"Carver, what are you doing in my pack?"

"Looking for that Dovahzul dictionary father gave you. Really sister, The Lusty Argonian Maid: the Complete Travel Edition?"

"Yes, well...What do you want with that dictionary anyway?"

"I've been thinking..."

"Oooh..."

"Shove it, Marian. I've been thinking about dragons."

"Dragons, eh. I think it's about time for that conversation we've been meaning to have."

"Argh, Teyrn Loghain, I didn't see you there."

"Indeed...Dragons. Explain. What is your Warden Commander not telling me?"

"We can't be telling you Warden secrets, sir. But I think we can explain the dragons, we knew about them before we were Wardens after all. What do you think, Carver?"

"Sounds about right, I think. It seems like something the commander of the army should really know, anyway. Ah, here is the dictionary. And Blackbriar reserve, have you been holding out on me again, sister. You want a mug, sir?"

"Please. Now, Dragons. What should I know?"

"I could have sworn I was all out of booze...Okay, dragons, dragons are immortal."

"I think the Nevarran dragon hunters would beg to differ."

"I've been thinking about that too. That's partly why I wanted that dictionary. I don't think those dragons are proper Dragons, Dragons that can become Archdemons. But go on, Marian."

"I will, then, but you get to explain that comment. Dragons are immortal in the sense that they can only be killed in particular circumstances. When a Dragon kills another Dragon the winner eats the losers soul. That Dragon is then properly dead. If the Dragon is killed under any other circumstances, it is only mostly dead."

"Mostly dead, I like that."

"Thank you Carver. That Dragon can then be revived, it takes some very specific knowledge and a lot of magic, but it can be done. The only other way a Dragon can be killed properly is if a Dovahkiin kills it. That is a human with the soul of a Dragon, a Dragonborn. They can also eat the Dragon's soul. Dragonborn are rare, we don't know if it's a gift from the gods or a bloodline or a combination of both. It runs in our bloodline, but we are not related to the known bloodline that came before."

"Actually..."

"You know something I don't Carver?"

"Did father ever gave you the Daedric Princes version of the Talk?"

"What, no. Mother gave that to me and Bethany."

"Right, well...It turns out Martin Septim worshipped Sanguine when he was young. One of our ancestors was in the same...coven. Do you call it coven, maybe it's party where Sanguine is concerned? Anyway, they were exclusive for several months, Martin left the coven...party? So did she and it turned out she was pregnant, the father could apparently only have been Martin. Of course she didn't realize Martin the Daedra worshipper was Martin Septim, until she saw a statue or a portrait or something after he had been dead for a while. So...there we are. According to father that is where we get our head for alcohol."

"Sounds like family legend to me, no way to confirm it."

"Actually Sam confirmed it for me."

"Sam?"

"Sanguine, he was concealed as a man named Sam Guevenne when I first met him. Apparently it is a favourite disguise."

"Sam Guevenne, a shifty little Breton, dark hair, drunk, excellent in bed?"

"I wouldn't know about the last, but the rest sounds about right. Sister...?"

"Oh, gods. I thought I hallucinated the Dremora, I was certainly drunk enough...aargh."

"As interesting as this is, how is this relevant?"

"Carver, tell the Teyrn the rest. Sanguine...oh gods, oh gods, oh gods."

"Yes, well... So those Dragons that are only mostly dead...Most of their soul is elsewhere, but a little bit is stuck in their body. Then a few centuries, a landslide here, an earthquake there, and you have their hibernating bodies buried underground for the Darkspawn to find, and he presto, Archdemon. Raving mad because most of their soul is gone, but cunning enough to lead the Darkspawn."

"And how are they different to the High Dragons we know?"

"As I said, I thought about it sir. I think only very few Dragons made it here when they fled from the north, where there were Dragonborn to kill them. Not enough to reproduce in whatever way true Dragons did it. So they mated with some kind of local large lizard hoping they got proper Dragons. It didn't work, but it did get them what you call High Dragons, not intelligent like true Dragons, but cunning, big and nasty."

"If these true Dragons don't die as they should, how the hell are we supposed to kill them? Wait, the Archdemon is tainted..."

"Keep going..."

"If like calls to like, wouldn't the soul bit travel into another Darkspawn when the Archdemon dies. That would certainly explain the First Blight, I've always wondered how it could take that long to kill a single ruddy Dragon...They say that all Archdemons were killed by Grey Wardens, who are immune to the taint...Because they are already tainted, like people are immune to the measles because they've already had it...And if a Grey Warden kills the Archdemon, its soul will go into the Warden...All Wardens who killed Archdemons died, so it kills both of them..."

"It will most likely not kill Marian and me, sir. We were kind of made for it after all. Though if anyone asks, sir, we didn't tell you any Warden secrets."

"You certainly did not, Warden Carver. Maker damn Duncan, this is something I should have known. I would have kept at least half of the Wardens off the front line, where all of them could have easily been killed. It could have been a disaster. Bloody Warden secrets."

"Some more mead, sir?"

"Here it is, Teyrn Loghain. But what did you want the dictionary for, Carver?"

"Panic attack over then, sis?"

