Dragon's World Past is Completed

Well guys, Dragon's World is getting closer and closer to the final installment now that Dragon's World Past has recently concluded. I still have some difficulty believing that I've been writing these stories for almost ten years and that I've come this far on them. As I said in the final chapter of DWP, if it wasn't for you guys, I probably would never have come this far on this series. It's thanks to everyone who's read the series that I've been able to continue going with it for as long as I have. So thanks again everybody  

Before I go over a couple of things that I originally had planned for DWP, I want to share a little bit of information in regards to the fifth part of Dragon's World.

.As I said in the second Dragon's World Commentary, the next title will be Final Dragon's World. As its name suggests, this will be the fifth and final installment in the Dragon's World series. However, once FDW concludes, does this mean I'm done with these characters? Well...nope, not really. I still plan to do some stuff with Titus and the gang but as far as the main story goes, yes, this will be the last part. As far as what I've got planned for after FDW, I plan to do more Dragon's World related art and I've also been entertaining the idea of a potential spinoff. The plan I have right now for the spinoff is what if Saulstrance and his crew succeeded in killing Titus and the others and made the human realm into Saulstrance's kingdom. If the spinoff does happen, it would be a long way off since FDW hasn't even had its first chapter yet.

.I'm not quite sure how long Final Dragon's World will be but I am certain that this will end up being the longest book in the series. Although New Dragon's World is currently the longest entry with 34 chapters (35 if you count the epilogue), Final Dragon's World could very likely claim that title.

.The remnants of Saulstrance's group, the Apprentices will make their move. One of the Apprentices also has a connection to a certain character. 

.Saulstrance's Champion, a character who's identity has been kept hidden but whose existence has been known since New Dragon's World, will be revealed in FDW. Also, if you read Dragon's World Commentary 2, you'll see that I included a list of some characters who weren't the Champion. To add to that list, there is one other character I want to add to that list. Zobias. Back when I was writing New Dragon's World, I received a comment on chapter 13 I believe it was that suggested that Theian should have been revealed to actually be Zobias (although the two characters are two completely different dragons, just with the same color scales). In the beginning of It's a Dragon's World, Angela also refers to a dragoness who turned a boy into a dragon and then the two of them disappeared (this was an Easter egg for those who've read A New Life, my first story on this site). The boy turned dragon was Zobias. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that Zobias isn't the Champion either. While I would like to have the little guy return in some form, be it in story or art form, I don't think it would make sense for ol' Zobbie to become a villain since he was a pretty nice dragon in A New Life, A New Life 2, and A New Life 1's remake.

.Mayza's younger sister, who didn't have a name or any dialogue in DWP, will have her name revealed in Final Dragon's World and play more of a role than she did in Dragon's World Past. In addition, many other characters who survived DWP will also be returning. 

.Plenty of characters from other past installments will be returning as well, most notably from New Dragon's World and Mid Dragon's World. 

.The light blue dragon who Eig'nia was speaking with at the end of Dragon's World Past will play a prominent role in the upcoming installment. I don't want to spoil anymore on this new character.

.Final Dragon's World won't have a prologue but it will have an epilogue.

Now that I've shared a little bit of information on the upcoming NDW, I want to disclose some ideas I originally had when writing Dragon's World Past.

.Shashala was originally planned to be a much more persistent and annoying character. I originally had planned for him to continually bother Saulstrance, attempting to get him to fight him. I also had an idea where, following the events shortly after Raolef's death, Shashala would confront, Saulstrance, Eig'nia, and Tourajé and attempt to take all three of them out. Only this time, his reasons for doing so wouldn't be to defeat Saulstrance and prove himself superior but because he wanted to protect the dragon realm.  There were two factors that changed this however. 1. I didn't know how I'd be able to put those parts into the story without seriously messing up the pacing and flow of the story. 2. My idea to change Shashala changed after playing Tales of Xillia since, in the first game, the main male lead has a very annoying rival who I just can't stand, no matter how many times I play that game. Because of this, I decided to make Saulstrance and Shashala's rivalry less antagonistic and more friendly. This is why Shashala's character development happens off page during the time between the exams and the rest of DWP. Had I originally stuck with this plan, Shashala would have died accepting that Saulstrance was better and blamed himself for not trying to become friends with his rival. 

