User:Lord Halcyon/Dragon Lord Class idea

Description/Inspiration
The Dragon Lord class is a Hero Class based off of the hero class of the same name in Artix Entertainment's Dragonfable. Large differences in lore and in overall appearance differs this class from its inspiration to ensure that copyright issues don't get involved. Dragon Lords in World of Warcraft gameplay would probably become rivals of the Death Knights, as they have similar powers based upon Fire abilities.

Lore
The first Dragon Lord in World of Warcraft was a Human Mage called Garadin. Garadin had begun his road to destruction when an unnamed Dwarf Lord of Ironforge requests Garadin and his Night Elf companion, Mara, to search for his son Karg, who had gotten lost in a passage in the Khaz Modan mountains. Garadin looks for the dwarf and his companions, thinking that the whole thing is just a wild goosechase, but finds something worse.

Garadin discovers that one of Karg's friends, Gouldin (a descendant of the Dark Iron Dwarves), was attempting to summon a Demon Lord in an abandoned Dark Iron temple deep within the mountains. When the demon lord got loose, Gouldin recieved his reward in the form of the utter destruction of his body. Garadin, Mara, and their rescued charges managed to escape death at the hands of the demon, although Mara was mortally wounded at the hand of one of the Demon Lord's soldiers.

Garadin made a final stand against the monstrous Demon Lord on a bridge overlooking a tremendous chasm in the passage. As Karg and his companions left, Mara made her last vows of friendship to Garadin before bestowing the last of her magic to Garadin before she died. In rage, Garadin gave the Demon Lord his all before collapsing the bridge, destroying it with his power.

Both Garadin and the Demon fell down the chasm. In the endless battle to follow, Garadin was almost killed after being severely wounded by the Demon Lord. However, Garadin managed to escape death by peircing the Demon Lord's throat with his sword, and then (out of luck) managed to land in a subterranean lake before the Demon Lord was destroyed in a fiery blaze.

When Garadin managed to awaken from his bout of unconciousness, he had found that his sword was destroyed, his staff damaged beyond repair, and his right arm completely gashed from the shoulder on down, rendering his arm useless. Discovering that he was only a few miles above the Molten Core of Blackrock Mountain, Garadin made the trip up, keeping himself hidden from the Elementals and their Dark Iron Dwarf slaves.

Upon leaving Blackrock Depths after weeks of travelling the dark passages, Garadin felt that he was at long last safe, only to be captured by the forces of Nefarion the Black Dragon. Taken up to the black lord's chambers, Nefarion told Garadin that he had been watching him as he tracked the long passages of the Blackrock depths, and also knew of the fate that became of his companion. Nefarion offered him wealth, power, vengeance, and immortality in return for Garadin's unswerving loyalty. Garadin, in his weakened state, couldn't say no.

The pact was sealed when Nefarion offered Garadin a black dragon egg. As soon as Garadin touched the egg, the hatchling inside, named Naragos, came to life, hatching violently from his egg. As soon as the two's eyes met, an unbreakable bond formed between the two beings, and they became one spirit. And as such, the first Dragon Lord was born.

Class
The Dragon Lord Hero Class will have its own talent tree (with two pre-existing sections making their appearance here; Runes (from Death Knight), and Fire (from Mage), plus a new talent section all to its own (Arcane of the Dragon). A new armor tier for this class will be included, pluse new Rune weapons, new spells and powers, and a new kind of mount (Assault-Class Mount, a type of mount that can do combat in battle with the player).

Dragonlords can start at a low level, and they all start automatically at level 25 (regardless of how high you are when you discover the hero class). When you begin, you have to choose what Dragonflight you as a lord represent (this will decide your dragon hatchling, a level 25 pet, and will allow you to access certain quests early on; however, all Dragon Lord quests can eventually be unlocked when you recieve exalted status with the Dragonflights in general).

As a Dragon Lord, you would start out on the flying fortress of Sindrakol (more to come on that particular subject), which is a tremendous construct of Dark Iron Dwarf architecture on top of a tremendously large Dragon lich of the same name. Your pet dragon, which you can name and customize a tiny bit depending on your flight and what class you were when you started out, levels up and grows with you at a tremendous rate. When you reach level 40 and start training for riding, it becomes large enough to become a low-level mount, and you will be able to ride on it the same way as you would ride a horse (it can only fly within Sindrakol or in areas where flying mounts are available, such as Outland or Northrend).

This is explained because when a Dragon and a similar race of sapience share a bond, they both benifit from this bond; the Dragon Lord recieves a boost in magical powers and obtains the ability to control (semi) the power of the Dragonflight that he represents, while the dragon recieves a tremendous growth spurt (mental and physical, becoming the size of a drake in a matter of months), and also gains the benefits of the Dragon Lord's former class (more physical attacks if the person was a warrior, or magical when the person was a mage, etc.).

Talent Trees
Runes: Allows a Dragonlord to control the power of Rune-weapons to a grander scale, similar to the Death Knights. Most of these rune weapons are obtainable as rewards to specific quests involving the Dragon Lord.

Fire: All dragons control it, so just a simple re-vamp of the traditional Mage talent tree will make it perfect for the Dragon Lord to use.

Arcane of the Dragon/Draconic Arts: A Dragon Lord and his mount trade power with one another as they grow. As such, whatever powers the Dragon Lord had before his union with his dragon can be transferred to the dragon, just as the dragon can transfer his/her powers to the Dragon Lord. It is a complex tree that has only a few original capabilities, but relies on the former class trees that the player had before he/she became a dragon lord in order to benefit the dragon as well (for example, when the dragon fights it can use rage if the Dragon Lord was a warrior, or Mana if the Dragon Lord was a mage, etc.)

Note to readers
This is a class that requires a specific patch or story update within the World of Warcraft lore in order to make sense. I will write a patch idea article that will help explain this hero class idea in the future.