Drakan is an action-adventure

Action-adventure game

An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...

 video game series developed by Surreal Software

Surreal Software

Surreal Software is a video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington, USA, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Surreal Software, best known for The Suffering and Drakan series, employed over 130 designers, artists and programmers. Surreal was acquired by Warner Bros....

 and set in a high fantasy

High fantasy

High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy was brought to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...

 world

Fantasy world

A fantasy world is a fictional universe used in fantasy novels and games. Typical worlds involve magic or magical abilities and often, but not always, either a medieval or futuristic theme...

 simply referred as Drakan by gamers. So far, only two titles have been published:

• Drakan: Order of the Flame
  Drakan: Order of the Flame
  Drakan: Order of the Flame is an action-adventure computer game developed by Surreal Software and published by Psygnosis in 1999. The game follows Rynn, a young woman with extraordinary martial skills, and an ancient dragon Arokh on their quest to free Rynn's younger brother from the evil sorcerer...
  
  (1999, PC)
• Drakan: The Ancients' Gates
  Drakan: The Ancients' Gates
  Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is an action-adventure PlayStation 2 game with RPG elements by Surreal Software. It is the sequel to the 1999 PC game Drakan: Order of the Flame....
  
  (2002, PS2)

World of Drakan

The world of Drakan is a fictional planet on which the two Drakan games above are based. It is a world of varied lands similar to our world and harbors a variety of life ranging from mighty dragons to humans. It is one of two planets orbiting a single sun and has four moons with its planetary neighbor, Sessool, always visible in both the day and night skies.

Not much is known about the history of the world before the Order of the Flame was established around 1000 years before Rynn was born but the gist of the back story to Drakan: Order of the Flame

Drakan: Order of the Flame

Drakan: Order of the Flame is an action-adventure computer game developed by Surreal Software and published by Psygnosis in 1999. The game follows Rynn, a young woman with extraordinary martial skills, and an ancient dragon Arokh on their quest to free Rynn's younger brother from the evil sorcerer...

below, gives some idea.

Long, long ago, the world of Drakan was tormented by an endless war between all tribes and races, but the bitterest fight was that between Dragons and Humans, the two superior races of the universe. But after centuries of fighting, the two races came to realization that only a mutual peace is a key to the future and slowly ceased the hostilities. As a trust between Humans and Dragons grew, a new symbol of peace and mutual support was created - The Bond. The Bond is a magic ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

 that binds a human and a dragon being so that their spirits become intertwined forever.

The Bonded formed the Order of the Flame, a voluntary organization of peacekeepers and evil-fighters (much like Jedi Order of Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

) that soon spread its philosophy all over the world. Thus began the Golden Age

Golden Age

The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

 for Drakan. But humans cannot be happy for so long and very soon a secret society, the Dark Union, whose members strived for personal power rather than the equality proclaimed by the Bonded, was formed to destroy the Order of the Flame once and for all. By the end of the Golden Age, the Order was betrayed by the man, of whom nobody even dared to suspect a betrayal. Navaros, a brilliant war mage and a prominent member of the Order, was also a secret member of the Union and its self-crowned leader. He was the one who started the Dark Wars.

The Dark Wars have devastated the world of Drakan. The foul and evil creatures created by the Union have replaced animals and minor races. Whole continents were scorched but neither side was able to win. It was then that Navaros had used his last resort—by twisting and perverting the ancient Bond ritual he devoured the soul of his dragon companion, Keiross, and became a beast of dragon power and human cunning. The new Navaros was nearly invincible, but a mighty hero named Heron and his dragon companion Arokh

Arokh

Arokh is a dragon from the action-adventure video game series, Drakan. Arokh is a living legend, a dragon who defeated Navaros centuries ago and retired to eternal sleep after his human companion, Heron, died. When Rynn first meets him, he is impressed by her courage and agrees to help her on her...

 were able to face him, armed with the Runeblade forged for the purpose with all the magic power that the Order had left.

