This is something that has been plaguing my brain for a while. It started out because both 'The Dragon Prince' and 'Attack on Titan' touch on the subject of cycles of hatred. Upon that similarity, this idea came to be.
This story isn't something I plan on continue or even expanding too much. The plot is set in the Dragon Prince universe but with the mechanics of the power of the Titans in place. No AOT characters, though. You can summed it up as a 'what if the Dragon Prince humanity had the power of the titans?'. Although I did change the power of the Titans a little, like negating the whole Curse of Ymir and reforming its consequences.
Warning for AOT fans, you need to catch up to S4 of the anime to understand the references. This requires knowledge of Eldia and Marley to understand the story.
Anyways, this chapter is just the narrator of the first episode of DP telling a more complex variation of the story, but with the power of the titans added.
Another warning is that this paints a very gruesome image of humanity. Read at your own discretion.
With that said, let's dive in!
Long ago, Xadia was one land rich in magic and wonder. In the old times, there were only the six Primal Sources of magic. The Sun. The Moon. The Stars. The Earth. The Sky. And the Ocean.
But 2000 years ago happened the arrival of a new species upon its shores, from the northern oceans; the Humans.
These humans were scouts and conquerors of a belligerent kingdom; the Eldian Empire. While they lacked arcanum - the natural connection to a Primal Source that would allow one to perform magic - they carried with them a horrid might - the power of the Titans. The ability to turn their own kind into mindless, deformed giants with only one instinct: to devour anything that resembled a human.
Among the Eldians there were nine Lords, leaders of the nine grand noble houses. These nine men and women had the ability to transform themselves into sentient, intelligent Titans: the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, the Female Titan, the Jaws Titan, the Beast Titan, the Cart Titan, the Warhammer Titan, the Attack Titan, and the mightiest of them all, the Founding Titan, which was controlled by the royal family. Under their brutal cunning and force, they led the Eldian Empire into a war of aggression and conquest against the elves and dragons.
A map is displayed on a desk. From the west side of the continent, a red, bloody stain spreads to the east.
From the start, the war went poorly for Xadia; they had never fought an enemy as numerous nor with such horrifying force. Whenever a battle ensued, the Founding Titan would use its power to transform the Eldian soldiers into mindless Titans that would promptly devour the elven soldiers mercilessly. Such a gory scenario happened often and it was very much demoralizing for Xadia.
The scene changes to a battle field of sunfire elves fleeing from Titans of varying sizes that easily grabbed them and devoured them gluttonously. All under the triumphant eye of a larger, more regal-looking Titan that commanded them.
The carnage became such that the first Dragon King, Sol Regem, stepped in personally with his army of dragons. With aerial superiority, the dragon army began to beat back the Eldian advance. Hope began to bloom once again in the hearts of Xadia…
But it would not last.
For in the face of eventual defeat, it was a Ziard, a member of the royal family and candidate to inherit the Founding Titan, that discovered a solution that would seal Xadia's fate. Ziard experimented on elf slaves and prisoners of war to create a way for humans to do magic as well. When he inherited the Founding Titan and ascended the Eldian throne, Ziard perfected his new form of magic - Dark Magic. It used the essence within magical creatures themselves to unleash dark power.
King Ziard then challenged Sol Regem for a battle, which the Dragon King, proud and emboldened by the string of victories he had claimed, accepted it. At the base of the Storm Spire, the armies of Eldia and Xadia met, led by their respective kings. It was then and there that Ziard revealed his new-found might and with it drained the magical strength of the bulk of Sol Regem's army.
Sol Regem fell and all of Xadia watched in horror as their king was devoured alive by an army of Titans. With that outcome, all hope the magical beings had of victory vanished.
Another battlefield at the base of a tall rocky formation shows an enormous golden dragon struggling in vain against the scores of Titans that sunk their teeth in his flesh. Soon Sol Regem stopped struggling and his corpse was devoured to the bone. In the end, his skull is claimed by Ziard in his Titan form as a trophy.
