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| “ | Yes. You will be safe high upon this peak. Far, far away from the city of Elarion. | „ |
| ~ Sol Regem telling Ziard that he's going to destroy Elarion. |
| “ | I smell death! | „ |
| ~ Sol Regem's most famous quote every time he senses the smell of dark magic. |
| “ | Then behold...the once great Sun King. Bask in the brilliant rays of light that shine through the holes in my tattered wings. Gaze upon the mighty face of my golden glory, dripping with seared flesh, melted by evil magic. Bow down before the swollen oozing bedsores of a magnificent archdragon, lying motionless and depressed for decades. [Growling] I lost my hope long before I lost my sight. The Sun will never rise again for me. I've lived centuries in this eternal night. Go... away. | „ |
| ~ Sol Regem moping on what he has now, the shadow of his former glory. |
| “ | That voice... Tell me, betrayer. What became of Aithne Solaire? Tell me! | „ |
| ~ His last words before Aaravos revealed that he killed his own wife. |
Anak Arow, also known as Sol Regem, is one of the overarching antagonists in the 2018 animated Netflix fantasy series The Dragon Prince.
He is an ancient and powerful Sun Archdragon with a bitter hatred of humans, who was the original King of the Dragons for two hundred years. It is later revealed he was one of the major catalysts behind the villainy of the fallen Startouch Elf Aaravos, as he was responsible for ratting out Aaravos' daughter Leola to the leaders of the Startouch Elves for teaching magic to humans, which led to her execution.
He is voiced by Adrian Hough, who also voiced Haytham Kenway in Assassin's Creed III/Assassin's Creed Rogue and Robert Bethany in Smallville.
Biography[]
Past[]
Sol Regem was born in Xadia at an unknown point in history and was initially the Dragon Prince known as Anak Araw. He mastered the arcanum of the Sun and eventually met Aithne Solaire, who became his beloved mate and queen. When Anak Araw witnessed Aaravos's daughter, Leola, granting magic to humans, he reported the action to the Startouch Elves, for she had disrupted the cosmic order. This resulted in her being executed and her body turned into the Sea of the Castout.
About one thousand and two hundred years before the present, Sol Regem became the first king of the dragons. At some point during the last years of his reign, Dark Magic was discovered by a human mage named Ziard, who gathered a group of followers to poach the essence of magical creatures in order to make live easier for humanity. Not taking this too kindly, Sol Regem arranged a meeting with Zirad in order to confront him about his and his followers' use of dark magic, promising not to hurt him. However, when Zirad stubbornly refused to surrender his staff, Sol revealed the catch of the promise he made to Zirad; if he refused to give up dark magic the nearby city of Elarion would be destroyed as punishment. Though initially horrified, Ziard was convinced Sol Regem was bluffing, so the Archdragon flew to the city to prove him wrong.
However, before Sol Regem could reach Elarion, Zirad, in a desperate attempt to stop him, used his staff to harvest a flock of Sun birds, which had a symbiotic relationship with Sun dragons. Sensing this, Sol Regem turned back to get rid of Ziard. The two than exchanged fiery blows that left Ziard dead and Sol Regem permanently blinded. Despite this, a poem about Elarion confirms that Sol Regem, with his keen sense of smell and hearing, managed to overcome his inability to see and destroyed the city along with nearly all of its inhabitants. However, a few managed to survive the genocide with help from a Startouch Elf named Aaravos.
Sol Regem was later succeeded as monarch of the dragons by the female Moon Dragon Luna Tenebris. At some point after Xadia was divided in two, he took up residence in a rocky gorge near the border and guarded it from humans, relying on his sense of smell and hearing to detect intruders.
Present[]
Upon crossing into Xadia, Callum, Rayla, and Zym came across Sol Regem sitting at a small rock cliff. As he is blocking the way to Xadia, they attempted to sneak past him, using his blindness to their advantage. However, the plan failed due to Zym's fearful whimpering. Hearing this, Sol Regem breathes fire at their directions nearly hitting them. Left with no other options, Rayla decided to confront him directly, asking for his permission to re-enter Xadia, using Zubeia's name and explaining that they were transporting Zym, the Dragon Prince. He granted his permission to them both to pass, but will not allow Callum, considering him to be a wretched, evil human. He gave the ultimatum to either kill just Callum or all three of them. Rayla agreed with Sol Regem that some humans are evil, but not Callum. She explained to him that Callum is the reason why Zym is alive and she considered Callum to be her best friend. She begged him to allow Callum to pass. Sol Regem sniffed and scented the reek of dark magic on Callum and declared that he must die. Callum had an idea that they could trick him and create a false appearance by attaching his scarf, which carries his scent, onto Rayla. Though it was a dangerous escape, they successfully navigate past Sol Regem.
