Lyra Drakeforge (and friends) Explore Divinia - Entry 2: Ferroxia
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. This entry contains light spoilers for the first three chapters. The Fight for Divinia will be released in paperback, hardback, and e-book on 25 November 2026.
As we start out on our journey, I thought I’d begin by writing down all the things I know about Ferroxia. Then, underneath, I’ll make a note of all the new things I learn along the way.
Hopefully there will be plenty of good surprises – not just bad ones!
You might know some of this already (if so, just skip ahead to the juicy bits from our travels), but who knows what Divinia looks like in the future?
So, here’s an honest overview of what our region looked like in 2025.
Landscape and Geography
Ferroxia is the southeastern region of Divinia. It borders Solaris to the east, Elysium to the west, and Concordia to the north. It is known for its volcanic plains, mountainous expanses, and heat surpassed only by our neighbours in Solaris.
You might think that would be unpleasant, but when you’re born somewhere and grow up thinking of it as normal for your entire life, it just feels like home. I have to admit I liked some of the luxuries that Concordia had to offer during our time there, but it’s not quite the same as smelling the fresh scent of our markets during the day or seeing the lava streams lighting up your walk home as evening falls.
There are seven major cities in Ferroxia. Each is home to a member of our Warbound Council (more on them soon), with six of the cities also renowned for leading one of the key professions that keep the region running. Again, more on that shortly.
These cities are:
Ashspire – our capital and home to the Obsidian Fortress, the residence of the Head of the Warbound Council.
Charhollow – an industrial city to the west, known for its production of armour and weaponry.
Volgrath – a southern city built almost entirely underground, where the priesthood is based and all new fire priests are trained.
Molkrath – a garrison city, also to the south, with active-duty soldiers, barracks, training grounds and its own operational headquarters.
Pyremark – a newer city built into the eastern mountain range overlooking Solaris.
Drakhar – home to Divinia’s fiercest dragons and most famous competitive riders (until Kaida changes that, obviously).
Skelderath – a northern sanctuary where creatures and people live alongside one another (Cairn is super excited to visit that one).
Dad told us loads of other stuff about these places too, but I think those were the highlights. No one is reading this for pages and pages of geography.
There are other smaller towns and villages too. Cindertrail, Drake’s Hollow, Emberholt and Ashenhold, just to name a few.
Out of all of us, only Kaida and Cairn had done much travelling before the Celestial Trials. Kaida through her time working as part of the Dragon Championships, and Cairn because… well, I think he just wanted to. He hasn’t really told me why.
Selene has apparently spent time in Volgrath before, but she doesn’t like to talk about it.
I am looking forward to seeing more and ranking my favourites!
Culture and Professions
Ferroxian society is built around six core professions. As I said, each is associated most closely with one particular city, but you will find people undertaking these roles throughout Ferroxia.
They are:
Blacksmiths (Charhollow) – forgers of not just weapons and armour, but also houses and other infrastructure throughout Ferroxia, including all the metalwork that helps manage and coordinate the flow of lava.
Fire Priests (Volgrath) – they oversee Ferroxia’s religious commitment to Thoros, running the various shrines in his honour, whilst also acting as healers and helping to train those with magical abilities.
Soldiers (Molkrath) – they protect Ferroxia’s borders, fight in conflicts both inside and outside of Ferroxia, provide security, and help with the manual labour that keeps even the smallest villages running as they should.
Scouts (Pyremark) – they also support the protection of Ferroxia’s borders, but act as ambassadors and dignitaries too, travelling between cities and into other regions to ensure good relations.
Dragon Trainers (Drakhar) – they are responsible for taming, training, and protecting against dragons. Most places in Ferroxia will have their own Chief Dragon Trainer who takes the lead on this in their location, like Dad does in Emberholt.
Beast Handlers (Skelderath) – they do a similar job to Dragon Trainers but focus on the many other creatures of Ferroxia. They are often specialists in a particular creature and travel from place to place where they are needed.
There are also traders, vendors, various craftspeople, teachers, and other roles, but they are not deemed as essential as the others. Those who work with dragons or make weapons (to a high standard) are considered to be on the top rung of our social ladder, and it works downwards from there.
Education is based on a person’s age. A child attends school full-time from six to eleven, where they are taught basic skills like reading, writing, and mathematics. Then they attend part-time from eleven to fifteen, where their time is split between school and an apprenticeship, normally in whichever trade their family specialises in. School becomes more about Ferroxian society, history, and teachings.
Spoiler – we are very pro ourselves!
Politics and Leaders
The Warbound Council governs Ferroxia. My Dad told us that they don’t meet often as a full council of seven, instead preferring to remain in their own cities and amongst their own people.
The Council is made up of seven members, six of whom lead their respective disciplines, both in their own cities and beyond.
These members are:
Blademaster Kaedros Vireclaw – Chief Blacksmith from Charhollow
High Priest Rhogar Ashmantle – Chief Fire Priest from Volgrath
Commander Thorne Dreadwake – Chief of Armies from Molkrath
Marshal Kelrix Flamebarrow – Chief Scout from Pyremark
Spinemaster Garrun Blackwing – Chief Dragon Trainer from Drakhar
Warden Korrak Embervein – Chief Beast Handler from Skelderath
And their leader:
Lord Vauren Pyrestone – from Ashspire
Council members are not elected but are chosen by the other members and approved by Thoros. They generally only leave their roles through retirement or death… cheerful.
Writing it down like that, I do wonder whether it’s the fairest system.
Dad says most of them aren’t so bad, but I guess we’ll find out soon!
Creatures
Ferroxia is, of course, best known for its dragons.
