The Rise of the Drackens

The Rise of the Drackens, aka RotD, is an AU Harry Potter fanfiction by StarLight Massacre. The work was originally posted on FanFiction.Net but was removed for explicit content. A clean version, with no explicit scenes, was reuploaded to the site on April 14, 2012 and the original version was posted on April 14, 2012 on AO3. It continues to be updated and all explicit scenes are removed from the updates posted on FanFiction.Net.
Author summary:
Based on the Dracken creature concept, StarLight Massacre has created a series called The Dracken Universe, which includes a work made up of one shot future moments and three other works that are AUs of the original story.
It is the fourth-longest Harry Potter work on AO3.
==Author's Notes==
StarLight Massacre was not the original creator of the idea as said in their first author's note:
However, since the story was adopted, significant changes in plot and characterization have happened and most consider the story completely StarLight_Massacre's. 
StarLight Massacre also does not allow people to use their original characters or concepts in other works, as stated on their FanFiction.Net author profile:
==Contents==
===Summary===
Harry is paired with four other men, two of those pairings are Harry/Draco and Harry/Blaise and the other men in the main pairing are two original characters. The story is a creature fic that focuses on the dom/sub relationship of the main pairings and has multiple instances of mpreg.
The story begins on Harry's sixteenth birthday and because of this contains underage pairings until Harry, Draco, and Blaise turn eighteen.
===Writing Style=== 
The average chapter length is 10,000 words but it is not uncommon for a chapter to have 14,000+ words. The author is also known for mentioning something casually in one chapter and then having it be an important plot point later on. 
==Reception==
===Removed from FanFiction.Net===
On April 11, 2012, RotD was removed from FanFiction.Net by administrators for violating their guidelines on mature/explicit content. At the time the story was at 44 chapters, had 6,187 reviews, and had one million hits on the site. Loyal fans were outraged by the removal of RotD and believed that it was jealously that caused other writers and fans to report the work to admins. They argued that many other works on the site also violated the guidelines on mature content but are left up, thus they felt StarLight Massacre had been targeted by haters.
The Author's Note on the new first chapter of ROTD on Fanfiction.net after the story was reuploaded:
And on the second chapter posted another author's note that further explained the situation:
===Fan Reactions to the Removal on FanFiction.Net===
The general fan reaction to RotD's removal from FanFiction.Net was shock and anger, but they supported StarLight Massacre in reuploading their work to the site instead of just giving up. 
Starlight Massacre acknowledged the positive fan reaction to the reupload in an author's note on the new second chapter:
==Reactions and Reviews==
===Positive Reviews===
RotD and StarLight Massacre have an extremely loyal fanbase and a quick look at comments and reviews will show that a majority are positive. 
Even before the removal on FanFiction.Net, ROTD was a highly reviewed work, with milestones often being acknowledged in the author's notes at the end of chapters. The original author's note on chapter 12 celebrated the fact that this was the author's first work to ever reach 1,000 reviewshttps://www.fanfiction.net/s/8022667/12/The-Rise-of-the-Drackens and from multiple other author's notes it seems they were receiving between 100-300 reviews per chapter. By chapter 19 the number of reviews had already doubled to 2,000 so fan engagement was not an issue.https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8022667/19/The-Rise-of-the-Drackens
One possible reason for such high engagement in comments and reviews could be how interactive and responsive StarLight Massacre is with fans. Their author's notes on FanFiction.Net were usually long because they responded to questions and suggestions, as well as running polls to ask their readers what they would like to see next in the story. 
In the author's note on chapter 17, they showed the results of a vote readers had taken part in to show interest in the story's OCs, and a total of 1,028 votes were cast.https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8022667/17/The-Rise-of-the-Drackens
===Negative Reviews===
However, a loyal fan base does not prevent criticism or hate. Negative reviews seem to vary, some criticizing the content, such as too many sex scenes/not enough sex scenes, mpreg, OOC characters, while others disliked the lengthy chapters or time between updates.
When updated on FanFiction.Net RotD is occasionally criticized for lengthy author's notes being included in the story (as there is no reply feature in reviews on the site authors often include responses to reviews before or after the chapter text). 
Another, with a reply from the author:
On Chapter 45, the first new chapter to be posted after the reupload, Starlight Massacre also said in an author's note:
And because there can sometimes be months, almost a year sometimes, between updates some people criticize the story for being abandoned, or for the author not putting it up for adoption.
In response to another anonymous review who criticized the author themselves claiming they have "major problems finishing anything" (this review was removed in the takedown but the quote is preserved from the author's response):
==Plagarism==
Since it was first posted to FanFiction.Net there have been a number of cases where other works have been accused of and/or caught plagiarising RotD and its concepts. Most often it comes in the form of other authors using the creature Drackens in their stories, but there have been instances where a story follows the entire plot RotD, or is even just a reupload of earlier chapters. 
RotD's fanbase appears quick to catch and report such fanworks and will usually comment on the RotD or post on the author's Facebook page to make them aware. Because of RotD's extensive history online these other works are almost always removed, either by the author in question or by site moderators.
==Awards==
The Rise of the Drackens won first place in the All-Time Favorite Harry Potter Fanfic category in the Fanatic Fanfics Awards and first place in the Favorite Work-In-Progress Fanfic category in 2015.https://fanaticfanficsawards.blogspot.com/p/2015-winners.html
==Fanworks and Fan Activity==
As of February 21, 2021 The Rise of the Drackens has 10,761 kudos and 4915 comments on AO3 and 15,340 reviews on FanFiction.Net. 
Other than in comments most fan interaction for this work takes place on the author's Facebook page. Because there can often be months, even over a year, between updates, StarLight_Massacre made a Facebook page where they post updates and interact with fans. They will even ask fans if they can remember certain details of the story when working on updates if they can't recall the information themselves. 
Sneak peeks of new chapters are often posted on the Facebook page and the author will also sometimes ask fans to vote on what they would like to see in future chapters, though often fans are just asked to pick a random number or color without knowing what those options equal in terms of the story. 
===Related Fanworks===
Starlight Massacre has created a series on AO3 named The Dracken Universe which contains ROTD, its companion fic The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits, and three other fics that are set in dracken world created by Starlight Massacre, but do not follow the plot of ROTD. 
There are six works on AO3 marked as inspired by ROTD. One of these is an official translation of the story into French that was started in 2015 but was never continued after the first chapter. A Portuguese translation was also linked in the first chapter's author's note on AO3, but similarly, it was begun in 2014 and never continued past the first chapter.
Starlight Massacre also shares a number of pieces of fanart and character face claims on their Facebook page. Fans also share artwork on the page or tag the author in their own posts.
==References==
Category:Slash Fanfiction
Category:2011 Fanfiction‎
Category:2020 Fanfiction