Black Dragon Mark
16+
Kael Blackthorn is the exiled stepson of the Ashborne family. Framed by his half-brother Lucien for murdering their elder brother, he was imprisoned at the Ashen Monastery for two years. The family summons him home for their grandfather’s birthday banquet, only for him to find his chambers altered, his mount seized, and his fiancée stolen. He is brought back for one sole purpose: to serve as a vessel whose dragon-line blood essence will be used as a medicinal catalyst for Lucien.
On the night of the banquet, Lucien gouges out half the dragon heart of the guardian dragon Asterion and frames Kael for the crime a second time. Once again, the entire family chooses to believe the lies. At this desperate moment, the lost Black Dragon Judgement Seal awakens on the back of Kael’s hand.
He fights his way up from the bottom of the iron cage arena in Blackforge City, founds the Blackbrand Company, and tames Nyx, a black dragon from the Valley of Fallen Dragons. Returning to the royal trials as a free knight, he dismantles his enemies’ schemes layer by layer. During the Dragonflame Judgement, he strips Lucien of all his false king’s blood and forbidden magic power with the Black Dragon Seal, exposing every crime in public.
Kael rejects the inheritance of this corrupt noble house. Under the name Blackbrand, he builds a new order. Lineage is no longer the standard of succession. Instead, merit in battle, oath-keeping, protection of the people, and dragon-rider bonds are the core tenets. Anyone cast aside by the old noble families can earn their name anew by abiding by the Black Dragon Legion’s rules. In the end, he rides Nyx northward to usher in an era of his own.