The following excerpt is the front page of the Sandwing Gazette, dated January 2nd, 4991:

THE QUEEN IS DEAD! Oasis to be buried within the week.
By Temeraire

It is the sad news of the Gazette to report the most unfortunate demise of Her Majesty Queen Oasis. While bravely dashing forward alone to vanquish the vile scavenger scum who made off with our Kingdom's most valued treasures, the Queen was felled by one of what was no doubt a colossal horde of the vicious animals, but not before putting up a valiant fight.
The unhappy word was delivered to this paper naught but yesterday, by the grief-stricken Princess Blister, who was the first to find her mother stricken in the sands of our fair Kingdom. Princesses Blaze and Burn were soon to follow, expressing their grief and sadness at the death of their beloved mother. In a rare moment of agreement among the sisters, it was decided that Oasis's body, preserved by the desert heat, shall lie in state until this next Sunday, when it shall be buried. It is not yet unclear who will come to pay their respects, although all three Princesses and their supporters are expected to be in attendance, nor what form the headstone of the late Queen shall take, with disputes among those within the court as to how to best honor Her Majesty in her death.
Nonetheless, we at the Gazette express our utmost condolences to the three Princesses and the other members of the royal family, who will doubtless be in deep mourning for the next several weeks for come, with the need to find a replacement for the late Queen Oasis on the throne, now in competition among the three sisters, although the Gazette discourages unfounded and nonsensical speculation as to who shall become the next Queen. For now, we wish all those who shall be in attendance at the late Queen's funeral the comfort and strength needed to get through this unhappy moment in our nation's history.

Bandit raids continue, army to intervene "upon resolution of the succession question"
By Temeraire

Word reaches us that attacks by the villainous barbarians noted as the "outclaws of Scorpion Den" continue unmolested by the army, which has struggled to police the borders of our Kingdom while likewise ensuring internal security. Marshal Grit, commander of the Royal Guard, has continued to assure the citizenry that the depredations of these savages will not go unmet, promising harsh measures to destroy these lawless scoundrels "once the Queen is enthroned".
We certainly share the Marshal's desire to see these scavengers with scales sent back to whence they came! This scroll-service, of course, takes great exception with regards to the civilized 'Hawkstone' settlement, carefully segregated from the greater, uneducated masses of the filthy hole known as 'Scorpion Den'. While of course their 'baron' operates outside the law, he is nonetheless an upright individual of good breeding as a NightWing, and we can only hope that more of the outclaws in that lawless settlement convert themselves to his lifestyle.


The first day of the week-long funeral, the entire Court was in attendance. As I looked upon all the various faces lined up and pretending to be sad, I took this opportunity to gauge and appraise the competition to write a report for Burn. Things were... a little tense, to say the least.

For starters, each of the Royal Sisters had an equal claim to the Throne. Burn, Blister and Blaze each had their own reason for claiming that they were the logical choice for being the nest Queen. Burn insisted (and I supported) that as the oldest daughter and the Queen's favorite, she had the right to inherit the Throne. Blister said that she was going to challenge Oasis anyway, and as the smartest daughter she would be the best choice for Queen. And Blaze was claiming that she should rule because the Tribe loved her the most, and that as the youngest sister her rule would be the longest.

As if that wasn't enough to make things chaotic, two other dragons that made claims to the Throne within the week of her passing.

First, there was the surprise announcement by the Royal Guard that one of their members - Sandstorm - claimed to be a bastard daughter of King Char, and that she should be the next Queen. Rumor had it that the old King had a brief fling with a high-ranking civil servant, who was suspiciously executed before the dragoness joined the Guard. Needless to say, if there was still one thing all the Royal siblings could all agree upon, it was that she was a lying bitch disgracing daddy's name. If it weren't for her having the protection of the Guard (they were remaining neutral in the overall activities of the Court, but she was still one of their own), she would've been dead Day One. Personally, I thought she was alright. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say she was right about Char (dragons can change, after all), but the old king I knew was happily married and a doting father. As for Sandstorm herself, she was sweet and professional all the time I'd known her, and we would sometimes chat about new weapons and armor I made for the Guard, or growing up in the Scorpion's Den as we did.

Then, there was Nightshade. International Dragon of Mystery, as some would call him. No one really knew where this mysterious Nightwing came from, or how he was able to take over the criminal gangs of the Scorpion's Den so quickly back in '88. What was known, however, was that he was a radical, an extremist. A Bandit Republican. He and his followers were pushers and practitioners of "democracy", a relatively new ideology that sought the abolition of the monarchy and handing all power to the people. Naturally, as much as the Royals disliked Sandstorm and her scandalous accusations, they despised Nightshade even more. Who was he (a low-hatched crimelord and a foreigner) to tell the Sandwings how they should run things. The Royals were Royals for a reason, after all. Personally, as much as I liked the idea of democracy, I couldn't see myself ever supporting him. For one, I doubted he was a true believer: he just claimed to be for tearing down the system only so he could become the top dog of the ruins. For another, I didn't believe that dragons could collectively rule themselves. While some could be smart and kind, most were dumb and cruel and craved the leadership of a strong, charismatic dragon. Replacing Queens (with a lifetime of training and experience) with "Presidents" and "Prime Ministers" (who're just merely popular) didn't sound like an improvement to me.

Between these five claimants, the Court was filled with agents and players eager to seek favor and victory for their chosen patrons. First, of course, was Burn and me. I was Burn's favorite (and only) major supporter in the Court. Between my creations and my support of her warmongering, expansionist ways, I was the only one who she felt truly understood her. However, the fact that I was from the Scorpion's Den still hung over my head like a cloud of gnats even now, and for all my loyalty, Burn didn't trust anyone that could be considered smarter than her.

