A Theory about the dragon bonding ritual

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buckmana
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A Theory about the dragon bonding ritual

Post by buckmana »

I was reading (on this site) about how it is unusual that Arokh lived when Heron died, given that the lives of dragon and rider are linked.

While reading a document on funny things in the world of Drakan, I thought of a reason.

While the bond is relatively new (as it was for Heron (and Rynn in the Order of the Flame)), only the rider's life is dependent on the dragon.

As time goes by, the bond matures and they become dependent on each other. This also appears to give the rider access to some of the dragon's power (as evidenced in The Ancient Gates).

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

The only explanation that Arokh lived when Heron died is because they were separated by the rift; Heron was inside it and Arokh wasn't or the other way round (I can't remember) so it had an effect on their bond.

I think Heron was bonded to Arokh for most of his life but there was no mention of if he shared powers with Arokh or not but I guess he must have. A lot of things in Order of the Flame such as Dragon bonding wasn't really explained until the sequel came along and notes taken from developer diaries / interviews.

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Post by Outlaw Wyvern »

Good point, AT.
I'm short on time at the moment, but later I'd like to mention something I brought up a while back.
Talk at you soon.

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Post by Outlaw Wyvern »

I've had the thought that a good side story as a split ending for the Order of the Flame would be that Navaros and the Dark Union's bonded riders get fused with their Dragons in the final release of energy that ended the war in the story proper, so that you get playable characters like the mods that have Rynn as a humanoid/dragon winged character. That way, you'd have normal human/Dragon bonded riders, and an elite set who moved beyond human capacities by fusing physically, not just in the spirit, with the Dragons instead of just bonding and as such, are more psychic, have breath weapons, increased strength, the ability to fly without a Dragon or navigate caves and dungeons on foot, and perhaps the ability to control lesser feral Dragons to fight on their behalf.
Any bonded Warriors of the Order who were present at the 'event' would also have fused and become an elite set of commanders for the Order, thus taking the conflict to a whole other level.
Then another few hours of gameplay could ensue with interesting new capabilities and plot points.

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

Surreal had plans for a better ending than the one we were presented with but they ran out of time as the deadline neared. If you look closely, the last two levels have problems with them e.g unfinished areas such as forcefields showing through rock and of course the bugs. They didn't have time to finish them and I believe the whole rift level was constructed in a couple of days as a 'make do ending'. What the intended ending was is any one's guess but I imagine it would involve Rynn and Arokh returning home and a better explanation of what happened to Delon and Navaros.

***SPOILER***
We know that they both died from playing the sequel but for ppl that haven't played TAG, they were left with a guessing game. I like the idea you suggested though.
***END***

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Post by Eris »

OMG, i didn't know --SPOILER-- that they died in the end --END-- [:(][:(][:(]. is there anyhwere the story of DrakanTAG, couse i'm tired of waiting when they'll make the game available for PC if they'll ever do

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

There is the story in novel form is that is what you mean. There will never be a PC version either.

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Post by Eris »

yes, that's exactly what i meant

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Post by Eris »

found the story in wikipedia at last but there was nothing about how the boy died. is there any other place where i can find it

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

There isn't any explanation of how exactly he died other than he died from falling into the rift and becoming trapped in another dimension. In TAG it just mentions that he was 'lost' and later in the game Zola Dane says something like "just look what happened to your Brother" but does not say exactly what. It's generally accepted that he died unless he is alive but trapped in the rift forever but again, this isn't clear. It also never mentions what happened to the runeblade & this is required to gain access to the rift.

Seem as there isn't a sequel, it leaves people guessing. From what I gathered, I think Surreal intended to make a 3rd game but didn't because Sony didn't want them to and they were being bought out by Midway.

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Post by Eris »

And what about the Rift crystal. i always wondered why do you have to go and get that crystal, do all that difficult stuff and your dragon is being caught and then you don't use it

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

It went into the runeblade although this isn't shown in a cutscene; the crystal and blade itself were separated. It says in the backstory the blade was broken in two and the two parts were the blade itself and the crystal. The rift crystal was taken by Rimril to his tower for him to look after it for eternity if need be. It is needed to give the runeblade its power to open the rift seal. Most of this is explained in conversations between Rynn, Arokh and NPC's during cutscenes in OOTF.

