Author: D.K. Drake (Page 3 of 7)

Tirza

The Great Rift is the dimension God created after the flood to preserve the animals who wouldn’t be able to survive earth’s post-flood atmosphere, such as dragons.  It is an odd-shaped island in the midst of red and purple seas that is roughly the width and length of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is comprised of seven distinct regions, one of which is Tirza.

Tirza is the area south and east of Gibbet and is more than twice the size of Xyies and Gibbet combined.  The northern corner of the region contains volcanoes while most of the rest of the area is a bleak desert.  The only exception is the far eastern shore that is dominated by a huge lake, trees and meadows.

Those who live in Tirza are descendants of Madai, one of the original 49 human settlers of the Great Rift.  They grew to be unusually tall and built one of their first villages on Dawn Stalker territory, something the first king of Zandador strictly forbade. 

The dragons showed their disapproval of the encroachment by attacking the village and killing the inhabitants.  The remaining Madai descendants vowed vengeance by wiping out the dragons and became known as the Destroyer Bloodline.

When they lost the first Battle for the Throne to the Collector Bloodline, they fled the Land of Zandador and moved north to Tirza.  They inhabited the area around the lake and devoted themselves to training for war with the dragons. 

To this day, they pride themselves on their ability to live primitive lives and destroy any animal that poses a threat to them.  The animal threats in Tirza include six-legged bears, flying skunks and needle-shooting porcupines.

To find out more about the dragons, Bloodlines and the regions of the Great Rift, check out The Dragon Collector.

Gibbet

The Great Rift is the dimension God created after the flood to preserve the animals who wouldn’t be able to survive earth’s post-flood atmosphere, such as dragons.  It is an odd-shaped island in the midst of red and purple seas that is roughly the width and length of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is comprised of seven distinct regions, one of which is Gibbet.

Gibbet is the territory just below the icy region of Xyies.  It is a warm region shaped like the palm of a hand; the abundance of wild monkeys and thick jungles make building there challenging.

Those who live in the thickets of Gibbet are descendants of Tubal, one of the original 49 human settlers of the Great Rift.  They are tough, crafty folks who developed a genetic tendency toward dwarfism. 

Their small height made them feel like outcasts in the Land of Zandador, so they moved north and set up their own secluded community in Gibbet, far away from dragons and the conflict between the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines. 

Rather than clearing the land of trees in order to build homes, they learned to build in the trees and thrive alongside the monkeys.   The monkeys have thus grown protective of the dwarves and swarm to attack any strangers who trespass in their land.


To find out more about the dragons and regions of the Great Rift, check out The Dragon Collector. fff

Xyies

The Great Rift is the dimension God created after the flood to preserve the animals who wouldn’t be able to survive earth’s post-flood atmosphere, such as dragons.  It is an odd-shaped island in the midst of red and purple seas that is roughly the width and length of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is comprised of seven distinct regions, one of which is Xyies.

Xyies is the northern most tip of the Great Rift.  It looks like a giant thumb covered by a white, icy landscape. 

Xyies is a cold, barren land; the only habitable places are in underground caves.

Those who live in the caves of Xyies are descendants of Meschech, one of the original 49 human settlers of the Great Rift.  They migrated to Xyies from the Land of Zandador in order to avoid the conflict between the four Dragon Stalker Bloodlines and get as far away from the dragons of Zandador as possible. 

Xyiens survive on the fruits, nuts and vegetables they grow underground and the water they distill from the icy surface above.  They are extremely intelligent but lack pigmentation in their skin, making them a small nation of underground albinos.

To find out more about the dragons and regions of the Great Rift, check out The Dragon Collector.

The Storms of Zandador

Wind.  Rain.  Hail.  Sleet.  Snow.  Like on earth, these types of storms occur in the Land of Zandador.  But unlike earth, the Land of Zandador experiences three different types of storms:  red rains, white winds and sanity strikes.

Red Rains are horizontal rain storms that form over the ocean and sweep across the land.  The rain droplets in these slow-moving storms are red and sting when they contact skin.  The smaller the droplets are, the stronger the sting.  They can leave welts that last for weeks.

If a person is caught in a storm and exposed to too many stings, death is an imminent possibility.

White Winds are powerful blankets of wind that can form anywhere at any time.  The wind is so concentrated that it appears to be a sheet of sheer white, and the sound of the storm is so high-pitched that only animals can hear it coming. 

Anyone or anything caught in the path of a white wind storm can be thrown hundreds of miles away.

Sanity Strikes only occur at night within five nights before or after a full moon.  When these storms hit, glowing balls ranging in size from marbles to golf balls fall from the sky and explode on impact.

