Felduven

This article, Felduven, is property of KidVegeta.

“	Death will come to those who seek it.	”
	— Felduven, preparing to fight

Felduven
Felduven, fleeing the Blades
Race	Dragon
Gender	Male
Loyalty	Alduin
Color	Red/Black
Rank	Dragon Lord
Type	Red Dragon
Breath	Fire
Dragon Priest	Nahldinok†
Featured in	The Extinction Effect The Extinction Effect, vol 01 - The Dragon Kings The Extinction Effect, vol 02 - Starfall The Extinction Effect, vol 03 - The Tragedy of Evenhall The Extinction Effect, vol 04 - The Windriders The Extinction Effect, vol 05 - In Dying Flames

Felduven () was a Dragon Lord of a small kingdom in northern Skyrim. He was the brother of Jundremkah, and their two regions were located next to one another. Being a younger Dragon Lord, Felduven ruled a smaller region than most, though his territory included the area for what would later become the city of Solitude. Felduven's Dragon Priest was named Nahldinok (), who was a quiet, unassuming (and therefore, quite well-liked) priest, served as the mouthpiece of Felduven's region of several hundred native slaves and several dragons. Felduven and the dragons in his region fought with Alduin during the Dragon War. Felduven often fought with his brother Jundremkah and their combined forces, though after the Dragon War was lost, Jundremkah sent Felduven away into hiding. Because of this, Felduven was one of the few dragons known to have survived the Dragon War and was hunted by the Blades and angry nords alike for many years. The tale of Felduven's survival through and after the Dragon War is documented in the in-universe book collection, The Extinction Effect.

Appearance and Personality

Felduven is a young red dragon like his brother Jundremkah. Despite this, his skin is not completely red - Felduven has some black coloring across his wings and body. He is physically smaller than many other Dragon Lords, but he still has a very imposing presence. Being the younger brother of Jundremkah, Felduven has learned a lot about how to carry himself from his older brother. He is quite charismatic even for his age and he enjoys ruling his territory. Though he has a Dragon Priest, Felduven is unlike most Dragon Lords in that he actively runs his kingdom. This has caused many of his dragons and people to like him, though some of dragons and slaves also do not like how brutal and impatient Felduven can be. If Felduven does not get what he wants, he is likely to attack and kill those who have disappointed him. Felduven has a penchant for violence and vengeance. He has even been known to humiliate his dragon underlings before his slave populations. Despite this, Felduven is very loyal to those who respect him and has many friends throughout Skyrim. Because Felduven is so young, he is more naïve than other Dragon Lords and is not seen as much of a threat by the Blades and other groups who hunt dragons.

History

During the Merethic Era, Felduven founded a territory in northwestern Skyrim, near where the city of Solitude would later be built. Felduven's region comprised of a few thousand human slaves, a dozen or so dragons, and a Dragon Priest named Nahldinok. His region was a respectable size at the time, though it was dwarfed by Jundremkah's. During the period before the Dragon War, Felduven was quite involved with ruling his region. He did not travel much, except to feed on Kraken in the cold northern waters of the Skyrim. Because of this, though he had a few friends throughout Skyrim, he was not one of the most well known dragons.

Felduven participated in the Dragon War along with most other dragons. He fought with his brother Jundremkah as a Jill for Alduin. Because of his steadfast grip on his territory, Felduven kept his people under his control throughout the war, until Alduin was sent forward in time. That was a heavy blow to the dragons' side and effective assured their defeat. As the war came to a conclusion and the last battles were taking place across Tamriel, Felduven tried to maintain a grasp on his region. But at the time, a disgruntled lesser dragon named Sahloksil challenged Felduven to a duel. As Felduven participated in the duel, his Dragon Priest Nahldinok rebelled and killed several of Felduven's dragons and then attempted to flee the Dragon Lord's region. Felduven soon learned of Nahldinok's treachery, and his anger was so great that he recklessly lit entire countrysides on fire, killing thousands of his former slaves and free nords alike, so blind was his fury. He flew faster than the winds to find his Dragon Priest before the man could escape. It was not long after that he happened upon a caravan of supposed beggars fleeing to Whiterun and saw Nahldinok to be amongst them. And when he descended upon his former priest, Felduven was not quick to kill Nahldinok. He tortured his former Dragon Priest with his flames, causing Nahldinok's screams to be heard as far away as Rorikstead. After he had sufficiently charred Nahldinok, he took a bite out of the screaming priest's flesh, tearing him in half. Instead of eating the foul betrayer though, Felduven spit him out and let Nahldinok's horrific-looking remains serve as a monument to his sins.

