Dragon Lord (Mana)

Evil-doer
Full Name	Tiamat (in Japanese version) Drakonis (in English version)
Alias	The Dragon Lord
Origin	Mana series
Occupation	Ruler of the Dragon tribe King of Mavolia (in Legend of Mana)
Powers / Skills	Incredible dark powers Overwhelming physical strength Mastery over elemental spells and attacks Draconic breath
Hobby	Unknown.
Goals	To become the new god of the world of Fa'Diel (failed).
Crimes	Faustian bargains Corruption and brainwashing Manipulation of people and entire nations Mass destruction and mass murder Destruction of the Mana Tree and the Divine Dragons
Type of Villain	Dark Dragon

The Dragon Lord (Dragon Emperor in the unofficial fan-translation) is a recurring villain in the Mana video game series; who appears in Trials of Mana as one the three available final bosses and in Legend of Mana as a major villain. He is an incredibly powerful demonic dragon who wants to overthrow the Mana Goddess.

In the first game, he attempts to release the Benevodons and use their might for his goals, but ends up destroyed. In the second, his name is revealed to be Drakonis (Tiamat in the original Japanese version). He took over the Underworld of Mavolia (the Mana counterpart of Hell) and attempts to return to the world of Fa’Diel to take it over.

Characteristics

The Dragon Lord is one of the last remaining great dragons, while the regular dragons (or wyrms) are much smaller and little more than feral beasts.

Although great dragons are wise and noble servants of the Mana Goddess (though they can be terrifyingly dangerous, as in the Mana Beast's case), he has considerable Dark Powers and influence over evil, more befitting of a demon from Mavolia, and is in direct conflict with the Archdemon. Yet, the reason behind his demonic nature is never explained, perhaps excessive greed or evil influence.

The Dragon Lord is arguably the most malevolent main villains in Trials of Mana, as he lacks the tragic past of the other two and his main agents are brainwashed souls instead of loyal followers. He is extremely greedy and power-hungry, trying to make everything his own, including people's power and skills by making them his servants willingly or not. He is also cruel, ruthless, relentless, haughty, hateful, wrathful, violent and vindictive. Yet he is a very good manipulator, skilled in offering Faustian bargains to distressed people and to make people do what he wants without them knowing.

While he most often appears collected, regal and quite sarcastic, he flies in violent rages when things do not go the way he wants. And while he praises his foes' accomplishments, he is far too arrogant to regard them as a threat until it is too late, even after having experienced defeat before.

Biography

Background

The Dragon Lord plays is a minor villain in Heroes of Mana, set nineteen years before Trials of Mana. While never appearing in person, he lent his mighty dragon units to the warmongering Ancient Kingdom of Pedda. The Dragon Lord likely used Pedda for his goals, until they outlived their usefulness…

It appears that Inath, the boy king of Pedda, was corrupted by Anise: the avatar of the former Archdemon Medusa, who was using him to resurrect and return to power. The heroes stated at the end that they would have to deal with him after Anise is destroyed for good, unfortunately taking Pedda along with her.

Around four years later, the Dragon Lord led his tribe against the nations who opposed Pedda, in order to take over Fa’Diel. The Mana Goddess deemed him enough of a threat to send her faeries assist his enemies. Prince Richard, heir to the Grassland Kingdom of Valsena, alongside his best friend and right-hand man Loki, the country's mightiest Knight of Gold, who fought against Pedda, led the war against the Dragon Lord.

It is stated that the Dragon Lord destroyed what was left of Pedda during the war. Loki eventually fought the evil dragon and they both fell to their death in a bottomless pit. However, the Dragon Lord's spirit survived and retained his powers. He went into hiding, planning to revive himself and raise another army of monsters from Mavolia.

The Dragon Lord did not lose time after his defeat. Having witnessed Loki's considerable fighting skills, he captured his dead soul and enslaved it, sealing it in a dark armor and making his former enemy into one of his most dangerous and most devoted followers, the Darkshine Knight.

Sometime later, he met the Crimson Wizard, a young man from the magic kingdom of Altena, who ran away due to not being able to use magic. The Dragon Lord tempted the distraught wizard wannabe by offering him access to his incredible magical might in exchange of half of his life- force, corrupting him in the process. The bargain partially revived him, and gained him another slave, putting him in position to plot again but this time from behind the scenes. He then devised a plan to be fully reborn, but this time mightier than ever.