If a person is near one of these exploding balls, he or she will be rendered insane for days.  If one of these balls explodes on a person, he or she could be rendered insane for years.  Some never regain their sanity.

Find out more about the Land of Zandador, the Dragon Stalkers who roam the land and the boy who is on a mission to collect dragons in The Dragon Collector.

Barath

Meet Barath, one of the characters in The Dragon Hunter.  He works for Omri in the lab located in the basement of the castle.  Here is his brief profile:

Birthdate:   March 13 in the Zandadorian year of 3303

Current Age:  897

Appearance:  Half-bald black man, well-trimmed white beard; scrawny; wears glasses (but he’s always forgetting where he put them and often walks around with several pair on his head at once)

Rank: 
Lead Researcher in the King’s Lab

Family:  Widower; his only daughter is Omri’s third wife

Personality:  Intelligent, Absent-minded, Talkative  

Biggest Fear:  Upsetting King Omri and thus endangering his daughter’s life

Unique Facts:  Once Omri discovered how brilliant Barath was, Omri had Barath’s wife Yara killed and threatened to execute his daughter as well unless Barath agreed to work for Omri.  Barath has worked for Omri during the king’s entire reign and has become accustomed to obeying the king’s orders to keep his daughter safe.

Lydia

Meet Lydia, one of the characters in The Dragon Hunter.    She is the Tribal Chief of the Sacratali Tribe in Lower Keckrick.  Here is her brief profile:

Birthdate:   December 8 in the Zandadorian year of 4103

Current Age:  97

Appearance:  5’7”, spiked hair, brown eyes, brown skin; slender, muscular

Rank:  Tribal Chief 

Family:  Widow; mother of three grown boys; has five grandchildren, all girls

Personality:  Tough, Determined, Impulsive

Biggest Fear:  Being unable to protect her family and tribe

Unique Facts:  On her tenth wedding anniversary at the age of 47, a powerful storm with high winds and massive rainfall swept through her village.  Her husband—the Chief at the time—was trapped by a fallen tree and drowned by the rising water from the rain.  She tried to free him from the tree but was unsuccessful.  She took over as Chief and became fiercely protective of her family and tribe, determined not to lose any more loved ones on her watch.

Taliya, Dragon Protector

Meet Taliya, one of the characters in The Dragon Hunter.    She is a Dragon Protector and a direct descent of Atlar, Timlech and Tra, the Protector Kings who ruled Zandador from 1501-1800.  Here is her brief profile:

Birthdate:   March 17 in the Zandadorian year of 4178

Current Age:  22

Appearance:  5’2”, waist-length black hair, tan skin, bright blue eyes, slender figure

Heritage:  Protector Bloodline 

Family:  only child; parents live in Zandador but sent her to Keckrick to live with her grandparents

Personality:  Smart, Witty, Outgoing

Biggest Fear:  Losing Kisa, the dragon she is secretly protecting in Keckrick

Unique Facts:  Her human contact has been limited because she doesn’t want anyone to find out about Kisa.  She can move in the woods without making a sound, shoots darts from a slingshot with deadly accuracy, and studies the weather patterns.  She can sense when animals are about to strike or a storm is about to hit.

Omri Finds His Dark Side

In the cold, dark corner of the stone prison, Omri sat with his hands chained together in front of him and his ankles chained to the floor.  He had been stripped of the power to do anything.  Except think.  Plan his revenge.  Contemplate his future.

He would escape this prison.  He would remain in Varzack long enough to regain his physical strength and ensure his brother rotted in a prison of Omri’s choosing.  And he would become King of the Land of Zandador.

When he became king, he would make the world bend to his will.  He would have complete control of everyone and everything.  Dragons would obey him.  People would fear him.  Even the land would produce the food and plants he demanded.

When he became king, he would dictate what the people learned, where they lived, what jobs they worked, who they married and how many kids they could have. 

When he became king, no one would dare defy him.  If they did, he would have them killed or banned to the Land of No Return.  

When he became king, he would show no mercy.  Have no compassion.  Show no sympathy.  He would treat people the way he was being treated in this prison.  He wanted every person in his kingdom to feel like they had shackles on their hands and feet, to know the hopelessness of being a prisoner, to have no say in the day to day activities of their lives.

When he became king, he would gain total domination over the Land of Zandador.  Varzack.  The entire Great Rift.  And eventually the dimension on the other side of the portal known as earth. ffffffffff

Omri’s First Encounter with a Dragon

The year was 3600, a Battle for the Throne year in Zandador. 

