The Dragons of the American Revolution: Alaric and the Banished One

In John Hancock, Dragon Rider, the American Revolution is only the beginning. 

In the shadows of Revolutionary Boston, an older war is waking—one fought by dragons, exiles, dark magic, and an ancient enemy waiting to return.

The Dragons of the American Revolution: Alaric and the Banished One

John Hancock, Dragon Rider begins in a world readers may think they know.

Boston.
The Sons of Liberty.
Redcoats in the streets.
Taverns filled with whispers.
A colony on the edge of rebellion.

But in this telling of the American Revolution, the human war is only the surface.

Beneath the politics, protests, speeches, and battles, an older conflict is stirring—one that began long before King George, long before Parliament, and long before the colonies dared to imagine independence.

It is a war remembered by dragons.

And one of its darkest names is Alaric.

A Hidden War Beneath History

In the world of John Hancock, Dragon Rider, dragons are not merely beasts of legend. They are ancient, intelligent beings with their own histories, loyalties, betrayals, and wounds.

Most humans have forgotten them.

Some never knew they existed at all.

But dragons have been watching Earth for centuries. Some serve as guardians. Some remain hidden in the safety of their own Realm. And some were cast out long ago.

Those exiled dragons are known as the Banished Ones.

They are dangerous.
They are proud.
They are desperate.
And they have not forgotten what was taken from them.

As revolution rises in Boston, the Banished Ones see something more than human unrest. They see weakness. They see chaos. They see a door opening.

And they intend to use it.

Who Are the Banished Ones?

The Banished Ones are dragons cut off from the hidden Dragon Realm.

Some believe they were wronged. Some believe they were abandoned. Some have let grief harden into vengeance. Others simply want to return home—but pride, rage, and old wounds have twisted that longing into something far more dangerous.

They carry the bitterness of exile, the hunger for restoration, and the terrible belief that power is the only path back to belonging.

In their eyes, Earth is not merely a world of humans. It is a battlefield. A bargaining piece. Perhaps even a key.

And if the human world must fall for them to reclaim what they believe is theirs, then so be it.

Alaric: The Ascendant’s Emissary to Earth

Alaric is one of the darkest forces moving beneath Revolutionary Boston. A ancient Banished One, Alaric serves as the Lieutenant and right hand to the leader of the Banished. He was there in the beginning when they were sundered from the Dragon Realm.

Their enemies call them the Banished Ones. They call themselves the Ascendant.

They believe they are better. Stronger. The perfected race of dragons. 

Alaric broke through the ancient Earth wards placed by the Guardian dragons and has been waiting in the shadows to find the perfect human to bind and begin the process of infiltrating Earth.

With the American Revolution stirring, Alaric sees his chance. Through an ancient Ascendant dark rite, he binds himself to General Thomas Gage, commander of the British forces in North America. But the rite does not create a true dragon bond. It creates a chain.

Through that chain, Alaric gains access to Gage’s soul. He feeds on it slowly, making Gage crueler, colder, and more useful to his purpose—while Gage mistakes corruption for power.

Where a Guardian dragon bond is built on trust, choice, and shared courage, the Ascendant binding rite is something else entirely.

It is domination. 

Guardian Dragon Bonding vs. Ascendant Dark Rite Binding

At the heart of John Hancock, Dragon Rider is a question of power.

What makes a true leader? Is it command? Fear? A crown? An army? A dragon chained to your will?

General Gage believes power is something to possess. To bend men’s wills to his own. To control.

Alaric’s dark rite binding reflects that belief. It is violent, controlling, and corrupting. It takes something ancient and magnificent and bends it toward conquest.

John Hancock’s bond with Libertas is the opposite.

Libertas does not choose Hancock because he is the greatest soldier. She does not choose him because he is the strongest man in the colonies or the most skilled with a blade.

She chooses him because he has something far rarer.

A brave heart.
A fierce conscience.
A willingness to stand when turning away would be easier.

He sees men, sons, and brothers even when he must fight them. Men are not numbers to him. Life has value, even when war demands taking it.

In this world, the difference between bonding and binding is the difference between liberty and tyranny.

One protects.

One controls.

And that difference may decide the fate of both Earth and the Dragon Realm.

Why the Banished Ones Want Earth

Earth matters more than most humans realize.

It is not simply a place where history unfolds. It is guarded. Watched. Warded with sacrifice of man and dragon.

Libertas is one of its last great protectors—a legendary Guardian dragon whose love for Earth has cost her more than most will ever understand.

To the Banished Ones, that makes her both obstacle and prize.

If Libertas stands against them, others may find courage in her defiance.

If she falls, Earth will fall with her. If she can be captured, broken, or used, the Banished Ones may finally have the leverage they need to force open the gates of the Realm that cast them out.

Their war is not only about conquest.

It is about return.

Not All Monsters Begin as Monsters

Evil rarely begins as pure evil.

Sometimes it begins as grief. Sometimes as humiliation. Sometimes as the unbearable ache of being locked outside the place you once called home.

But suffering does not make someone noble.

Pain can deepen compassion. It can also sharpen into entitlement.

The Banished Ones have suffered. But many of them have allowed that suffering to become a justification for domination. They do not merely want healing. They want submission. They do not merely want justice. They want control.

And Alaric stands at the center of that horror: a dragon who has turned the sacred bond between dragon and rider into a weapon, feeding on the soul of the man who believes he commands him.

If a dragon is bound by darkness long enough, how much of him remains?

The Revolution Was Only the Beginning

The American Revolution was a struggle over liberty, loyalty, power, and the right of a people to determine their own future.

In John Hancock, Dragon Rider, those same questions echo through a hidden dragon war.

The Crown wants obedience.

Gage wants control.

The Banished Ones want return at any cost.

Alaric has made General Gage into his knife.

And Libertas is searching for the one human leader who might help her hold the line.

Because some wars are fought in Congress.
Some are fought in the streets.
Some are fought in the skies above Boston, where only dragons can see the darkness coming.

The Revolution is beginning.

But the older war has already arrived.