by in
One of the coolest and most creative parts of Yu-Gi-Oh! is how the artwork and flavour text of the cards can tell a story. The creative minds and artists behind Yu-Gi-Oh! really are very talented and skilled storytellers! Some cards tell stories that give player’s background information and insights into the lore of the game. Some archetypes even have lore that goes beyond their own cards! This article covers the lore of one such card: Dragon Horn Hunter!
Tragedy
The story of Dragon Horn Hunter is a little-known tale about a tragedy that only becomes more and more tragic. First, who is Dragon Horn Hunter? She was once a mighty warrior who set out on a quest to help the people of her small village. Dragon Horn Hunter is a Normal Pendulum Warrior-type monster. The flavour text reads: “The horns were needed to prepare a medicine for her village, suffering from a plague. Unknown to her, the dragons burned and trampled her village, once displaced from their den.” The artwork shows our heroine after slaying a dragon. She clutches a dragon horn in her hand. The expression on her face seems to be one of sympathy, as if she takes no joy in what she has done. However, her deeds took a toll on her soul.
Revenge
As the flavour text of Dragon Horn Hunter tell us, while she was out slaying dragons to acquire the necessary ingredients for a cure for her village, the dragons who escaped the den discovered her home and burned it to the ground. After retuning to her village and seeing the devastation, our would-be heroine is overcome with rage. We see her enacting her vengeance in the artwork of the Trap Card Revenge Rally. Dragon Horn Hunter is seen battling the Masked Dragon. However, it survived the battle and now known as the Unmasked Dragon. It is important to note that Masked Dragon is capable of calling on more dragons if it is destroyed in battle, thus being very capable of spreading the dragon plague. Dragon Horn Hunter continues her warpath, slaying many dragons across the land. Unfortunately, her revenge would be her downfall.
Hunter to Hexer
Once she carries out her revenge, she is forever changed. As a result of her vengeful killing, Dragon Horn Hunter becomes Dragon Core Hexer. Her Type changes from Warrior to Dragon as the dragontaint plague takes hold of her. She has become cursed, hexed. Her card text reads: “Many years of dragonslaying have bathed this huntress in countless amounts of blood. Each drop gave her more power, but at a terrible price, as her cursed body now spreads the dragontaint like an epidemic. No village will take her in, and she no longer even remembers what inspired her crusade in the first place.” Sadly, after slaying so many dragons, she became tainted by their blood, contracting the plague herself. She took ill with the dragon disease which corrupted her blood, cursed her heart, and clouded her mind.
Final Fate
With no home, no family, and no friends, the once Dragon Horn Hunter wandered the land, rejected by all the villages she found. Infected and hexed with the dragontaint plague, she wandered the lands, unknowingly spreading the plague even more. The disease took over her mind, her heart, and eventually her entire body, turning her into the Diabolic Dragon Fortress – Draluvice (OCG). This card reads, “The ultimate fate of the huntress who continued to spread the dragontaint. Now she has become the source of the plague, a fortress of swirling dark, wicked thoughts, and ironically is now the target of others’ revenge. She has no way of knowing that the strike team standing before her are the survivors of a village that was once decimated by a dragon…” In the end, she was corrupted by darkness and became the very thing she sought to destroy.
The tale of the Dragon Horn Hunter is a tragic and sad story. Once of many little pieces of Yu-Gi-Oh! lore. The next time someone asks you, “who is Dragon Horn Hunter?” Tell them her story! If you enjoyed this article, stay tuned for more Yu-Gi-Oh! lore articles and more from the team at Dueling Nexus!
