#propheci

I’ve always liked to think that Word’s expulsion moment is his most vulnerable, post years of priesthood indoctrination (treating them as a cult, by and large). I also enjoy entertaining the headcanon that the priests do  deal with their problems. Word being a possible problem? Yeah, they expelled him with the intention of him not surviving the wastelands.

Through a stroke of luck, he does manage to find Dragon City, meeting Zulay, whose influence finally cements his desires to conquer Dragon City for himself. But here... that influence is instead a variant of the priesthood’s teachings. Word’s anger and opinions validated by none other than Propheci, whom decides this human is useful. He doesn’t need to use much of the Orange mind gear to create a staunchly loyal follower of his cause.

In the prophets temple, Word’s gear knowledge is invaluable, improving both quality of life for the prophets in addition to arming them much more swiftly for an attack on Dragon City. Conversely, because Word did not reach Dragon City and start his gear empire with Zulay, Dragon City Security, one of the major customers of Paynn Inc, are severely underequipped to handle powerful orange dragons. Much less the average dragon racer or civilian.

It’s possible there’s some sort of clash with Zulay eventually, and a mutual respect. Not sure how the romance would go, but in every universe Zulay is always the one human that intrigues and somehow connects with Word. Further into the future, people like Reepyr and those who follow him would be in opposition to Propheci, Word and any other dragons that follow him.

I imagine it would be a case of the humans being more often than not grafted to the saddle of their assigned prophet, and speaking for him when the times comes that they need it. But it seems that in the episode, we actually don’t see many prophets with saddles, thereby meaning not many have humans. It’s entirely likely that there’s some degree of ranking among the Prophets, and once you’re high enough in the ranks, you’re allowed a human prophet.

As for sustaining the humans, there *are* animals in the world beyond the few we’ve seen. From what I remember, I think animals were only designed on a needed-for-an-episode basis. Hell, in the Secret Episode 0: The Alchemist, there were “dragon hounds”, or drag-hounds, that we never got to see. I imagine there’s a decent amount of game in the Wastelands if the hydrags stick around. Packs of predators like that wouldn’t hang around somewhere with no prey, same for the muhorta. Who knows, maybe the Prophets have their own dedicated garden for edible plant life, and that’s one of the ways the dragons support them? Obey us, serve us, and we’ll make sure you get fed so that you can better assist us. As for water, well, that’s never touched upon in the show at all, but I imagine the Prophets have their own source, or else they could never stay in that temple. Either they have their humans fetch some from a nearby source, with a dragon escort, or have their own integrated into the temple.

I imagine there’s some degree of independence, to the extent that I mentioned before. The dragons won’t want to have to baby their humans all the time, they may be their servants *coughs*slaves*coughs*, but they still have needs. The Prophets would make some sort of accomodations. Who knows, maybe the prophets allow it as an anti-mutiny regime? Keep your humans happy and subservient, and they’ll let you rule them forever. The humans willingly gave themselves to the dragons, but still, a people will only handle cruel treatment for so long. That is why the dragons rebelled 3,000 years ago, so the prophets would want to keep their humans some degree of content.

I personally doubt that the Prophets would breed humans like the humans breed dragons. While that is entirely a possibility, I don’t think the prophets would care enough to put that much effort into their slaves. Also, the humans of Dragon City have all but forgotten that dragons are a sentient, intelligent race, and have reduced them to mere animals. Even the dragons themselves seem to have forgotten, and that’s why so few of them behave, because they allowed themselves to be subjugated to avoid a war, but now they’ve forgotten who they are. The human slaves of the Prophets, however, maintained their humanity and their agency. They can still tend to their own matters, albeit to a limited degree, while the dragons of Dragon City have been reduced to mere beasts.

I have a feeling that the humans have been enslaved to the Prophets for a very long time. Clearly, not since the first war ended, as that war ended with all dragons being purified. I would say...1,500 years ago, at most. Because it has to be close enough to the present that dragons were rebred, but long enough ago that the Orange Prophets would fall into legend. The Orange Control-Class Dragon fell into obscurity by present day, with very few people believing that they were real. When Mortis shares the tale of the Lost Track of Doom, and Parm expresses fear and concern, Mortis chuckles and says “I said it was legend.” A man raised and trained by what’s left of the Dragon Priests, and he considers this tale to be legend. Clearly, the Prophets have not been seen for a very long time.