#vilmor

Careful there Frostscythe, you're starting to sound like you got an axe for a face!

I love that as soon as Frostscythe goes for Cryozen again and Vilmor busts out her frozen blade you knew instantly that man was getting buried.

In the end, we say goodbye to yet another old villain from our past adventures in Book 1. Couldn't have asked for a more fitting death for someone who refused to see the error of their ways.

I enjoyed this little conversation between Vilmor and the Hero. I think it was important to acknowledge that it is still a good thing to have the option of offering redemption, or at least not killing them, for the chance of a better outcome but also just as equally fine if killing them is the only option left to you.

It's about time Vilmor's name with the Dragonlords be cleared. Although, I must say I never considered doing so might also involve reforming how the Order goes about handling their politics internally. With luck, they'll have better protocols in place should Vilmor's story repeats itself for someone else.

I admire this vision Galanoth has on shifting the governing principles of the Dragonslayers. I've said it before, but the man has gone a long way from wanting to put every dragon on a shirt.

Being a Dragonslayer should be about defending the public not just being able to hit harder against an impossible foe and proving you were better than them.

So, thoughts:

1) Writers just forgot to mention it (possible, but no fun and, even if true, doesn’t give an in-story explanation)

2) Xan just didn’t mention it. Possible, even likely, considering Xan was aware of Akriloth and the Darkness Dracolich, but not Cryozen. In this scenario, the Realm of Ice is as weak and vulnerable as Fire and Darkness.

3) The Realm of Ice avoided vulnerability due to Cryozen’s heir hatching. Now, Akriloth’s heir hatched as well, but clearly wasn’t enough to make up for the imbalance caused by their father’s death since the Dissonance happened anyway. The difference for Cryozen? Vilmor. We know that baby dragons with DragonLords can assume their adult forms and access adult power, so it makes sense that Ice is at least somewhat more well-protected than Fire.

Additionally, on related train of thought, baby dragons take centuries to grow to their adult forms naturally. Two hundred years is still adolescent, if we use Nythera as a guideline, and she’s half-dragon so that might impact how she grows (though she implies she ages in dragon years). Meaning, the Realm of Fire still should be weak, right? Because baby Akriloth is still... baby Akriloth.

(The Realm of Darkness may have recovered because it wasn’t the death of a Great Dragon but the death of a lot of Darkness elementals, including the Mysterious Stranger, attached to Fluffy that caused the imbalance. That may have already been compensated for, who knows. We don’t have a way to estimate one way or the other.)