Ronodin

Ronodin
Biographical information
Born	pre. First millennium A.D.|500 A.D.
Also known as	The Dark Unicorn Prince Doranio
Physical information
Gender	Male
Species	Unicorn
Fur color	Dark grey
Blood color	Reddish gold
Human avatar
Hair color	Dark
Eye color	Dark
Skin color	Light (possibly)
Relationship information
Family	Fairy Queen (aunt) Fairy King (uncle) Bracken (cousin) Mizelle (cousin) Unnamed sister
Affiliation
Alignment	Dark
Loyalty	Himself

Ronodin is the first and only Dark Unicorn, briefly mentioned by Bracken in Keys to the Demon Prison as a Unicorn who willfully corrupted his horns with dark power, and again in Dragonwatch, where he is mentioned to have been seen at Soaring Cliffs. In Wrath of the Dragon King, he makes his first physical appearance at the Feast of Welcome and provides valuable information to Celebrant and his Dragons. He meets Kendra and Seth in human form, expressing a desire for Bracken's First Horn, which Bracken left in Kendra's possession, as well as an interest in Seth for being a Shadow Charmer. As of Champion of the Titan Games, Ronodin has usurped his aunt, stolen her crown, and become the Fairy King.

In Dragonwatch: Return of the Dragon Slayers, Ronodin's reign as the Fairy King does not last, as despite his schemings and manipulations he is thwarted, loses the Crown, and then taken to the new Demon Prison by Seth, where the current Demon King, Orogoro, has.. unresolved issues with the Dark Unicorn, who vainly flees for his life, and thus Ronodin gets what he deserves.

Background

Ronodin is the nephew of the Fairy Queen. He claimed to have had a sister, whom Kendra reminds him of. In the Unhallowed Province he became enamored of darkness by the demon king's dark mushroom the Rocheblot and willfully corrupted his own horns to take on dark power. He then abandoned his horns, deciding he wanted nothing to do with his heritage. His trespass onto land claimed by the demons and the thievery of the Rocheblot, led to Ronodin being wanted by the demons. In order to save Ronodin the Fairy King sacrificed himself to Gorgrog, which lead to the downfall of his uncle, the Fairy King, which resulted in his uncle's capture by Gorgrog though everyone thought the Fairy King was killed.

Ronodin then vanished and began doing favors for the Underking in order to reclaim his First and Second Horns, which somehow came into the Underking's possession.

Ronodin has encountered Tanu and Lomo on separate occasions, and even Patton Burgess back in his day.

He would also start currying favor with Celebrant, who somehow acquired his Third Horn, and got it back from him after Ronodin gave Celebrant information regarding the Wizenstone.

Wrath of the Dragon King

Ronodin appears as a personal guest of Celebrant at the Feast of Welcome, where he meets Kendra and Seth for the first time, in his human avatar. He insinuates to Kendra that he has Bracken and offers advice to find him if she gives him Bracken's First Horn which is in her possession; Kendra blatantly refuses. He speaks with Seth, noting that Seth is a Shadow Charmer yet his powers are woefully underdeveloped, offering to mentor Seth to reach his full potential. Again he is refused but takes it in stride, and he tells them both that the Dragons' victory is guaranteed. He also compares Seth to himself by claiming he had a sister whom Kendra reminds him of.

He speaks with Kendra again when she is captured by Jaleesa and brought to Celebrant, offering to help her escape if she gives him Bracken's First Horn and even the knowledge he shared with Celebrant, only to be refused again. Although he doesn't reveal the big secret as to how the dragons will win, he uses rhetoric to explain why he sides with them to illustrate his certainty that Kendra's side is doomed to failure.

He later appears in Stormguard Castle, where he arrives just after Seth has lost all memory of his identity by using the Key of Forgetting and begins to manipulate Seth to turn him against Kendra.

In the end, Ronodin arranges for Seth to be kidnapped by Mendigo (who had been tampered by Vernaz) and brought to him, where he teaches Seth how to quench the fire and gleefully looks forward to the work they'll do together.

Master of the Phantom Isle

Ronodin continues to mentor Seth, exploiting the boy's amnesiac state and getting him in debt with the Underking to insure Seth can't escape so that he can use Seth for his abilities as a Shadow Charmer. At the behest of the Underking and to aid Celebrant, Ronodin sends Seth to Wyrmroost to meet the Sphinx, who helps Seth unleash the denizens of the Blackwell, resulting in the fall of Wyrmroost.

