Black Dragon

Black Dragon Artwork of a black dragon from Tellius Recollection: vol. 2 Prince Kurthnaga in black dragon form. While still relatively young, his potential is undeniable.

Unit type(s) Dragon Weapon(s) Strike Skill(s) Shove

The black dragons (Japanese: 黒竜 (ブラックドラゴン black dragon) are a laguz clan of Tellius and one of the dragon tribes, along with the red dragons and white dragons. They are the ruling caste of the dragon laguz nation, the Kingdom of Goldoa, and are by far the most powerful of both all the laguz tribes and of all mortal creatures on Tellius.

History

Like both the beorc and the other laguz clans, the black dragon tribe is descended from the Zunanma. The first black dragon king, Dheginsea, was one of the goddess Ashera's Three Heroes who defeated Yune, and afterward he sequestered the dragon tribes away in their own nation, Goldoa, under the belief that they were too powerful to interact equally with the rest of the world. The black dragon clan became the ruling clan of Goldoa as Dheginsea remained its king for 780 years, and over time his family was subject to the same rule of non-interference with the outside world as the rest of the dragons.

It was ironically the black dragons themselves who violated the Goldoan rule of sequestration and inadvertently made massive contributions to conflicts in the outside world. Dheginsea's daughter, Almedha, left Goldoa out of disagreement with her father's non-violent policies and married Daein's Mad King Ashnard, which in turn led her brother Rajaion to depart Goldoa and become trapped by Ashnard, transformed into a Feral One, and used as his personal steed. Numerous other dragons entered Daein's service because of Almedha's actions, including Rajaion's pregnant fiancée Ena, her grandfather Nasir, and a platoon of red dragons who also became Feral Ones.

Despite all of this, Dheginsea adamantly maintained Goldoan neutrality through the Mad King's War to prevent the unsealing of Yune, but three years later the war between the Laguz Alliance and Begnion - in which Dheginsea's last child, Kurthnaga, allied himself with Daein as well to help Almedha - caused Yune and Ashera to awaken anyway and for the latter to judge the world. Although his two surviving children allied with Yune to free the world from Ashera's petrification, Dheginsea and the rest of Goldoa allied with Ashera out of Dheginsea's guilt. Following Dheginsea's defeat by Kurthnaga, Ike, and Micaiah at the Tower of Guidance, Dheginsea died and Kurthnaga succeeded him as the second king of Goldoa, continuing the black dragon dynasty.

Characteristics

Kurthnaga towers behind Ena and Elincia in transformed state.

Physical appearance

“	Ike: That black dragon is Prince Kurthnaga? Sheesh, I thought the lions got big... Tibarn: Ah, it's the son, is it? I thought maybe the dragon king had shrunk a bit in his old age.	”	— Ike and Tibarn

Like the other dragon tribes, black dragons in their unshifted state have a distinctive orange/bronze skin color. All known black dragons have dark green hair. Also like the other dragon tribes, black dragons have no obvious physical characteristics giving away their laguz nature other than their skin color, whereas most other unshifted laguz still have wings or tails.

When transformed, black dragons are by far the largest living creatures on Tellius, dwarfing both beorc and laguz in their sheer size; the size of their dragon form grows even larger as they age. They otherwise look similar to the other dragon tribes, being muscular and standing on two legs.

Behavior

As with the other laguz dragon clans, the black dragons tend to be extremely susceptible to the chaotic influence of a battlefield and are particularly prone to losing control in the heat of the moment. Black dragons who are inexperienced in battle such as Kurthnaga seem to experience intense feelings of pain, discomfort, and even psychosis when subjected to extreme amounts of chaos in this way.

Powers

Kurthnaga breathing a fire blast.

“	I'm not deluded enough to think that I can beat you. The goddess herself would hesitate to fight you.	”	— Naesala, on Dheginsea

Black dragons fight by exhaling breath of blue-white flames. They are acknowledged by virtually everyone in Tellius, both beorc and laguz and even Ashera herself, to be vastly more powerful than any other mortal creature on Tellius. Their power is such that a single blast from Kurthnaga, a very young black dragon, was capable of leveling a castle's tower.

