Kingdom of Dragons is Impro Melbourne's binge-worthy tale of magic and epic adventure, with an ongoing story continuing across all six “episodes” of the season. With three shows down and three to go, you might be wondering: is it too late to jump in?
Absolutely not!
Of course, we'd love for you to catch all six shows – and some of you are well on your way! But we know that most folks will dip in and out of the season, or just catch one or two episodes. That's why we keep the story welcoming to newcomers every single week. If there's something important for you to know, the characters of Dragonia will remind you!
Also, life is cheap in the land of dragons. Death is a constant in this harsh realm, so to replace the fallen, each week we introduce brand new characters – with brand new stories.
All that said, here are some broad strokes of the season so far that might help you find your feet as a newcomer, should you choose to join the tale this week:
The Kingdom of Dragonia is recently under new management: Queen Daphne and King Gabriel Longtail have taken the throne. King Gabriel mostly means well, but has been under a lot of pressure lately, what with his elvish wife, the Queen, falling pregnant with a litter of eleven half-elvish royal babies! To top things off, it turns out elvish births tend to be fatal to the mother, and last we saw of Daphne she was in the throes of those fatal contractions!
King Gabriel, trying to save his wife from her inevitable end, met the blade of a spurned ex-lover, Hyacinth Landrell. Though he died, thanks to the Queen's magic, the condition proved temporary. He seems to be doing much better now – though he has returned from the grave somewhat changed. For one thing, he appears quite a bit younger!
In the town beyond the palace walls, the ordinary folk of Dragonia go about their lives. At times, they are drawn into the palace intrigues. At others, they find their own paths:
Gladrigal the druid, who lives in half-moth form, has found love with an affable stablehand named Pogbottom. He drank the wrong potion and was briefly transformed into a horse.
Sylvan, a sentient tree of the nearby forest, was inspired by his friend Jared, a walking, talking bookshelf. Sylvan pulled up roots, took up drinking and poetry, and may or may not have agreed to act as nursemaid to the new royal babies.
A young farm worker named Talace is seeking adventure, over the objections of their over-protective guardian, Ragnar – himself a retired adventurer. They nearly got themselves killed by sneaking into the castle at night. They may have actually got themselves killed by joining up with Hyacinth, who was on the lamb after murdering her ex-lover the king. Talace was last seen telling the dying Queen to push! I'm sure that'll be fine.
And it might be nothing, but there have been stirrings from Frankia, the next country over. They sent an assassin to Dragonia, whose target was not the royal family, but Gideon, their spymaster. The assassin's plot to poison Gideon was foiled by Ophelia, the local innkeeper. But this is Dragonia, where there are always consequences: the town's innocent apothecary was mistakenly executed for the crime because she had grown up in Frankia.
Are you lost yet? Don't sweat it! Most of these people are dead now. You see, the power-mad and baby-brained Queen went on a bit of a killing spree in our last episode. It was a bit of a "red wedding", if you know what I mean.
Join us in Kingdom of Dragons this Saturday night to find out what happens next! It might have something to do with elf babies; it'll definitely be an adventure. Whatever happens next (and whoever it happens to), it'll be a whole lot of fun.
