Lyra Drakeforge (and friends) Explore Divinia - Entry 1: Foreword
Updated: Sep 30
SPOILER WARNING – These codex-style entries run alongside the main story, beginning at the end of The Trials of Divinia and continuing as companion material for The Fight for Divinia.
Later entries may contain spoilers for the series, but for now, if you’ve read The Trials of Divinia, you can read on spoiler-free.
Helloooo Divinia!
My name is Lyra Drakeforge. Yes, I know, THE Lyra Drakeforge. Don’t freak out!
Naturally, I am presuming that by the time you’re reading this, many years in the future, perhaps as some future historian of Divinia, or an important politician looking for advice on how NOT to muck things up, I am super famous.
However, if, for whatever crazy reason, that isn’t the case, please allow me to introduce myself.
And my friends.
I was born in Emberholt, a small, dragon-mad village in the heart of Ferroxia, in the year 2011.
I must be really, really old by now, but I am writing this as a fourteen-year-old… I know!
Anyhow, I grew up with my parents, Rorik and Mira Drakeforge, and my brother, Talon Drakeforge. We’ve always had a kind of minor celebrity status in our village.
Rorik is the Chief Dragon Trainer and helps train all the up-and-coming dragon riders, including a certain Zarek Flamestrike, although hopefully history has forgotten about him because he’s a twit!
Mira and Talon help with all the work at Drakeforge Farm. Or at least, Talon did, until something quite exciting happened – but more on that later.
I’m still technically at school, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be going back after everything that’s happened this year. But again, more on that soon. As with most kids my age, I’ve been mixing my lessons with working for my family on the farm.
We have this ashwing called Cinder. You should see him, he…
I’m probably getting off track here.
Anyway, the reason I decided to write this, that’s what I wanted to tell you first.
And the reason is that something BIG just happened to us.
Oh, wait, I should probably tell you who ‘us’ is first.
So there’s me, Lyra. You know that.
Then there’s Talon. He’s three years older than me and, as I said, up until recently he’s been an apprentice dragon trainer working for our father.
They don’t always get on.
Dad has very high expectations of us, but of Talon in particular, because one day we’ll have to take over the farm. It’s been his life’s work – and that’s a long time. But I know he loves us really.
They actually have quite a lot in common. They are both massive dragon nerds. They can both be this really quiet kind of grumpy. And they both love Mum’s cooking!
Talon is just a bit more modern in his approach to life with dragons. So modern, in fact, that most of Ferroxia hasn’t caught up yet. By the time you’re reading this, hopefully it has!
He’s a big fan of Drake’s Hollow. We all are – it’s like, the coolest village I’ve ever seen. They live WITH their dragons and treat them with love and respect.
That’s where our next travel companion comes from.
Kaida Emberwind.
She’s a total badass.
She’s only twenty-two, but she’s already one of the best dragon trainers I’ve ever seen – maybe even better than Dad, but don’t tell him that!
Not only that, she spent weeks training us all how to fight, she’s great with a sword or with her staff, she’s cool under pressure, she’s a good leader, and she’s really pretty.
Talk about having it all.
I don’t think I’m cut out to be exactly like her. But I hope we can all be a bit more like Kaida.
Then there’s Cairn Moltenheart.
He’s technically from Cindertrail, but he’s really more of a wanderer.
He is one of the most chilled-out people I’ve ever met. He doesn’t quite laugh in the face of danger, but he does embrace it like a friend coming to visit.
He’s also surprisingly perceptive. I guess if you’re good at understanding what animals are thinking, it’s not that much of a leap for you to know what people are thinking.
He’s become really good friends with Bren, and I’m pretty sure that Kaida and him are totally a thing too.
I approve.
I want that in writing.
As I mentioned him anyway, it’s probably time I told you a little bit about Bren Ironclaw.
Every friendship group has that kind of clingy friend you can’t shake off.
He’s been following Talon around since they could both walk.
And yes, I am being mean because he’s reading this over my shoulder.
GO AWAY, BREN!
Phew.
Now he’s not looking, I can say that you couldn’t ask for someone kinder and more loyal.
He’s also a really good blacksmith, even if he’s always doubting himself.
Everyone needs a friend like Bren.