Life cycle and reproduction

Much like their manakete counterparts in other games, the dragon laguz have extremely long life spans, and the black dragons are the longest-lived of the dragons, dwarfing all other mortal creatures on Tellius. This is best exemplified by King Dheginsea, who had lived since the age of Ashunera herself; the only living being to rival him in sheer age is Lehran. They tend to not show any physical signs of aging, with the process coming to a complete halt at some point in their lives. By black dragon standards, Kurthnaga's age of 100 years is effectively still young adulthood. They also seem to share the manakete problem of an extremely low birth rate, as Kurthnaga was the youngest dragon of any kind in Goldoa as of the events of Radiant Dawn despite his age of 100 years, and Rajaion and Ena's child was the first to be born since Kurthnaga.

Notable black dragons

Character	Description	Appears in
Dheginsea	The black dragon king of Goldoa. One of the three heroes who defeated the dark god. While his own power is nearly godlike, he has removed himself from all affairs outside Goldoa.	Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn
Kurthnaga	The black dragon prince of Goldoa. He is the son of King Dheginsea, and the youngest of all the dragons. He has established friendly ties with the outside world.	Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn
Rajaion	A dragon laguz from Goldoa. His reason and his very identity were stolen by King Ashnard, who then used him as a personal steed.	Path of Radiance
Almedha	The mother of Soren but tricked by Izuka to believe that King Pelleas was her long lost son, and former concubine of Ashnard. She was separated from her son when he was an infant, and spent her life searching for him. She is a very doting mother.	Radiant Dawn

Class data

Black Dragons were properly introdued as a class in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, exclusive to Kurthnaga and Dheginsea. Both of these has a different variant of the class with different base and maximum stats, with Dheginsea's being the stronger version by a significant margin. Kurthnaga's variant is the strongest of the playable dragon classes, with immense HP, strength, and defense, with their other stats being respectably high. Compared to other laguz classes, however, both are fairly lacking in speed.

Black Dragons wield suitably themed variants of the Breath strike, with both Dheginsea and Kurthnaga having different versions from each other. Dheginsea's Breaths are the stronger of the two. When unshifted, Black Dragons can counterattack incoming enemies with punches, but they cannot initiate battles themselves in this state.

Kurthnaga and Dheginsea have differently-named classes in their unshifted states. Kurthnaga's unshifted class is Dragon Prince (Japanese: 竜王子 (プリンスドラゴン Prince Dragon), while Dheginsea's unshifted class is Dragon King (Japanese: 黒竜王 (キングブラックドラゴン King Black Dragon).

Base stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weapon level
Radiant Dawn (Dragon Prince)	55 » 55	15 » 30	7 » 14	8 » 16	10 » 20	0 » 0	15 » 30	15 » 30	6 » 5	7 » 17	A
Radiant Dawn (Dragon King)	100 » 100	25 » 50	13 » 26	18 » 36	15 » 30	0 » 0	25 » 50	23 » 46	5 » 6	13 » 39	SS

Max stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weapon level
Radiant Dawn (Dragon Prince)	80 » 80	23 » 46	12 » 24	18 » 36	16 » 32	30 » 30	23 » 46	19 » 38	20	99	SS
Radiant Dawn (Dragon King)	100 » 100	25 » 50	13 » 26	22 » 44	19 » 38	30 » 30	25 » 50	23 » 46	20	99	SS

Miscellaneous data

Game	Tier	Movement type	Weakness	Experience	CRP	Gold	Vision	Weight mod.	Capacity	Size	Unit type
Radiant Dawn (Dragon King)	--	--	--	--	--	--	3	+10 » +40	50	--	--
Radiant Dawn (Dragon Prince)	--	--	--	--	--	--	3	+5 » +25	50	--	--

Class growth rates

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Charm	Constitution*	Movement*	Weapon level
Radiant Dawn (Dragon Prince)	95%	45%	15%	20%	35%	60%	25%	40%	--	--	--	--
Radiant Dawn (Dragon King)	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	--	--	--	--

See class growth rate for more details on the mechanics of class growths in each game.

