The entire premise of "Rise of the Eagles" rests on the existence of the Dragon. Most of the time the Dragon sleeps in his cave that's on top of the suitable named Dragon Mountain. But once every 100 years he wakes up, emerges, and runs rampant for a few weeks. He steals treasure, destroys cities, and then goes back to sleep. The story is passed down from generation to generation, for no one lives long enough to see the Dragon a second time. No one generally tries to kill the Dragon, for his cave is inaccessible, and when he emerges he's a flying terror. The safest place to be during a Dragon attack is the ground or, better yet, underground, but of course this is only known from records of the last attack.

Long story short, the dragon attacks are a huge interruption in the progress of civilization.

So what's up with eagles? Well, Eagles nest in high rocks and crannies, and they specifically lurk around Dragon mountain. Dragons and eagles seem to prefer the same nesting areas (although there's only one dragon.)

What most people don't know (even in real life!) is that eagles are actually really nasty creatures. If you have an eagle next in the vicinity you'll start losing livestock regularly, and if you go after it without proper preparation you'll end up seriously hurt. It is therefore preferable that eagles remain far away, in inaccessible parts of civilization.

It is known that the Dragon awakes once every 100 years but no one can pinpoint the exact time. Therefore, they look to the eagles. When the eagles are on the move, when they're more bothersome than usual, when they're picking off your livestock when you've never had a problem before, then you know something big is coming.

This is a metaphor for the title. The characters of the plot are the metaphorical eagles; rising and spreading trouble in preparation for something big coming, a radical change to the political scene of their world.

Nice.

This is really fascinating. I can't think of any questions, but I really want to hear more about this.