At some point, he managed to free himself and went into permanent isolation in a dark cave. He was visited sometime later by exiled Sunfire Elf prince Karim, who is accompanied by Pharos, the former High Priest of Lux Aurea. Karim revealed to the Archdragon of the Sun that humans have returned to Xadia, despite the world's division, and that the Sunfire elves' home of the Sunfire Kingdom is lost in darkness, due to the sun forge being corrupted by Aaravos and Lord Viren. Karim then falsely claimed to Sol Regem that his people are waiting for him, calling him the true King of the Dragons.
When he tried to convince him under a false claim that Xadia needs him, the mighty dragon reveals his aged and withered body in response. Sol Regem bitterly reveals that prior to being blinded by Ziard, he had already lost hope and believed that the sun will never rise for him again. Returning to his slumber, he makes Karim and Pharos leave his cave.
Despite this failure, Karim had found a way to make Sol Regem change his mind; as the dragon's blindness had made him bitter, Karim sought to restore Sol Regem's eyesight. Knowing that he needed an extremely rare ingredient, he plotted to steal the sun seed, which was kept guard by his sister Janai. Though he sent Kim'dael to steal it, she nonetheless failed as the Sun seed is not where it was supposed to be.
However, despite this, Karim managed to claim the Sun Seed thanks to his lover, Sunfire Elf general Miyana, who betrayed Queen Janai and her allies. With the seed now in his possession, this allowed Karim to put his plot into motion. Sol Regem was not happy upon their return, threatening to incinerate them if they even speak. However, when he smells the Sun Seed, Karim explains his desire, but denies its use to restore his sight. Instead, Sol Regem commands the Sunfire Elves to heal his wings so they can rain fiery justice down upon their enemies. Miyana used a horn to summon him and Karim commands Pharos to serve as Sol Regem's eyes before they use the seed perform the spell that successfully heals his wings.
| “ | So dies, the Sun King. | „ |
| ~ Aaravos, satisfied at the death of the one who caused his daughter's execution. |
The end of Sol Regem.
However, when Janai's army arrived, Aaravos, still having some control over Pharos's body, tricks Sol Regem into flying towards Katolis instead. Sol Regem arrives at Katolis and starts to burn the kingdom to the ground. Viren sacrificed himself to protect most of Katolis's population from the flames. Upon finishing his rampage, the gravely wounded Sol Regem rests at the Valley of Graves where Aaravos revealed. Sol Regem roars after hearing the Startouch Elf thank him for his service and referred to him by his original name: Anak Araw. When Aaravos warns Sol Regem about learning the true fate of Aithne Solaire before dying, the Archdragon angrily demands him to divulge what became of his beloved mate. Aaravos revealed that Sol Regem buried Aithne Solaire alive in his blind fury. Sol Regem initially denies Aaravos's statement, but is forced to accept the truth after smelling the truth. Outraged, Sol Regem devours Pharos's corpse out of rage, only to slowly choke on it. Aaravos mockingly tells Sol Regem that he will die choking on his arrogance. Sol Regem inadvertently immolates himself as he tries to breathe fire, and his lifeless body collapses to the ground. The flames engulf and burn Sol Regem from the inside until only his skeleton remains in the Valley of Graves.
Appearance[]
Sol Regem is an enormous male Sun Dragon with golden scales, red wings, a light underside, and six large horns that resemble rays of sunlight. He sports tufts of red fur on his elbows and tail, dark brown claws, and a mane of white hair above his neck. In his youth, he was smooth-scaled and had small, glowing blue eyes. After being blinded by Ziard, he gained a massive, red burn scar that covers most of his face, including his ruined eyes.
1000 years later, Sol Regem’s body shows signs of aging and deterioration. His muzzles are torched, his scales are flaking and considerably darker than in his youth, parts of his horns have cracked or chipped off, his chin now has a short white beard, and there are several holes and tears on his wings, as well as a few noticeable scars on his neck and limbs. He has also grown a pair of small, rhino-like horns on his nose and three grey spikes above each eyebrow.