This includes wyverns, wild dragons who are larger and more ferocious than their cousins, the drakes, who are typically domesticated and live in captivity, where they undertake different roles based on their breed.
The eight drake breeds are:
Inferno
Ember
Obsidian
Cinder
Smoulder
Pyre
Molten
Scorchwing
All of them have different temperaments, abilities and weaknesses, but it’s up to their trainer and/or rider to maximise their potential.
The cinder drake, known for its loyalty and resilience, is my personal favourite.
There are many other creatures that have roles in Ferroxian society, including magma hounds, pyrestalkers, lava crawlers, emberboars, magma rams and ashwings, as well as birds like coalfinches and ashplume herons.
I’m not sure we’d get by so well without them. You can see why our region needs people like Cairn to keep beast training, trade and culling under control and everything on the up and up.
We also have plenty of wild creatures, like ironmanes and magmavore eels. You could really do a whole Ferroxian A–Z bestiary, but that would be another book!
Life and Society
Ferroxian society is built around hard work and encouraging people to pursue the things they're passionate about. At the time of writing, I’m not sure I’ve found my passion yet, but let’s just say I’ve got some ideas once all this Thoros nonsense is done and dusted.
(Yes, Talon, I know it’s not nonsense, but this can’t be all gloomy. I want people to like it!)
Before things all got a bit awkward this past summer, a lot of our free time was devoted to events built around worshipping Thoros. These included daily rites at local shrines, demonstrations from soldiers or blacksmiths to show off their strength and skill, and the annual Festival of Ash, where people burn effigies of weakness or failure, symbolically purging their weaknesses to emerge stronger.
There is also the Dragon Championships, the most prestigious fighting tournament for dragon riders and trainers in Ferroxia.
Kaida had to help me a bit with this, but here’s a brief overview…
The championship season takes place annually.
There are twelve events over nine months, each hosted by a different city or village.
The best-performing riders qualify for the Grand Conclave at the end of the season.
The winner of the Grand Conclave is declared the overall victor.
Each event consists of five scored disciplines: combat, speed, agility, fire-breathing and the bond trial, which tests the relationship between dragon and rider.
Scores are given between one and twelve points for each discipline, with the rider accumulating the highest overall score being declared the event winner.
Winning any of the twelve events guarantees a rider a place in the Grand Conclave.
Only twelve riders can qualify, with priority given to event winners. If a rider wins multiple events, the remaining places are awarded to the highest-scoring riders across the season who haven't already qualified.
Kaida’s village, Drake’s Hollow, has an additional tradition called Bonding Day, where they pick that year’s sole representative if either dragon or rider needs replacing. They only send one.
Zarek Flamestrike was the first rider from Emberholt in my lifetime to win an event, which he has done twice with my Dad’s help. But as I said, he’s a twit!
What it’s really like
As we come to the end of our tour of Ferroxia, here’s my review of each of the major places we’ve been to…
1. Charhollow
Bren loved it. If you read my description of Bren at the beginning, that should probably already be enough to put you off.
One day, someone opened a workshop to make weapons and armour, and then they said, you know what, we should make every single building a workshop just like this. Someone needs to tell them that there are colours other than grey.
Kaedros was old, grumpy and didn’t want to help us.
My rating: 4/10 (Bren wouldn’t let me give it 2)
2. Volgrath
If you’re the sort of person who thinks it’s a good idea to spend decades digging into the side of a mountain to make a bunch of dark underground caves to live in, then there’s probably a good chance I don’t care for you as a person.
Super creepy vibes.
That being said, they do seem to have tried to make it a bit less awful since then, and it is kind of cool how they have all these passages that lead to different parts of the city without it feeling like a complete maze.
Selene likes Rhogar, even though he also wouldn’t help us, so I can’t be too mean.
My rating: 6/10
3. Molkrath
This was less of a city and more of a prison with some houses in it. Who would want to be a soldier?
We also ran into the wife of ‘other guy’, which was super awkward.
Hard pass on Thorne, one of those Thoros-obsessed religious weirdos. I’ve seen enough of them to last me a lifetime already.
They didn’t threaten to put us in prison, though, and they did let us in, so marks for that.
My rating: 2/10
4. Pyremark
The outside looked nice.
Kelrix was the least welcoming so far, which is going some.
My rating: 1/10
5. Ashspire
I don’t think I’d ever realised before now that Ferroxia has such a problem with social class and elitism.
Kaida is making her ‘I told you so’ face at me whilst I write this.
The things we saw in those lower tiers… it makes me shudder.
Vauren is as bad as Thoros. Maybe worse…
No, that’s too far. But the fact that it’s close tells you all that you need to know.
My rating: 0/10
6. Skelderath
Wow! What a cool place. I needed this to restore my faith after some of the other big cities.
The way they live alongside their creatures is so cool. I think Cairn might have stayed forever if he could.
We were a bit suspicious of Korrak, but he seems okay. I think my ‘traitor’ radar is just a bit broken after everything that has happened.
My rating: a cautious 8/10 (but I will lower this if Korrak is a traitor after all)
7. Drakhar
We never made it due to our slight… diversion in Ashspire.
Kaida says we did NOT miss out.
My rating: ??
What have my experiences taught me?
Maybe Ferroxia isn’t so great after all. Maybe Emberholt has shielded me from the reality for longer than I care to admit. And not every new place is going to be as cool as Drake’s Hollow.
What’s next for us?
We’re heading to the borderlands, the lands which sit outside of our regions. I think we’re hoping to find Thoros. I’m not sure what will happen if we do…
Hopefully this isn’t my last entry. It would be a pretty short book if it was. Haha!
Signing off for now,
Lyra Drakeforge
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