The White Mage is a fanfiction of The Dragon Prince that speculates on what happens after season three. The author admits that leaked (at the time) images from Through the Moon has already rendered it an AU from the start.
One year after the return of Prince Azymondias to his mother, Ezran has returned to his throne in Katolis, Rayla has taken up her parents’ legacies as a Dragonguard, and Callum has completed his training as a sky mage under Ibis. On his way home to share the good news with Ezran, he pays a visit to Lujanne, who informs him about archmages; powerful mages who can wield all primal sources. Callum is excited, but the moon mage gives him a dark warning should he chose to pursue that path. During all of this, Rayla remembers Viren's threat and strange "collection". Meanwhile, Aaravos has immerged from his dormant state, finally back on the living plain. He, Viren and Claudia travel around siphoning power from other elves, with Aaravos being quite interested in the human mage he saw on the Storm Spire, who reminds him of someone.
And that's just the beginning.
The story can be found here
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This Story Provides Examples Of:
- Ambiguous Situation: There are multiple cases of this littered throughout the story. In the distant past, Aaravos is known to have fallen in love with a human and produced a half-elf son, who opposed his father but still joined the humans in their banishment to the west. This son may or may not be an ancestor of Callum’s, which is where he may or may not get his magic. On the other hand, another theory is put forth that his constant exposure to magical items in the show proper for a long time (being the key, the primal stone and Zym’s egg for a week straight) somehow rubbed off on him. Yet another comes in the form of old stories of human mages from before the era of dark magic, who were said to be the now-mostly-human descendants of half-elves, though in truth no one, not even the dragons, can be sure they even existed at all, let alone of their supposed ancestry.
- Annoying Arrows: Defied with Callum when he takes an arrow to the arm. Not only does it hurt a lot and require immediate attention, but his mage wing spell is rendered useless until his arm heals.
- Cassandra Truth: Not in the story proper, but it is mentioned a couple of times that Amaya never trusted Viren after his plans led to her sister’s death, and that she had tried over and over to get Harrow to see his true intentions before the king’s own death, to no avail.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sol Regem is a violent, hate-filled dragon who was willing to kill a village of mostly innocent humans for the crimes of a few even before he was blinded. Maybe going to him with the news of dark mages and interspecies relationships wasn’t the brightest of ideas.
- Double Think: To Viren and Claudia, Aaravos lays out his ideas in the first chapter that dragons are greedy creatures who hoard magic while trampling on powerless humans and how the playing field needs to be evened out for humans to have a fair chance. In a later chapter, he proceeds to tell Callum that the abuse of the weak by the strong is nature’s way and the only ones who deserve the privilege of power more than those born into it are those who worked for it like he did. Given how untrustworthy Aaravos is, it’s unclear which one, if either, of these views are sincere or if he’s just telling each party what they want to hear to gain their loyalty.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Callum takes an arrow to the arm and can’t just brush it off. It hurts him very badly and renders his wing spell unusable for days.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Heavily implied with Aaravos when Callum explores his home and finds keepsakes of his late wife and son carefully preserved. Especially in regard to said son, who he was earlier implied to have disowned when he went against him.
- Hate Sink: Amer started off as a haughty blowhard whose foolish actions led to the deaths of thousands. He then was stripped of his rank and exiled, is stated over and over to despise humans, is too cowardly to face his consequences, and has shown no guilt over his actions. More recent chapters imply his sanity might be slipping.
- Hero of Another Story: Kimaares father, a star dragon named Saluto, led the other dragons, humans and elves to the land of Xadia after their previous land had, for whatever reason, become unsuitable for them to live in. For this, he was crowned the first Dragon King. His story is apparently preserved in an ancient storybook.
- Ignored Epiphany: When Viren reveals the coins to Rayla in Claudia’s presence. Claudia, who views her father as a loving, gentle man, is shaken to discover that he has ripped families apart and is completely without remorse over it. When Rayla retaliates with violence against Viren, Claudia quickly decides it doesn't matter and sticks by her father, though it does continue to bother her afterwards.
