Author's Note: Welcome, reader, it's been a long time, hasn't it. I haven't written for Spyro in several years. Time sure does fly, doesn't it. Anyways, I'm back, and hopefully ready to complete a story. Or at least get passed the first couple chapters before I stop.
This story is an amalgamation of several story ideas and characters as well as concepts and other types of world-building. I basically decided to take all the characters and ideas I've had over the years and put them together in one story. Hopefully it comes out good.
Now, before I go and leave you with the prologue, I just want you to know that this is only a taste, a setting of the scene and a short summary of the past 20 years. Don't you worry, though, I won't put out a prologue and then leave you again, I'm already nearly finished with the first chapter. I just decided that this works better as a prologue instead of a preface for it, and because of that there's some 600 words I need to put into the first chapter to even it out.
And I think I've talked your head off enough. Enjoy the prologue, and keep an eye out for more!
Twenty years. It had been twenty years since Malefor was defeated. The world knew he was gone. There was no body, when all was said and done, but then, there were no heroes either. Somehow, though, everyone knew Malefor was gone, just like everyone knew Spyro and Cynder were the ones who defeated him, the ones who pieced the world back together. How dragonkind had survived at all was as much a mystery as anything else.
But survive it did. Flourished, even. An era of peace and prosperity began, something not seen by many since Malefor came into power. Destroyed towns and cities were rebuilt. Families were reunited, prisoners were made free. Things were definitely different, but at the same time, they were much the same. Change came to the Dragon Realms, ushered in by a great tragedy, but worth it in the end. Or so the dragons chose to believe.
The differences of this new world were not always readily apparent, some things more obvious than others. Spyro may have put the world back together, but it wasn't exactly the same as he had assumed it would be. Even if he had known, it would have been too late. Things on the surface, things below the crust, even as deep as the planet's core, were changed. The world had the same foundation, the mainstays of life before were mostly the same, but the details weren't always quite right. Spyro had rebuilt in broad strokes, and either didn't know how or didn't have the time to make sure the small bits were the same. Perhaps it just wasn't a possibility in the first place.
Despite the occasional change of scenery, life in the Dragon Realms returned to normal. But just as the world's details were not completely accurate, neither were the details of society. Peace may have been prevalent, wide-spread, but there was a bit more to things than there had been before. Crime, while not constant, was beginning to rise. Even as the dragons longed for a completely peaceful and cohesive society, things began to change. Different ideas of how to do things began to spread. Cities and towns, while once connected through bonds of ideals and cohesion, were now at times completely different.
Some cities were ruled by council, some by a singular ruler. Some towns were simply a collection of homes and farms put together for safety and community, and yet others were trying to compete with the larger cities so they themselves could also be large cities. Suffice it to say, commerce and trade became the name of the game. Funny how close the desire for such things came to the same type of greed that caused Malefor to fall to darkness.
In fact, it was almost as if something in the very core of the world itself had been changed. Dragons, by nature, are connected to the spirit of the world. They reflect what lies inside; out of all the other races in the Realms, dragons are the most accurate representations of the nature of the world. Hence their biological connection to the elements. As such, any change in the world's spirit would be a change in them. And little did dragonkind know, but something was causing the world's spirit to change, taking them along with it.
Dragons were, of course, always known for their desires. But while before it had just been an exaggeration, it now seemed that greed drove a dragon more often than not. To steal. To cheat. Even, at times, to kill. Crime, once a thing that happened only on the rarest of occasions, had now become a common occurrence. An actual problem. A problem that needed to be solved.