Personality[]
| “ | Ziard: You Just expect humans to go back to the way things were before we had magic? When humans starved and struggled, helpless and pathetic! Back to a time when we were... lesser beings? Sol Regem: You ARE lesser beings. |
„ |
| ~ Sol Regem expressing his disdain for humanity during his confrontation with Ziard. |
Sol Regem is shown to be a dangerously arrogant and ruthless misanthrope, implied to be guilty of Racism/Specism even before Dark Magic was invented. This was shown when he coldly called humans "lesser beings" after Ziard expressed concern about humanity's being when Sol Regem demanded him and his followers to surrender the practice of Dark Magic. Sol Regem is shown to have no qualms killing a human being regardless of their age and alignment either to spite somebody else he dislikes or to get them out of the way and is the least bit sorry about it.
Sol Regem is also shown to be a hypocrite; although he genuinely despises dark mages for their poaching of innocent magical creatures, he is perfectly willing to murder innocents himself if they refuse to yield to his demands. A prime example of this is that he didn't hesitate to burn the hundreds of thousands of innocent people living in the city of Elarion as punishment for the actions of Zirad and a few other dark mages. Another example is when he refuses to let Callum into Xadia as a result of the latter being human; Callum agrees to return home and allow Rayla and Zym to complete their journey without him; Sol Regem, however, is ungrateful since if Callum isn't doing to die, then Sol wouldn't hesitate to kill Rayla and Azymondias even though the two are also Xadian with Zym being a fellow dragon (not a Sun Dragon) and an infant.
It is very heavily implied that Sol Regem is feared and disliked even by other Xadians, as Zym and Rayla are visibly scared of him, and the latter states that he has been a symbol of rage and bitterness ever since losing his sight.
His meeting with Karim and Pharos shows that in spite of his arrogance and intolerance towards humans, Sol Regem is shown to have become depressed throughout the years, giving a self-deprecating speech about how far he's fallen from the "magnificent" archdragon he was before. He also implies that something happened before the loss of his eyes that caused him to lose hope for his future. Because of this, he rejects Karim's offer to reclaim his former status as dragon king, believing himself to be a poor symbol for Xadia to rally behind. Karim even offered Sol Regem's eyesight back, but he surprisingly rejected it. However, Sol Regem insisted that his wing became restored instead of his eyes because he claim that he no longer has to (physically) ‘see’ the future.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Pyrokinesis: As a Sun Archdragon, Sol Regem possesses a vast connection to the magical energy of the Sun. He can use that power to unleash a massively destructive fiery blast from his mouth, and his belly and throat glow orange when he performs this ability.
- Bilingualism: As an Archdragon, Sol Regem has the ability to not only speak dragon but also Human and Elven.
- Flight: Sol Regem has the ability to fly with his massive wings.
- Superhuman strength: Sol Regem is immensely strong, capable of smashing solid rock with his claws or tail.
- Superhuman speed: Sol Regem is surprisingly fast and agile for a creature of his size.
- Superhuman sense of smell: Like all Dragons in The Dragon Prince and many dragons in various other media, Sol Regem has an excellent sense of smell which he became more dependent on after he was blinded.
- Superhuman hearing: As a dragon, Sol Regem hearing is keener than that of a human.
- Longevity: Sol Regem has a life expectancy far superior to humans, being over 1200 years old at the time of the series. A millennium after losing his sight, Sol Regem has aged severely physically but he is not so physically diminished despite the ravages of time.
Weaknesses[]
Sol Regem can only use his firebreath once every few minutes; after breathing fire he needs to recharge. Every time another of the scales on his underside glows, he is one step closer to being fully charged.
Sol's blindness can allow others to sneak past him, if they are skilled enough.
Sol's rage and hatred clouds his judgment, which can allow others to outwit him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Sol Regem's name means Sun King in Latin.
- His real name, Anak Arao, means Son of the Day in Filipino.
- His fire breath abilities are similar to those of Smaug.
- Out of all the dragon rulers (Luna Tenebris, Avizandum, and Zubeia) Sol Regem had the shortest reign, lasting for 200 years, while his successors ruled longer (Luna being 1000+ years, while Avizandum and his mate lasting 300 years and ongoing, except for the late Avizandum).
- His rant in Season 5 implies that his humiliation by Rayla and Callum, an elf and human couple, has deeply wounded whatever pride he had left. Sure, he was willing to spend his remaining days killing any humans who wandered into Xadia, but have his blindness and ego used against him was the final blow that made him pretty much give up and desires his demise.
- In Season 6, it's shown Sol Regem ultimately is the one who turned Aaravos against Xadia by ratting out his daughter to the Startouch Elves for teaching humans magic.
- Simply put, his massive ego screwed everyone over.
- Aaravos got the last laugh in the end when Sol Regem burned to death by devouring and choking on Pharos.
External Links[]
- Sol Regem on the Dragon Prince Wiki.
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 Villains
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