- Innocent Bigot: Rayla's parents, though special mention goes to her father. Neither is malicious in any way, and they are truly thankful to the humans for everything they’ve done for their daughter, but they do still hold the typical Moonshadow elf values of tribalism; they do not fraternize with other sorts and especially not humans. This is especially clear with Callum, their daughter's human boyfriend who they struggle to accept. In later chapters, they seem to have at least grown used to being around humans but remain warry of Callum.
- Is That Cute Kid Yours?: Upon meeting her, Soren mistakes an orphaned elf child named Mira for Callum and Rayla's child, despite the fact that not only have the couple only been away for a short couple of months, but she would have been born before they even met, being approximately four years old. Slightly justified with her green eyes, brown hair, and elven features, making it so she can easily pass as their biological daughter.
- It Runs in the Family: If you were to ask Amer, Callum's family is apparently predisposed to ‘corrupt’ elves with romantic relationships, being that Callum and his aunt are both romantically involved with elves. He frequently taunts Ezran, wondering what sort of elf he’ll chose to "corrupt".
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ethari and Rayla's parents (eventually), who put aside their prejudices against humans when they see how happy Callum makes Rayla.
- Last of His Kind: Kimaare, a newly hatched star dragon. Callum and Rayla found her egg hidden in an underground labyrinth where it wouldn't be able to hatch (star dragon eggs are only able to hatch on calm, clear nights of the new moon, when starlight reins the sky). Before she was found, star dragons were thought to be extinct.
- Openminded Parent: Ibis, when his daughter begins dating Soren. Justified, as Ibis explains, that Skywing elves value personal freedom and insistence on control over a grown child is wrong in any case. He says all he can do is trust his daughter to be the smart, level-headed girl he raised. Soren, who is used to authoritarian fathers, is amazed by this. A conversation about this helps Lain and Tiadrin come to terms with their own daughter also being in a serious relationship with a human.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Callum and Rayla come across a village of massacred Earthblood elves, the only survivor of which is a little girl they name Mira. The couple put their quest on hold for a few weeks to take the child back to Novus and find her a surrogate family. As for Mira herself, the attack on her village frightened her into silence (with her name being given to her by Callum and Rayla, who needed something to call her) and she spent a while being terrified of humans.
- The Power of Love: It is speculated that this is how Rayla’s family broke out of the coins on their own. They witnessed Viren hurting and threatening her and summoned vast amounts of strength to overcome the imprisonment. Truth in Television as their are accounts of parents showing increased strength when their children are in danger.
- Reluctant Ruler: Ezran's near-instant decision to disband the monarchy the moment the opportunity presents itself. Rightful king or not, Ezren is a child, and while he applauds Queen Anya for being able to handle it, he himself can’t take the pressure anymore and appoints Opeli leader in his place the first chance he gets.
- Ship Tease:
- Callum x Rayla and Amaya x Janai are both established couples from the start. Over the course of the fic, Ezran and Ellis (now twelve and thirteen respectively) are teased with Ezran having a clear crush on her, and Soren developing a relationship with Ibis’s daughter Zephyr.
- Before meeting Zephyr, Soren briefly thinks that, if not for Callum, he would probably pursue Rayla himself. This idea is quickly abandoned when he concludes that she would probably either hit him or laugh at him.
- Shout-Out: Aaravos started out as a talented Startouch elf who fell in love with a human, married her and produced a child, despite the stigma of elven-human romances. When said family was threatened, Aaravos set out to become stronger and more powerful. At some point, he began leaning on the power of darkness to better protect them, only to end up so warped that he now seems to care more about his own power than the family he set out to protect. It’s a decent parallel to Anakin Skywalker’s path. To say nothing of the implication that he might also be a possible ancestor of Callum…
- Aaravos knows a spell, which Callum later works to pick up on, that allows one to travel through shadows. The auther states that this is an homage to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a favored book series of hers.
- Faolan and Gwyneth’s (Soren’s younger half-siblings through his remarried mother) names are a refence to the book series Wolves of the Beyond, which shares its universe with the more popular Owls of Ga’Hool series. The original protagonist of the Owls of Ga'Hoole is also named Soren.
