Following the Survivor thread for the Gem Dragons, here is deity number 18.
Uldras, also know as The Resplendent One and The Winding Road, is the dragon deity of psionics, travel, and self-discovery. He is depicted as a large sinuous dragon seemingly sculpted from red diamonds that refract the light around him. Various gemstones are often seen orbiting him, held aloft by his psionic powers. Uldras was the last of the 38 original deities of Salvera to ascend to godhood after the betrayal and later abandonment of the Old Creator Deities, coming into his own not at the end of the Age of Creation along with the others, but at the tail end of the Age of Chaos that followed. Some believe that his initial rejection to join the other Salverean deities in binding themselves to the world was due to a selfish desire to remain independent and removed from the rest of the plane. Others however, believed that it was for the betterment of the plane itself at that delicate time, as Uldras’s motives for protecting Salvera at the tail end of the Creator Wars were not benevolent, but purely based on spite and hatred that was instilled in him long before that betrayal, when his own father Sardior cast him aside for his newer Gem Dragon children, a hatred that could have negatively influenced the recovering world. Still others believed that The Winding Road needed to partake in his own journey of self-discovery, in order to prepare himself to later teach the despondent mortals of the young world how to better grow and control that aberrant powers that ran amok in the wake of the nearly cataclysmic conflict. Regardless of the reason, his return and later ascension was instrumental in ending the tumultuous Age of Chaos and ushering in the Age of Exploration.
As the god of psionics, Uldras is said to have created the six psionic disciplines as a mean of giving mortals the tools to control and master these wayward energies, and even created the initial foundation of the various monastic traditions that exist today. However, the great dragon is more commonly revered for his role as the god of travel. Whether it’s traveling along well established trade routes, dangerous wilderness and rough waters, or hidden and uncharted paths, he is often prayed to for safety and good fortune along the journey. Many of his followers take up long pilgrimages to places both familiar and foreign, and some even live a fully nomadic lifestyle, believing life is best spend traveling and seeing the world and all that it has to offer. Should a lone traveler be lucky enough, they might even be graced by the presence of the Resplendent One himself, as he walks his own path.
Also yes, red diamond. I wanted to make Sadior’s first child a diamond dragon and thought it would be a neat idea to have Uldras be the rarest type of diamond that exists in the real world. Turns out it’s the red diamond, which while a bit ironic I thought it fit as a potential reason why Sardior would cast him aside, only looking at his first creation as a shallow clone of himself despite it’s unique qualities (while maybe also explaining why there are no ruby or other red gem dragons among the core grouping). I don’t know, I like the idea.