During his confrontation with Kendra and Bracken, he reveals that he holds a great amount of resentment and anger towards his family and even more animosity for his cousin, having openly insulted and mocked his uncle's long imprisonment and suffering by the demons for the sole sake of infuriating the latter and taking absolute glee at the fact that he had somehow played a part in the Fairy King's capture. Ronodin explains how he reacquired all three of his tainted horns from Celebrant and the Underking in the hopes of corrupting Bracken's three horns. Before the duel, he took the second from Bracken at Soaring Cliffs and obtained the third from the Font of Immortality. Whether Ronodin personally retrieved and broke the Font remains unknown.

They do battle in their unicorn forms, fighting each other ferociously until Kendra helps Bracken by giving him an energy boost. This allows Bracken to break off Ronodin's horn, forcing him back into his human avatar, and then purifying Ronodin's Third Horn, much to his outrage. He swears to make Bracken pay before using a potion to transform into a large raven and make his escape.

Champion of the Titan Games

Ronodin first goes by the name Prince Doranio, the giant killer, and is flirting with the Giant Queen. When he and Kendra see each other, Kendra is surprised that Prince Doranio is actually Ronodin, and she knows he is up to no good. At first, they both stay polite, but when they go to a room alone, Kendra starts to get mad. She throws fruit at him and then the fruit bowl, but Ronodin calmly watches and deflects until Kendra cuts her arm and she yells for help and claims he was attacking her.

The giant queen put a silver collar on him, which will choke him if he lies, and confirmed that the fight was started by Kendra. Ronodin claimed he was only resisting her attack, which was true. This made the giant queen establish Kendra as disreputable.

Later, Kendra is informed by a fairy that the Fairy Realm has fallen and Ronodin has claimed the crown, making him the new Fairy King. When Knox, Newel, and Doren find Seth in Humburgh, they repeat this information to him, which Seth says is disastrous news.

Dragonwatch: Return of the Dragon Slayers

After Kendra, Raxtus and Virgil make their way into the new Fairy Realm with the intention of saving Bracken, Kendra and Virgil are captured while Raxtus is forced to flee.

Kendra is brought to Ronodin, who, despite being the new Fairy King, does not wear the Crown. Instead, he keeps it strapped to his belt, and Kendra determines that Ronodin cannot truly wield the power of the Crown as he is dark and the Crown is an object of Light, making Ronodin's claim over the Fairy Kingdom tenuous, so he hosts celebrations to keep the subjects distracted and entertained.

Ronodin refuses to get involved any further in the Dragon War, claiming he now has everything he ever wanted, though Kendra points out that though he helped Celebrant, the Dragon King may eventually come to invade the Fairy Realm and the world would continue to suffer in chaos and destruction. When Kendra asserts they should find and recruit the Legendary Dragon Slayers and that she was referred to a few demons that may be of help, Ronondin considers it. Kendra demands that he let Bracken go and Ronodin said the only way that was going to happen was if she stayed to be his consort until she was 18, then he would marry her as part of his revenge plan on Bracken. Kendra refuses and then Ronodin sends Kendra to learn more about her powers as Fairykind from his cousin Mizelle.

Later, Kendra is brought to Ronodin again, who agrees to let Kendra go and fight in a war that he deems pointless and a lost cause, under the condition that she must return after the war is over or else he will strip her of her powers and status as Fairykind. Realizing this is the best deal she's going to get, Kendra agrees, and Ronodin allows Virgil to go with Kendra and gives him a talisman that will allow the satyr to appear as a human to other humans instead of as a goat.

Later, it is determined that Ronodin tricked them, as the talisman he'd given to Virgil was enchanted with a tracking spell, allowing the dragon Jeruwat (one of Celebrant's sons) to follow Kendra and Virgil, which allowed him to kill Magdalena after Kendra had found her.

Eventually, the war is won and the dragons are defeated. The Alderfairy calls upon Kendra, Seth, Bracken and Lizelle to help her remove Ronodin from power and reclaim her crown. Using a clever plan, Seth tricks Ronodin into coming with him, and he takes Ronodin to the new Demon Prison to fulfill an agreement with Orogoro. Ronodin loses the Crown and realizes he is now trapped and at the non-existent mercy of the demons, leaving him to a fate worse than death.