The Dragon Lord and the other two Great Evils: the Dark Majesty and the Masked Mage, plan to release the eight mighty Benevodons from the Mana Stones and become the new god of Fa’Diel. They are in open conflict and they all try to fulfill this sinister scheme first; and to get rid of their rivals at the first occasion.

Trials of Mana

The Dragon Lord's human disguise.

“	I remember a faerie that met a similar fate. She was with the Prince of Valsena and his Knight. I was caught unaware by the Golden Knight and we both fell. It took me so long to regain my strength but now! I am the strongest of the gods!	„
	~ The Dragon Lord

The Crimson Wizard manipulates Altena for the Dragon Lord and wages war against the country of Valsena, while the Darkshine Knight remains by his lord's side. The Crimson Wizard leads attacks on the castle of Valsena and plans to sacrifice the Altenian princess Angela to unseal the Mana Stone of Water. Meanwhile, the Dragon Lord remains in his lair of Dragonsmaw, located in the Glass Desert, feeding on the depleting power of Mana to heal himself.

When the game's heroes reach the Mana Sanctuary: the location of the Mana Tree (the earthly avatar of the Mana Goddess), the Dragon Lord and his servants attack and kill the other villains. (Or get killed by the final boss' faction if he is not the main villain.)

The Dragon Lord's vassals go to the Sanctuary and abduct the heroes' Faerie guide, coercing them to relinquish the legendary Sword of Mana, which the heroes just gained from the Mana Goddess. The Crimson Wizard uses the sword to release the Benevodons, and the Dragon Lord's armies of monsters begin to swarm the world.

The heroes track down and destroy the Benevodons and go to the Glass Desert, where they destroy the Darkshine Knight, freeing Loki's soul. They eventually confront the Crimson Wizard and his lord. The fully revived Dragon Lord is very pleased to have witnesses for "the dawn of a new age". He explains to the heroes that the Benevodons' might now rests in the Sword of Mana, which he absorbs before their eyes, gaining enough power to surpass the Goddess herself. Hopefully, the exhausted deity manages to restrain this increase in power. Irked, the evil dragon teleports to the Mana Sanctuary to destroy the Mana Tree while the Crimson Wizard stays back to get rid of the heroes once and for all.

The Dragon Lord as seen in the game.

The heroes defeat the Wizard, who is freed from the Dragon Lord's corruption and kills himself out of despair. They rush to the Sanctuary but too late, the Mana Tree is destroyed, the Goddess is dead the Dragon Lord is now free to become the new god of Fa’Diel, which he plans to turn into a world of chaos and destruction. He kills the Faerie and reveals his true form: the Huge Dragon (a dragon too big to fit onscreen). He gloats that the Sword of Mana is lost, but the Faerie’s spirit rejuvenates the heroes, stating that the Sword still exists through them.

After a long and grueling battle, the Dragon Lord is destroyed physically and psychically, and the Faerie's spirit merges with the remnants of the Mana Tree to become the new Goddess. However, the power of Mana and the magic it provides will need a thousand years to bloom again, leading to a new and completely different era.

Boss Battle

Boss battle against the Dragon Lord

“	Silence! I will destroy you and any sword you wield! You must understand how powerless you are against a supreme god!	„
	~ The (angry) Dragon Lord.

The Huge Dragon is the medium hardest of the three final bosses. At level 50 and with no less than 55551 life-points, he is very powerful and resistant to magic, so be prepared for a tough battle. The mightier the party is and the more they can heal the better.

He bites his foes or casts many of the level 2 and 3 spells and special attacks of the Wind/Thunder, Earth, Water/Ice, Fire, Light and Moon elements, as well as Ancient Curse (the most devastating normal spell). He can cast his spells on all targets (increasing their might) and his special attacks greatly damage the whole party, so be careful. Worse, his attacks can shrink the heroes or turn them to stone, snowmen, or Moogles (which need to be cured), can weaken them or divide their life-bars.

The element he uses and in turn his weakness is determined by his body color. When he is reddish orange he uses Fire and is weak to Water; when he is blue he uses Water and is weak to Fire; when he is light gold he uses Light and is weak to Shadow; when he is green he uses Earth and is weak to Wind; when he is light green he uses Moon and is weak to Wood. The player must use the corresponding spells and infuse the player's weapons with the corresponding magic. The player cannot attack him with his current element or the player will heal him. But the player must beware, for he also uses the spells Power Up and Protect Up on himself so the player cannot hesitate to decrease his stats.

the battle change sides.

