Midgaard, a blue sea dragon, comes with the Man-O-War set, which is the second largest in the Krystal Wars line. Sea dragons come from the Dragon Realm and almost always ally themselves with the Norvagen. King Ostgard and other Norvagens are able to ride Midgaard into battle while attacking with their ship.
This set comes with a large Norvagen crew: King Ostgard, Ymir, Fjalar, Blodag, Lodar, Norrvik, Vetnes, Vellag, and Kalger.
As well as Draigar enemies Grimspar, Asharn, and Doomshadow.
Murk and Gloom are Nogards and current residents of the Vorgon Stronghold, a Krystal Wars set. Nogards are referred to as swamp dragons, but are actually a distinct species from the human realm and have no relation to beings of the Dragon Realm. The Vorgon warriors Volrog, Ghashnarg, Kurug, Urgnog, Azghar, and Bolog, guard the Stronghold and imprison captured Norvagen and Draigar soldiers. These Vorgons grab prisoners with their crane and dangle them above for Murk and Gloom to enjoy. Who doesn't love playing with their food?
The unlucky prisoners are the Norvagen warriors Gotefud and Stalgot, alongside Draigar warriors Fellaxe and Rainchard.
Eironchard is a two-headed dragon that comes with the Fire Mountain set, originally released in Dragons but re-released in Krystal Wars. The Battle of Fire Mountain was the last major battle in the Dragons series and solidified the unification of the Valtheran and the Warfang into one force: the Draigar. Eironchard defends his orange power krystal from six Draigar Warriors: Dreadleg, Blackbrow, Hammerheart, Raingrim, Oakenlock, and Ironeye.
Not long after, the Norvagen would grow jealous of the Power Krystals possessed by the Draigar and declare war, beginning the Krystal Wars series.
Like the 2002 line, Krystal Wars included for each of its human factions a small “War Chest” set featuring three warriors, some weapons for them to wield, and a bit of architecture to set the scene. I will begin with the Chest for the faction with which we are already familiar from the 2002 line: the Draigar. The box art for 9866 Draigar War Chest depicts the warriors charging toward the audience, brandishing their weapons, unlike the original War Chests, which showed their minifigures lined up in a row and unarmed.
The Draigar of the Krystal Wars period resemble those of the 2002 line in most respects. They have the same body and head molds found in the 2002 line, and their armor is still bronze. Their helmets’ ornamentation, however, is now silver in color. Does that have any implications about a possible dominance of Valtheran culture in the Draigar society? Probably not. However, there’s something else that might: the Draigar dragon insignia seems to be identical to the Valtheran dragon insignia. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before on this blog.
The architecture of the Draigar is unchanged from the old days in form but greatly changed in another aspect: color! While the standard Valtheran outward-jutting parapets remain gray, the walls of the castle are bright vermillion and the omnipresent Warfang-Valtheran draconic figure is plated with bronze. I am going to assume that Padraig, after establishing peace and unifying the two peoples, poured money into public works to make the cities of the Draigar more glorious than ever before.
9896 Dragons Tower (and observations on Draigar architecture)
Man, this set was a pain to find. I’d forgotten its name, so I kept Googling phrases like “draigar castle” and “draigar fortress” and uncovering only 9890 Warriors Fortress and various Draigar fortresses from later years. It’s called Dragons Tower? That’s not a tower! That’s, like, two towers, minimum!
Anyway, yes, Dragons Tower. Some sources give its name as “Dragon’s Tower” or “Dragon Tower” (including the Mega Bloks website), but the box says “Dragons Tower” without an apostrophe, so that’s what we’re going to call it. I assume that the dragons of Dragons Tower are the carved stone dragon heads that line the battlements. Or maybe it was built at a spot where many dragons died—or maybe it was built by dragons, though I doubt it.
9896 Dragons Tower was a limited edition set, exclusive to Toys R Us and packaged in a box that at least appeared to be made of molded metal. It features fourteen Draigar warriors along with a single-headed dragon, gold of scale, black of wing, and red of claw, spine, and tooth. As can be seen in the lower leftmost image, the names of the warriors and dragon are listed on the interior of the packaging. Unfortunately, I can’t find a higher resolution image of that part of the packaging, so I have no idea what those names are (and I’m not going to buy a set that would cost me at least $65 just so I can see the characters’ names—not immediately, anyway). If any of you own this set, please message me with a high-resolution photograph of that part of the packaging, or at least a list of the names printed thereon.
The Dragons Tower seems to be a pretty standard example of Warfang-Valtheran (or early Draigar) architecture. It features a dragon’s-head gate of molded gold, a typical blocky structure, and Valtheran-style protruding battlements. Before the tower stands a symbolic “gate” of the kind seen in 9881 Battle Gate. Does this indicate that the early Draigar did indeed have the architectural know-how to create such gates? Or was this gate present long before the construction of the Dragons Tower—or were they both present long before the Warfang-Valtheran war? Who knows? Here’s my headcanon: the symbolic “gates” are ancient sacred sites, dating back to the time before the war, when dragons and humans coexisted peacefully on Terraurgen. They were constructed by the dragons themselves, or else by humans working in conjunction with dragons. The original Dragons Tower was constructed during this time as well, though not as long ago as the gate in front of it was constructed. It fell into ruin long ago, but when the war ended, Padraig commanded that a new Dragons Tower be built in the same location, to serve as his fortress and the center of the new Draigar nation’s capital.
Here’s something I just noticed about Warfang-Valtheran/Draigar architecture: There is a reoccurring jagged “stair-steps” motif.
Actually, this doesn’t seem to exist in 9886 Sorcerer’s Lair, which either indicates that Draigar architecture is much more influenced by Valtheran architecture than by Warfang (which may in turn imply that the Valtheran had more power than the Warfang in the newly formed Draigar nation...or might just imply that the Valtheran had more experience building large structures), or lends support to the “Sorcerer’s Lair is a very old structure that was built by neither the Warfang nor the Valtheran, but some ancestral culture” theory.
I’m guessing that this set came out a little while after the sets I have previously covered, but I can’t be certain, as I was not aware of Mega Bloks Dragons at the time, and there are (obviously) precious few historical records. Anyway, though this is a 2002 set and part of the initial Dragons theme, it differs from previous 2002 sets in two significant ways. First, it features a dragon model not previously seen. While, in previous sets, dragons were distinguished from each other only by the colors of their scales and the shapes of their cranial ornamentation, the dragon in 9882 Fire Mountain is distinguished from the others by an additional head! Below the shoulders, however, he(?) is no different from previously released dragons. His(?) name is Eironchard, and he is gold of scale and red of horn.
Second, the humans in this set are neither copper-armored Warfang nor silver-armored Valtheran. Their armor is gold (or bronze), and they belong to the Draigar faction! You see, Padraig from 9871 Dragon Slayer succeeded in his attempt at unifying the Warfang and Valtheran into a single people! Now the Draigar make war against Eironchard, who I assume must be an especially significant dragon.
As you can see, some of the Draigar are wearing Warfang-style horns, while others are wearing Valtheran-style crests. Some Draigar carry Warfang-style clubs, while others carry Valtheran-style axes. Their weapons are black in color.
Speculation: the silvery armor of the Valtheran was in fact tin (the most common metal in Valtheran territory), while the copper armor of the Warfang really was copper (the most common metal in Warfang territory). When the Warfang and Valtheran merged and became the Draigar, they discovered that they could forge the copper and tin together to create much stronger bronze. Thus the unity of the two related tribes was symbolized by an alloy of their metals. I guess Padraig figured out how to do this first.
