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Warriors of the Dragon Kingdom
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The Warriors of the Dragon Kingdom is a book in progress, created, written, and edited by Jonathan Arndt and Steve Cerchiari. The story consists of a main character named Zolo, teaming up with elves, dwarves, and humans alike to reunite the world. Other characters that might be considered main include Clyra, princess of the elves and early companion of Zolo; Junic, the main source of comic relief and the character desperate for Clyra's love; Cedric, master wizard and pacifist of the group; and others to be introduced later in the book. Books Book One: Resurgence Book Two: Escape Book Three: Crown Book Four: Shadows In all the books, Zolo is the main character but small, brief, but significant parts of the story being told through the perspectives of others, including Kera. Plot summary The first book of the four-part series, Resurgence, begins with Zolo hunting in the forest. He is interrupted, however, by a group of large stone monsters, which turn out to be apparently on the hunt for something or someone. A young girl around Zolo's age appears and uses her magic to defeat half of the monsters, but is knocked unconscious in the process. Zolo, in an attempt to save the girl, defeats the other two and takes the girl back to his house. Upon arriving, he discovers that his mother left for Algastad, the capital of the Elven Nation. With nothing to do, Zolo decides to wait for the girl to awaken. Upon her awakening, she introduces herself as Clyra and that those monsters were golems. She also explains that she was on a journey to the Human Nation for diplomatic purposes but requests Zolo's accompaniment on her trip back to the capital, realizing that it is unsafe to go to the human land alone. Zolo agrees, deciding that he will meet his mother in Algastad. Shortly after departing, the two run into an elf named Junic, who has been following Clyra, his love interest, for two days. He pleads the two for them to allow him to join them on their journey (probably just to be with Clyra), and they reluctantly agree under the condition that he cooks all their meals from that point on. Here they decide to set up camp and rest until morning. The next day, they continue their trip, but are attacked by a pack of shadow wolves, rare beasts who are usually nocturnal and thought to be extinct. Clyra is knocked unconscious during the battle and Junic is bitten by one of the poisonous wolves, leading Zolo to fend for himself. In the process of trying to protect his companions, he is gravely injured and nearly reaches death, but in a surprising turn of events, transforms into a dragonlike creature that either kills or scares away the wolves. With his new wings, he flies to safe location with the catatonic Junic and the unconscious Clyra in his arms. Upon landing, he shrinks back down to normal size with Clyra awakening and looking on as he transforms back into an elven form. He passes out right at that moment, Clyra watching fearfully. Zolo awakens later all alone, discovering a note from Clyra stating that she had taken Junic to the nearby city to find a cure. Zolo follows the direction that Clyra's note indicated and finds Clyra, who asks him of the recent event, to which Zolo responds by apologizing and saying that he is just as confused as she. Clyra forgives him and she and Zolo decide to take Junic, whose cure could not be found in the city, to the nearby town of Sparrow Hills, an ancient and almost forgotten village on the other side of the Swamps of Demise. They make it to the village, discovering that most of it is completely destroyed and that the only residents is an old human couple. Zolo reluctantly accepts their hospitality and is taken to the wizard Cedric the next day. The wizard cures Junic of his wounds and tries to kill Zolo, who lives and finds himself in the old human's cottage the next day. Though normally racist, Zolo finds himself starting to love the old humans, but refuses to admit this. A demon later attacks the cottage, but it is destroyed by Zolo, who saves the lives of the old humans and repays them for their hospitality by helping them rebuild their demolished house. The next day, they are attacked yet again, this time by a strange sorcerer named Zabura. Zabura almost kills Clyra and Zolo, but the two are saved by Junic when he shoots an arrow at the sorcerer. Zabura disappears, but Zolo doubts that he is indeed dead. Their journey continues to outside the capital city of Algastad, where they meet a human samurai named Camoru, who explains that he is in the Elven Nation to take part in the Worldwide Fighting Tournament. This catches Zolo's attention and he immediately desires to take part in this competition as well, despite Clyra commanding otherwise. He ignores Clyra's orders and competes in the tournament, nearly being killed in the process but discovering that he has the gift of healing faster than normal. While staying in Algastad, Zolo and Junic meet the king, queen, and prince, and discover that Clyra is actually the princess. The king requests that Zolo and Junic accompany Clyra to the foreign lands, and Zolo agrees while