Lord of Dragons
Lord of Dragons is a eighteen-part book series written mostly by Ephraim B Smain, a popular science fiction and fantasy author who wrote the first book in the series, To Serve A Dragonlord, in 1961, when he was fifteen years old.
Such is what the Lord of Dragons wiki claims. In truth, Lord of Dragons is a wiki-based parody of high fantasy novels, inspired by Penny Arcade's Epic Legends of the Heirarchs: The Elemenstor Saga wiki. It was created because Air Of Mystery and co-writer 4rcit4 wanted to write something with no established canon, whereas if they wrote in ELotHTES they would have to follow existing rules. (ELotHTES did rather kindly put up a short article about LoD.
The wiki is partly about detailing the books in the series (which parody High Fantasy tropes), Smain's life (disastrous) and the ongoing efforts to create a Film of the Book (which parodies moviemaking in general).
Tropes Used Include:
- Aerith and Bob: One dragon is named Mnemnonic, another Cecil. There's even one example in the same name: Gus Lémodỗonyn, an elf.
- All Monks Know Kung Fu: The Brotherhood of the Deep Sai, which promotes peace through ass-kicking.
- Ambiguously Gay: Smain himself.
- Author Appeal: Smain's Mary-Sue character in Lord of Dragons is Smaindur the Strong. Smain is also very, very fond of dragons in general - every single book in the series has the word 'Dragon' in it save for Emperor Supreme, which was declared non-canon.
- Similarly, Jeremy Irons has been Flanderized into being obsessed with dragons based on his appearance in a Spyro game and the Eragon movie.
- Ax Crazy: The Knights Exemplar.
- Canon Dis Continuity: Several books have officially been declared discontinuity, to the point where all copies of Emperor Supreme were to be burned, save for the one in Smain's personal possession, any copies received on EBay, and the copy in the library of the Vatican (the Pope considered the novel to be satanic, despite him claiming it 'really had a cool front cover').
- Catch Phrase: "Damn! That's one shitload of dragons!"
- Continuity Snarl: The Dagoranian dating system is so needlessly complex, when coupled with the many examples of Series Continuity Error it's impossible to know what happened when.
- Dragon Rider: The Dragonlords, naturally.
- The Dung Ages: Peasants live in Dungheeps.
- Expy: A great deal, both in-books and in the 'real world' of people Smain knows.
- Smaindur the Strong is a Barbarian Hero in the vein of Conan.
- Oregon Buglegs is a parody of both Eragon and Richard Rahl, with elements of John Galt. Moral Dissonance ensues.
- Episodes from Ephraim B. Smain's life seem to paint him as part Anne McCaffrey, part Frank Herbert, and a smattering of Christopher Paolini.
- Forgot I Could Fly: The Battle of Dragon's Field was the first battle in Dagoran's history to utilise dragons in the air; previous battles just had them 'stomp around on the ground for a bit and breathe fire'. The idea was suggested by a common soldier, who asked why the dragons weren't flying, to which the Commander replied elatedly 'oh yeah!' and then 'a-whoops!'.
- Inherently Funny Words: "Ephraim B. Smain" is a fairly silly name. Similarly, there is a month, a day and a macro-month called "Meggins".
- It Runs On Nonsensoleum: "Macro-months", which are the small things that make up months; month-particles, if you will. They apparently have skeletons.
- Loveable Rogue: Thermidar the Rogue.
- Luke Nounverber: Gurney Half-Swede.
- No Pronounciation Guide: The month "Mrgf\roth, (pronounced Mrr-gf-\-roth)".
- Punctuation Shaker: Elves, dwarves.
- Pungeon Master: Terrible puns fly thick and fast in the land of Dagoran.
- Series Continuity Error: Many.
- Silly Reason for War: The whole War of Lies trilogy started with an insult contest.
- Take That: "Dragons come to Dagoran. Large celebrations." "Elves return to Dagoran. Large celebrations." "Orthodontists return to Dagoran. Celebrations relatively minor."
- Unknown Rival: Smain has a rivalry with George R. R. Martin, who has expressed confusion as to who Smain is.
- Voodoo Shark: Smain claims that the Aqua-Dragons of Sea-Fire "all drowned". He similarly states that the Dagoranian system of years is so confusing because Oregon Buglegs killed all the Scribes of Matheroon, who kept track of time.
- Wacky Fratboy Hijinx: In a subversion of usually depicting wizards as something akin to geeks, in Dagoran all wizards are Fratboys.