In the history Paolini creates in the Inheritance Cycle, while Dragon Riders were first assigned to keep the peace between the Elves and Dragons, their duty soon expanded to keeping peace and order among all the races and governments throughout Alagaësia. As time went on, the Dragon Riders' deeds became well-known, and the Dragon Rider's Council came to control the land. While the Dragon Riders held sway, the land prospered and great cities were built. The Dragon Riders helped establish peace treaties between nations and even quell small skirmishes and conflicts. An ex-Dragon Rider, Brom, is known to have defined the effect in the following words: "How many men would draw their swords if they knew a great fire-breathing lizard—one with more natural cunning and wisdom than even a king could hope for—would soon be there to stop the violence?".
Although the Dragon Riders first lived in the then Elvish city of Ilirea (later the human capital, Uru'baen), a disagreement with the Elvish Queen, Dellanir, led to the leader Anurin to moving the Riders to the island of Vroengard, from which the Dragon Riders worked as independent peacemakers and controlled all the lands indirectly through the different rulers. This position placed the Riders above any scrutiny, the lack of which contributed to their downfall.
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In the Inheritance cycle, dragons form a small telepathic bond with their Rider, which develops over time. According to the descriptions in the novels, a spell is cast by the mothers of the eggs to ensure that the infant dragons inside would only hatch when the eggs were touched by the human or elf whom they wanted to bond with. The infant egg will wait for a long period of time if it has to until the dragon inside feel the presence of its Rider. Upon hatching, the infant dragon would make contact with its Rider for the first time, leaving a mark, the gedwëy ignasia ("shining palm"), on the Dragon Rider’s hand. The novels state that a bond forms between the dragon and the Rider that melds their minds on a basic level, binding them for life and endowing the Rider with an ability of magic - for those who did have any talents in magic.
The novel states that originally only the dragons and the elves participated in the bond, creating a mutually beneficial relationship and as a result, the elves possess supernatural strength, grace and long life while the dragons gain the use of language. Humans were the third race to enter the bond and at the time of the events in Eragon, the spell has not affected them strongly due to time consuming to recreate and altering the spell for human Rider. The novel states that the dwarves were never added to the spell and that as a result there has never been a dwarf Rider. Recently, after the events of Inheritance, Dwarves and Urgals have also been added to the spell.[1]
The bond between a dragon and their rider was so strong that when one of them died, the other often went mad, and usually committed suicide, to join their bonded in death and not live on alone. This is explained because half of their very identity and their soul has been destroyed. It was for this reason that Galbatorix went mad and destroyed the Riders.
In the film adaption of Eragon this is different. In the movie Eragon is told that if the dragon dies, the rider will survive, but if the rider would be killed, the dragon would also die.
According to the novel, the bond with the dragons gave Riders a strong ability to use magic, as well as enhanced physical abilities. Extensive training will grant the Riders the ability to perform powerful magic as well as competent swordsmen. The novel further states that newly bonded pairs of dragon and Rider were taken to the elvish capital of Ilirea (now the humans' capital Uru'baen then reinstated back to Ilirea) where the elder Riders trained one or two students at a time. The training is consist of the elder dragons training the young dragons in aerial maneuvers (especially those used in battle), building stamina for long distance flights, increasing speed, dragon lore, weather patterns, magic and the ancient language.
The novels state that as a mandatory requirement, the Rider and dragon would share their lessons so that by keeping their minds connected they could listen in on each other's lessons and learn. After class, the elder Rider would test the two to ensure that both had learned each other's subject. Both the elder dragons and the elder Rider were addressed by their students as 'Master' or 'Ebrithil'. To train a Rider to use magic, the novice was given a set of frustrating, apparently impossible tasks that could not be accomplished without the aid of magic. If a student discovered its ability before this regimen was complete, that student would be removed at once from the others and apprenticed to another elder.
After the Rider and their dragons has developed a strong and healthy bond with each other, their elders will reveal the concept of Eldunari to them so that Riders and bonded dragons alike do not make hasty decision in disgorging the Eldunari unless it is absolutely necessary.
The formal training of a Rider and dragon traditionally took many years, and the Dragon Riders continued to hone their skills throughout their lives. At the end of the training, the Elven smith Rhunön would forge a sword made from a meteoric ore called brightsteel (the concept is similar to the mythical metal adamantium) for the trained Dragon Rider.
According to the novels, before the formation of the Dragon Riders, about three millennia before the time of Eragon II, a young elf hunted and killed a dragon for sport. The dragons were naturally angered by this and banded together, attacking and killing the young elf. This began The Dragon War, or in the Ancient Language, Du Fyrn Skulblaka.
The novel states that five years into the bloody conflict, an elf called Eragon found a dragon egg, let it hatch, and raised the hatchling in secret. Together, they traveled across Alagaesia and stopped the war, allowing peace to follow. In order to prevent another war, the representative of the dragons met with the elven queen Tarmunora and both made a magical pact, called the Blood-Oath or Blödhren in Ancient Language, changing both races as described above. Humans were added to the pact later and were therefore not as immersed in it as were the elves. From then on, the Dragon Riders kept peace in the whole of Alagaesia.
According to the novels, one hundred years before the events of the Inheritance Cycle, Galbatorix--a Dragon Rider who was driven to insanity by the killing of his dragon by Urgals and the refusal of the riders to grant him a new dragon—led a rebellion that crushed the Riders and brought an end to the order. Along with another Rider, Morzan, whom he persuaded to follow him, he captured a young black dragon named Shruikan and forced the young dragon to obey him through powerful dark magic. Galbatorix then used his power to become the King of Alagaësia. He used the eldunari of the dragons he slew to increase his strength. As for the riders who survived, he eventually hunted them all down using Morzan and 12 other Riders who had betrayed their brotherhood.The dragons, enraged, wiped away the identities of the 13 dragons who betrayed them using magic, in the event known as Du Namar Aurboda, or The Banishing Of The Names. These 13, known as the Forsworn, ultimately fell due to disease and suicide and overuse of magic; three were killed personally by Brom, (the last known former Rider, who swore vengeance on Galbatorix and his servants for the death of his dragon Saphira) including Morzan, and he engineered the deaths of five others.
In the events of the Inheritance cycle, there are dragons on each side of the war. Galbatorix houses one unhatched green dragon egg and his own dragon, Shruikan, while under Galbatorix's control are Murtagh and his dragon Thorn. Fighting against Galbatorix are Eragon Shadeslayer, the story's chief protagonist, and his dragon Saphira Brightscales, the last living female dragon. Another dragon was Glaedr, the golden dragon for Oromis, the oldest remaining Rider. In Brisingr, Oromis dies and Glaedr's mind is transferred to his Eldunari, a gemlike object located in the dragon's body which can house their consciousness.
Upon completion of a Rider's training, he or she is presented with a sword crafted by the elf smith Rhunön. The swords are forged with Brightsteel, an ore taken from meteorites. The swords are usually the same color as the Rider's dragon and have a gemstone of the same color in the pommel, to store energy. The swords are laid with many enchantments during the smithing and can never break, dull, or stain. They are also able to cut through wards. After the death of Galbatorix, Eragon raided many of Galbatorix's personal chambers which stored many of his secret possessions and among them, Eragon found nearly all the Rider swords, more than 230 swords of various shapes and colors. Eragon noted that Rhunön, the elf smith would be delighted if she hear that her crafts managed to survive.
The novels mention the existence of previous Riders including:
2. Eragon
3. Eldest
4. Brisingr
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