deciding that he will find his mother and tell her later. In the Algastad castle, Zabura attacks, leading Zolo to realize that he was correct in assuming that Junic indeed did not kill him. Zabura tries to attack and apparently kidnap the prince, Freidrich, Clyra's brother, but is stopped by Zolo's mother, Kera. Surprisingly, Zolo discovers that there is more to his mother than he thought, for she later explains after defeating Zabura that she is an assassin for the elven kingdom. She also reveals several other things about the history of the Elven Nation and hits towards Zolo's heritage, but refuses to reveal anything specifically. She then says that she has been asked to return to the Shadow Kingdom, where the Shadow Lord is planning his "resurgence" (hence the title of the book) and tells Zolo that she wants him to go with Clyra on her journey. After she leaves, Zolo and Junic are introduced to the warriors who they will be traveling with. They manage to cross the Human Nation border but are arrested when a human falsely accuses Zolo of stealing his money. Clyra breaks them all out of jail and they flee with humans on their trail. Characters Protagonists Zolo The main character of the story. He is the son of Kera and, unknown to him for the first half of the story, Raiza, the king of the dragon demons, making Zolo half elf and half dragon demon. As such, he has characteristics of both races, giving him the ability to transform into a dragon, though this only happens when he is in a near death situation. He can also heal extremely quickly. Because he is the son of a dragon demon, he has the ability also to learn magic more quickly and more easily than most elves, but he does not know about this for the majority of the story. Physically, he is tall and powerfully built, more so than most elves, and has black hair. He also has dark red eyes that were inherited from his father. His personality is very different from that of most main protagonists. He is sarcastic, arrogant, stubborn, cocky, competitive, and for the most part racist, against humans in particular. However, he is recognized to have a "heart of gold" according to his mother, though he sees this trait as weak and covers it up by placing greater emphasis on the aforementioned personality characteristics. For the most part, he has an offensive sense of humor and if he finds something funny, he amplifies the moment with a hilarious comment. He is, however, mostly optimistic and has a good attitude towards life unless it is spent doing something he does not enjoy doing, in which case he is in an extremely bad mood and takes it out on whoever happens to be standing closest to him, unless said person is either Clyra or his mother. Although, he does enjoy making fun of Junic in particular. As stated before, though, underneath the cocky personality he portrays, he is selfless and will willingly place himself in danger to protect those he loves, even Junic or a human. In dragon form, he takes the form of the legendary Black Dragon, something that only occurs every thousand years or so. More powerful than any kind of dragon, the Black is said to have the spirit of the dragon god. There was a prophecy that was said to be fulfilled that a demon from the forests would come in a time of war in the form of a black dragon and destroy the evil in the world and unite the world as one, a prophecy that does indeed come true by the end of the series. Kera Zolo's mother and Raiza's ex-fiancé. She is also formerly one of the seven assassins and secret agents for the Elven Nation. These seven assassins were a secret organization under the king's direction, though the other six were killed during their last assignment. Kera is still an unofficial agent for the royalty, however, and has kept in contact with Algastad for years. She also used to be a negotiator for the country and was sent to the Dragon Kingdom to form a coalition with them. During this time, she met the now former king of the kingdom, Raiza, and fell in love with him, eventually becoming pregnant with his baby. Upon discovering this, the two became engaged to be married, but Kera left Raiza when he began to become more and more power hungry and more focused on being a king than a father. Kera returned to the Elven Nation about a year after Zolo was born and raised her son as an elf in the Elven Nation alone. Kera is very calm, serious, and strict and does not take no for an answer about anything. She does not put up with immaturity or hate, which is why she seems to be angry at her son quite often. She is extremely loving towards all beings and races and will step into the path of an arrow for anyone. She sees everyone as equal and believes that there is a good side to everyone, but she will not hesitate to harm or evil kill to protect those she loves. She secretly grieves for all the deaths she has caused. She is extremely powerful at magic but does not use it, especially not around Zolo for fear of him learning of his ancestry and secret powers. Raiza Zolo's father and the former king of the dragon demons. Before meeting Kera, and several years after, he ruled the Dragon Kingdom, widely known as the greatest king the country had ever seen, but Raiza's power hungry younger