Physical appearance

In human form, Ronodin appears as a young man in his late teens with thick dark hair, intense dark eyes, and wears a dressy black robe of Asian design with subtle touches of embroidery at the neck, near the wrists, and around its fancy buttons. His nose is described as looking crooked, as though it had been broken once or twice, and he has a faint scar through one eyebrow.

In his unicorn form, he has a dark gray coat, fiery mane, and tail and his horn glows orange like metal that has been heated up, and his blood is reddish-gold.

Personality and traits

A dark and sly individual, Ronodin shows all the signs of a narcissist, presenting a self-righteous attitude, refusing to acknowledge his own wrongs, at least not sincerely, or regret his misdeeds. He is smug, confident, knows how to push others' buttons, yet he never tips his hand, saying over confidence is clumsy. Ronodin is known to not align himself with anyone and any ties he has to someone he will readily sever once he decides those ties are no longer useful or become a hindrance. Indeed, Ronodin's lack of allegiance to anyone but himself along with his unpredictable malevolence deems him so chaotic that even demons are wary of him and he is not considered one despite his actions and wickedness making him similar to demonkind.

Later during his time mentoring Seth Sorenson Ronodin also reveals the true extent of his malevolent and manipulative personality, having taken advantage of the latter's amnesiac state to manipulate him to accomplish his own ends, willfully endangered Seth by getting him indebted to the Underking to ensure he could not escape, and use him against his own family.

Ronodin spitefully holds his own family in contempt, especially his cousin Bracken, whose horns Ronodin had intended to corrupt in order to weaken his cousin. Ronodin despises the likes of his cousin, calling him and those like him the 'light-makes-right brigade', telling Seth more than once that dark beings like himself (and Seth) are unjustly persecuted by beings of light and using rhetoric to illustrate his point that darkness isn't inherently evil (which has some truth to it). During his fight with Bracken, he called his cousin the perfect example of a "mindless conformity", indicating Ronodin's contempt for Light and how Unicorns live.

However, it's all a facade that he uses to conceal his truly wicked and sinister nature, such as when Kendra calls him a monster he responds that she has no idea. This is also evident when he cruelly warns Seth that the boy's actions have resulted in great harm, despite his coercion and being exploited, and claiming that Seth's friends and family will lock him up for the misdeeds he was made to do, disregarding the facts that Ronodin exploited Seth and endangered his life more than once to use him for his own ends.

Magical abilities and skills

• High Intelligence: By far, Ronodin's most dangerous weapon is his mind. He is extremely intelligent, crafty, sly, and devious. He apparently always has a plan, and even a backup plan, for whatever situation he is in, takes any advantage, exploits any weakness, seizes any opportunity, and often plans ahead of his enemies and he isn't afraid to take calculated risks.

• Master Manipulator: Ronodin is a dangerously skilled manipulator, using his charisma and cunning to wheedle his way into the favor of those he seeks to exploit, and to take advantage of them without them even realizing it.
  He's not always successful, however, as he failed to convince Kendra to agree to give her Bracken's First Horn in exchange for information, and he initially was turned down by Seth when he offered to mentor the young Shadow Charmer. He instead took advantage of Seth after he'd lost all memory of his own identity and used the boy for numerous schemes that resulted in great harm.

• Dark Powers: Ronodin supposedly corrupted his horn in order to gain dark powers. He is apparently skilled and experienced in the use of these powers and has an understanding of them that allowed him to mentor Seth to teach him how to use his own abilities as a Shadow Charmer.

• Resources and Connections: Ronodin apparently has resources to rely on and connections to powerful beings, such as the Underking.
  When he was defeated by his cousin Bracken, Ronodin drank a potion to transform into a large raven in order to escape.

• Unicorn Horns: After choosing the path of darkness, Ronodin corrupted his own horns with dark power and then abandoned them (which he would eventually regard as his greatest mistake), but over time managed to recover them.
  Recovering his Third Horn enabled him to regain his form as a Dark Unicorn, but his battle with his cousin Bracken resulted in his defeat and the loss of his Third Horn after Bracken purified it. He still has his First and Second Horns. After usurping his aunt and taking over the Fairy Realm, it is very likely Ronodin reclaimed his Third horn yet again.

Appearances

• Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison (mentioned only)
• Dragonwatch: A Fablehaven Adventure (mentioned only)
• Dragonwatch: Wrath of the Dragon King
• Dragonwatch: Master of the Phantom Isle
• Dragonwatch: Champion of the Titan Games