Armed with dark magic, the Eldian Empire stretched out their hand more violently than ever before and clawed at Xadia without remorse. If before, the conflict was a war, it had become a one-sided slaughter. In less than ten years, the Eldian Empire conquered the continent from west to east. And Ziard anointed himself first Emperor of Eldia.
The bloody stains stretched all the way to all corners of Xadia in the map.
For nearly 1000 years, Xadia suffered immensely under the sadistic cruelty of the Eldian Empire. Dragons were hunted for sports to the brink of extinction. Unicorns had been exterminated for their horns. Elves were enslaved to work back-breaking jobs or be used for dark magic spells. This period would become known to the Xadia of the future as the Age of Darkness, when there was no hope of freedom.
Different scenes play out of.
Earthblood elves being forced to work in horrid conditions in mines.
Sunfire elves being forced to fight each other in gladiatorial arenas for Eldians amusement.
Moonshadow elves are kept in prisons, waiting to have their body parts harvested by dark mages.
A painting of an Eldian noble man exhibiting his many, many dragon heads on the wall of his palace.
An Eldian noblewoman eating with cutlery made out of Unicorn's horn, her body adorned with jewels carved from the same material.
A crowd of Eldian at the stands of a coliseum, watching a spectacle of elves trying to survive a Titan. The Eldian laughed and took bets about which elf would last the longest.
But that age would come to an end.
A 1000 years ago, in the beginning of the rule of Empress Aanya I, a young archdragon called Avizandum gathered up what little remained of the dragons and led them as a strike force against the humans. By this point, the Eldian Empire had grown complacent after centuries of uncontested rule. Exacerbated by the nine Noble Houses that began fighting each other for power and taking control of each other's Titans.
Avizandum was able to inflict wounds on the Eldian Empire, taking away their territory gradually and liberating tribes of elves from prison camps. When the Empire began to mobilize its forces for a counter-strike, all the Nine Titans joined forces. It seemed Avizandum's forces would be wiped out, were it not for the help of an unexpected ally, Helos, the last Unicorn. Helos enigmatic power was able to severely weaken the abilities of the Titan shifters. This would become known as 'The Curse of Helos'.
A grand painting shows a young Avizandum and a Unicorn, Helos, with the tip of his horn broken, both looking determined. An army of dragons flies behind the two. Another painting shows Helos' horn glowing like the sun and its light hurting the Titans.
The Curse of Helos prevented the power of the Titans to be used against magical creatures, rendering the Eldian Empire impotent. In that battle, the Empire suffered its most devastating defeat yet. Not only were most of their armies lost, but four of the Nine Titan Lords were slain. Their powers, lost before they could be passed down to successors. This battle, which would become known as Battle of Thunder, instantly turned the war to Xadia's favor. Even with dark magic, nothing could stop the dragons' wrathful advance.
The scenario displays a strike force of dragons and elves burning a human city to the ground, sparing no one. No children, no civilians, no sick, no elderly.
Seeing no hope for victory, Empress Aanya I moved as many Eldias as she could to the western side of the continent. As her last act as the Founding Titan, she created hundreds of thousands of colossal titans and used them to make an enormous wall that split the continent in two: on the east, the magical, war-ravaged lands of Xadia; on the west, the remnants of the Eldian Empire.
The titan in the form of a blond woman of tanned skin spread her arms and a line of colossal Titans appeared. Together, the colossals began hardening their skin, crystal growing from their bodies until it solidified into a 50 meter tall wall that reached from north to south.
Empress Aanya I left Xadia with an ultimatum: "Should dragons or elves ever pass my Wall and disturb my peace, the colossal titans within shall be unleashed and trample Xadia under foot."
And so the continent was divided...
On Xadia, the liberated elves and dragons wished to fly over the Wall and complete their vengeance upon the humans. But Avizandum, now crowned Dragon King of all of Xadia, denied this. His words were: "It has been wartime for far too long. Now it is time to rebuild." And so out of respect and obedience, Xadia turned to heal its wounds rather than pursue revenge.