"For now, it certainly explains how I never seem to run out of alcohol. And as far as I remember it certainly was a very good night."

"Too much information, that. I spoke with Duncan about previous Blights and he told me the names of the old gods. I wanted to see if they meant something in Dovahzul; that is the dragon language, sir."

"Dragon language, of course."

"Right, so the Dragon killed in the First Blight was Dumat, the Dragon of Silence. Dragon names have three syllables, so something must have been lost. What do you think Marian, du-uh-mat or du-ma-at?"

"Could be either, but I think the last one would be shortened more easily."

"Well, let's start with du, anyway. There, du - devour, properly draconic, a good start. Now uh, doesn't exist. Okay, ma and then at. Here, mah - fall; mind you maat means judge, and ath - despair. So du-mah-ath means devour-fall-despair. But du-maat would be devour-judge, maybe a syllable was dropped somewhere? Right, in any case, I think we can conclude he was not a particularly pleasant dragon."

"Really Carver, I wouldn't have guessed, but both do sound like real Dragon names. Good thinking, little brother."

"Don't look so surprised. Now Zazikel, the Dragon of Chaos. Sounds straightforward. Za - finite, zii - spirit, kel - elder scroll. Za-zii-kel, finite-spirit-elder scroll. Possible, I suppose. Chaos, though?"

"Hold it, Carver. The College had books about the Elder Scrolls. One of them was written by a total nutcase, effect of the scrolls I suppose. But what I got from it is that the Scrolls don't show what is, was and will be; but what could have been and all the things that could happen in the future. I think that comes pretty close to chaos."

"What do you mean by that, Warden? Could have been? What is an Elder Scroll anyway?"

"An Elder Scroll, well that is a good question; it is a Scroll that can in some cases show you the future, or drive you mad, or blind, or just kill you. Also, it was used to see the past once, by an ancestor of ours. Nobody know where they came from, or who wrote them. And what could have been...Well, imagine for a moment that we were a different kind of novice wardens. We would have been late lighting the beacon. You might then have charged, and died, or not charged and let the King die. In any case it is something that the Elder Scroll might have shown."

"I see."

"Thank you for that happy thought, Marian. Next up is Toth, the Dragon of Fire. Hard to make three syllables from it though."

"Isn't toor inferno?"

"That would make sense, toor-ro-oth, you think? That makes inferno-balance-orphan. Orphan doesn't make much sense, though. Maybe uth...that's command. So toor-ro-uth, inferno-balance-command. Bit of a stretch to Toth, but it could happen I suppose. It's been a lot of time to corrupt the language."

"What dragon comes next?"

"Andorel, the dragon of slaves. Let's see an doesn't exist, and am is lion, could be ah I suppose. Aha...that's hunter. No do, but r sometimes sounds like l, and dol is iron, which would make sense. Finally, rel, that's dominate. Ah-dol-rel, hunter-iron-dominate."

"Appropriate for a dragon of slaves, Warden. And for Orlesians."

"I think you've had enough mead, sir. Maybe you should give me the bottle."

"Leave him alone Marian, better he gets drunk here, than he goes and does something unpleasant to Duncan. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but it's not very diplomatic."

"Quite, warden. Go on to the dragon we're supposed to be dealing with now, Urthemiel of beauty."

"That's right. Ur is oar, better check ul, right, that's eternity. Tey is tale, which would make sense. And then mel or miil, incarnate or woman. The first probably, eternal tales incarnate could be a representation of beauty. That would be ul-tey-mel."

"Could be ul-tey-miil as well, Carver. Eternal tale of a woman could be beauty. Certainly if it was men who made up the title."

"I suppose you have a point there, sis. Next, still sleeping, we have Razikale, the dragon of mystery. Let's try ra-zii-kahl first, god-spirit-authority. Pretty mysterious, from where I'm standing. Finally Lusacaan, the dragon of night. So lu-sa-kahn I guess. Lu could be luh, that is magic, sa would be sah, then, phantom. I can't find kahn but kaarn means immoral, wayward or disobedient. What have we got? Luh-sah-kaarn, magic-phantom-immoral, wouldn't want to come across that one at night in a dark alley."

"It's a bloody big dragon, warden. Of course you wouldn't."

"Well, yes. But..."

"You know, Carver, this was a not a bad idea at all. And most of those names make a lot of sense, especially if you consider bad pronunciation and centuries since those names were last properly Shouted."

"You know sis, do you think we can get Urthemiel's attention if we do Shout it properly?"

"Now that's something to think about, Carver."

"You think you can get the Archdemon to come to you, Wardens?"

"Possibly, if we were right about its name. Probably, if there's still something left of its soul that recognizes other dragons. Carver?"

"I think it's likely. It can obviously recognize Wardens. If we draw its attention I think there's a solid chance it'll come to us."

"And Dragonrend will keep it grounded. Hah...But will it hear us if it's still deep underground?"

"Nothing came to take a look when we Shouted in the tower."

"Good point, Carver. I'd say try it, but maybe that's not such a good idea."

"Please don't, Wardens. Perhaps we three should have a conversation with the Warden-Commander."

"Eh...Should we really be there, Teyrn Loghain."

"Oh yes, Warden Marian, both of you will be there."