Darkness of Dragons Rewritten

I've often thought that Darkness of Dragons would have been better if there was a time-skip between books. One in which Darkstalker established himself as ruler of the world (this AU actually diverges from canon during Talons of Power, but whatever). 
If anyone is waiting for me to do an actual novel-length rewrite of Darkness of Dragons, I regret to say it isn't happening. There will however be a sequel AU and probably one or more short stories in this setting. 
It has been five years since the NightWings returned to their ancient queendom... 
"I was gone from this world for twenty centuries. I have returned to find only ruin and rot." - Darkstalker 
==A rough timeline of events==
* The Queendom of Night is officially reestablished. Fierceteeth is crowned Queen of the NightWings. In an act that surprises many, Darkstalker demands that she swear loyalty to him, saying that he is the future sovereign of all Pyrrhia. An ambassador from the Talons of Power is in attendance. Around this time, the NightWing Guard is established. 
* The Second Ice-Night War takes place. It consists of a single attack on the IceWing palace, which results in the deaths of a large section of the aristocracy, including all members of the royal family currently in the Queendom. This results in the effective end of the Ice Queendom as a sovereign power. Darkstalker nullifies the enchantment on the Great Wall and destroys a large section of it yet another display of power (he later restores the enchantment, though he alters it to only target IceWings and leaves the destroyed section unfixed). 
* The rebuilding of the Night Queendom begins in earnest. 
* The Talons of Power coup takes place. Thorn is killed and Vulture declares himself King of the SandWings. 
* JMA is unofficially closed down. 
* Through Darkstalker's machinations, Queen Coral and Queen Glory are removed from power and Anemone and Magnificent are appointed in their places. 
* The Jade Mountain Congress takes place, in which Darkstalker forces the remaining queens of Pyrrhia to accept a number of laws and terms, including: declaring fealty to him as the High King of Pyrrhia, organisation of the Queendoms and Kingdom into the UPCUD, and the declaration that henceforth, IceWings will be considered "non-dragons" and any polity they attempt to create shall not be recognised by the Union. The former Ice Queendom comes to be known as the Northern Waste.
* Obsidian Academy opens. 
* Jade Mountain Academy is officially closed, after months of being nearly deserted. Plans are made for several new inter-tribal academies throughout the continent. 
* Darkstalker's palace is built on Jade Mountain. He leaves the Queendom of Night to take up residence there, though he visits the NightWings frequently.
* Turtle encounters Tsunami living somewhere in the "Tail" of Pyrrhia. She convinces him to help her with her goal of overthrowing Darkstalker. They travel to the Mud Queendom, where they find Sunny and Clay, who also join them. 
* The Pyrrhian Army is established.
* Gull Island Academy opens.
==The UPCUD==
"It's really rather astounding, honestly. The degree to which your tribes have regressed while I was asleep. Clearly the absence of NightWing wisdom did a number on this misbegotten continent. Something that will soon be fixed." 
The Union of Pyrrhian Crowns Under Darkstalker is a supranational political union made up of six member states, these being the queendoms of Night, Sea, Sky, Mud, and Rain, and the Kingdom of Sand. Darkstalker holds the title of High King of Pyrrhia and the Draconic Species and is, as per the Union's founding documents, its leader in perpetuity. At present, the tribes still maintain a fair amount of autonomy in most internal matters. Several universal policies have been implemented however, such as a single army (sort of...), a single currency, and single legal code (2,000-year old NightWing Law with the serial numbers filed off). 
===Jade Mountain Palace===
"Are you dissatisfied with our new home, Clearsight?" 
"No, of course not..."
Darkstalker's new abode consists of a "Lower Palace", which refers to part encompassing the caves and tunnels of the mountain itself and an "Upper Palace", which consists of the structures built on the mountain's summit. The cave network in which JMA was housed has been enlarged and modified, partially through the use of animus magic, partially through more mundane methods. It is within these caves that the majority of the palace's dragon population is actually housed. 
The Upper Palace was entirely designed by Darkstalker, officially. Indeed, it is the kind of construction that would be utterly impossible without animus magic. It rises from the mountain-top like a colossal wedding cake, crowned with a huge dome under which the High King of Pyrrhia and The Draconic Species Now and Forever holds court. It is an obscene display of unrivalled power, a monument to a being who can turn blocks of stone into solid diamond. Its halls are far too big for an ordinary dragon, even one who has known only palaces their whole life. They might even be to big for Darkstalker, but they are decorated with sculptures, paintings, and mosaics showing scenes from his youth. The greatest of these is a vast floor mosaic that shows Prince Arctic, silently screaming as he bleeds sapphires, fated to be trampled over by his son and his court forever.
===Obsidian Academy=== 
One of the first tasks Darkstalker executed when he was rebuilding the Queendom of Night was the establishment of a school for the best and brightest of the younger NightWing generations. This would be Obsidian Academy, built on the ruins of the old school for young NightWing nobles. It would serve the secondary purpose of purging the cultural leftovers of both the NightWing's 2,000 years of exile and their time under Glory's rule, restoring them (in Darkstalker's eyes) to their "normal" state. It would serve a tertiary purpose of providing a place from which to recruit new members of the NightWing Guard. 
As befits its purpose, Obsidian Academy is built in the ancient NightWing style, more elegant and minimalist than Darkstalker's other architectural designs. Moonwatcher was briefly a student there, before Darkstalker decided to have her live at the Jade Mountain Palace.
===Gull Island Academy===
"One for the NightWings, another, inferior one for everyone else. It's a universal law. Don't tell anyone I said that." 
