Dragokin

Lore
"When the Champions' Call first brought a legion of bewildered and disordered dragon lords upon the city of Halvalas, the fledgling city was unprepared. Few were aware of the pact that had rewritten history a century before, but to the surprise of the citizens of Port Halvalas, here were dragons and riders alike upon their shores. Fifty or more! In the end it took the arrival of Ulreth, servant of Astra, to soothe the chaos, and guide the people through their first Champions' Tourney.

However ignorant the people of Halvalas were before that day, when the titanic monument known as the Eye of Astra opened onto the Lands Above, none present when it did would forget. Soon, tales of the Titans' Pact were sung in every tavern in the Lands Below. Even across the seas, from mountain village to verdant farm, the people were suddenly much more aware of their place in the Titan's Game. Moreover, dragon fever swept outward from the city of Halvalas like a wave that would come to envelop the world.

At that time, far south of Halvalas, in the plains, there lived a particularly hardy brood of dragon, the dragokin. These feisty creatures were quite gregarious, and unlike most other drakes, lived in packs. Seldom were dragokin found alone in the wild, and flocks of the drakes were seen to have as many as fifty members. It is told that their fiery breath could sometimes be seen lighting the sky for miles around as they cavorted in the night.

Before the sudden interest in dragons as more than a menace to livestock and men, these vast plains were considered to be trackless badlands. Most thought the lands south of Halvalas to be wasted, overrun with flocks of dragokin. But, with the advent of the Champions' Tourney and the new opinion of dragon-kind that the Titans' Call had ushered in, these plains were suddenly the subject of a minor land rush. And as the wildfire spread of dragonlust rolled across the southern plains, it found a comfortable home in the heartlands of southern Astraea, where the dragokin were destined to become the livelihood of the region.

While adult dragokin were ferocious, their young were more often playful and mischievous. Though they are born small, these drakes grow very rapidly, reaching full adolescent size in only a few months and full-grown adult size in only two years. Early dragon-breakers found that if the beasts could be saddle-tamed in their adolescence, they were far less likely to roast and devour their masters, and a way of life unique to the Astraean plains began.

Some of these new dragon-breakers were fortune seekers, hoping to capitalize on the dangerous new sports that erupted in the wake of that first Champions' Tourney. Others were trying to escape their pasts in the city by making a new life for themselves on the plains. Regardless of where they came from, those that stuck around to form the first dragokin breaking communities were hard-as-nails and tough as the beasts that they came to master.

It wasn't long before the ornery dragokin were being bred and selected for size, strength, cleverness, and general temperament. When the breakers came together and began to put together the first Breeder's Tourney in the heart of the Astreaen plains, it was clear that the unique and enduring culture of the dragokin dragon-breakers had begun in earnest. Dragon-breakers and rustlers would come to define the culture of Southern Astraea from then on.

Though ready to be saddle-tamed just over a year from birth, make no mistake, not just anyone could mount a dragokin. Saddle-taming became a big event at the ongoing Breeder's Tourneys in large part because it was so challenging. Most dragokin entered in the event would leave just as wild as they were when they arrived, and inexperienced breakers were as likely to leave the event with broken bones as with terrible burns, young dragokin being notoriously loose with their tongues of fire. Worse, when one felt particularly threatened, the beast would cry out and inevitably other dragokin nearby would spring to answer its call. The breeders named it the Call to Kine, and the braying cry led to more than one unfortunate incident in those early years. Still, as each generation passed, their techniques and skills grew.

Though dangerous, the practice and traditions that evolved around breeding and breaking the dragokin became simultaneously broadened in scope and refined in technique until most recognized it as an art unto itself. The Astraean plains had long ago been divided amongst the leading breeders and breakers, and these families held to their own lore and lands tenaciously. Over generations, a kind of order settled in. Successful dragon-breakers made fortunes raising and training the beasts, and established dynasties in the plains. Fewer and fewer dragokin remained in the wild, and each year the breeders sought more. In time, a wild dragokin became a rare sight indeed.

Still, the dragokin brood was in no danger. In the care of the Astraean breeders, the beasts grew ever larger and stronger. At their most powerful, a grown dragokin was said to be able to send their tongues of flame out five meters at least, only to cast a crackling fireball outward to explode at its end. Breeders competed to hatch the largest, most muscular, the fastest or the most beautifully scaled dragokin in the plains, each with their eyes secretly on the prestige that their family would earn when their dragons would be the ones to carry the chosen to the Battles Above upon the next centennial.

In these times, a fine dragokin is still a symbol of prestige and power in Halvalas to the north, and fortunes are paid for the creatures as far away as Tal'il. However, it is a fool who disobeys the folk wisdom of the dragokin dynasties and gives or buys a lone drake of this brood. As it is known among those of the Astraean plains, the dragokin must be given or gifted only in flocks of three. Those that forget this soon find that their drake is not the only one that they have received care of. And still, even the most skilled Riders have difficulty keeping these dragons from calling to their kin in times of trouble, and in the Battles Above, it ceases to be a question of if a Rider will allow the Call to Kine, and becomes a question of when."

Tips
Explosive Breath - Your Tongue of Flame has a large AoE on hit, so maximize damage by hitting near other targets.

3 is better than 1 - Call to Kine is great for turret hunting, call them in to draw the fire while you sit back and fire from a safe distance.