Charlock

In Dragon Quest I, the castle of Charlock is the final dungeon in the game, and the site of the final battle with the Dragonlord. It reprises this role in Dragon Quest III, with Zoma filling in for the role of final boss. It plays a different role in Dragon Quest II, but we'll get to that later.

Charlock Castle is on a small island at the very center of Alefgard, occupying the continent's central bay. Notably, it's directly across from Tantegel - you can see it on the map as soon as you leave the starting location, but it's inaccessible until much later, and much of the first game revolves around creating a passage to the island.

I don't think Charlock is actually a part of Alefgard, so much as it's located in the immediate vicinity of it. At least, for The Saga of the Ortegids, I would portray it as an independent kingdom in Torland. Although the Dragonlord is the final boss and central antagonist of I, his grandson appears in II, still apparently in charge of Charlock, and this time as an ally. His role is small, all things considered - he really just gives you information needed to complete a late-game quest - but he even declares the party to be friends if visited after defeating Malroth. And the fact that he's there at all is, in my opinion, a clue toward Charlock's true nature.

You would think that, if the Dragonlord was some rogue entity acting within Alefgardic jurisdiction, his descendants would not be allowed to operate the same position so openly, and not with the kingdom turning a blind eye to it. This only makes sense if we assume that Charlock is a sovereign state, and the Dragonlords are its rulers. They had opposed Alefgard at one point in time, but later forged an alliance with them and/or the three Ortegid kingdoms, perhaps out of necessity with the Children of Hargon proving to be a bigger threat.

Art by JamesRPGArt

This interpretation is actually pretty internally consistent with what we see in the games. Neither character is given a name beyond "Dragonlord," which is likely the title of the ruler of Charlock. They use the same sprites, would could be a sign that they use the same royal regalia for their position. Furthermore, the first Dragonlord is implied to be the son of the Queen of Dragons from III, which positions him as being part of a draconic royal bloodline. As I stated before, that also explains his motivation for stealing the Sphere of Light from Tantegel, because that item was originally owned by his mother, and is likely a sacred treasure of the draconic royal house. If we further pull at the strings of the Dragon Queen claiming to be a "messenger of the gods" who lives close to the heavens, the Dragonlord may well be a direct descendant of Gaius, the god of dragonkind, and would have reason to covet the Sphere if it was forged by Gaius himself. If he was born in Erdland, him retrieving the Sphere may also be a way to legitimize his rule to the dragons of Torland.

I would go as far as to say that Charlock was probably run by a different lineage of dragons at the time of DQ3. I don't think Zoma would've always been there, at least not going based on the logic I've already created for this setting. In my opinion, the power and authority Zoma displays in being able to overthrow a goddess makes the most sense if he is himself a god, and the Erdrick Trilogy shows that gods can be summoned to the mortal realm. Perhaps Zoma is in Charlock because he was summoned by the reigning Dragonlord at the time, who may have been a worshiper of his cult.

In fact, one of the bosses fought directly before Zoma is the "King Hydra." There's no real sense of significance alloted to this creature besides the name, but consider that that name combines a reptilian monster and a noble title. Where have we seen that before? I'm almost certainly overthinking this, but it makes a surprising amount of sense.

Art by Gustavo Cabral

Anyway, on to the gameable stuff. Befitting its status as the final location of the original game, Charlock's terrain is quite foreboding, consisting mainly of mountains. Uniquely, the castle itself is placed atop a series of tall cliffs, which use unique graphical assets not seen elsewhere on the map - I'd posit that it's built on the tallest mountain in the Alefgard area, if not all of Torland, which draws further parallels to the Kingdom of Dragons. Unlike the Kingdom of Dragons, though, I don't see such an inhospitable land sustaining a large population of humanoids. The bulk of Charlock's population is likely made up of dragons and their kin, like Dragovians.

It could be a place to go to battle monsters, but we also see that the draconic rulers are capable of diplomacy and maintaining friendly relations with outsiders. Negotiating an alliance with the dragons could provide a valuable asset. Further, the fact that the ruling dynasty is a foreign one could well breed tensions with native-born dragon houses. And who knows if they would approve of the ruler's decision to ally with humans...