Dragon Rider Nuclear Arms Rave following the new Riders Pact
Apologies if this line of inquiry has already been investigated, no way I could comb through the entire sub to see if previously asked upon before. But I was just thinking back to previous AMAs or communications from the Namer of Names, in that there are things (or maybe one big thing in particular, ?details of the wording) people have massively overlooked in the period following Galbatorix' death in establishing the new world order where many things have changed.
Now that every one of the sentient races of Alagaesia have the capacity to bond with dragons and have "their own" dragon riders, could this set the stage for the equivalent of a nuclear arms race where Dragon Riders are the metaphorical "nuke?" Everyone just assumes that the order will rebuild itself with the death of Galbatorix and go back to being an interspecies peace keeping force. But what if, over time as the Riders return, each race decides to hoard their own Riders and exert regional influence? Try to claim more territory? Before, the elves had all the cards being the only riders so the remaining races were at the mercy of the elves. Even when humans were added to the pact, elven riders outnumbered human riders and so they still held the upper edge. But as more Riders come into being, it may be that their races call in their loyalty to their own race. Training of their own Riders could develop rather than centralized training with Wragon, Saphira and co. Indeed, their own dragons could decide to keep their own eggs for their Rider's race to claim new Riders.
The only ones who would be able to stop this would be Eragon and Saphira with the help of the Eldunari. But here's the problem: Eragon has already left Alagaesia because of how he recognizes the effect he has on the balance of power. How would he be able to keep one side in check over the others without then being accused of favouritism? Nor would he allow himself to since he has already demonstrated a desire to not be another Galbatorix by leaving Alagaesia, but most importantly of all he feels the claim all races have on him and so would not be able to choose a single side. He was born human, trained by the elves and by the magic of the dragons made part elf, is legally a dwarf and is the greatest friend of the Urgals with whom he is responsible for introducing into the Riders pact (along with the dwarves). Ever race had a claim so he cannot side with any one over the others, and he wouldn't allow himself to become another Galbatorix in imposing his will trying to break up any potential conflicts because of the claim each race can call in upon him.
The other logistic is how Dragon Riders greatly balance the scales between the races. Elves may be the mightier species with magic, but being slower to reproduce I can see them now fielding fewer Riders than the other species as the Riders rebuild because of this. This would in turn have a greater impact upon their numbers and strength following the war with Galbatorix as their loses would be harder to replace, so even though they are stronger with magic they lack the numbers to maintain dominance in Alagaesia compared to the other races, which I imagine would reproduce faster. In particular I imagine the humans and urgals having a greater potential to multiply. With this potential comes not only military might but also higher numbers of Riders, because they can put forward more candidates more frequently, to make up for the greater percentage of magic users in the elven population. Is this not why Anurin the previous leader of the Riders before Vrael sought to add humans to the pact because he saw their potential to become the dominant species. The hope was that by adding them to the pact the bonding could deter them, but now is a unique moment in history where the numbers of Riders has the potential to start equal, and all races are involved. As soon as every side is influenced equally, the deterring factor no longer becomes an advantage or disadvantage for any side and is thus no longer a deterrent.
Not a perfect theory by any means, but I do believe that Eragon's attempt to preserve the peace by now making every sentient race "Rider-capable" poses inadvertent risk of destabilizing Alagaesia in the near future. Obviously the risk of losing the dragons again and the affect that would have on all the species now would prevent all out war let alone another attempt of total genocide against another species. But I can see the dwarves holding onto their anger over past events (such as eluded to during the political discussions during Brisingr and how such events would not have happened if they had their own Riders), or the Urgals for having been repressed by elves and humans at least from further multiplying or taking territory, or humans continuing to feel the threat from the superior elves that a century of Galbatorix' rule had only fed fuel to the fear of. These past perceived hurts might influence aspiring leaders to wage wars with the Riders being the metaphorical nuclear deterrent against retaliatory action short of all out war.
Posted Jul 8, 2025, 4:48 PM UTC