After the player halves is life-bar, he starts changing position so use this lapse to heal or resurrect. The player must beware his physical attacks Fury Fang and Dragon Roar (which lowers the player's stats) and Flare: his mightiest attack crippling the whole party.

The player must make sure that the player's life points are high enough to endure Flare when he appears on one side of the screen and heal immediately after. The player cannot hesitate to power the player's characters up to the max and unleash the player's biggest attacks. If well-prepared, the player should be able to get rid of him without major trouble

Legend of Mana

While Drakonis and the Dragon Lord have been confirmed by the developers to be one of the same, the games are unrelated, so whether this game is a sequel or an alternate continuity is left deliberately unclear. The story takes place 900 years after a war that destroyed the Mana Tree (either the events of Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana or something specific to the game). The different species populating the world waged centuries of gruesome wars for the control of the artifacts holding what remained of the Mana Power.

Drakonis is the primary antagonist of the game's second possible story arc, Crimson Dragon. Despite being dead, he became the new ruler of Mavolia and now works through Larc, a beastman whom he resurrected and enslaved, to gain the Mana Crystals; planning to use them to open Mavolia upon the world to take it over.

Larc uses blackmail and manipulations to force the protagonists to kill Akravator the Sky Dragon, Jajara the Bone Dragon and Vanadise the White Dragon (guardians of the Mana Crystals). Using the power of the Mana Crystals and the souls of his many victims, he raises his castle from Mavolia to the outside world. Later, he transforms Larc into a centaur-like monster and forces him to battle the protagonists. Fortunately, Larc's sister Sierra, who is a servant of Vanadise, helps the protagonists to storm Drakonis's castle and to defeat him once and for all.

With Drakonis destroyed and his soul sealed in Mavolia forever, the three Dragon Lords are resurrected and his evil is undone. Alas, Larc's is condemned to spend 1,000 years in Mavolia to keep him sealed. Later, the protagonists eventually purge the regrown Mana Tree from Evil and restore the world anew.

Boss Battle

File:Drakonis.jpg

Drakonis' human aspect and the boss battle against him.

Drakonis is huge and immensely powerful, but not that hard to defeat if the player is well prepared. He can bite the protagonists, swallow them, breathe fire streams, release a circular wave of green energy rings, jump to crush them, conjure lava from the ground and fly away to land with enough force to shatter the ground. The protagonists must retaliate by pummeling without end with both weapon and magic. Avoid attack him with Fire, and go for Water and Earth instead.

In Brutal Mario

The Huge Dragon is a boss in the unofficial, hack computer game Super Kitiku Mario, translated as Brutal Mario, in which Mario fights many bosses from other video games.

File:Mario and Yoshi versus the Huge Dragon.jpg

using a dragon to fight a bigger one.

The battle against the Huge Dragon is long. The boss stands on a terrace and repeatedly tries to smash Mario with a head-butt. Mario must use either the Floating Cloak or if he is with Yoshi, to jump on Yoshi's back to hurl himself higher, in order to jump on his head. As in the real game, the dragon's body colour defines the element he uses.

When reddish-orange, he summons several flames raining down and lasting on the ground. When blue, he causes a rain of blocks of ice. When yellowish-green, he conjures a bolt of lightning from the sky that separates in two bolts gliding along the ground in opposite directions. When light green, he "breathes" a continuous rainbow coloured beam.

All these attacks are rather easy to dodge, yet the Dragon can also fly out of the screen and reappear on one side to use Flare: a gigantic fiery beam. Mario must crouch continuously at the very bottom of the screen for as long as the attack lasts or else he is doomed.

Circle of Mana

Like nearly every character of the Mana series, the Dragon Lord is playable in the card-based role-playing game Circle of Mana, under his human aspect. The characters are played as cards to save the Mana Tree from monsters, and can gain power, equipment and Class Changes. Several cards featuring him are available, each evolving following a distinct path.

Trivia

• In Legend of Mana, Larc being resurrected and enslaved by the Dragon Lord and manipulating the heroes to do the dirty work is reminiscent of the villain's agents in Trials of Mana. The Darkshine Knight for the former and the Crimson Wizard for the latter.
• The Dragon Lord's original Japanese name, Tiamat, comes from the primal Goddess of Ocean and Mother of All Things of Mesopotamian mythology, who waged war against creation and was defeated by the Warrior God Marduk. Tiamat also inspired the recurring boss/summon of the Final Fantasy series of the Final Fantasy series, and is featured as a major villain of the Dungeons & Dragons universe.