If you read the novel, a lot is explained in there about Drakan.

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Post by buckmana »

To quote the manual from Order Of The Flame:

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
The tremendous forces Navaros had summoned were unleashed without direction, rippling across the field in jagged, searing bolts, which gouged and tore at the earth. The clash of swords was heard no longer, and blackness hung over the field. Only the low moans of the dying echoed in the gloom. When at last the smoke cleared, the two great armies lay decimated. Where Navaros had stood, a wound-like rip had been torn in the very fabric of space, it's edges glowing and flickering with a dark and fibrous energy. In the smouldering crater below, Heron lay dead, the Runeblade broken in two at his side. In that blackened pit, only the dragon Arokh still clung to life.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

So how could Heron and Arokh have been seperated by the Rift if it didn't exist until after Navaros (and Heron) died? And, from the sounds of it, Arokh was with Heron when he perished.


I was disappointed by the lack of story about Delon. I bought the PS2sequel (haven't played it yet, still need to buy a PS2, but saw a compilation movie on YouTube) because I thought it would have something about Delon being rescued. Instead, they say he's dead.

Which doesn't make sense. He's shown later, falling into the Rift (I'm assuming this is Navaros' magic mirror), but unharmed. No matter how far he fell, I'm assuming Arokh's speed would allow him to overtake Delon and carry him back to the surface.

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Post by Arokhs Twin »

There are some discrepancies between what is explained in the cutscenes and what is written in the manual. The wound like rip is assumed to be the rift and Heron was sucked into it having being pulled from Arokh's back by the forces unleashed. I assumed the blackened pit to be the remains of the battlefield around the area where Navaros was killed. The rift crystal was never mentioned in the story but its revealed during the game it is what gave the runeblade its power.

It does read like Arokh and Heron were together when Heron died and this very question was put to the developers a long time ago. Their answer was that only one of them was on the inside of the rip (rift) and the other was outside and therefore his death had no effect on Arokh.

In all legends though, what is written can be different to what actually happened. I got around this by explaining in the Drakan novel that the text described in the manual is what the people of Drakan in Rynn's time thought what happened. Legends change over time as the story is re-told to generation after generation. The book Rynn finds under the temple could have been written several decades after the war for example.

In several previews of the game the storyline is slightly different; it mentions that Arokh manages to cast Navaros through a temporal rift. Going by the games, this appears to be what actually happened. Note that when it says the runeblade was broken in two, the two parts were actually the blade itself and the rift crystal. The wound like rip could be what remains after a rift is opened then closed which the rip would later heal in time.

The game manual and story were written by two different people BTW.

--------------------

As for Delon, it is poor that it is never explained what happened to him. Originally, OOTF was to be a level or two longer and it was cut short and a crappy ending hastilly made up to meet deadlines. Surreal also had every intention of the sequel being for the PC as they had already started on it before OOTF was even finished. Seem as Sony took over, plans were changed and we never got to find out about Delon's fate.

In TAG, the only references to Delon is 'Just look at what happened to your Brother' (Zola Dane) and 'Her dear brother lost' (intro to game) so going by the final cutcene of OOTF it's assumed he is dead / trapped in the rift world forever. It's assumed Arokh couldn't catch him as the rift was starting to close up; if they didn't get out of there, Rynn and Arokh would also be trapped in the rift.

Edit: I found this http://www.adrian-smith31.clara.co.uk/Delons_Grave.jpg image entitled 'Delon's Grave' originally from Surreal's web site - this proves he is dead but how Rynn retrieved his body we don't know.

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Post by buckmana »

I never did understand the ending anyway.

At the end of the game, you see Rynn and Arokh diving deeper into the Rift.

I assumed they were going after Delon.

As to the grave, I'm assuming he's not in it.

Sometimes people will make a grave, just to honor the memory of the dead person.

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