Auraxx

Auraxx is a gold dragon whose defiance during the Draco-Giant War brought the ancestral fey population of Senera out of the Feywild. A curse imprisoned him within an innocent-looking gold canary, and his body was later dismantled and divided between Crispin Mallow and Stacy Cartwright.

The Realm Bridge

As the war between dragons and giants displaced fey communities across the Feywild, someone foresaw or studied an approaching fey crossing whose destination remained unknown. Auraxx persuaded the Archfey to send the refugees through this crossing, which became known in Senera as the Realm Bridge.

An unnamed superior within the draconic forces ordered Auraxx not to accompany them. Unwilling to leave the refugees undefended wherever the crossing carried them, he assumed his humanoid form and entered it with them. The Realm Bridge opened into Senera, where the refugees became the ancestors of the island’s fey communities.

The Gold Canary

Auraxx’s choice to accompany the refugees had been anticipated. A curse prepared for that contingency imprisoned him within the form of a Gold Canary Figurine of Wondrous PowerGold Canary Figurine of Wondrous PowerLegendaryThis gold statuette is carved in the likeness of a canary and is small enough to fit in a pocket. If you use an action to speak the command word and throw the figurine to a point on the ground within 60 feet of you, the figurine becomes a living creature in one of two forms (you choose). If there isn't enough space for the creature where it would appear, the figurine doesn't become a creature. The two forms are as follows: The figurine becomes a giant canary for up to 8 hours and can be ridden as a mount. Once the figurine has become a giant canary, it can't be used this way again until the next dawn. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you can speak a different command word and the figurine becomes an adult gold dragon (see its stat block in the Monster Manual) for up to 1 hour. The dragon can't use any legendary actions or lair actions. Once the figurine has become an adult gold dragon, it can't be used this way again until 1 year has passed. In either form, the creature is friendly to you and your companions. It understands your languages and obeys your spoken commands. If you issue no commands, the creature defends itself but takes no other actions. The crea…. The trap depended upon his decision to cross despite his orders; had he remained behind, it would have had no use.

The identity and purpose of the curse-maker remain unknown, as does the exact relationship between the curse and whoever had studied the approaching crossing. The canary was a prison imposed upon Auraxx rather than a chrysalis he created to survive the disappearance of magic.

The figurine survived the extraction of Auraxx’s body because the curse still binds his soul within it. Without that remaining prisoner, the damaged canary would be destroyed rather than persist as an empty shell.

The Gilded Division

Mallow eventually found a way to invoke the canary’s adult-dragon form under controlled conditions. He beheld Auraxx’s true body and held the manifestation long enough to extract it, although the means by which he controlled the transformation remain unknown. The figurine recorded the extraction in its own damage: each chipped loss corresponded to a bone removed from Auraxx’s manifested body.

Mallow first used Stacy Cartwright as a testbed for the incorporation, turning her attempted exposure of him into an opportunity for punishment and experimentation. He implanted the least magically powerful portions of Auraxx into her and observed whether the graft would take. These peripheral structural tissues included scale-bearing skin, distal forelimb bones and tendons with a claw root, terminal wing digits and membrane, and pieces of rib, sternum, cartilage, and marrow. The smaller graft compelled her magic and preserved her through an excruciating transformation while leaving her conscious inside a body controlled against her will.

After testing the process on Stacy, Mallow melded the majority of Auraxx into himself, creating the authentic draconic foundation of Crispin’s counterfeit Gilded Anatomy.

Unresolved Identity

Auraxx’s physical substance persists across Crispin and Stacy, while his soul remains bound within the canary. Whether that imprisoned soul remains conscious is unproven. If his awareness survives, it is unknown whether it is dormant, continuously aware of the figurine’s surroundings, or capable of acting independently when the canary assumes a living form.

A later Legend Lore revelation presented parts of Auraxx’s history through a voice identified as his own. The divination’s dramatic form did not establish that Auraxx personally spoke through Stacy or that he remains separately conscious within either host.

Auraxx’s body has been too thoroughly dismantled and incorporated into others to be restored or revived. His soul remains imprisoned within the canary, but releasing it remains possible in principle. If the figurine is invoked in its giant-canary form, Auraxx may be able to speak through that body. He would remember at least Mallow’s desecration and dismantling of his manifested body, but the extent of his other memories remains unsettled. Whether he remains conscious while the figurine is dormant and what would be required to free him also remain unknown.