Recently opened, Gull Island Academy is located on an island of the same name, a pleasant, tropical place in the Sea Queendom. It is intended to serve as a replacement for JMA, symbolically and functionally. It already has a significantly larger student body then JMA ever did, however. 
The exteriors of the buildings (which are smaller than those of Obsidian Academy) are made from white stone. The interior decorations attempt to combine the styles and motifs of the different tribes, with varying degrees of success. 
Despite the fact that GIA is intended to be a testament to cooperation between the tribes of the UPCUD, the current number of NightWing students remains at 0.
===The Pyrrhian Army===
"We keep the peace within our queendoms, so that the High King's wrath shall not rain down upon us." 
The PA was formed from the union of the SeaWing, SkyWing, and MudWing armies. It also includes SandWing soldiers who were not willing to join Vulture's army. Because of this, PA soldiers are mostly much older then members of the NightWing Guard.
The internal structure of the PA (as well as its relation to the greater structure of the UPCUD) has a reputation for being bewildering and, though no-one would dare to say it too loudly, poorly considered.
===The NightWing Guard===
"Excellence, tradition, and undying loyalty to Queen and King." 
The NightWing Guard is the personal military force of Queen Fierceteeth. In practice, it is also responsible for carrying out the functions of the Pyrrhian Army within the borders of the Queendom of Night, and thus handles all law enforcement there. 
Though it was Darkstalker who initially conceived the idea of the Guard, and though he ceremonially provides new members with their personal magical object, he no longer takes any major part in their affairs. Despite projecting the appearance of comraderie and unbreakable trust, the Guard has a highly competitive and paranoid culture, which Fierceteeth encourages. 
There is a great deal of mutual hatred between the NightWing Guard and The Pyrrhian Army.
===The Talons of Power===
The Talons of Power has expanded their membership a good deal since they took over the Sand Kingdom. They now count among their numbers every dragon of wealth or status in the desert. Every noble, every mayor, every soldier in the kingdom bears the dragon-skull tattoos of the organisation. Five years after they assumed control, the purges of "Thorn Loyalists" have mostly come to an end, but King Vulture still demands the ruthless crushing of dissent, wherever it might spring up. This, as well as the unpopularity of a male monarch, has led to a large SandWing diaspora in the Sky, Mud, and Rain Queendoms. 
Vulture is now not at all sure that he could not be easily replaced, or that his relatively long leash signifies any genuine respect for him on Darkstalker's part. This has had an affect on his policies, leading him to be more restrained in his plundering of the tribe's resources, to the disappointment of the most high-ranking members of the old Talons of Power, who had hoped for a more substantial "cut of the profits". 
===The Tail/"The Resistance"===
"Sometimes, Tsunami, I wonder if there's some mistake in my spells. Some loophole none of us have noticed. I wonder whether Darkstalker sees us and just doesn't care."
"Enough, Turtle."
The Tail, as they have code-named themselves, are a small group of dragons mainly based in the Mud Queendom. Unfortunately, they are the only organised resistance to Darkstalker's rule within the UPCUD. They include several members of the Dragonets of Destiny and former Jade Mountain students.
The group was founded by Turtle and Tsunami and is currently co-lead by Tsunami and Sunny. They often meet in a tavern owned by Clay, after closing time. 
All members of the Tail are protected by a complex web of enchantments created by Turtle, that makes them (hopefully) undetectable to Darkstalker and his agents.
===Borders===
As part of the unification of the continent under Darkstalker's rule, hard borders were established between the queendoms, accelerating the process that began with the end of the War of SandWing Succession. The SandWings were given all IceWing lands south of the Great Ice Wall, so that they could exploit the natural resources there. Vulture also wanted the southern Claws of The Clouds Mountains, a historically contested area between the SkyWings, MudWings, and SandWings, but was denied them.
==The Northern Waste==
"Your tribe shall perish, but not today, though you may wish it."
The frozen lands that were once the Queendom of Ice are places of despair. Marked by the talons of a hateful god, they are a prison for the tortured remnants of the IceWing tribe. And yet, the IceWings cling to their home, for the alternative is enslavement by the raiders Vulture sends though the breach in the Great Wall, with Darkstalker's tacit approval. There are some among them who whisper that Darkstalker is indeed a god, or the agent of one, sent to test the tribe, or to punish them for thousands of years of rigid cruelty. Others, however, are animated by a ferocious determination. The determination to live and somehow, someday, see the great foe fall, or at least to die cursing his name and biting the wind as though it were his invulnerable flesh.
===The IceWing Warlords===
"I will not promise you honour or a noble cause to fight for. Join me and you will have food."
The northern lands are controlled by a number of warlords. Most of these are uncircled IceWings who fought in the War of SandWing Succession. A few are surviving members of the IceWing aristocracy, though they generally keep quite about their origin. The IceWing warlords include:
* Wolverine the Bloody
* Chasm the Cunning
* Narwhal the Steadfast
* Hail the Humble
==Characters==
===Darkstalker===
The Master
===Clearsight===
The Resurrected 
===Vulture===
The Usurper
===Turtle===
The Secret Weapon
===Glory===
The Deposed
===Peril===
The Executioner
===Tsunami===
The Rebel
===Winter===
The Prisoner
===Clay===
The Chef
===Starflight===
The Inside Man
===Sunny===
The Leader
===Moon===
The Traitor 
===Qibli===
The Hero
Category:Content (WanderingRaven)
Category:Alternate Universes
Category:Work in Progress