After Tsizen shattered the holy lantern and the Quirani pushed east they eventually encountered creatures of such magnitude and might that it shattered all of their preconceived notions. The Quirani believed that they alone had been chosen by the Ivuzen, but the first time they saw a dragon fly it changed their perspective forever.

Dragons challenged everything the Quirani knew about nature and magic. These creatures carried mighty flames that could wipe out entire forests and burn cities. A single beat of their wings could send a quiran flying. And their longevity awoke both awe and jealousy for the once-immortal Quirani. The draconic strength was inspiring, especially as Quirani culture valued hardiness and might.

Zarin, the first son of Zavain, and third king of the Quirani, decided to meet with the dragons personally.

Zarin traveled east from Mauzika with most of his court and they crossed the dangerous jungle to meet with a clan of dragons by the name of Firefang that lived by the east coast. Zarin expected the dragons to be kin and that they would welcome the Quirani with open arms. The poet king even brought hundreds of copies of his own literary works and several paintings done by the best artists in Mauzika. These offerings were meant as a message of peace and cooperation. Zarin hoped they would receive gifts in return and that their diplomatic mission would be a success. But he was firmly disappointed as the leader of Firefang, a colossal green dragon named Dirk, simply took the offerings and told them to leave.

Suffice it to say Zarin was displeased by the arrogance and greed of his supposed “kin”.

The court was not happy with the result of the diplomatic mission either. Many of the lords and ladies had been promised fine gifts from the dragons and when these gifts did not materialize it made the court grumble something fierce. Banners were raised, arguments ensued, and angry nobles inundated Zarin. The fighting was only broken up after clan Firefang chased away the Quirani.

This failure was thought to the be last of it. Zarin wrote scathing poems on the nature of dragons and many of the Quirani saw them as imitations of the First-Fire’s might. But all were in agreement, that was the end of their contact with the dragon race.

And then Mauzika was shaken to its very core as dragons landed on the plains of former Zaranqui.

Clan Firefang was made up of dragons known for hoarding knowledge and art. Their hoards did contain gold and diamonds, but cultural artifacts and expertise was valued far more than simple coin. So the clan of mighty dragons came to the western mountains and demanded tribute from the Quirani. Their best poets, writers, sculptors, and painters were to be given to the dragons along with the glowing shards of the holy lantern kept in Zarin’s palace.

Zarin marched out to meet the dragons and he refused their request. The dragons grew agitated and the Quirani forces began to gather outside the gates of Mauzika.

Ultimately, it all began with the mighty Dirk showering Mauzika’s entrance with flames to stop the Quirani from amassing more soldiers. The dragonfire slew many and Zarin, outraged by this wanton slaughter, ordered his soldiers to drive away the dragons.

The battle was fierce, the Quirani lost many of their best soldiers, and Zarin was gravely injured, losing an arm and an eye, but in the end, they stood victorious over the dead bodies of three large dragons and dozens of smaller ones.

Dirk had fled with his surviving clansmen and he swore vengeance on the Quirani. In return, the Quirani swore to protect the eastern borders from dragon aggression.

And so began the Zenkai Riken, the dragon war.

At first, the conflict was rather simple. Dragons both young and old would swoop in to ambush Quirani trade caravans and settlers, stealing their possessions and leaving many dead. This prompted the Quirani to build up mighty fortifications between their colonies out east and Mauzika. These forts were built out of hardy stone to withstand dragonfire and research to combat the dragons was prioritized over all else.

Five years after the dragons had attacked Mauzika, Zarin had trained enough soldiers to not just hold the eastern territories, but expand them greatly.

Clan Firefang kept Zarin at bay at first, destroying patrols and burning military camps as they saw fit. But it was then that the Quirani invented a machine of war that promised to drive off the dragons: the ballista.

The next few years became a one-sided slaughter where the Quirani protected their fellow kinsmen against unsuccessful dragon raids. Each time the dragons tried to deliver a blow to the Quirani it shattered against the stone walls of the eastern forts. And if the attack succeeded it was avenged ten-fold. Zarin delivered rousing speeches to the populace, poems and ballads were written about the Quirnai soldiers’ loyalty and power, and the seizure of dragon hordes became a favorite pastime of the nobility and soldiery.

The addition of ballistas to the eastern forts delivered a great blow to the dragon forces. Firefang went from a mighty clan of dozens of dragons to only a few. Seeing the Quirani’s strength and their rage, Dirk fled across the sea to his distant homeland, leaving his old home for the Quirani to settle and develop.

