A letter to the Vana’diel Tribune, published in 885 C.E.—

As a warlock, there is little in life that offends me more than a closed mind. I was recently reminded of this when I perchance happened upon a loathsome quarrel... No, quarrel is not the proper word, for this was a one-sided affair. Outside Lion Springs Tavern was a group of drunken adventurers gathered about my friend Kaska, and in quite a furor. The scene was such a ruckus that, had it alarmed me even one iota further, I might have drawn my rapier. But as they say, a cool head prevails.

Instead I chose to observe a moment longer. The Dragoon, in his cause, had made statements in regards to his belief in the lost Dragoon systems; that was, the arts of the Dragoon that were vastly reduced by their annihilation at the end of the Time of the Wyrm. Hearing this had compelled his contemporaries to a heretofore unnecessary degree of scorn and bile which I could not countenance. I listened further and what I heard were the witless blatherings of mockingbirds, and the moronic scoffing that is the sole defense of those who are threatened and running scared.

By their estimations, Dragoon has progressed little, if at all, since the time of their fall; they further mocked him by a particular observation, in which they argued that, if the Dragoons had ever possessed such power as Kaska believed, some tendency toward that power would have emerged in the interim centuries. In Kaska’s reasons, they saw nothing more than presumption and doggerel, and the baseless cause for untimely ructions. The Dragoon wasted no breath on his detractors. Walking tall, he split the crowd with his footsteps and departed into the night, for they were not worthy of a riposte, and he would not waste his wisdom on the comedy of fools. For them he had no answer.

Yet that is where a Red Mage differs.

Knowledge, secrets, and more importantly words are our stock in trade, and I have spent these last five years in the Republic of Bastok, sitting on the hub of information to the western world. I am a scholar as well, with a classical education, and have spent a great deal of my time as an adventurer following the Dragoon’s progress. I know him well, and have partaken in his studies. I can testify personally to these things which he has claimed, and will. He would not, shamefaced, stoop to explain himself—such is his pride. Myself, I will only shame you, the brigands who have offended me so.

What evidence do I have of Kaska’s progress? The mind reels with the dizzying avenues it may traverse by way of reply, for there are many ways to start.

Shall I begin with hearsay?

Many would find the testimony of the San d'Orian priest and historian Morjean—who in fact aided Kaska on his quest to become a Dragoon—unimpeachable. Morjean has long supported the theory that a Dragoon's powers are often as unique as his dragon, and it is he from whom a great deal of my own knowledge of Dragoon history has originated.

But leave it not just to Morjean, despite his sagacity . There are times upon sleeping, where Kaska partakes in the dreams of his wyvern, who in turn partakes of all the dreams of his kind, living and dead, and in these visions of the past, he has seen proof of Dragoon abilities to which there is no current known analogue—but leave the issue neither in the hands of spectral evidence.

Nor to the Brugaire Consortium, which, by questionable channels, is betimes privilege to knowledge not mirrored in the libraries of the savants, and whom have handled, on occasion, the passage of strange artifacts for nameless collectors, these vessels themselves somehow describing their own history, the way a Dragoon’s relics give up whispered notions from time to time, of abilities they have yet to decipher.

No, let us disregard all of these things: histories and historians, the memories of wyverns, the testimony of those who have come into contact with the artifacts of Dragoons, and the instinctual clues which Kaska’s very own Wyrm and Drachen armors are wont to offer.

Let this issue stand instead upon my personal knowledge of Kaska’s progress, and let it never again be said that there is no evidence of his claims.

During his time as a Dragoon, through painstaking hours of meditation, and by risking his life in approaching volatile dragons to become inured to their resonance, and even by practicing Beastmaster so that he might further understand the bond between himself and his wyvern—so like a familiar—Kaska has shortened his wyvern’s recall by six hundred percent! By evoking from that very same bond a sense of drachonic power, Kaska honed through his wyvern a number of additional talents—he developed a method of sharing his very life-force, Spirit Link; he also, through rigorous meditation and breathing exercises, increased the power of his wyvern's lungs. However, it is Spirit Surge which is, to date, the pinnacle of these explorations. By it, he has for a moment fully merged with his dragon, increasing and altering the nature of his powers altogether!

But what of the powers he evoked from his own might? As a result of arduous study and research, Kaska found the true form of the Super Jump, and reduced the latency of that power by two minutes. By training in Aht Urhgan, he discovered the formidable Angon technique of the Near Eastern Dragoon. By venturing into the nightmare realm of Dynamis, and the undersea ruins at Alzadaal, he discovered the existence Geirskogul and Drakesbane, two of the mightiest attacks in the Dragoon repertoire.

And speaking of weapon skills, one of Kaska’s major claims has always been that there are more, and I say, why not? When Kaska first donned his armet, Dragoons boasted only two such attacks, Skewer and Wheeling Thrust. Now they have four, and Kaska claims that there are still more waiting to be found or built anew.

Again I say, why not?

Ask any Monk to show you the style called Bear Killer, and he will look at you as if you have grown a horn. But I saw that same attack used by Maat himself to shatter the spine of a quadav. I have also, in my adventures, come upon a Dark Knight so skilled with the great sword that he could still a whole army with an attack he termed Warden of Terror. Should I mention that King Ranperre’s own Dragoon, Erpalacion was said to have had an unknown attack which raked the scales from Vrtra's heart, exposing it to a mortal strike? True that Skewer has a raking action, but it had been well known by the time of Erpalacion.

...and what of Impulse Drive, which Kaska developed at the behest of Balasiel for the Royal Knights of San d'Oria?

By these enumerations, it should be clear to all that Kaska’s beliefs are well-founded. Frankly, I find his discoveries to be of the utmost intrigue, and cause for unbound excitement, and cannot wait to see more. The Dragoon system obviously has not peaked—there is more. History has demonstrated as much. Kaska has come this far in his belief of these things, so do him the honor of some civility. At least, if you must doubt him, do so beyond my earshot, or you may one day find a dagger flung at your door bearing the ire of a duelist.

—Varia esq., warlock of the Republic, artisan, scholar, adventurer, and duelist.