rose to universal acclaim with its production of Luxitone, a miracle drug used in the treatment of terminal diseases, such as cancer and AIDS.  The mysterious formula has proven almost 100% effective in both eliminating and preventing the aforementioned diseases, along with nearly every other sickness currently known to man.  It appears as a solid white liquid that glows faintly in sunlight, and may be ingested orally or injected.  The substance is apparently derived from a previously undiscovered species of plant that Sir Engels keeps under lock and key for security purposes, but appears as a near-crystalline structure.  The exact properties of Luxitone are unknown even after intense study, but no harmful effects have yet to be recorded in any patients.  In addition to curing patients of nearly all known afflictions, those who have received Luxitone injections claim to feel significantly happier.  Those experiencing the effects of depression claim to have such feelings completely dissipate after taking Luxitone.<br/><br/>Though there are many in the scientific community that scrutinize Engels Corp and its founder harshly, claiming that Luxitone should not be distributed until it is fully understood, their voices are completely drowned out by the intense support of former victims of cancer and AIDs.  Sir Engels assures that Luxitone will always be available and affordable to the general public, though the sheer volume of his sales ensures the totality of his dominance in the field of medical science.  The general public would not have it any other way.<br/><br/>What the apparent global addiction to Luxitone means for the rest of the world, few can say but Luxor himself.  His contact with dragons has been scarce since Menga's betrayal, and he is now known as an extremely reclusive individual.  He has given very little comment on the growing issue of Dark One/Dragon relations, though whether that means he has no interest in them is very difficult to ascertain.  The world will just have to wait and see.<br/><br/><div align="center">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/3d/Gentleman_photo.jpg)</div>