Introduction -- The Author's experience
The Gold Empire is the greatest empire Dain has ever known, spreading from humble beginings in Oldan to the far coasts of Akshus and Dhuchai, and now across the oceans to far-off lands. The Gold Empire has brought order, stability, peace and unity to the peoples of Dain, and the leading edge of this expansion has always been dragonriders. Lord Goldbrand brought low the goliath tribes of the Oldanian mountains atop Ualinmorn Dawnfire, a task which would have been impossible for an army of infantry, and king Silvio "Giantburner" Castello forced a sahuagin invasion of Salantano back underwater thanks to Drysmyse Fogofri, known as Drysmyse Coldfire in elvish. The most noble lord of our Empire, the Gold Emperor, beloved by all, has fought for centuries atop Caerziros Acolitus, called Caerziros Lightbringer in the common tongue, and together they broke the hobgoblin legion sent to destroy Aurumis during the Hobgoblion Rebelion.
Dragons have always been the most potent of the Empire's weapons against its enemies, and this continues to be true in an age of cannons, firearms and advanced psionic capability. However, I believe that they have not been used to the full extent of their ability, for fear of losing them or their noble riders.
I wish to give some context to my viewpoints. I am Andreas Ari, duke of East Sceya, lord of Irondeep, known as the "Handsome" among friends and "Flame-monger" among enemies. I ride Yaldresh Giantslayer, a dragon I have come to love and cherish as a friend, comrade-in-arms and confidante. It is said that desperation is the mother of invention, and in many of my wars I have been desparate to use every advantage I had, and my greatest advantage was always Yaldresh. During the Storm War, which saw my friend Ibrahim ascend as king of Northern Akshus, I was the only imperial fighter in the war, and the only dragon was mine. We were outnumbered many times throughout that war, and our enemies were better equiped than us. Conventional imperial military doctrine would have had me saving Yaldresh for a decisive engagement with the enemy, where dragonfire could have purged their ranks and broken their spirit, and only use Yaldresh in direct support of our conventional army.
But there was never going to be a decisive engagement in the Storm War, at least not in the early days, as our enemy outnumber us so drastically that even with dragonfire, we would have lost.
So instead I turned my talents elsewhere. During the Storm War, much of our income to wage the war was gained through the trading of jewels from the Hightops to Toirecíud. It would have taken hundreds of Akshusian warriors to protect our traderoute from the enemy, but it only took one dragonrider to cover all 80 miles of traderoute. The enemy was unable to strike at our traderoute, as any strike would be met with retaliation from dragonfire. When we went on the offensive, the dragonrider could take several other roles. As a scout, the dragonrider could fly hundreds of feet above the enemy, identifying army movements and numbers of enemies, and as a warrior the dragonrider could assail smaller forces alone, forcing the enemy to move at night and seek strength in numbers.
In many ways, the dragonrider gave the Ibrahimites victory in those early days. And that was just one dragonrider, the Gold Empire has hundreds of dragonriders, including riders of ancient and terrifying dragons.
Dragons are rarely used to the full extent of their power, for two good reasons:
- Losing a dragon
- Losing a noble
The loss of a dragon is a terrible loss that the Gold Empire never truly recovers from. Each of the angelic beings are blessed by Aurathear Darastrix, and sent to protect us from our enemies. We have all heard the stories and songs of the dragons of Arechi, who were all killed during the Hobgoblin Rebelion. However, I believe that such fear of losing dragons has caused us to lose our edge, and to lose important experience. We would rather have our dragons be wounded in sieges in Oilean or protecting refugees in Ikseong, than being killed in the next great war.
The loss of a noble is one we can accept. It is for good reason that we bind Gold Dragons to the noble dynasties of our Empire, it roots the rulers of the different provinces to the Gold Empire, it gives legitimacy to the rulers and we have a group of people whom we can train from a young age to be expert dragonriders. It is much more likely to lose a dragonrider than a dragon, due to a spell or a lucky ballista, and we must not equate these two losses with each other. We have many nobles, but only few dragons. I will not claim that nobles are cowards, but I will claim that nobles are not performing their duty as dragonriders but focusing on minutae of rulership and other, less useful, pursuits, which could be delagated to more competent subjects or courtiers. During the First Conquests, the Dragon Matriarchs of Cyneland and Guldfeldt went to war alongside the Imperial Army, their devastating power unleashed in the name of unity. Now it has been many years since the great king Brandeck, so-called "Flame of the West", has burned anything, and Dragon Matriarchs are virtually never seen on the battlefields.
These dragons, our greatest weapons, are not being employed to their full extent, and it is costing the lives and blood of imperial citizens. I argue in favor of a different way of war, where dragons can be used much more freely.
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