If you asked Nord Holland where his drive to help his people, and become Baron, came from; he would tell you that his mother would tell him stories of old, stories of Crystal's grief of cursing her own denizens, of Tiger's Eye's grief at Sapphire becoming vengeful and jealous, of Emerald doing what was right even if it hurt.

It started when the past Baron, Jade, was crowned.

No one exactly approved, or liked, Jade. But, at first, it was small complaints. The Baron stopped talking to the people in towns, The Baron started imposing restrictive orders for security ("Closing the borders!? We've only ever closed the borders once and that was during the first rule during the War between Emerald and Sapphire!" whispers would say, bitter and suspicious), and The Baron made the festivals illegal. It all started small. It started to grow more and more noticeable.

Then, animals started disappearing. It was a almost as if that were being whisked away during sleepless nights, hoping they weren't taken in by bored enforcers of Jade's, or killed by rouges (inside or outside borders, it didn't really matter). Children, teenagers mostly, and even a few adults. It was causing mass hysteria. The people demanded The Baron came before them and swore to the Gods that this operation was stopped.

He promised.

It was him.

Nord disdainfully remembered challenging Jade to the Writ of Hell, and it almost cost him a wing (and he was missing a few crystals off his back, but those can grow back). He killed the miserable excuse of a leader, an irredeemable monster. He led the kidnapping, and other illicit things, for money and power. He cared about greed, about power, and about...himself.

The last 4 years have been the wyvern undoing all the corrupt and awful laws that Jade put into place. He had to heal his people, his lands. It wouldn't be overnight. It took years, and it still haunts them all. It haunts Nord, wondering if he's any better, if he truly-

The wyvern puffed, smoke lightly trailing from his nostrils. He promised he would do better, he would care about his people and he does, he loves them so much it hurts his chest and makes him stop to think maybe he could just stop-, and he would do Crystal's bidding he will end the curse, even if it calls for war, and it will, no matter what it takes-.

Nord Holland swore he'd be better.
but is he?

'The edge pieces are together,' he mused, 'just need to fill in the center.'