The Dragons of Aurelia

Long before the first Fracture opened, dragons already shared the skies of Aurelia.

They lived beside its people, crossed its mountains and oceans, rested near family homes, carried riders between distant settlements and fought beside human armies when steel, rune armor and courage were the greatest weapons the continent possessed. Some were immense enough to make buildings seem small. Others filled the sky with fire, frost, lightning, shadow or radiant light. Their presence became so deeply woven into life that dragons were never merely creatures Aurelians learned to ride. They became companions, protectors, soldiers, friends and, in many families, something much closer to kin.

The beginnings of the kingdom carry that bond within them.

Before Aurelian was a king, before anyone beneath the broken sky called themselves Aurelian, he was a little boy running through golden grass with a wooden sword while Solarius, his great golden dragon, watched him practice. Aurelian hugged the enormous creature around the face, assured him that he would never truly hurt him, called him his best training partner and quietly admitted that he might even be his best friend. Nearby, his older brother Maximus flew with Vaelion, while their father Aventus rode Asterion.

There was no kingdom yet.

There was simply a family, and dragons were already part of it.

That closeness endured through the centuries.

Dragons are intelligent, emotional and fiercely independent. They understand far more than simple commands and often make their opinions unmistakably clear. They can be proud, affectionate, stubborn, playful and deeply protective of the people they have chosen. An Aurelian may speak to a dragon as naturally as they would another member of the family, receive an offended huff in return, and know perfectly well what it meant.

Generations later, Elio became part of that same tradition. At Wavecrest, Iris could sit safely between the golden dragon’s forelegs with a book across her lap while her brother trained nearby, confidently claiming to understand Elio better than Atlas did. Elio teased them in return, tapping Iris with his tail, covering his muzzle as though laughing at Atlas, and becoming visibly offended when the children became too impressed by sky-chasers.

When the Fracture opened, Elio changed instantly.

He placed himself between Atlas, Iris and the broken sky. When Atlas tried to step toward the Behemoth above their home, Elio struck a wing across his path and refused to let him pass, then curved that same enormous wing around both children. When the first Zethra reached their home, he carried them away. When a Devastator hunted them through the forest and brought him crashing from the sky, Elio dragged his mortally wounded body upright and placed himself between the creature and the children one final time.

He was afraid.

He stayed anyway.

That instinct can be found throughout Aurelia. Dragons shield riders with their wings, carry wounded people away from collapsing cities, turn back toward Fractures when danger fills the sky, and fight beside fleets beneath storms of Arc fire. When cities mobilize, dragons rise with the skiffs. When galleons go to war, dragons fly between them. When the kingdom celebrates, they circle above towers and race sky-chasers through the clouds.

Their relationship with Aurelians can also be wonderfully familiar.

During the war at Wavecrest, a colossal white dragon of the Arc Storm descended after the Crimson Queen had already escaped. Leon Tempest looked at the enormous creature and immediately informed it that it had missed the Queen. The dragon responded by driving its muzzle into him hard enough to fracture the street beneath his boots. Leon caught the full weight of its snout against one hand, held his ground behind his Veil, and continued informing the offended creature that it was late.

A moment later, Leon patted the side of its muzzle and told it that it was still good to see it.

The dragon answered more quietly and lowered one vast wing to offer Leon and Dante a ride.

Leon complained again.

The dragon lifted its wing and flew away without them.

Across Aurelia, that familiarity exists beside tremendous power. Dragons can destroy ships, tear through enemy formations and fill battlefields with elemental force. Great formations of them fly beside Aurelia's galleons and sky-skiffs when the kingdom goes to war, their breath joining the Arc fire of thousands of warriors beneath the fractured sky.

Yet the creatures Aurelia faces can hunt dragons too.

Devastators can pursue them through the sky, survive tremendous elemental attacks and kill them with catastrophic physical force. Behemoths rise above entire fleets, enormous enough to make even great dragons appear small beneath the Fractures. Centuries of surviving beside threats like these shaped the warriors Aurelia eventually became.

The greatest weapons of the Aurelian Kingdom are the Aurelians themselves.

The difference becomes unmistakable when dragons turn against them.

At Windcrest, a massive Night Reaver dragon descended through the smoke in black armor, its landing cracking stone beneath its claws. It spread its wings across the morning light and roared over three Cadets of Aurora.

Leon Tempest looked up at it as though it had interrupted their conversation. “You’re late.”

He threw his greatsword.

White lightning swallowed the weapon before it punched through the dragon's armored skull and burst from the back of its head. The creature collapsed where it stood. Leon walked over, pulled his sword free and continued on through the ruined village.

A larger dragon demanded considerably more.

Later among the mountains, a colossal Night Reaver dragon descended over Leon and his companions, its living black armor covering a body vast enough for its wings to cast an entire clearing into shadow. A torrent of shadow energy from its jaws overpowered Enzo's flame, shattered his Veil and destroyed the fire-dragon construct beneath him.

Leon arrived on his sky-chaser in a streak of white lightning.

He drove his greatsword through the creature's vast wing and brought it crashing into the forest.

The dragon stood back up.

With one wing ruined, it filled the mountain sky with blasts of shadow powerful enough to rip into the surrounding peaks. Leon raced between them on his sky-chaser, repeatedly trying to close the distance while the creature forced him back. Below, Enzo watched the fight turning against him. Solace was already wounded. Willow stood staring upward as Leon finally stopped dodging and turned his sky-chaser directly toward the dragon's head.

Then Willow moved.

The young Hollow Aurelian gathered darkness into a perfect sphere and sent it across the clearing.

The colossal dragon disappeared inside it.

The attack tore through the entire creature in an instant and continued into the mountains behind it. Peaks split apart. Entire sections of stone collapsed into the valley. When the Hollow energy finally faded, a massive wound had been carved through what had once been a solid mountain ridge.

Leon hovered above the destruction on his sky-chaser, staring at the landscape Willow had just changed.

Aurelia's dragons can be enormous. They can be ancient, intelligent, affectionate, stubborn, loyal or terrifying. Some carry children away from burning cities. Some fight beside armies. Some race sky-chasers through the clouds. Some become weapons in the hands of Aurelia's enemies.

And beside them live people capable of meeting that scale.

Some dragons carry Aurelians.

Some fight beside them.

Some protect their children.

Some challenge them.

Some race them through the clouds.

Some become enemies and discover just how dangerous an Aurelian can be.

And sometimes, long before kingdoms and Spires and fleets fill the sky, a dragon simply lies in golden grass while a little boy wraps both arms around its face and tells it that it is his best friend.

Aurelia would eventually fill its skies with wonders.

Dragons were there before almost all of them.