At age 96, Omri was too young to enter the battle.

As a servant in Varzack, Omri was not allowed to leave Varzack.

As a blacksmith, Omri had no official training as a Dragon Hunter.

None of that mattered to Omri. 

Omri was the one son his parents had a chance to influence.  They were forced to give up Omri’s two older brothers to become soldiers in the army and thus focused all their attention on their youngest son.  If he became King of Zandador, they would be freed from their life of servitude to their master Rehu.

His mother had been telling him from the day of his birth how special he was.  She made him believe he could do no wrong and deserved to have everything he wanted. 

Likewise, his father told him he was strong and smart and powerful and had been training him in secret.  They weren’t supposed to know how to fight with the swords they made in their blacksmith shop, but they trained at night anyway. 

So when the Battle for the Throne began, they helped Omri sneak out of Varzack so he could hunt dragons in Zandador.  What none of them knew was that Omri’s oldest brother Mahrer was also in Zandador hunting dragons.

He began his hunt in Dusk Stalker territory.  He spent a month tracking one dragon, learning its habits and assessing its strengths and weaknesses.  Then one early morning in February, Omri made his move.

His plan was to cut off the dragon’s tail while it slept, and Omri had observed it often slept til nearly noon.  Attacking at sunrise would catch the dragon in a deep sleep, and it would be his before it had a chance to open its eyes.

Quietly, Omri drew his sword and approached the dragon’s cave.  He found its white-scaled body curled into a ball, and its tail curved all the way under its head.  Omri smiled.  All he had to do was slice through any part of the dragon’s tail, and it would be his to control.

He adjusted his feet as he raised his sword, but that was all it took to wake the dragon.  In one quick motion, it kicked Omri with his back leg.  The sharp claws ripped Omri’s shirt, cut into his chest and sent him sprawling down the hill.

Omri scurried under cover of some nearby bushes and waited for the dragon to find him, but it never did.  Because his brother found him first.

“Omri?  What are you doing here?”  Mahrer pulled the hurt Omri to his feet and punched him in the jaw.  “How dare you attempt to hunt any dragon, especially one I plan to make my own.”

“You’re no Dragon Hunter.”  Omri spit out a mouthful of blood.  “I got closer to that dragon on my first attempt than you could ever hope to get in a thousand years.”

Mahrer screamed and punched Omri again, knocking him out.

When he woke up, his hands and legs were tied, and he was on his way back to Varzack to serve a decade-long prison sentence for abandoning his blacksmithing responsibilities. ffffffffffffff

Omri’s Beginnings

Those of the Dragon Hunter Bloodline moved south of Zandador to Varzack when the first Dragon Collector won the Battle of the Throne.

They stayed out of Zandador and the Battle for the Throne for the next 500 years and focused on building their own society.  Two classes soon emerged:  slaves and slave owners.

The slaves mined the resources of the land—mostly iron and wood—to build homes and towns at the direction of their owners.  They learned how to maximize the use of purple rains, cultivate plants and trade using paper currency instead of dragon scales.

They became excellent craftsmen; swords and spears became the predominant weapons across the country of Varzack.

They also learned that although they lived long lives (with an average lifespan of 400 years), they aged faster in Varzack than those who lived to be a thousand years in Zandador.  Many grew content with their lives but a small faction longed for a return to the Land of Zandador.

Omri was one of those people.

Omri’s parents were both of the Hunter Bloodline and both slaves of Rehu.  His father Grishtor worked as a blacksmith for Rehu while his mother Sylvia worked in the kitchen.  Rehu arranged the marriage and ordered the couple to have three sons.

The first two children born were girls.  Rehu had each of them killed.  He wanted boys—two to sell to the army and one to work for him as a blacksmith.

Over the next five years, Sylvia gave birth to three boys:  Mahrer, Vixay and Omri.

Mahrer and Vixay were raised as soldiers and sold to the army at age 12 to fight the beasts of the land.  Since they were of the Hunter Bloodline, they were also trained to hunt dragons in preparation to fight in a Battle of the Throne in Zandador.

Omri wanted to be a soldier like his brothers.  He wanted to use the swords he made with his father in the shop to fight, not simply give them to others to fight.  But Rehu would not allow it and ordered Omri to be a blacksmith, not a soldier or a Dragon Hunter.

This infuriated Omri.  He was more powerful than either of his brothers and deserved to be the one training to hunt dragons.  He thought of himself as a King, not a blacksmith.

So when the Battle for the Throne began in 3600, Omri decided to flee Varzack and enter the competition for the throne.

Only things did not go as planned. 

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