Durothil (prince)

Durothil was the prince of the elven realm Tintageer. He fled with the last survivors of his people, when Tintageer was destroyed by a tremendous flood. With all sun elves of Tintageer and the moon elf Sharlario Moonflower Durothil came to the north of Faerûn. Directly after they arrived on the top of a hill, they were attacked by the red dragon Mahatnartorian. He got lost for some years and was rescued by Lythari. When he returned to his people the sun elves no longer needed a king and so the prince began to study the art of magic. But he also followed a plan to get back his power and maybe even got power over the dragon, who threatened his people.

Meeting the Master of Mountains
Durothil had ambitions to ride a dragon. The gold elf prince Durothil faced the red dragon Mahatnartorian. Knowing that elven magic was useless against truly powerful beings like the Master of Mountains, he asked the deity Ghaunadaur for help, which he got. He made a pact with the red dragon. The dragon would kill a silver dragon and kidnap an egg of such a creature for him and Durothil would hand over his friend Sharlario Moonflower to the dragon after two decades during which the dragon was to leave the elves in peace. The background for this bargain was that Durothil had, as mentioned above, ambitions to ride a dragon. It was thought as something of a pilot project for long term cooperation between elves and dragons. He needed the egg to imprint himself on the newly hatched infant dragon so he had it easier to rear it as his mount. The background to hand over his friend was that when Durothil asked for power from Ghaunadaur, he genuinely believed that power that eclipsed his own would be given at no cost, it wasn’t and a living sacrifice was required, which was why Mahatnartorian suggested to hand him over Sharlario Moonflower, so he could kill the moon elf, who had once driven him away with a group of avariels, and use the same death as payment to Ghaunadaur.

The first Dragonrider
As mentioned above, he needed the dragon egg to imprint himself on the newly hatched infant so he had it easier to rear it as his mount. He kept the hatched silver dragon Silverywing exclusively inside a magical dimension where it learned how to fight in conjunction with elven battle tactics as well as elven culture from Durothil and Moonflower, the three grew close, in the case of Durothil, it was suspected, that he treasured the dragon more than his actual children. Silverywing was only allowed to see the outside through magical scrying, it was planned that the dragon would interact at some later point with other dragons. The chosen date for its first time to fly in the outside world, was the date when Durothil was to hand over Moonflower to Mahatnartorian. The unknowing moon elf was sent to the meeting place under the pretence to check the wind conditions for the silver dragon. When the red one attacked, it was revealed that Durothil didn’t have the intention to sacrifice his friend and attacked the red dragon while mounted on Silverywing. Silverywing was quickly killed by the older dragon, but through magic, the Master of Mountains was dropped from the sky onto the ground where it died by the impact. The crash killed Durothil and he died fulfilling his debt to Ghaunadaur by himself instead of sacrificing his friend.