Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest‘s first episode sees Natsu and the gang accept a daunting challenge: travel across the continent of Guilitina and slay the Five Dragon Gods. I’ve already talked about how cool baseline dragons are, but the Five Dragon Gods exist in a class of their own.
But who are these draconic deities, and why does the gang’s patron, Elefseria, want them dead? Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest’s manga has been going strong since 2018, but I’ll try to avoid spoiling things for anime-only Fairy Tail fans.
The Dragon Gods; deific origin story
The Five Dragon Gods’ story begins four hundred years before Fairy Tail’s plot kicks into gear. In this primordial era, Dragons ruled the world, and humanity lived in constant terror of the skies above them. However, as time passed, many dragons recognized humanity’s potential and renounced their predatory ways, desiring to live harmoniously with the species they once hunted.
Relations between the dragons who were and weren’t willing to walk the path of peaceful coexistence bent until they broke, ushering in an apocalyptic war that history would name the Dragon King Festival. When the tide turned against them, the peace-seeking dragons began teaching their human allies how to wield dragonkind’s innate elemental magic, creating the first Dragon Slayers.
Unfortunately, Dragon Slayer Magic soon revealed itself as a corruptive force that mutated most of its wielders into power-crazed dragons. One Dragon Slayer in particular, Acnologia, became so insatiably bloodthirsty that he massacred dragons on both sides of the war, pushing the species to the edge of extinction.
While the dragons who would go on to train Natsu Dragneel, Wendy Marvell, Gajeel Redfox, Sting Eucliff, and Rogue Cheney found refuge from Acnologia within their wards’ souls, the Five Dragon Gods escaped death by bailing on the Dragon King Festival altogether. Fleeing to Guilitina, the Five Dragon Gods laid low for centuries, amassing power and influence until each became powerful enough to rival Acnologia.
How strong are the Five Dragon Gods?
As their collective epithet implies, the Five Dragon Gods’ power borders on the divine. Each member of the pantheon embodies their elemental affinity’s most destructive aspects, and Elefseris claims that each member of the pantheon is on par with Acnologia. In case you’ve forgotten, the apply-named “Black Dragon of the Apocalypse” was so mighty that Fairy Tail’s other overarching big bad, Zeref, built an empire for the sole purpose of killing the fallen Dragon Slayer… and he still failed to stop him.
With the power of nature itself at their beck and call, the Five Dragon Gods are, without a doubt, the deadliest foes Natsu and the gang have ever faced. That said, the wizards of Fairy Tail have proven themselves to be at their best when their backs are against the fire, and I can’t wait to see how Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest adapts their bouts with the Five Dragon Gods.