Afterwards, Felduven met with his brother Jundremkah, and Jundremkah revealed to him that the war was lost and that they needed to flee. That is when Jundremkah directed his brother to fly off towards the remote eyrie of a dragon named Zulsenahlot for safety. Jundremkah did not accompany Felduven there; instead, he gathered up the last of his dragons and sent them against the hordes of mortals who were pursuing them. Felduven never learned of Jundremkah's fate and never saw his brother again.

Felduven reached Zulsenahlot's eyrie in Book 2 of The Extinction Effect, Starfall. He stayed there in the aftermath of the Dragon War and remained safe. Some time after the Dragon War ended, Felduven left Zulsenahlot's eyrie to travel all of Tamriel in search of other dragons. He found very few dragons - those he did find either died soon after meeting Felduven or wanted nothing to do with him. He swiftly realized that the time of the dragons was over, and that there were too few of his kind remaining for the dragons to return to their former glory. He returned to Skyrim where he found the Dragon Priest Ahkrin, the successor of Bahlaan, Jundremkah's Dragon Priest. He told Felduven that the people he led (the remnant of Jundremkah's people) had not seen nor heard from their dragon overlord in several generations. Ahkrin himself told Felduven he thought the Red Dread was dead.

Felduven returned to Zulsenhalot's territory and found Malmulnax there. He knew Malmulnax had been a dragon in Jundremkah's region and had abandoned Jundremkah during the Dragon War. Felduven wanted to execute Malmulnax, but Zulsenahlot prevented him from doing so. Not long after, word of three dragons living in the western peaks of Skyrim got out and the Dragonguard came for them. After barely surviving a battle with a large group of Dragonguard assassins, the three dragons fled further into the western mountains of Skyrim. They eventually found the forgotten vale of Starfall, where a small host of Snow Elves still thrived. Felduven and the other dragons formed an alliance with the Snow Elves that stated they could live in the sanctuary as long as they protected the Snow Elves from outside threats.

During the early part of The Tragedy of Evenhall, Felduven came to be worshiped by some of the Snow Elves. He participated in the bloody civil war between the two Snow Elf factions; at first, he fought many of Knight-Paladin's soldiers from above the streets of Starfall. Early into the battle, though, he flew over to the castle of Evenhall and personally stopped Knight-Paladin Arabor from assassinating Snow Prince Cirathyr. Clutching Arabor between his teeth, Felduven rose from the smoking palace into the dark sky where he swallowed the traitor whole. He then returned to Cirathyr and reminded the Snow Prince that all the mortal races were beneath the dragons, and that if the Snow Elves did not bow down to him and Malmulnax immediately, he would wipe them out. Cirathyr, who was shocked that the dragons' influence had compelled his Knight-Paladin to rebel, was hesitant to do so. He asserted his species' freedom, which angered Felduven and caused him to return to the city of Starfall in order to wipe out the remaining Snow Elves, be they rebels or not.

All this time, Malmulnax had been fighting off Knight-Paladin Arabor's soldiers in Starfall. And after he took several arrows to his wings and body, Malmulnax grew angry and swore to Felduven that he would be leaving soon, as he did not consider risking his life to kill mortals very worthwhile. Though Felduven threatened Malmulnax in order to get him to remain at the fight, Malmulnax did not listen and soon fled from the Starfall Vale. It was only because the fighting was so chaotic and took place at night that Felduven lost track of Malmulnax and did not fly him down and kill him right then and there. Felduven was forced to destroy the city by himself, which he did with much fire and blood. He made sure that there were no living Snow Elves in the shattered city of Starfall before leaving the next morning.

The Tragedy of Evenhall then stated that Felduven wandered around Tamriel for a while before returning to Skyrim and helping the dragon Grahkrindrog sack Winterhold and much of Eastermarch in the Second Era. The Dragonguard eventually slew Grahkrindrog, but Felduven got away from them and then traveled south to find somewhere safe to lair. As it so happened, this led Felduven the Bold to Elsweyr.

In the early part of The Windriders, Felduven was seen by Khajiit as he flew and hunted in northern Elsweyr. A young boy named M'jarai and his young courtesan accidentally stumbled upon his cave, and Felduven nearly killed them when they tried to enter. Years later, M'jarai returned and spent years trying to gain the trust of Felduven by bringing the dragon food. After an unknown period of time, Felduven agreed to let M'jarai ride him, and thus began that Khajiit's conquest of northern Elsweyr.

