ok so fortress dorchadas got levelled by some unknown creature. i’ve talked about that before but it’s time to talk about the rest of the court, and the international ramifications
so court dorchadas is comprised of a single large city surrounding the base of a fortress built into a hollow mountain (a dead volcano actually), and a dozen or so smaller holds and associated towns spanning the entire country-sized territory in dragonhome. the fortress and city were the equivalent of the capital city i guess. originally, it was just the fortress, which was a small town in its own right, but since the foundation of the court the population has grown exponentially. mostly due to the court bringing smaller clans into its fold, but also due to immigrants arriving from eastern dragonhome, the growing desertification of which has pushed out a lot of vulnerable populations (the verza among them btw)
the fortress and capital city are gone. they were smashed to bits in an event that is not clearly understood by any of the court’s allies and neighbours, since there were no survivors. in other disasters, like flooding or invasion, there are always witnesses who flee into the nearest settlements, bringing a pretty clear account of what happened along with them. that isn’t the case here. no one made it out, except for prince fallon. because fallon fled straight back home to the sky spire empire and is in recovery, his eyewitness account wasn’t made publicly known for several months following the event
what is left of court dorchadas is made up of the nobles’ holds scattered around the countryside. of the surviving nobility, Lord Adagio is the most senior. one of the main changes that emiliano made after becoming king was the banishment of the traditional dorchadas nobility - the rich and useless aristocrats. Adagio was appointed as senior in place of the banished nobles. He is a highly experienced and practical military man. unfortunately, he has little to no experience when it comes to court power games (he doesn’t even have a collection of blackmail nudes, which is like the basic possession of every other noble the court has ever had)
despite the scattered and mostly clueless nature of the remaining dorchadas dragons, an emergency ruling council was quickly elected. Lord Adagio is in charge and he answers to Commander Robin, who’s all the way west in Rezann’s citadel. together, Adagio and Robin are trying to work out just wtf happened. the citizenry of the court have begun to flee in large numbers, scared of a repeat disaster, so the remaining council members are trying to keep the peace and ensure resources are distributed evenly. one of the council members is Lord Friday, the head of an older dorchadas noble family who have, until now, been very good at flying under the radar in terms of terrible behaviour.
under Robin and Adagio, a team of basically CSI agents were sent to the fortress to check out what happened. none of them survived past their first report, most of which consisted of “oh god i touched the ground near a dead body and now my lungs are dissolving”
this kind of elevated the situation from “maybe an earthquake?” to “potential biohazard event”. Robin sent in her best team of healers to figure out wtf it was that had leeched into the ground and rock, and whether it would spread and become a danger to the court’s neighbours. they determined that it wasn’t the shade, and it wasn’t an emperor, but the exact nature of the contagion is still unknown. however, the dragon equivalent of biohazard suits must be worn at the site of the fortress at all times
one of the healers was Aiteal, a necromancer who was sent along because she also had a collection of ghouls under her command. these already-dead dragons, bound to their necromancer by magical contracts, could not fall victim to the contagion and made great workers. they were made to burn the dead and bury the ashes in the hopes that it would make the place a little safer to be in
anyway the team of healers is still working stuff out. but by now, word has spread that whatever happened might happen again, and has the potential to infect others. there’s a quiet fear that might at any moment be pushed into full-blown mass panic, and migration from Dragonhome to the Starfall Isles has taken a sharp upswing. because the pervading rumour is still spreading - that an emperor destroyed the court, seeded the land with disease and rot, and might even now be moving towards the next most populated area (Robin’s citadel).
as for the official story, it’s still ‘earthquake’. but no one really believes that any more. the situation at the sky spire empire is likely to be far more complex, due to the fact that one of the princes is the sole survivor, and he has come home in a state of shock and anger over what happened.