Karnak, Monarch of Death

The Dragon Emperor, Grateria, was the strongest dragon in existence, fated by the Seven Goddesses to be the world's guardian.

"You don't know about the Dragon Emperor?” Karnak stared at Demphis in disbelief.

Demphis, equally baffled, responded with his own question. "How can a dragon even have an emperor?"

To be fair, his reaction was perfectly reasonable. While the alliance of dragons, elves, and dwarves was called the Berus Federation, it was nothing like the Seven Kingdoms Alliance or the Lacania Empire, which had structured political systems.

Nations typically began as tribal or city-states before gradually evolving into feudal societies or centralized governments. The Seven Kingdoms Alliance had settled into feudalism, while the Lacania Empire had moved halfway toward centralization.

But the Berus Federation was different. Elves and dwarves still maintained a tribal and city-state structure. The reason was simple: they lived too long. A period spanning dozens of human generations amounted to only a few for elves and dwarves. As a result, the evolution of their governance was slow—painfully so.

And dragons? They didn't even live together. Dragons started as beasts, later developing intelligence akin to humans or elves, and ultimately aging into sages. A dragon's youth and adolescence were spent as instinct-driven creatures that wielded immense magical and physical power but lacked reason.

Unlike humans, who formed nations for geopolitical reasons, dragons chose their habitats based on ecological needs, much like wild animals. It was also during this stage that they acted upon their baser instincts, such as mating.

Only upon reaching maturity did they develop reason, learn languages, and acquire intelligence. Yet, as they had no inherent social instincts, they rarely sought contact with their own kind unless there was an extraordinary reason.

In old age, they withdrew into their lairs, spending most of their remaining years in the Dragon's Slumber. These dragons were scattered like dots across the vast lands of the eastern continent, amidst the territories of elves and dwarves. Because their habitat encompassed such an extensive area, the entire region came to be known as the Berus Federation.

But that didn't mean there was any formal political agreement binding the dragons and the elven races. Frankly, there was no need for one.

The dragons' habitats alone served as a massive natural barrier, preventing the Lacania Empire from expanding eastward. The elves, in turn, had no reason to provoke the dragons unnecessarily. Given this reality, the idea of a nation for dragons simply did not exist, and neither did the concept of a Dragon Emperor.