*Coming soon to Royal Road*
In an ancient time of Kings and Queens, the Humans lived in harmony with the great beings that roamed the Earth. No kingdom was more peaceful than Cadmus, where the Cadmians existed beside the greatest creatures of all, the Dragons.
The ruler of Cadmus, King Anguis, although very young, was much beloved. He never turned a deaf ear to the Humans or Dragons of Cadmus, and the kingdom flourished. Under the protection of the Dragons and their Empress, Queen Maeve, paired with Anguis' extraordinary ability to keep peace, the lands prospered and grew tenfold within a few short years. Cadmus and Draconia became the greatest kingdoms known to exist.
But it was not meant to last.
King Anguis, barely into adulthood, was murdered in the night. His death rocked Cadmus to its core, and the Cadmians mourned with the Draconians, grieving for their beloved King.
As Prince Agni, Anguis' younger brother, assumed the throne, he declared war on the Dragons, announcing that the kingdom would be Cleansed. He enlisted a brutal army of elite hunter-assassins known as the Enforcers to carry out the Cleansing, and the kingdom was consumed by a shadow of tyranny. Cadmus became a war zone, and the land of Draconia was devastated.
A group of survivors of the Cleansing, Dragons disguised in Human form, created a secret society known as the Occultus Draconem. As King Agni's power grew and the Enforcers became more brutal than ever, a rebellion stirred. The Occultus Draconem began stepping in to stop the Cleansings, fighting back for the freedom of the Dragons and swearing to bring peace back to Draconia and Cadmus.
But how can they succeed without the heir to the Draconian throne?
Decades ago, humans found the peaceful land of Vaerali where all dragon-human hybrid races had coexisted in peace and prosperity for many millennia. The humans saw the lush green plains and golden fields of wheat and sent their people in force across the seas to burn and conquer it in the name of their Emperor. Without any other motive than desire for what they don't have, they declared war on Vaerali and chaos erupted across the tranquil lands. Screaming sounded day and night as hybrids all across Vaerali were slaughtered; whole races going extinct in one night as the humans spread their ruin across the land, claiming it one town at a time. This dark time in Vaerali is known all across the world as the Dragon Slaughter; the night the dragon hybrid race was conquered.
Years pass and a tentative peace finally settles over the scarred lands of Vaerali as the humans shove the hybrids far into the shadow of their reign. They force any who resist their rule into enslavement or, if that doesn't prove to be enough to crush their spirit, they kill them and hang their wings as trophies - and a warning to all the others who disobey the reign. To this day, the humans still hold all of the power over Vaerali and, in turn, all of the dragon hybrids. But there are storm clouds on the horizon.
And from the rubble of a decimated civilization, a rebellion is growing.