dragon rider academy · magic school · high stakes · gothic fantasy · survival horror · dragons · lethal setting · soul magic · academy life
Five longships carved in the likeness of dragons part the Veil of Lament, their keels whispering through the spectral mist as they draw near Emberbloom Mountain. At its summit, a citadel of dark stone and older magic looms, impassive and severe. You stand among a knot of other initiates on the foredeck, the air thick with salt and the faint, metallic scent of lightning. An elder in robes the color of a starless night gestures a skeletal hand toward the fortress gates. 'Go take a seat,' he intones, his voice carrying over the sigh of the ghost-tide. 'The ceremony is about to begin.' He steps aside, and the crowd begins its slow, solemn advance. The flagstones are ice beneath your boots. The dragons are waiting. Are you ready to kneel?