With a dragon at his command, M'jarai quickly subdued the various tribes and sparsely-populated cities, creating an empire where he was the warlord. Felduven thought that he was in charge as well, but he did not actively try to rule, similar to how it was when he had ruled a region in Skyrim so many years prior.

Felduven destroyed all opposition in his path: when Imperial legions and southern Khajiit armies came for him, he destroyed them and pushed them back. In one battle, called the Battle of Orcrest, Felduven killed more than 700 Imperials and wounded twice as many. Thereafter, southern Elsweyr and the Imperials did not trouble Felduven and M'jarai much.

Later in The Windriders, it was revealed that a battlemage had tamed a dragon named Nahfahlaar. The battlemage rode Nahfahlaar into Elsweyr and challenged M'jarai and Felduven. The two dragons and their riders fought over the scorched deserts of that realm for some time. However, the two sides were unable to defeat one another, instead battling into stalemate. When this occurred, Nahfahlaar and Felduven spoke to one another in their native language and agreed to stop their fighting. This angered Nahfahlaar's battlemage rider, who shot an ice blast at Felduven. Felduven retorted by hitting the battlemage with a drain vitality shout. M'jarai then silenced him by killing the man with an arrow to the throat.

Nahfahlaar stayed in Elsweyr for sometime thereafter; it is speculated that one of M'jarai's siblings or his courtesan rode the great dragon for a while before he vanished from history. When the Blades entered Elsweyr to deal with Felduven (after M'jarai had died of old age), they found no trace of Nahfahlaar, so when he left Elsweyr and where he went to is unknown.

M'jarai and Felduven ruled their kingdom convincingly for the remainder of M'jarai's life. However, as soon as M'jarai died, infighting broke out between his Khajiit's generals and advisers, and greed and weak leadership destroyed his empire from within. The Blades then appeared and swept through northern Elsweyr, destroying the remnants of M'jarai's old kingdom, ending Felduven's influence in the region, and forcing the young red dragon to flee. He knew that he could not fight such a large detachment of Blades at once, as they were battle-hardened dragon killers, so Felduven hid in the caves of northern Elsweyr, hoping to outlast those who hunted him.

In In Dying Flames, the Blades chased Felduven out of Elseweyr. After trying to hide from them proved unsuccessful, Felduven met them in open combat. While he was able to kill many of them, they wounded him greatly, forcing him to flee to Black Marsh. The Blades were unable to track him into Black Marsh due to how hard it was to traverse that region and all the disease and threats therein. Little of Felduven's time in Black Marsh was known, but it was speculated that he ruled over small tribes of Argonians before leaving sometime in the Third Era.

Then, Felduven traveled to Morrowind, where he laired for some time. There, he came into contact with the dragon Ahbiilok, who laired in the ruins of Vvardenfell. While the two were not close, it was noted that they sometimes went on hunts together or terrorized the northern coasts of Morrowind together. Their mingling caught the attention of the Blades and was what caused the Blades to send a detachment into Morrowind to slay Felduven. Felduven met them on a side of a mountain and was briefly cornered before he brought down the mountain on his quarry. The avalanche killed many of the Blades and also covered Felduven. The Blades thought this killed the dragon and recorded him as dead thereafter; yet, as they did not actually dig through the snow to find his body, they did not realize that Felduven actually survived. The Blades did not trouble Felduven thereafter for they did not know that he continued to live.

Felduven then moved his lair to the island of Solstheim. While there, he kept a low profile, though he did continue to hunt with Ahbiilok occasionally. He did not participate during the Dragon Crisis, though afterwards, he reformed his kingdom (though it now only comprised 3-7 dragons, including the resurrected Vulkrahbeyn) on Solstheim.

Soon after, Malmulnax came to Felduven on the island of Solstheim and told him he knew where Jundremkah was. After initially being skeptical (and almost killing Malmulnax), Felduven agreed to fly off with Malmulnax to see where his older brother was. Vigilius Vinius speculated that they set off to Atmora or some other continent in order to find him, but this was dismissed by contemporary scholars who believed that Jundremkah was simply dead and Malmulnax was leading Felduven into a trap. However, as Jundremkah did not appear when the dead dragons were brought back to life during the Dragon Crisis, it is at least possible that he did survive the Dragon War and was located somewhere very far away from Tamriel.

Trivia

• Felduven's name translates to "Feral Devouring Wind".
• Felduven's appearance is based upon the custom Dragon race "Yol’Loot’Maar" from the enhanced mighty dragons Skyrim mod.