#ullryck

(unfurls comically large scroll) PENRYCK AND ULLRYCK MY BELOVEDS i have thought so much about them because i feel like their characters had a lot of potential- first things first, they do not get along AT ALL. penryck is constantly at ullryck’s throat and vice versa. a lot of this comes in part from the fact penryck, as the sky dragon, has a reputation for being a powerful hagsfiend and boy does he know and love it. he’s arrogant and chaotic and loves to stir up trouble just for the sake of stirring up trouble! intervening in the political struggles of the n’yrthghar is nothing but a silly little game to him and he takes great joy in pretending to be a “dumb” hagsfiend so he can get close to and manipulate owls (like lord arrin) for his own goals. he’s well respected, but less for his leadership and more for his sheer power and cunning mind. he doesn’t really care about anyone but himself and doesn’t respect those who follow him.

enter ullryck! penryck’s general persona and demeanor infuriate her like NO OTHER. she’s a shrewd strategist and, unlike penryck, a fantastic leader. she’s patient and personable with others (albeit absolutely willing to use them if she needs to), and has ideas for the future of hagsfiends + the drive to pursue them. thus, a guy like penryck who’s really just concerned with his own amusement puts a bad taste in her mouth. she detests the fact he has any followers and wants nothing more than to see him fall- and luckily, she’s a fierce warrior and assassin with a reputation to rival his, so naturally they start butting heads!

i personally believe the reason penryck and ullryck kind of stop being relevant after the coming of hoole is because penryck was manipulating shadyk at the ice palace- after arrin’s defeat (which i like to think was partially penryck’s fault- when things started going south in the battle at the beyond he declared arrin useless and boring and took his hagsfiend faction and left, thus contributing to arrin’s loss) he went on the hunt for another easily manipulated owl and found shadyk, promising him power. notably he only provides shadyk with young and inexperienced hagsfiends rather than his normal faction, as after arrin he views it as a waste of good warriors. this was a big miss steak on his part :)

shadyk naturally ended up boring penryck too, but while he was off messing around, ullryck defected and convinced most of the hagsfiends in his faction to side with her instead by playing into their annoyance at penryck’s attitude and disdain for them- thus forming her own faction and gaining leadership. when penryck returns and finds out ullryck overthrew him, boy is he PISSED at her and the traitors. thus begins a huge hagsfiend vs hagsfiend conflict, with ullryck and penryck’s rivalry turning into an all out battle between their supporters, and penryck trying desperately to defend his reputation of power against ullryck- who unfortunately, is kind of legit a better leader than him 😭 but he knows if he can prove he is more brutal and powerful than she is, then hagsfiends will return to his side, and he switches focus from messing with owls to regaining what he lost- at least until the battle of the long night, which every hagsfiend is kind of thrust into by virtue of it being the big hagsfiends vs owls event. rip