In the last fight between the Order and the Dark Union, Heron thrusts the Runeblade into Navaros' heart while he was performing his final act of evil magic; after this, when the smoke cleared, both armies lay decimated, and where Navaros had stood, Heron lay dead in a smoldering crater with the Runeblade broken in two at his side. Arokh retired to a small cave deep in the mountains for eternal sleep. The remaining dragons soon followed his example. The Dark Wars were over and both Order of the Flame and the Dark Union were no more. At least, so it seemed back then.

After the war was over and the Dragons had retreated from the world, life on Drakan once returned to its pre-order state of lawlessness and chaos. The human despising alien race known as the Desert Lords banished from their homeworld of Sessool, one of the so called "Demon Worlds" and Drakan's neighboring planet saw this as an ideal time to invade and soon took a strong foothold on the world quickly enslaving or killing most of the remaining human population. Unfortunately, some of Navaros's shock troops, the Wartoks and Grull became allies with the Desert Lords thus ensuring their triumph.

600 years later however, there were now two main groups of armies in the world; those supporting the Desert Lords and the other being the remnants of Navaros' Dark Union. A race of winged human like creatures called the Succubi had decided they had had enough of the Desert Lords and amassed a great plan to rid the world of them. They needed help however and this involved the bringing back of Navaros from the rift through which he was cast when struck with the Runeblade bourne by the warrior Heron. Navaros however, had only a spirit form and hence he needed a new body to inhabit, which through a long turn of events happened to be Rynn's brother, Delon. Succubi, like the Desert Lords also despised humans and Dragons (of the Order) and were supporters of the Dark Union.

This story formed the basis of Drakan: Order of the Flame

Drakan: Order of the Flame

Drakan: Order of the Flame is an action-adventure computer game developed by Surreal Software and published by Psygnosis in 1999. The game follows Rynn, a young woman with extraordinary martial skills, and an ancient dragon Arokh on their quest to free Rynn's younger brother from the evil sorcerer...

where Rynn, after learning the whereabouts of Arokh's cave eventually awakened him and they subsequently bonded. Together they defeated Navaros but at the cost of Delon's life. The sequel, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates

Drakan: The Ancients' Gates

Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is an action-adventure PlayStation 2 game with RPG elements by Surreal Software. It is the sequel to the 1999 PC game Drakan: Order of the Flame....

follows on the story and tells us more about the Desert Lords with the ultimate goal of the game being to defeat them and re-establish the Order.

Creatures

Some of the native creatures to the planet consist of: Dragons (all breeds), humans, Goblins (on the south eastern continent only), Succubi, Trogs, Orcs (Grull) and Wartoks. The scavengers and giants are genetically and / or magically enhanced versions of other creatures and were created by Navaros's Dark Union. The Succubi, Grull and Wartoks were never evil and were converted by the Dark Union and many of them remained loyal to Navaros and his Union long after its demise.

Land

The world has several land masses. The largest continent called 'the great continent' covers the central area of one side of the planet. There is a central mountain range that runs from east to west which is where the Order of the Flame originated from. Rynn's village and Surdana are situated in the foothills of these mountains near the west coast.

There is a south eastern continent which is where Alwarren, the Succubi lair, Mount Tibor & Drakan City can be found. This is mainly a tropical climate and is where the final battle against the Dark Union took place 600 years before Rynn's time.

There is a northern continent, which covers the top of the planet and stretches down to almost meet the great central continent on its north western side. The Andrellian islands can be found in the short span of sea between these two continents. Ravenshold is on the southernmost tip of the northern continent.

The other two continents lie to the east and west of the central continent with the western one being unexplored and largely unknown to the inhabitants of the central continent. This continent can possibly harbor new species and civilizations unknown to the old and new Order of the Flame. The eastern continent is where Navros retreated to and is rumored to harbor vile magic and travel to this part of the world was forbidden by the Order of the Flame.