The Silencing and the Cleansing

Since living on Drake's Peak, the Fire Dragons have come up with some pretty nasty traditions regarding the Ice Dragons. The two worst ones however, are known as the Silencing and the Cleansing.



The Silencing is preformed every few months, and will determine the course of an Ice Dragons life. For every Silencing, soldiers will accompany two advisors into Wynter's Grove, where they will look at all of the dragonets born since the last Silencing. If the advisors find any they think will serve well in the castle, then the guards preform the act of the Silencing.

The act of the Silencing, or rather what it does, was discovered by accident in the very early days of Drake's Peak. Drake was experimenting with the best way to torture the Ice Dragons in punishment, and found that by cutting a specific pattern on a specific place on their necks, it was possible to sever their vocal cords, but leave the part of their throat necessary for breathing ice intact. See below for an image of this pattern.

the mark of the selected

Drake decided to use the Silencing as punishment for a rebellion the Ice Dragons attempted to pull off. In a royal decree, he announced that servants of the castle would be chosen shortly after birth, instead of in their tenth year as they had previously been. The marked, or Selected - as they quickly became known as - would then live in Wynter's Grove, being trained slightly more than normal Ice Dragonets, until their tenth year. The year they turned ten, they were all gathered up on a single day, towards the end of the year, to ensure they gather everyone, and are brought to the castle.

Once they arrive at the castle, a series of tests are given. These tests help determine the Selected's skill levels in various areas, to ensure they are put in a proper position. For example a Selected with strong forearms and good heat resistance would be assigned to the blacksmiths. However, a smaller, weaker Ice Dragon would be assigned to the kitchens or farms.

Before the Ice Dragons are placed into these positions however, if the royal family has a need for a new servant, they will be allowed to have first pick of the new recruits.


The second tradition, the Cleansing is a bit more on the brutal side. Every twenty-five years or so, the castle's servant quarters ends up completely filled. In order to counter this, Drake decided to start a tradition that, whenever the castle's servant quarters were filled, the Fire Dragons would spend one week deciding which servants weren't living up to their full potential, and at the end of the week kill those servants.

Typically in the Cleansing, elderly dragons, or dragons chosen in that year are chosen to be killed. Sometimes there are other dragons picked to be killed, but not often. In a typical Cleansing, between fifty and seventy-five Ice Dragons are killed. In the first year, it is said that almost one hundred and thirty Ice Dragons were slain, leaving behind only seventy Ice dragons to serve the entire castle.