Many years have passed since the first, fully-documented, trained dragon, Toothless, an unruly Night Fury, rode his maiden flight with his brave dragon tamer riding upon him. His tamer was none other than Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (later renamed Hiccup the Honourable), who taught his Viking brethren that dragons didn't deserve their reputation as vicious, sheep-stealing monsters, and thus the inhabitants of Berk became an island of dragon trainers and riders themselves.
Since the death of Toothless's Tamer one-hundred and fifty years ago, however, the viking island of Berk, and the rest of the viking world for that matter, has slowly succumbed to a state of utmost fear and panic of their reptilian neighbours once more. Livestock is regularly thieved for fodder by the aerial dragons, fishing boats are consumed whole (along with their catches) by the ravenous, and rather diverse, aquatic species, as well as countless cases of structural damage (notably from the fire-breathing variety).
Through the generations, fewer and fewer dragons were tamed for their companionship; although, thanks to the original book of dragons stating almost every weakness, arena-based dragon fighting excelled to extreme levels before laws were passed to outlaw the savagery, and the dragons that had fought in such matches were slain without question.
Today the island of Berk is a hunting ground for dragons, likened to the age-old time before Hiccup the Honourable ever tamed his mighty Night Fury. Where dragons are unwanted and are killed on site; never spared any form of empathy. Their lives are treated as parasitical to the under-developed island of sheep-herders and fisherman.
But there is hope! A small, rogue group of young men and women have gathered on an island to the West of Berk, close to the home of the long-deceased Red Death. They are a group consisting of dragon-loving individuals, who can, do and happily live in the coniferous trees that have taken seed since the execution of the ex-Alpha dragon, and they have named it informally as 'Island'. Each of the residents on 'Island' are permitted their own Night Fury from the descendants of the first, rare eggs that were discovered deep inside the old dragon lair when it was first used as a refuge to the original founders. There, they respect the dragons that live there and treat each one with equality; a stolen sheep every now and then is a small price to pay for unconditional loyalty. The question is - are you worthy of recruitment?