Zarin declared the war to be over and the spoils of war were distributed to the soldiers and nobility of the nation. Yet the calm that settled in was quickly shattered as the sky one day darkened from the appearance of hundreds of dragons. Dirk and the survivors of clan Firefang had called upon their kin from their homeland and they had rallied many others for the war. The land annexed by the Quirani was lost as quickly as they had gained it, and a war between a nation and a clan soon turned into a bloodbath between the nation of dragons and the nation of Quirani.

During these times many records were destroyed by dragonfire. While many battles were lost to time, it is known that Zarin fell in battle alongside his eldest son Zarok. Father and son called upon the power of the cinders and together they slew a hundred dragons—Dirk among them—before succumbing to draconic poison and fire. The dead dragons littered the northeastern fields with so many scales they became like shimmering shells and as such the the battle became known as the Battle of Scalefields. It claimed the lives of thousands of Quirani and in the end, they were severely weakened.

But the dragons faired no better.

The Battle of Scalefields crushed the draconic dream of victory and an uneasy peace settled in as both sides licked their wounds. Yet what ended their bitter feud was no great peacemaker or even time, but a common enemy. The shades had arrived.

Zavain II, the second son of Zarin, took his father’s throne not long after the Battle of Scalefields. As the Quirani rebuilt and grieved they soon learned of a new threat. Dark entities corrupted and consumed colonies on the fringes of the kingdom, and even the dragons had fallen victim to this terrible darkness. Dozens of dragons had been turned and they attacked their kin without care or sympathy. The same had happened to hundreds of Quirani and these hideous monsters marched south to bring doom upon the Quirani and dragons alike.

The Quirani immediately knew the darkness that killed and corrupted their people. A few venerable Quirani still lived who recounted tales of the Ivuzen and Daizen. They spoke of magical and mental chains that had forced the Quirani to serve evil. The horrific tales brought the Quirani together and they swore to never again let darkness thrive on the continent. Zavain II called for a ceasefire and for diplomatic talks to ensue with the leader of the dragons, a mountainous creature known as Dragon Lord Utgard.

Zavain II and Dragon Lord Utgard soon met to discuss an uneasy alliance. Though young Zavain was dwarfed by the monstrous Utgard, the dragon’s red scales fizzling with heat and fire, the king did not show fear. With the light of the Ember he brokered an uneasy peace and a strained alliance to stop the encroaching shadow.

The war officially ended with Utgard paying reparations in gold and Zavain II pledging the Ember’s light to cure the corrupted dragons.

The combined forces of the dragon and Quirani nations pushed the shades back and most dragons and Quirani that had fallen under their sway were freed by Zavain’s holy light. After years of fighting one another the dragons and Quirani gained a newfound respect for each other as they drove the shades north. Both dragonfire and the Ember’s light purged the shades from the world, but only Zavain II and his daughter and heir Zarina, remained immune to the darkness’ corruption.

The shade menace was ended two years after the peace treaty was signed. After the war the Quirani now both feared and respected the dragons. Many held resentment after having lost loved ones to the war, but many others had seen the dragons cleanse the landscape from darkness with their fire.

The old belief that the dragons were kin eventually returned to Quirani culture and society. The dragons were viewed as cousins, beings that too had been given a spark of creation that manifested itself in their fire. Eventually, these religious connections led to the dragons being viewed as holy creatures, though not without caution. The scars of war never truly went away, leading the Quirani to both love and hate the dragons of the Far East.

Yet is there no more truthful statement than for family to both love and hate one another?

After the shades’ destruction, the dragons returned east. Clan Firefang had been completely obliterated by the war and so their coastal lands were taken by the Quirnai. The people of the western mountains spread east on both sides of the Appeloosan mountains, called the Zenkaifi by the Quirani, and they subjugated both jungle and forest. North and south they spread, soon coming into contact with two of the most important peoples in the continent’s history.

The Quirani met the ancient ponies and the first changelings. And in these beings, the Quirani saw beings lesser than themselves. The Quirani saw perfect slaves, and so the armies of Mauzika marched south and north.

The Riken Huvan, the age of war, had begun. But most of the sentient races of the continent came to know it by a different name: the age of subjugation.

I hope you enjoy this short storybook chapter while I work out where to start the next major storybeat.