brother, Makala, overthrew him shortly after Zolo was born. Desperate to keep the country alive, Raiza took half of the Dragon Kingdom population, the residents of the country still loyal to his rule, and fled to an island in the south. He was weak and close to death and has remained in this state for years. During the battle with his brother, he acquired a handicap that limited his magic. As he was once the king, his dragon used to be gold, but soon reverted to red after Makala took the throne. Raiza is built physically very much like his son and looks almost exactly like him, except that his hair is dark red. He is almost seven feet tall. He is also like his son personality wise; very stubborn and harsh and often downright merciless to his servants, but even he will admit that he loves each and every one of his followers dearly. Clyra Princess of the elves and Freidrich's sister. Clyra is recognized as the voice of reason of the group, and is also the leader. Although Zolo is indeed the main character, this is Clyra's journey and as such the group goes wherever she goes, for they are all accompanying her to protect her. Clyra strives to increase her strength in magic and was strongly affected from when she was defeated by Zabura. Since then, she could be seen constantly straining to help herself win her next battle. She is also somewhat of a tomboy, in that she lusts for action and adventure, and as such as a certain streak about her. She has a short temper, and often hits or threatens another member of the group for acting out or fighting. She eventually develops an attraction towards Zolo. Despite this, she is strongly annoyed by Zolo and his constant bullying towards Camoru, Cedric, and Junic in particular. She is also annoyed by Junic entirely due to his strong attraction towards her and secretly wishes that he would leave her alone. However, she loves each member of the group dearly and considers all of them to be her friends, but her only wish is that she was not the only female of the group. She often complains about the disgusting habits of the men in the group. Cedric One of the two main human characters in the series. Cedric is a wizard, scientist, inventor, and artist from the Human Nation, based loosely on Leonardo da Vinci. He is a magic prodigy, and has been his entire life. His past is unknown, but it is known that he is the founder and leader of a community of magic-users in the Human Nation. Junic Camoru An extremely competitive human warrior from the Human Nation and the main antihero of the series. He is possibly the most complex character in the series. He grew up with an extremely abusive father, who beat his mother to death. This and other events, including his father's eventual death, led Camoru to leave home at the age of fourteen and begin studying the art of sword-fighting. As a young child, he was very religious, but at the age of seventeen, he denounced his religion and become an atheist, stating that he was very angry at the gods for not helping him in his times of need. He has never truly had a home and does not care about worldly possessions. He is extremely skilled in various fighting styles, especially sword-fighting. He is also a talented archer and horseman. He desires to prove that he is the world's greatest warrior by competing in the annual Worldwide Fighting Tournament, which he loses every year. He dies twice in the story. The first is in Escape, where he betrays the group to Zabura, who promises him fame and all the powers in the world. Camoru gives in but Zabura kills him and replaces his soul with the spirit of a demon. He is later, in Crown, sent after Zolo to kill him, though Zolo, with Junic, manages to defeat him. Upon being defeated, Camoru sees the error of his ways and forces the demon out of himself with Cedric's help. Camoru then vows to Zolo to help him defeat the Shadow Lord. At the end of Shadows, Camoru admits his deep friendship and compassion for Zolo and sacrifices himself to save Zolo's life. Cerchiari and Arndt both state that Camoru is their favorite character. Gom Antagonists The Shadow Lord Zabura Makala Freidrich The Nobility Races Elves Humans Dragon demons Dwarves Influences and writing style Warriors of the Dragon Kingdom is greatly influenced by the likes of The Lord of the Rings, as well as television shows such as InuYasha, Dragon Ball Z, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, though the similarities to any of these are slim. The series is primarily a fantasy and adventure story, but contains elements of romance, comedy, horror, war, and thriller. It generally has a dark tone throughout, but is known for its brief but many lighthearted and often humorous moments. It also contains usage of some words that are generally used in more modern settings but were used by the authors to further the story's difference from other fantasy stories. The book contains many uses of red herrings and plot twists, with lots of face-paced action. While it is a typical "good versus evil" story, the overall vibe of it is very dark and violent. However, very powerful themes such as sacrificial love, racial unity, and personal growth figure into the story. 
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