Class skills

Game	Skill	Learning conditions
Radiant Dawn	Shove	Innate.
Radiant Dawn	Ire	Mastery skill. Learned by using a Satori Sign at level 30 or higher.

Class change

Radiant Dawn

Unshifted class	Transformation method	Shifted class
Dragon Prince Dragon King	Gaining 30 transformation gauge points. → ← Transformation gauge reaching 0 points.	Black Dragon

Playable Black Dragons

Playable units
Name	Game
Kurthnaga	Radiant Dawn
Playable Black Dragon units in the Fire Emblem series.

Notable enemy Black Dragons

Enemy units
Name	Game
Kurthnaga	Radiant Dawn
Dheginsea	Radiant Dawn
Enemy Black Dragon units in the Fire Emblem series.

Flavor text

Game	Text (English)	Text (Japanese)
Radiant Dawn (class roll, Dragon Prince)	Kurthnaga, prince of Goldoa. He fights as a black wyrm. He counter- attacks with fists as a human.	ゴルドア王子クルトナーガ 黒竜に化身して戦うラグズ 人型の時には拳で反撃する
Radiant Dawn (help; Dragon Prince, untransformed)	Kurthnaga, prince of Goldoa. A powerful black dragon who punches to counter while human.	ゴルドア王子クルトナーガ 黒竜に化身して戦うラグズ 人型の時には拳で反撃する
Radiant Dawn (help; Dragon Prince, transformed)	Prince Kurthnaga in black dragon form. While still relatively young, his potential is undeniable.	竜王子が化身した姿 まだ幼さを残しているものの 黒竜としての強さの片鱗を見せる
Radiant Dawn (class roll, Dragon King)	Dheginsea, the king of Goldoa. He transforms into a black dragon. Uses his fists in his human form.	ゴルドア王デギンハンザー 黒竜に化身して戦うラグズ 人型の時には拳で反撃する
Radiant Dawn (help; Dragon King, untransformed)	Dheginsea, king of Goldoa. An overwhelming warrior as a dragon, he punches to counter when human.	ゴルドア王デギンハンザー 黒竜に化身して戦うラグズ 人型の時には拳で反撃する
Radiant Dawn (help; Dragon King, transformed)	One of the founders of the modern world. He rules over dragonkind. He employs the skill Ire.	この世界における万物の霊長 竜鱗族の頂点に君臨する黒き竜 奥義【逆鱗】を使う

Etymology and other languages

Transformed

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Black Dragon	--
Japanese	黒竜 (ブラックドラゴン	Officially romanized as Black Dragon. In Radiant Dawn, all Japanese class names are spelled primarily in kanji (i.e. 黒竜), with a foreign-language name in katakana applied as furigana (i.e. ブラックドラゴン) and used as the basis for the romanized name in the class roll.
Spanish	Dragón negro	Black dragon
French	Dragon noir	Black dragon
German	Schwarzer Drache	Black Dragon
Italian	Drago nero	Black dragon

Untransformed, Kurthnaga

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Dragon Prince	--
Japanese	竜王子 (プリンスドラゴン	Prince Dragon
Spanish	Príncipe dragón	Dragon prince
German	Prinz/Drache	Prince/Dragon

Untransformed, Dheginsea

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Dragon King	--
Japanese	黒竜王 (キングブラックドラゴン	King Black Dragon
German	König/Drache	King/Dragon

Gallery

• 
  Artwork of a black dragon from Tellius Recollection: vol. 1.
• 
  Artwork of a black dragon from Tellius Recollection: vol. 2.
• 
  Kurthnaga towers behind Ena and Elincia in transformed state.
• 
  Kurthnaga in his shifted black dragon state in a Radiant Dawn cutscene.
• 
  Kurthnaga as an unshifted Dragon Prince in Radiant Dawn.
• 
  Kurthnaga as a shifted Black Dragon in Radiant Dawn.
• 
  Dheginsea as a shifted Black Dragon in Radiant Dawn.

See also

• Divine Dragon
• Earth Dragon

This article is part of Project Classes, a project focused in writing articles for every class present in the Fire Emblem series.