The Dying Light: Latveria

Alegasia, The True History

While a good portion of the following story takes place in Alegasia, its origins, along with perhaps even the ending of this story, takes place outside of Alegasian borders. All abusers do well to remember that the best way to take control of their victims is to isolate them, and the Mad King Galbatorix held the entirety of Alegasia hostage for well over a century. Thanks to the magic of his stolen dragon, Shruikan, and the resources conquering a nation had given him, Galbatorix was able to live long enough to weave rumors throughout the country that slowly turned into tales that then turned into assumed knowledge through the many generations that should have long ago unseated the Usurper King's rein. That presumed "knowledge" that had been solidified by the time Eragon and Saphira bonded was that Alegasia was all of what was of the known world, and in order to leave Alegasia one would have to cross the great sea as their long ago ancestors did, along with perhaps one of the biggest lies of all-that the entirety of the dragon race had been killed by The Mad King and his followers.

This viewpoint was encouraged by the harsh terrain on Alegasia's borders, making crossing them well impossible for the average human, while the elves of the country stayed sequestered in their forested home. With the elves protecting their borders to the north of the near entirety of Alegasia, the great sea to the west, the Boer mountain range lining the southern part of Alegasia containing many beasts that dwarved normal animals, and the great Haradac desert being the only entryway to the east, the idea of being able to leave Alegasia on one's one with the normal means was utterly laughable. To top it off, Galbatorix specifically employed a group of magicians-and paid them very well-to seek out and find any citizens creating technological advances for travel-with the intent of buying them out for "the King's purposes" or simply killing them before their inventions crossed to the rest of the nation. As a result, Alegasia in and of itself was kept as the King in a lot of ways he himself was-unchanging and unadvancing.

At the time of the slaughter of the dragons and riders of Alegasia, the dragon population had been thriving. The hunting grounds in Alegasia supported scores and scores of dragon kind's needs in abundance. It's also important to note that as dragons grow older and less active their bodies, while larger, actually required less frequent feeding than their younger counterparts. Older dragons-or "Elders" as dragon kin would reverently call them would only need to eat after extended firebreathing, magic usage, travel, or the like. A dragon who had entered the sleeping old age stage of life realistically would only need to eat once every six months if circumstances were ideal. Many in those days contemplated why that was-mind you when they did eat the larger dragons did need a good meal, but Alegasia's Beor mountain range provided sizeable prey more than sufficiently weighted for the job-however the best explanation was of course given by an elf named Rokin, who theorized that as dragons grew, their ability to sustain magic grew exponentially with them, to the point where their own magic began sustaining them as well as fresh meat did. This theory can be backed solidly by the common usage of energy stores for magicians to ease their tired muscles or take the pain from their stomachs on a long journey with little food, and the documentations of the Riders observing their own bonds age and mature.

The dragon population of Alegasia thriving as it was, their supposed demise was a masterfully woven tale meant to bring fear and obedience to an entire nation who had been loyal to the royal family before the Usurper for centuries. The truth of the matter was, the Riders at the height of their power had only been 2-300 bonded pairs strong, largely due to the deemed "wild" dragons hesitance to give up the freedom of their unborn hatchlings to the cause. This number, while challenging, could be brought to its knees by the thirteen Forsworn with skill and careful, successful war planning including using the Eldunari of the Rider's Dragons. The unbonded, or "wild" population of dragons had been there long before even the elves had arrived, and had the numbers to show it-there were thousands, most sequestering in the Beor Mountains. Between that and the Elder dragons living to be almost a thousand years old, their knowledge of their own magic at that point allowed them to wield it themselves when necessary, although the type of magic dragons used was much less refined than humanoid magicians. To say Thirteen young dragons and riders slaughtered the entirety of a nation of beings that had been rooted in the land before any others was laughable, and would have been far more questioned if Galbatorix and his Forsworn hadn't created such a spiraling wave of fear and destruction through the land that distracted even the elves from such contemplations.

Dragons were an old, powerful race of highly intelligent, highly emotionally complex beings with magic and the power of flight. On top of that, they were noted for being very long lived as individuals-while they were seen as ferocious war beings, not even a dragon got to live to a thousand years of age by being unquenchably blood thirsty. Dragons easily owned the skies and brought fear into the hearts of those that had the misfortune of finding themselves in a dragon's clan territory, but by logic, dragons were not regularly violent beings. If they were, even being bonded to elves and humans would not have stopped the dragons of The Order from regularly killing each other over food, mate choices, or each others' riders. So when war came upon the land, the dragon clans scattered, many dragon kind claiming that a war among "Raised Pets" was not their war to fight.

Galbatorix was unfortunately a force by that time to be reckoned with, as when the Forsworn managed to find a kill a member of a wild clan within their own territory, when the felled dragon's clan mates went for vengence they often found themselves overwhelmed, as each Forsworn pair had had enough experience killing small groups of Riders and their dragons by themselves and had stolen Eldunari. As a result, more and more dragon clans disappeared, some going further into the Beor Mountains at least initially, while others flew across the desert and crossed Alegasia's borders. However, as less and less dragons were sighted, Galbatorix was able to either state the lie or decide himself that he had indeed killed off all the remaining dragons of Alegasia. After all, the King was Mad. Calculating, but prideful and insidious to a fault.

The neighboring countries, of course, caught wind of what was happening via the dragons and other mythical creatures relocating from Alegasia. Not all knew how to approach dragons, however cultures between magical creatures, humans, elves and the like differed from region to region. Not all countries had alienated their wild dragon population so by enslaving their children over a 'peace treaty', and thus the residing draconic populations of the other countries did not have the same animosity towards human and elf kind within their region, and for those who understood the proper way to approach, talking with a dragon and leaving without becoming a snack was not impossible. The Usurped Royal family had many allies in the neighboring countries, as is a custom to all who rule their own populations. As such, the closest neighboring kingdom besides Surda, Latveria, caught wind of what was happening inside Alegasia before any other neighboring kingdom and sent an army to the royal family's aid, although The Mad King erased that detail from the history books of Alegasia. However, the Mad King successfully repelled the human forces sent to aid the usurped King and royal family win back their throne using his Riders and then greater ground forces. Enraged at the Kingdom of Latveria's meddling, Galbatorix vowed to take revenge on the much smaller country and claim the territory as part of his own when the time was right for him.

And thus, so begins our story, dear readers.