The First Protector, Atreus, the leader of a bloody revolution for his people and whose rule would transform the city—“serfs would be freed, schools would be built, and dragons would, for the first time, be ridden by commoners”—discovers the dragonlord, Leon Stormscourge, and his son at the mercy of bloodthirsty revolutionaries. The First Protector promises to look after the boy, Leo, before slitting the dragonlord’s throat. In the years after the Revolution, though his other memories begin to fade, the First Protector remembers Leon’s last words: “Your vision […] Do you think it will ever be worth this, Atreus?” (8). While he does not forget this question, he does forget about Leon’s son.

Since the Revolution, being dragonborn has been a death sentence. All dragonriders, called Guardians, are lowborn, commoners, or former serfs in the new regime—“no longer the sons of dragonlords” (9). Though Lee is the son of a dragonlord, no one—not even the First Protector himself—knows or remembers this. Ever since the First Protector spared Leo’s life and placed him in an orphanage, he has taken on the name Lee and let the truth of his heritage be buried and forgotten.

Lee rides his dragon, Pallor, through the sky alongside his dragon rider friends, Annie, Crissa, and Cor.