The Balaur are the dragonkin who occupy Atreia outside the Bulwark. They are AION 2's primary hostile force and the reason the Elyos and Asmodian war stopped being the only war. They are not a playable faction; the game's official store description frames the Dragon race as the third side of the story, alongside the two Daeva factions, without any statement that players can join it.
The Dragon Lords
Dragon Lord | What the story attributes to them |
|---|---|
Ishtar | Consumed Poeta in fire and darkness. Ordered Daevas hunted and turned into fuel for Surana. Commands the Ishtar Legion, which destroyed Verteron's Barrier Tower from the air. |
Fafnir | Trampled Ishalgen and devoured the continent on the Asmodian side. Tears Daeva souls apart and binds their light into gems, producing Fafnites. Commands the Fafnir Legion. |
The game's location text also names an earlier Dragon Lord, Tiamat. The Aullaeu of Verteron worshipped her for generations and kept building altars to her even after her fall and the rise of Ishtar.
Both advanced without interruption until the Empyrean Lords raised the Bulwark, and both still hold the land beyond it. NCsoft's global marketing presents the Balaur as newly empowered rather than as a static background enemy.
Balaur Legions and Forces
Force | What it does |
|---|---|
Ishtar Legion | Destroyed the Barrier Tower on the lower Ellun River in Verteron in an air raid. |
Fafnir Legion | Crashed a Dredgion warship into northern Altgard . The impact scorched the land and leaking Drakana corrupted the soil. |
Draconute Warriors | Occupy the ruined Sanctum Outpost and capture Daevas to convert them into Fafnites. |
A Dragon High Commander who encountered an otherworldly power inside the Abyss that swallowed the Draupnir Caves, and emerged as something past the natural order of Elyos, Asmodian and Balaur alike. He is the boss of the Draupnir Expedition. | |
Nahid Brigade | Holds the Nahid Brigade Fortress in Verteron, where the Daeva lost a battle in total defeat. Captured Daeva are brought there for the Surana experiments, and those drained mutate into Sura. |
Lagta Brigade | Uses Fafnium to steal Daeva souls around the Sanctum Outpost in Altgard, hunts down local resistance and is researching how to destroy the Blood Barrier. High Commander Lagta is a field boss in both Verteron and Altgard. |
Dratona | A new kind of Balaur born in Atreia. Fragile and often treated as expendable, they are hatched and trained at assembly areas and guard sites such as the Drana Plantation. |
Krall | Assigned by the Balaur to dispose of the waste from the Nahid Brigade Fortress experiments and the nearby Drana Plantation, in numbers large enough to need their own barracks. |
Digunaka | A Balaur unit commander in Eltnen who uses Lepharist Drana energy to push past his own limits; his forward base is one of Eltnen's field sites. |
Taytra Brigade | Deployed across Iralcig Highland and the Muspel Volcano Zone in Morheim; its Kurpak Special Operations Unit works under Sigebert, and the Naga there follow his orders in the absence of their leader, Dragon Lord Fafnir. |
Dharvata Surveillance Base | A Balaur base in Morheim searching for the Ascension Artifact and storing Fafnium to trap the souls of captured Daeva. |
Dinakra Sky Outpost | A floating island that broke away when the Arkanis Sky Temple collapsed, now a Balaur sky outpost over Morheim. |
Beritra Brigade | Its fortress was a Season 1 raid site, closed on January 21, 2026 (see Raids (Seasons 1 and 2)), and a Beritra air raid is one of the Dimensional Invasion scenarios. The sources checked say nothing more about Beritra in AION 2. |
Servants and Byproducts
Group | Relationship to the Balaur |
|---|---|
Aullaeu | Servants of the Balaur, gathered at a settlement on the edge of Tolbas Forest. They also guard Urugugu Canyon, which makes them both enemy and custodian depending on where you meet them. |
Fafnites | Former Daevas whose souls Fafnir shattered and sealed into gems. They are not Balaur by birth; they are what the Balaur make out of captured Daevas. |
Surana-fuelled aberrations | Daevas turned into fuel on Ishtar's order, whose experiments produced mutants that attack their own kind. |
Where You Fight Them
Balaur forces hold territory inside both starting regions, so the faction is present from the first hours rather than gated behind endgame. Beyond that they anchor a large share of the PvE roster, and Dragon-aligned bosses appear across the Expedition and Sanctuary tiers.
The Balaur are also the reason Elyos and Asmodian players end up sharing objectives while remaining at war with each other: the PvE pressure is on both sides at once. See Factions: Elyos and Asmodian.
Naming Note
Balaur is the faction. Dragon Lord is the title of its two rulers. Draconute is a rank of Balaur foot soldier. Drakana is the substance a Dredgion leaks when it crashes, not a creature. These four are distinct and are used precisely in NCsoft's own English material.
Related Pages
Story and Lore for the war that put them here. World and Regions for where they hold ground. PvP and the Abyss for the contested middle layer.