For Blaze, she had the Merchant Flame. An elderly drake of 61, the oddly green-scaled yet still purebred Sandwing businessman managed to earn his place working under the young Princess when he started selling her tons of fancy jewelry. He didn't care about finding the lost Eye of Onyx, and was at least open-minded enough to talk Blaze into being more accepting of hybrids and foreigners "so long as they're not ugly". Even so, the youngest daughter of Oasis was rather uncomfortable with how quick he was to suggest fighting the others for the Throne.

Out of the three of the Princesses, Blister was most blessed with the sheer amount and variety of allies within the Court. The first and most prominent of these was her personal attendant and cousin, Tanwen. Tanwen (or "Lady Whitefire", as she was sometimes called) was one of Blister's closest servants, and perhaps even a good friend. A lot of other dragons thought of her as an idiot, and would sometimes mock her for whatever harebrained scheme she got involved in. But I wasn't the only one who caught on that she wasn't as dumb as she let on, and that more importantly, everything she did (successfully or not) was what Blister wanted her to do. She, like me, didn't have a lot of other friends in the Court, but unlike me, she was a lot more enthusiastically loyal to her "mistress" than I was to my patroness. I'd have to keep my eye on her.

Following Tanwen was the Ambassador from the Kingdom of the Sea, Admiral Otion. No, you read that right, not "Ocean" or "Motion", Otion. Appointed here back in '88, some wondered what he did to warrant getting sent to perhaps the worst possible place a Seawing could go (save maybe the Ice Kingdom). During his brief tenure as ambassador, Blister must've gotten in his ear and offered something truly great, as he became a rather vocal supporter of her claim. Granted, he was a foreign official, so his opinion was kinda worthless in the minds of the average Sandwing, but as a talented soldier and commander, he would no doubt be quite valuable should things escalate to open conflict.

Finally, there was the other crimelord at play, the infamous "Baron" of Hawkstone, Hallowglide. A Nightwing like Nightshade, Hallowglide was a snake trapper who managed to lie, cheat and steal his way to take over the town of Hawkstone a couple years ago. Unlike his compatriot, who seemed to be all about launching a revolution, he was much more invested in turning his town into a prosperous city, with a well-developed municipal government and budding economy. He was very much focused on maintaining and growing his little fiefdom growing in the shadow of the Scorpion's Den, no more, no less. Blister, while quite disdainful of seditious foreigner and his little outpost, was willing to work with him and his organization in exchange for leaving it alone, and throwing his support behind her. He, perhaps, was the most dangerous out of all of them.

Among all these different players in this game of courtly intrigue were the factions within and without the Kingdom we had to woo and persuade to join us, if we were to have any chance of winning. First, the Royal Family itself. The Princes couldn't decide if they wanted to back Blaze (who everyone loved) or Blister (who at least knew what she was doing). They might've liked me as a friend, but they'd always view Burn the same way one would view a wild animal as a pet. Even so, as least there was no chance of them backing Sandstorm or Nightshade.

The Civil Service, meanwhile, was a lot more competitive. Blaze had the support of the treasury through Flame, while Burn had the support of the builders and the alchemists through me. Blister could only rely on her entourage, and no one could be counted on to support a jumped-up soldier or a bandit.

With the Populace, we were at a disadvantage of course. Everyone loved the kind and beautiful Blaze, whereas Burn was Oasis's Executioner, with all that entails. Blister and Sandstorm were more popular, and they were still treated with a collective "meh". Nightshade was equally reviled as us as a bandit, but at least he seemed like an "honorable thief".

Besides the Guard, there were three armies to consider: Northern, Eastern and Southern. Fortunately, the armies stood against Sandstorm and Nightshade, as none of the commanders or soldiers would ever serve a mere palace guard or a warlord. The Northerners (under General Coville) didn't really care for Blaze, the youngest princess being too friendly with Glacier. The Easterners (under General Caracal) were not fond of Burn over her friendship with Scarlet (as one put it, "We're on the border protecting our land from a bloodthirsty sociopath. Why would we support another bloodthirsty sociopath get the throne?"). The Southerners (under General Bunker) were former bandits, outcasts and losers watching the Jade Mountains and Rainforest, and would support anyone who would get them out of their oh-so-boring station.

Then we get to the other kingdoms, the foreign backers. Sometime ago, Queen Glacier of the Icewings made some kind of deal (*coughbribecough*) with Blaze, and has been very openly supportive of her claim. Scarlet, of course, had given us her support. The newly crowned Queen Coral of the Seawings has been leaning more and more to Blister, especially as both they and Ambassador Otion had a deep hate for the Scorpion's Den as some pit of anarchy. The ever-elusive Nightwings remained mysterious and "neutral", though it was heavily rumored that they might be backing Nightshade. Then you had Queen Moorhen of the Mudwings not caring one way or the other, and the Rainwings, who kept to their jungle home to the point that many Sandwings were unsure if they were even real.

With all this information tabulated, I had written up a very rough and rudimentary ranking system, from which to determine the claimants' relative position:

Condition 'Tallies'

Princess Blaze: +3
Princess Blister: +1
Princess Burn: -2
Guard Sandstorm: -8
Wanderer Nightshade: -19

As you can see, Burn was in a very delicate yet curious position. She was the least liked of the Royal Sisters, too cruel and blunt to build much in the way of support. At the same time, we were significantly closer to victory than the bastard guard and the foreign gang leader.

This was the state of the Sand Kingdom, when things start going to hell.


A/N: Special thanks and credit to Temeraire for the Newspaper articles, or "Turn 0" as it was in the game. Yes, this chapter is pretty much an infodump, but it also marks the end of the Part 1/"Prologue Chapters", and the beginning of the game. Henceforth, we're moving onto the story proper.