Stellarator 
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[@Gnot Even](/images/3472803#comment_11057960)
> Well, I could be wrong...
*[ quote cut for length to make the thread easier to read ]*
I could also be wrong, I totally admit! I am far from an expert. In any case, I have mainly encountered the trope in a Victorian and Edwardian context, and in that context I'm quite certain of it. But that's quite a bit later.
> Definately going to go look for this on Amazon - I used to love fantasy series but haven't read one in many years. I do fear it won't be as accurate as you suggest, tho. For instance, reading the Wikipedia article you linked, it says the protagonist ||"was promoted Admiral".|| That didn't happen in the Royal Navy in Napoleanic times...
*[ also cut for length ]*
I haven't read the wikipedia article in any detail, to avoid spoilers, so I can't speak to that because I haven't gotten to the point where that happens. But in the series, the military is structured a bit differently. In particular, Laurence (the human co-protagonist) starts out in the Royal Navy, but once he ends up with a dragon he is transferred to the aviator corps, which functions somewhat differently, and with a much less rigid and hidebound organizational structure that is much less based on who you know and struct seniority, and a lot more on how powerful and skilled your dragon is, and how good a rapport you have with them and how well you work as a team. So if ||he ends up as an admiral anywhere||, it would be in the air corps, not in the navy.
In universe, this leads them to be quite disdained by the Royal Navy (and to a lesser degree, the army) who see this way of doing things as borderline scandalous, bug having dragons on your side is so vital, and people who the dragons choose to work with care enough, that they basically have to put up with it.
The thing about historical *fantasy* is that it is going to depart from reality considerably. If you insert a fantastical element or two, and *everything* else stays the same, you haven't done your job as an author.
I don't know details yet, so this isn't a spoiler for anyone, but in this setting, the fledgling United States recently broke away from the British Empire as in the real world, but there have been many references to the Inca Empire also still existing some ways south of them. Presumably they may have had dragons that helped them not be steamrolled by conquistadors? The books haven't dealt much with the Americas yet, as far as I've gotten, so no more about that has been revealed.
Likewise, many of the people and events and battles, when I look them up on Wikipedia, are extremely true to history. But there are also some that any school child could tell you definitely did not happen at all, but I can say no more because spoilers. :)
> Well, I could be wrong...
*[ quote cut for length to make the thread easier to read ]*
I could also be wrong, I totally admit! I am far from an expert. In any case, I have mainly encountered the trope in a Victorian and Edwardian context, and in that context I'm quite certain of it. But that's quite a bit later.
> Definately going to go look for this on Amazon - I used to love fantasy series but haven't read one in many years. I do fear it won't be as accurate as you suggest, tho. For instance, reading the Wikipedia article you linked, it says the protagonist ||"was promoted Admiral".|| That didn't happen in the Royal Navy in Napoleanic times...
*[ also cut for length ]*
I haven't read the wikipedia article in any detail, to avoid spoilers, so I can't speak to that because I haven't gotten to the point where that happens. But in the series, the military is structured a bit differently. In particular, Laurence (the human co-protagonist) starts out in the Royal Navy, but once he ends up with a dragon he is transferred to the aviator corps, which functions somewhat differently, and with a much less rigid and hidebound organizational structure that is much less based on who you know and struct seniority, and a lot more on how powerful and skilled your dragon is, and how good a rapport you have with them and how well you work as a team. So if ||he ends up as an admiral anywhere||, it would be in the air corps, not in the navy.
In universe, this leads them to be quite disdained by the Royal Navy (and to a lesser degree, the army) who see this way of doing things as borderline scandalous, bug having dragons on your side is so vital, and people who the dragons choose to work with care enough, that they basically have to put up with it.
The thing about historical *fantasy* is that it is going to depart from reality considerably. If you insert a fantastical element or two, and *everything* else stays the same, you haven't done your job as an author.
I don't know details yet, so this isn't a spoiler for anyone, but in this setting, the fledgling United States recently broke away from the British Empire as in the real world, but there have been many references to the Inca Empire also still existing some ways south of them. Presumably they may have had dragons that helped them not be steamrolled by conquistadors? The books haven't dealt much with the Americas yet, as far as I've gotten, so no more about that has been revealed.
Likewise, many of the people and events and battles, when I look them up on Wikipedia, are extremely true to history. But there are also some that any school child could tell you definitely did not happen at all, but I can say no more because spoilers. :)