- When Kimaare, a newborn dragon, sees a sea for the first time in a vision, her inner voice calls the sea "big water".
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: Early in the story, Zym frequently takes rides on Callum’s shoulders, until chapter nineteen, in which Callum tells him he’s getting too big for those rides. Later revisited by Kimaare, both a newborn and a smaller star dragon, who is easily small enough to take up the position of shoulder dragon.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Upon finding the star dragon egg, Callum and Rayla make a couple comments about things being familiar with the two of them finding a lone dragon egg, delivering it to a safe home and said egg hatches along the way, minus Ezran, of course. Ziggzagged upon aforementioned hatching, as Kimaare is a bit more introverted then Zym, her hatching was a largely peaceful event and the orphaned dragonling is left with a foster mother in place of her birth mother, being the last of her kind.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Mira, who Callum and Rayla found as a nameless sole survivor of a massacre, actually makes an effort to forget her life before said massacre, down to her birth name, not only to lessen the pain, but she decides that such information is useless when Callum and Rayla make it clear that they mean to take her home to place her with a new family.
- Took a Level in Cynic:
- The onset of adolescence seems to have hit Ezran hard. His kingdom is destroyed with thousands upon thousands dead relatively early in the story, causing him to Abdicate the Throne among the survivors. His reason for this was that he could no longer handle the stress of being a child ruler. A year or so later, months away from turning thirteen, he’s shown to have become argumentative and rash, though it is clear that his heart is still, and always has been, in the right place. WOG says its mostly just teenage angst.
- After everything she went through in the last episodes of season three, Claudia is much less bubbly and silly, taking on a much more serious and sinister personality.
- Two Halves Make a Plot: The Key of Aaravos, which is revealed to open Aaravos’ mirror, the elf himself being the thing of great power in Xadia. Since Aaravos is already free of the mirror, though, the threat ends up being mute. Later, Callum uses the key to enter the mirror too gather information.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Claudia has pretty blatantly developed deeper feelings for, or at least is physically attracted to, Callum and most of her motivation seems to be to ‘free’ Callum off Rayla’s supposed tricks by killing her. Callum has moved on long ago and is blissfully happy with Rayla.
- The Unreveal: It's never revealed whether Aarush is Callum's ancestor or not, as Aarush himself had created a Soul Jar which barred him from being able to keep an eye over his descendants, so even he's not sure if there is any relation to speak of.
- According to Amaya, Callum's birth father named him before he was born. The significance of this name to the man — whether this is a Dead Guy Junior situation, a Meaningful Name or if he simply liked the name — isn't revealed.
- The Un Twist: The fact that elves and humans can mate and produce viable offspring is revealed early in the story and with little fanfare made about it other than Callum (a then sixteen-year-old human boy in a serious relationship with an elf girl) becoming flustered. Justified, as the rumors connected to these half-elves paired with Callum’s uncertain parentage are what drives parts of the plot later.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Amer, former prince of the Sunfire elves. He starts off as a member of the Dragonguard, albeit a prejudiced, haughty one who heckles Callum and Rayla’s relationship, as well as that of Amaya and his sister. When he reports this to Sol Regem, the dragon goes on a rampage that destroys Katolis and himself. This is quickly traced back to Amer, who claims he didn’t mean for this to happen, he only wanted to give the humans a scare.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Ziggzagged with archmages. It’s stated over and over that, while some archmages managed to keep their heads and went on to become revered figures in history, most are unable to handle the massive amount of power and go mad with it; played straight with Aaravos himself, who was one of the ones who fell to the corruption. Seemingly defied with Callum, who has become a bit short tempered with his raise in power, but doesn’t appear to be near going insane with it.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Ethari is revealed to be as distrusting as his husband is of humans, and feels this way about Callum, who he admits is kind-hearted, charming and deeply loves Rayla. His blessing of their relationship is fully genuine because the only thing that matters to him is Rayla’s happiness.