.Léruc was originally going to be much more villainous and even have some signs of mental illness. He wouldn't have had any issue with ruining Saulstrance's life and his backstory would have remained somewhat the same but also be quite different from what it originally was. Léruc still would have ended up in our world and would still have been found by a human couple who would have had a child a week after Léruc's hatching. However, instead of having a family of his own, 
Léruc would have lived with Clement and his wife until the two of them passed on, leaving Léruc alone and uncertain of what to do or where to go. In that moment, Léruc would have opened up a portal and returned to his own world. This is where the mental illness part would play in. Léruc would then have begun to see his ending up in our world as a message from God that he was meant to rule both worlds, Earth and Zalphonia. I changed this for a few reasons: 1. Why would Léruc live with his brother and sister-in-law but not attempt to start a family of his own? Léruc, by this point, was more used to human customs than dragon customs (even if he was never really human to begin with) and Léruc didn't need to have Clement or Clement's wife looking after him so when I thought about it, I realized that it really didn't make that much sense. 2. I normally try to keep religious references out of Dragon's World (although in the version of IaDW that I plan to publish, Ben tells Titus that when Titus came into his life, he thought that Titus was a gift from God). Please don't think this means I have a problem with religion because I don't. I'm not a religious person myself but I do believe that if religion helps you to go through life, then no one should tell you otherwise or try to take that away from you. 3. Léruc's reasoning for his coming to our world is...well kinda silly. Even for somebody who wouldn't have been all there, that seems a little farfetched. 

In the end, I'm actually happier with what I went for with Léruc instead. I think it also made Léruc a bit more interesting and seem like less of a plot device to have him go from being a straight up bad guy to being someone who knew from the beginning that what he was doing was wrong but because of the pain he suffered in his past and because of the choices he made then, chose to plunge further into darkness, believing there was no way to ever truly redeem himself. And because of this decision, Léruc managed to have a family of his own after all and become the father of Dragon's World's first girl half-dragon. Speaking of which...

.Lilly, Léruc's half-dragon daughter who was born 200 years before DWP originally didn't exist. What led to Lilly being created and, by extension, the backstory Léruc received in DWP was that during the time I was writing Dragon's World Past, I had begun to entertain the idea of a girl half-dragon. However, I didn't know where I'd be able to put one in the story. That was where I came up with the idea to make a girl half-dragon the daughter of Léruc. Also, when I had decided to add Lilly to the story, she was going to die as a baby. However, I thought that was a bit too dark even for Dragon's World (the same series that had a fourteen year old boy get stabbed through the gut and his adoptive brother get his head smashed open against the walls of a cavern). In addition, I had two ideas for half-dragon abilities that I thought would be pretty fun to give to Lilly (her ability to grow spines and run fast). Not to mention, I thought her interactions with her dad (or her papa as she calls Léruc) were pretty adorable. 

.While Shashala was always planned to die, his death was actually going to be a little different. While he still would have died in the mines in an attempt to give Saulstrance and Eig'nia an opening so that they could stop Léruc, Shashala, instead of using his tail to destroy the inner section of the mine, would have instead ignited dynamite in order to cause a cave in, taking himself and the guards out. What changed this was simply...well, how would Shashala possibly have known what dynamite was or what it did? Especially since, before the final fight with Agcro, he had never been to our world before. There was no way he would have been able to figure out what dynamite did before then. 

.Before A Dragoness's Farewell, Roasch didn't have any siblings and his family wasn't planned to be mentioned at all. What changed this was that I felt that Roasch, before then, was pretty underdeveloped compared to the other five dragons. Plus, in addition to Saulstrance and Eig'nia, Roasch was always going to be among the three surviving dragons so I had to think of a reason for him not to be killed off but also have a reason for why he wasn't there when Saulstrance and Eig'nia were gathering dragons to help them take over the human realm. 

The other thing was that I wanted Roasch to be sort of a foil to Tourajé, sort of how Mayza and Shashala were to Eig'nia and Saulstrance. While Tourajé, as a hatchling hated the idea of becoming an older brother, a hatchling Roasch anxiously looked forward to being a big brother. Also, while Tourajé's little brother survived his hatching, Roasch's baby sister didn't. This was also to explain why Roasch had a harder time handling Mayza's death than the others. Her death brought back the painful memories of losing his baby sister and for Roasch, meant that he had lost yet another dragon he cared about. 

.With Cyrus's secret having been revealed to the town, he and his family were originally going to have to leave as the village would not have been as willing to accept Cyrus for the half-dragon he is. Saulstrance, Eig'nia, and Tourajé would have then helped the family relocate to a much larger town where the family would have settled into a much bigger two story house. I'm glad I didn't go with this since having Cyrus be accepted by the village doesn't conflict with the idea of Cyrus being like Drake whose classmates accepted him as a half-dragon and Eig'nia does say at the end of New Dragon's World that Drake did remind her a lot of Cyrus. 

.This one isn't really an idea that would have been but more an idea that is. When writing about Cyrus's village, I always imagined him living in a country such as Ireland. So yep, the very first place in our world that Saulstrance and Eig'nia ever visited was a small village located somewhere in Ireland. 

Anyway guys, it's late where I am and this has become a very long journal so I'm going to conclude it here. I don't know when I'll be beginning Final Dragon's World. Currently my plan is to start it sometime in the spring. Until then, I hope you guys will look forward to it. Also, I haven't forgotten your question for Titus. It's nearly done. I'm sorry it's taken so long to make but I hope you'll like it once it's finished.