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.
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.
An example of Valtheran architecture, taken from a very unlikely place; a store display, which appears to be built entirely from pieces of warrior’s fortress. I found this picture on ebay. the listing is still up for $100, here is the link;
Hey, I came back to this blog! Here we have the official guide to the human characters of the Warfang-Valtheran arc, conveniently included on the last page of each 2002 set’s instruction manual.
9890 Warriors Fortress includes the Warfang warriors Kriwarg, Harg, Vorlang, Simmurg, Malkin, and Morlack, and the Valtheran warriors Rythiel, Leith, Aprash, Ashul, Ramach, and Imrien. 9886 Sorcerer’s Lair includes the Warfang warriors Woljag, Akrif, Grosag, and Somyrk, and the Warfang wizard Vorlod; as well as the Valtheran warriors Gilnor, Tamoth, Ethyn, Shaldor, and Hulraith. 9881 Battle Gate contains the Warfang warriors Skolack, Wulluck, Kurg, and Morkusk, as well as the Valtheran wizard Yulmar, and the Valtheran warriors Harnash, Riel, and Durian.
It is implied that Morlack and Rythiel are the leaders of their respective factions, as each is shown wearing a unique cape in some other images. Vorlod is located closer to Morlack than Yulmar is to Rythiel, which I take as a shaky confirmation of my theory that the Warfang have greater respect for wizards than do the Valtheran.
At the center of the image is Padraig, who wears golden armor and is not associated with either faction.
The Warfang names definitely share a unique “flavor” among them, as do the Valtheran names, and these two “flavors” are different enough that it makes me wonder if the Warfang and Valtheran speak different languages and are not closely related at all. But then I remember that essentially all of these names are plausible English names. I wonder if the difference between Warfang and Valtheran names is primarily a difference of dialect (i.e. certain sounds are more common in the Warfang dialect than the Valtheran and vice versa) or of naming convention (i.e. certain words are more popular as name elements in Warfang names than Valtheran names and vice versa).
