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The Drake Riders of Dragon Island aren’t a featured group in The Heretic’s Quest, but they are mentioned many times and may become prominent in future novels. Therefore, notes on this culture are included here.

The Drake Riders dominate the mountainous, inhospitable continent that lies east of Dae Aerinon, on the other side of the Crimson Sea. Named Dragon Island, no Sarveki has ever set foot on its shores and lived to tell the tale.

The riders live in a symbiotic relationship with large reptiles called drakes. The drakes rely on their human counterparts for survival. Dragon Island is overrun with small vermin and insects that prey on drake eggs, and the reptiles are ill-equipped to address the problem. Certain types of parasites target the adult drakes instead of the eggs, and if they’re not stopped, enough parasites can attach to a drake to kill it. The humans care for the drake eggs and ensure the adults remain free of parasites, and in tough times, they sacrifice themselves to bolster the drake food supply. In return, the humans receive the protection and strength the drakes can offer, and when a drake dies, it’s entire body is used for one thing or another. Drake skin makes phenomenal armor, and the strutters’ bones and claws are so dense that they can be used to form weapons that will puncture steel armor.

Three varieties of drake exist: divers, strutters, and flyers. All three varieties are intelligent (for animals.) Most are smarter than dolphins. Some exceptional specimens are nearly as intelligent as humans, but these are very rare. All three types live 60-70 years and are strictly carnivorous.

Divers resemble the classic limbless sea serpent. They have large triangular heads, with mouths that can open wide enough to swallow two men at once. Their long sinewy bodies can reach lengths of seventy feet and are covered in chitinous scales. Barbed dorsal plates run the entire length of the creature’s body. Its bite isn’t poisonous, but its tail stinger is. Capable of eviscerating a man in heavy plate armor, even a grazing flesh wound is deadly thanks to the venomous secretions that coat the bone barb. Divers rarely leave the lakes and seas, but they can be coerced to come onto land long enough to secure a foothold on beaches. They also return to land to mate and lay eggs. They are most commonly used to push the large flat boats the Drake Riders use to cross the Crimson Sea. They can also be used in naval warfare against Sarveki ships, but they’re vulnerable when they must surface for air, and the creatures are too rare to risk in open combat unless circumstances are dire. Divers are the least common of the drakes. They reproduce once every five years, and the lay only one egg, which may or may not hatch. Divers rarely have riders in the same sense as other drakes, but they often recognize a “caller” who can prompt them to perform tasks for the Riders.

Strutters are large, wingless, four-legged reptiles that resemble small, wingless dragons. The smallest adult specimens are the size of a pony. The largest can exceed the mass of the largest Clydesdale. A stutter runs on all fours, at speeds up to sixty miles per hour in short sprints. Using its powerful clawed feet, it can run straight up wooden and soft stone fortifications. Strutters are nightmares in combat. Their hide is nearly as resilient as steel armor. Their jaws can cut a man in half. Their bite is also poisonous. A tail swipe can knock down and entire wedge of soldiers in one swing. If pressed, the creature can also stand on three, two, or even one leg and use the others to attack, all while bearing a rider who can also make attacks. Strutters are the most common of drakes, but are below the flyers in the “pecking order” the two subspecies have devised.

Flyers resemble miniature European or “western” dragons. The smallest adult specimens are about the same size as a Siberian tiger. The largest come closer to the size of a pony. Wingspans vary, but commonly reach widths of 30-40 feet. Flyers cannot breathe fire, but they can spit corrosive salvia that will ruin armor and weapons or melt flesh. They aren’t very graceful or fast flyers, but they can fly higher than most bows can shoot. Most flyers can carry a rider, but only if they’re small and light, which is why all flyer riders are women. Flyers rarely join in melee battle, but their riders can still use the power of flight as an excellent edge. They can gather reconnaissance. Using bows and fire bombs, they can strike fortifications, supply lines, and raid civilian targets behind enemy lines. If they must fight near or on the ground, a flyer will target enemy faces with its spit, use its tail as a flail, bite, claw with its rear legs, and buffet opponents with its wings.

Flyers and strutters are mixed breeds. A flyer and strutter can mate and produce an egg, which will be the same type as the mother. The reptiles live as a collective, working together as efficiently as a hive of bees or a hill of ants, and they also have a queen, which is always a flyer. Other females are allowed to exist and mate, but all fit within a hierarchy that the drakes establish through combat.

When a clutch of drake eggs hatch, human children are present, and the hatchlings pick a child to be their rider. From that moment on, they are raised together until they’re adults, at which time they can participate in the ritual combat used to establish their place within the tribe.

Since flyers always choose women, and flyers are superior to strutters, the human society has evolved into a matriarchal model, with the human queen being identified as the rider of the drake queen. Men are respected for their strength and fighting prowess, but are the first to go without when times get tough. If food supplies run low enough, men may be sacrificed to feed the drakes, starting with the oldest or the sick. Women are never sacrificed in this manner.

The humans worship the Great Dragon, a true dragon that they believe sleeps far beneath Dragon Island. They consider the drakes as children or messengers of the Great Dragon and treat the animals with reverent respect. No one knows if a dragon truly sleeps under the island. Most Sarveki scholars laugh at the notion. Dragons were exceedingly rare when the Prophet walked, and he killed the last known dragon during his campaign to conquer Stone Pike. In all the time since then, no trace or hint of a true dragon has ever been found.

The humans speak a savage, simple language which mimics the growls, hisses, and roars made by the drakes. They have highly developed fighting styles, numerous rituals, and a number of highly refined skills. Singers are common as well, but their few musical instruments are percussion types. All of their history and knowledge is passed vocally from one generation to the next.

The drakes and their riders live in caves in the mountains that surround Scale Lake, a large lake in the center of Dragon Island. For a tithe, they permit pirates and smugglers to use the many bays and inlets their coast offers. Any Sarveki naval ships that pursue too close are attacked by flyers and divers. As long as the pirates and smugglers pay their dues, they have a safe haven on Dragon Island.

Before Carthos Sarvek waged his unifying war, the Drake Riders occupied much of the continent’s east coast, especially in the area where Blood Cape now stands. They’ve started a number of wars trying to regain the territory. All have failed. The Sarveki historians will claim victory came as a result of superior tactics, superior warriors, superior equipment, and superior numbers. The truth is that the Drake Riders have never devised an effective way to maintain reliable supply lines from Drake Island, and they’ve never managed to adequately protect the supplies they’ve brought with the initial assault. Many Sarveki military planners worry when they see the Drake Riders offering sanctuary to pirates and smugglers. If a true alliance formed between the two groups, it could lead to the first successful Rider campaign to reclaim Blood Cape.

Drake Riders are ruthless and efficient warriors. They prefer to use hit and run guerrilla tactics in close quarters where the stutters can use their size to segment forces and prevent an organized counter attack. When they must fight a pitched battle, they commonly initiate with flyers, who use poisoned arrows and fire bombs to target enemy archers and artillery. The stutters and their riders then charge, targeting cavalry and commanders. The foot soldiers follow through, picking off survivors before they can reorganize. All drake warriors use poisoned weapons, which they will use on themselves before they’re taken prisoner. They won’t destroy buildings or slow down an offensive intuitive just to loot, but they will kill any who resist and enslave the rest.

When planning to repel a Drake Rider assault, Sarveki commanders must calculate how many men they’ll need. One flyer can typically kill thirty to forty ground troops before it’s brought down. A strutter is worth ten cavalry or forty infantry. An unmounted drake warrior is worth two cavalry or six infantry. A diver requires two battle ships.

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