Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom

**Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom** is a nation in central Landia famed for its dragon knights that make contracts with true dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range and take them as partners who in return ride upon them.

## Location

The Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom is a landlocked area that has the Demon Lord's Domain on its northern border, the Star Dragon Mountain Range and the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria the south, the Gran Chaos Empire to the west and the Union of Eastern Nations to the east.

## Dragon Knight Alliance

Since the time of the founding of the Gran Chaos Empire, the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom has kept an alliance with the dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Every spring, candidates from the kingdom would come to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and enter what is called the Contract Ceremony, where both the eligible knights and dragons intermingle and form couples. A knight would choose a dragon to bond with, and the dragon would have the option of whether or not to accept the bond.

If the dragon decides to accept the bond, then the two would seal the agreement with a dance in humanoid form. Normally, only the chosen knight is allowed to ride on the dragon's back. Anyone else riding, who is not the dragon's chosen, is seen as violating the dragon's chastity, though in Naden Delal's case, it was merely letting the 'partner of her partner' Aisha Udgard ride on her back as an exception. As for Ruby, her bond with Halbert Magna was out of necessity, due to the emergency situation that occurred during Kazuya Souma's invitation to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. It was also due to the fact that Halbert did not know that riding an un-bonded dragon was considered taboo and he needed to formalize the bond so Ruby could avoid being looked down upon.

The Contract Ceremony serves two purposes. The first is to form a formidable fighting force between the Dragon Knights and Dragons. It is stated that a single Dragon Knight/Dragon pairing was stronger than a 1,000 soldiers and even the Griffon Riders of the Gran Chaos Empire could not match them. In fact, the Empire was pushed back when it tried to invade the Star Mountain Dragon Range.

The second purpose is to provide offspring to the dragons, who are sexually ambiguous and cannot have children on their own. Normally, if the pair produces a dragon egg, then it will be taken away and cared for by the dragons until it hatches. The reason behind this is because an egg can take centuries to hatch and the child's father will more than likely pass away before it hatches, leaving the child without a father. The pairing can also produce a dragonnewt, which is a hybrid of dragon and the race of the father. Dragonnewts will also give birth to other dragonnewts. Castor Vargas and his daughter Carla Vargas are examples of dragonnewts. The third type of child between knights and dragons are children of the race of the knight himself.

The bond between dragons and knights are for defense and protection. The power of the dragon cannot be used for any selfish ambitions of the knight. If this happens, then the bond will be immediately severed. One interesting note is that the Elfrieden Kingdom, now known as the Kingdom of Friedonia, is the only other nation that has formed contracts with the dragons. The first King of Elfrieden was a Dragon Knight and both Kazuya and Halbert are currently bonded to dragons as well.