On the west side, the five remaining houses, including the royal family, each settled in a different province. The royal family took residence in the province of Duren. Then, on the Empress's 13th anniversary of inheriting the Founding Titan, she died suddenly and inexplanatically. It was soon learnt of another effect of the Curse of Helos: anyone who obtained the power of the titans would die 13 years afterwards.
With the loss of the Founding Titan, the royal family lost control of the other 4 houses and the Empire disintegrated into 5 kingdoms.
A map of the western side of the continent is torn into five pieces.
Eventually, the 4 titan powers lost in the Battle of Thunder resurfaced, inherited by commoner children. But were quickly claimed by the respective kingdom's monarchy. Only Katolis retained its original Titan, the Warhammer. Duren was fortunate enough to acquire the Jaws Titan.
Tragically, the Founding Titan was never rediscovered and with it, the key to make good on the last Empress's ultimatum was lost.
Now the Eldian Kingdoms live in fear of the day that Xadia will come in force and not even the Wall will be able to deter them...
Timeline based on Continent Division (CD)
1000 BCD - Humans (Eldians) arrive on Xadia.
995 BCD - Prince Ziard discovers dark magic and becomes the first dark mage. In the same year he becomes King and inherits the Founding Titan.
996 BCD - Battle at the Storm Spire between Ziard's Titan army and Sol Regem's dragon army. Ziard reveals his mastery of dark magic. Sol Regem and his army are slain.
987 BCD - The Eldian Empire conquers and enslaves all of Xadia. King Ziard names himself first Emperor of Eldia. The Age of Darkness in Xadia begins.
10 BCD - Empress Aanya I ascends the throne and becomes the new Founding Titan.
9 BCD - A young archdragon, Avizandum, rises against the Eldian Empire and begins hit-and-run attacks to weaken it.
3 BCD - The Eldian Empire counter-strikes against Avizandum and his army at the Battle of Thunder. With the assistance of Helos, the last unicorn, Avizandum casts a curse upon the Eldians, making their Titan powers unable to be used against magical creatures. The majority of the empire's military might fall at the Battle of Thunder. Four of the Nine Titan powers (Jaws, Attack, Female and Colossal) are lost.
2 BCD - Seeing no chance for victory, Empress Aanya I orders a massive exodus of the empire to the western half of the continent.
0 BCD - In her last recorded use of the Founding Titan, Empress Aanya I creates scores of colossal titans and uses them to create a massive wall that divides the continent. She left a warning that if Xadia dared cross the border, the titans inside the walls would destroy Xadia. Avizandum is nominated Dragon King. His first order is for Xadia not to seek revenge against the humans, but to prioritize rebuilding. The Age of Darkness in Xadia ends.
3 ACD - Empress Aanya I dies suddenly and the Founding Titan is lost. Its revealed the Curse of Helos will now kill any titan shifter when they have held the power for 13 years. With the Founding Titan lost, the Eldian Empire splinters into five kingdoms.
4 ACD to 1000 ACD - The four Titan powers lost in the Battle of Thunder are recovered and claimed by four of the five monarchies. Only Katolis did not acquire a secondary titan.
KATOLIS - Original Titan: Warhammer / Secondary Titan: -none-;
DUREN - Original Titan: Founding (formerly) / Secondary Titan: Jaws;
DEL BAR - Original Titan: Armored / Secondary Titan: Attack;
EVENERE - Original Titan: Beast / Secondary Titan: Female;
NEOLANDIA - Original Titan: Cart / Secondary Titan: Colossal;
For generations, the Founding Titan never revealed itself again, the reason unknown to everyone. Scholars and dark mages of all kingdoms attempted to rediscover but to no avail. Now all of humanity fears the eventuality of Xadia taking revenge.
1000 ACD -Present Day.
And that, as they say, is that.
If I write more chapters, they will just be snapshot scenes, nothing more, all based on this narration. I adapted the whole concept of the Eldian Empire and the Great Titan War to Xadia.
Although I might change the whole concept of the crossover and do like; add AOT characters. Or maybe bring it to the AOT universe. But for now I'm sticking to his formula.
If you have any ideas, questions, want any particular scenes, or more lore revealed, please let me know in the reviews.
Peace out!