I lost my heart to these rainy bogs, and I'll never go away!

Now, bear in mind that I’m struggling to put into the words many of the concepts discussed here. So sorry in advance if some parts feel nonsensical...! And as a disclaimer: my knowledge is mainly acquired as an interest and hobby – it does not hold water as actual, completely accurate information of a historical period. It’s my interpretation, my fantasy of sorts. First things first, song inspiration: Vilma Jää – Manalan mailla  (if you know Finnish and like to read these, you might see the connection  lol) Kauno’s story in nutshell: Kauno is a nobleman knight, who suffered a mortal wound to his neck when he was pinned in combat and stabbed between his armour plates. By all logic he should’ve succumbed to such a wound, but he was rescued and nursed back to health. The nuns who took care of him did not have high hopes for the feverish nobleman to make it through, and yet eventually he woke up in perfect health and spirit. Kauno remembers little of the time from sickbed but has clear memory of vivid dreams of birds… Visually Kauno’s pose is heavy nod towards Botticelli’s painting ‘Birth of Venus’. I’ve always associated this piece with rebirth and beauty, both which are at the heart of Kauno’s character. His name quite literally means ‘beauty’ and rest we’ll get to…! So now, the most complex part is to acknowledge the co-existence of Christianity and folk religion in Finland during Middle ages. While it’s hard to point out how folk religion exactly died (I’m not read enough on the topic), there are still letters to be found from church officials pointing out that some of the folk religion or the traditions persisted even till late medieval period and to renaissance. This period of time where beliefs melded and changed is something I’m extremely interested to depict. Now, religion facts: There are quite a few nods towards Christianity here, the number seven motif with the birds, rebirth etc. However, the story revolves even further to folk religion’s concept of lintukoto (birds’ home). It was believed to be a physical place just outside the edge of the world, where birds went during winter. Everything was small in lintukoto to accommodate birds and sometimes souls could wander there. Notable is that lintukoto is _not_ heaven/afterlife in folk religion, but rather it seems one might get lost there by accident? Terns: I thought terns are great way of marrying both religious imageries together. They dive almost completely into the water and rise anew, signifying Kauno’s almost rebirth-like experience. There also rather many hymns describing angels and dead loved ones visiting earth as birds! And lastly, they are also bird that are more typically seen in southern Finland, as a reference towards lintukoto being to the south of the world’s edge. Armour: Yep, that’s Kauno himself! Kauno is showing his neck, which has only the scar left from the combat, but he’s also gripping at the sinking armour at the same spot.

Mr build your house

- desert dragons rolling in sand to polish their scales

- dragons cleaning themselves like a cat

- frorest dragons finding a creek to jump into and splash around in

- strong, burly dragons ramming into trees and toppling them over to build a den

- hatchlings wrestling with their siblings, practicing their menacing roar

- dragons befriending smaller animals

- dragons with odd hoards; hoards of sticks and rocks, hoards of animal bones, hoards of old car wheels, hoards of tattered books

- old dragons who live on the beach and collect seashells

- dragons with long necks who eat like giraffes

- dragons digging deep holes in the ground and storing food for a later time

- massive groups of dragons, running together like wolves, helping each other and keeping each other company

- dragons breathing fire onto the floor of their cave to make it hot, and then sleeping on it

- dragons

-dragons are great

- slime dragon slithering across undergrowth, popping back up in various shape.

- mirage dragon going in and out of focus, blink and it is gone.

- snow dragon with their soft snow fluff, are those fine fur, or actual snow on them?

- dragons that have horns blossoming, stationary, large as mountains, and the flower petals flowing in the wind on top of their slumpering forms.

- massive creature of the depth, you can only watch as the giant eye open to stare. And as you back up, more and more of the creature came into form, a draconic behemoth with too long a body, glowing luminences trailing down the length of its body as if breathing.

- Sitting atop the ruins is a chimeric creature, with snake tail, massive wings, poweful arms, and a humanoid head. The dragon deity that guards this place.

- A bunch of tiny dragons scuttling about like little menance. Toppling pots and plants, small enough they can be scoop up with mugs, but far too fast.

- dragons that float around like balloons, the wings are but decorations.

- It’s hard to tell the matter this long serpentine dragons is made of, light particle dancing across it’s many scales? feathers? spikes?