Lore & Backstory
The girl from the Silvergrove
How a kindhearted child was raised to kill — and what happened when she finally refused.
- Full name
- Rayla
- Born
- July 31
- People
- Moonshadow Elf
- Birthplace
- The Silvergrove, Moonshadow Forest, Xadia
- Parents
- Tiadrin & Lain (Dragonguard warriors)
- Raised by
- Runaan & Ethari
- Title
- The Last Dragon Guard
- Primal source
- The Moon
Origin
Rayla is a Moonshadow Elf from the Silvergrove — a settlement hidden beneath a magical veil deep in the Moonshadow Forest of Xadia. She was born on July 31 to the warriors Tiadrin and Lain.
Raised by Runaan and Ethari
When her parents were chosen for the Dragonguard — the elite eight sworn to protect the egg of the Dragon Prince — they left young Rayla in the care of their closest friends: the assassin Runaan and his husband, the craftsman Ethari. Runaan trained her in the assassin's discipline. Ethari quietly disapproved of teaching someone so kindhearted to kill.
The inciting tragedy
About four months before the series begins, King Harrow and Lord Viren killed Avizandum, the Dragon King, with dark magic. The Dragonguard scattered. Only Tiadrin and Lain stayed to defend the egg — and they were defeated by Viren. But Xadia was told a lie: that the egg had been destroyed and that the guard had deserted. Believing her parents cowards, Rayla grew up ashamed, desperate to atone for a failure that was never theirs.
The mission
As the youngest of a six-elf assassin squad led by Runaan, Rayla was sent to Katolis to kill King Harrow and Prince Ezran in vengeance. Tasked first with killing the soldier Marcos, she couldn't do it — she faked the deed, staining her blades with deathberry juice. Removed from the mission, she slipped into the castle anyway, met Callum, and discovered the Dragon Prince's egg was intact. She abandoned the mission on the spot, dueled Runaan to protect the princes, and fled with Callum, Ezran, and Bait to carry the egg home.
Becoming the Last Dragon Guard
After the hatching of Azymondias ("Zym") and the Battle of the Storm Spire — where she helped defeat Viren and protect Zym and Queen Zubeia — Rayla earned the title "The Last Dragon Guard," at last walking her parents' path.
The Silvergrove and "ghosting"
Returning home, Rayla found she had been "ghosted" — a magical banishment that renders an outcast faceless and unseen to their own kin — for supposedly abandoning her mission. The banishment was later reversed through the Ritual of the New Moon, after Runaan returned and vouched for her.