Then finally there’s Selene Ashveil.
She’s only twenty-four, the same as Cairn, but you’d be forgiven for thinking she was an old lady already. Classic fire priest vibes. At least up until recently.
Our relationship didn’t get off to the best start.
I’ve not met many magical people before, and this instantly made me a bit suspicious of her. Then it turned out she could do telepathy with her psycho sister. THEN I felt like she was trying to sabotage me. BUT THEN she saved my life. AND THEN she saved Talon’s life.
Turns out she was pretty good after all.
So about what happened to us.
We were #TeamFerroxia for the 896th Celestial Trials.
There was also this other guy too, but we don’t talk about him anymore, so don’t worry about it.
Talon was chosen to be Thoros’ champion after he helped free a wyvern in Emberholt when it had accidentally entered our village and was captured by Zarek and some other baddies.
Dad was involved in capturing it too. But I’m pretty sure he thought he was doing the right thing.
We became Talon’s team and travelled to Concordia to compete against the champions from the other regions – Tempestus, Luminara, Verdantia, Nivalis, Solaris, and Elysium.
I had never met kids like us from other regions before. Or anyone really, come to think of it, only the occasional ambassador passing through Emberholt on the way to Ashspire.
They were actually pretty cool, and Talon is soooo in loovveeee with Calista from Luminara.
But… I’m going off track again.
Note: I was happy to do the tangent, but Talon told me no.
I guess if you’re reading this way into the future, then you might not remember much about the Celestial Trials.
If you were wondering, the gods really did make young people compete against each other every year to decide who got to be in charge of Divinia for the next twelve months.
Every year.
For almost nine hundred years.
Mental, right?
We had to compete in different trials – seven in total, one set by each of the gods and their regions.
Talon did them all, and he picked a different team for each event.
I was in the Verdantia and Luminara trials.
Verdantia was going really well until I was a bit hasty and got caught in a lure pit right at the end. That really cost us, and I felt very guilty about it for a long time.
Luckily, in Luminara I redeemed myself, and we came second only behind Calista’s team in their home trial.
We ended up finishing in second place overall, which meant we qualified for the final trial alongside Tempestus.
Talon was up against Cassian Stormrider.
He was a total asshole twat prick
Selene said I shouldn’t put words like that in a future historical record.
So I’ll just say he wasn’t very nice for most of it.
But even he ended up being okay by the end. Like a reverse version of ‘other guy’ – who was really nice until he wasn’t.
What a twist ending – right?!
Talon and Cassian ended up drawing. Apparently, that was the one thing no one had ever planned for, because people were MADDD about that.
Everything got a bit crazy for a while, and there was this massive battle.
Some good people died.
Thoros tried to take over the world.
Or, at least, he wanted to take over Concordia as a starting point. I’m not sure what he would have done next if he’d won there and then.
But Talon stopped him.
We all stopped him.
After things had calmed down, we had this big meeting with all the gods (apart from Thoros) and all the champions and us – the rest of Talon’s team.
For some reason the other champions didn’t want to have their teams there with them.
We decided that would be the end of the Celestial Trials.
I guess that makes us and Talon the last ever champions!
…
Yes, Talon, co-champions with Cassian.
We also decided that we’d all go back home and start preparing for war against Thoros.
Chances are he’s going to be quite angry.
And yes, that is an understatement.
We returned to our homes in Ferroxia – travelling to Emberholt, Drake’s Hollow, and Cindertrail respectively.
Once we were reunited in Drake’s Hollow, we all agreed that we’d travel across Ferroxia, meet with the different members of the Warbound Council, and start to spread the news of Thoros’ betrayal across the rest of Divinia.
Yes, we really are going to try and walk up to the biggest Thoros fans and tell them he’s the bad guy.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’ve never done much travelling. The Celestial Trials were the first time I’d properly left Emberholt. I know Kaida and Cairn have moved around a bit more, but actually spending time in the different cities, among their people, trying to convince them to join our cause… that’s going to be something very different.
And who knows where else this crazy journey might take us?
So that’s why I decided to start keeping this record.
Where we’ve been.
Who we’ve met.
What we’ve learned.
So that this fight for Divinia won’t be such a mystery in the future.
Signing off for now,
Lyra Drakeforge
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