Application for imperial_saga

[not_the_ship]

Player Name: Sam
Contact Info: AIM/ironbirdobserver
Other Characters Played: Raisa

Character Name: Temeraire
Canon: Temeraire

Canon Background: http://www.temeraire.org/wiki/Temeraire

AU Background: Temeraire’s egg was delivered to the Empire abruptly and with minimal ceremony for such an occasion. The envoys came from a land far across the sea to the east—far, far away. The dragon was intended as a gift for the Emperor, but with a big political motive behind the gesture. Temeraire was actually the younger of a set of twin eggs—his birth, while fortuitous, was also problematic to his homeland. His egg was an “extra”, one that could create a rival claimant to that foreign throne if something was not done. Yet dragons in that country were regarded with respect—even reverence, in the case of Temeraire’s breed—bloodlines were regarded with the highest importance, and such an exalted specimen could not just be smashed and thrown aside like so much garbage. The ambassadors tasked with delivering the egg only mentioned and emphasized its nature as a gift—“from one emperor to another”. They left the Empire’s borders shortly after and without further explanation.

…though that explanation should have included the cultural restriction of dragons not fighting, since Temeraire’s egg was promptly given to Kushana as a very large present. The dragon hatched this winter, coinciding with the first snows, and was almost immediately put to training for battle; learning signal flags, drills, and discipline.

He spent much of his time in Kushana’s army growing into an inquisitive creature as much as a fearsome one. He often asked questions of his captain—or failing that (which was often), other members of the crew (which was also often). The constant formation drills were monotonous and…rather boring, and left the dragon with plenty of time to think while his mind wandered. The dragon never quite developed a solid understanding of what some concepts meant—ones like “duty” and “property”.

From the time of his hatching to now, only a handful of months have passed—not anywhere near a full year. Though he has reached his full adult size and mass, he has not developed much in the way of magical power. His markings were simple, yet elegant; his hide developed into a glossy black, with opalescent blue and silver spots at the edges of his wings. On his head is a frill-like ruff, and on his muzzle are several whisker-like tendrils which would look like a rather serious gentleman’s moustache if they weren’t so ticklish. Once he reached physical maturity, he went longer between feedings and ate less at each sitting, sleeping far less often—so he could spend more time in drills and training and questions.

Personality: Temeraire seems more like a boyish scholar in some ways, rather than a “proper” dragon. He is highly curious about the world around him and everything in it. New creatures, new places, new books—he especially likes books, though he is far too big to read them himself. A good way of making friends with the dragon is to offer to read to him—especially a novel he has not seen before. He will readily engage in debate, though with all of…five months of experience, isn’t terribly knowledgeable. He finds more peaceable pursuits as pleasant as warlike ones, but…well.

Temeraire is also a young male of an apex species, however, and once his blood is up he finds it very difficult not to charge headlong into battle straight away. It doesn’t take much for him to get there, either. As eager as he is, Temeraire generally (GENERALLY) maintains his head even in battle no matter how much he may enjoy it, on occasion noticing signals faster than Laurence did—but no matter what he was doing, he will abandon it all to preserve his captain’s life. In the first book, he was willing to drop an injured dragon to its death in order to catch his captain if he fell. This didn’t end up coming to pass, thankfully, but demonstrates his devotion quite clearly. He can’t help it, and when asked about it can’t explain it terribly well, only that his captain was tremendously important to him. A bit like a young child asked to describe a parent. Temeraire views his captain with something between hero worship and affection—not a very dragonish sentiment, but one that occupies his mind nonetheless.

One more orthodox dragonlike trait he does exemplify, almost perfectly, is a magpie-like weakness for treasures and an itch to gather great hoards of them. They need not necessarily be valuable—though that is highly appreciated—merely shiny. In canon, Temeraire becomes quite jealous and covetous when another dragon is awarded a “medal” made from a large brass plate, even though he has a sizable platinum and sapphire ornament of his own. In this game Temeraire has a more pragmatic breastplate of steel where his destiny crystal will be set, but the sentiment is the same. It’s shiny and it’s his.

Temeraire also has something of a knack for languages; though dragons pick up language through the shell, Temeraire’s breed is unusual in that they retain this ability well beyond hatching. The dragon picks up languages quickly, often imitating common phrases with a few days of exposure and becoming at least conversationally fluent in the language after several weeks. New languages fascinate him—though with such rapid acquisition being so easy for him, it isn’t a very surprising. He can speak at least seven distinct languages as of the fifth book.

He also does not understand the perfectly understandable fear people tend to have of him—he didn’t mean any harm, whyever were they treating him like a vicious multiton predator? Likewise, implications that he merely parroted his captain’s words back for the benefit of strangers also irritate him, even though that’s also a perfectly logical conclusion. His training was exceptional…

Combat Style: Temeraire’s own brute strength is his primary weapon; he has somewhere around twenty tons of it. He is also rather nimble and fast in the air, with an easy cruising speed of around 30 knots and the ability to “sprint” much faster, up to double that speed—but only for short while. In the novels he is described as being as fast and maneuverable as some smaller dragons, but with the imposing mass of a heavyweight beast due to his exceptional breeding. He is one of the few dragons capable of true hovering, implying that his wings move in a figure eight pattern like a hummingbird—therefore requiring more fuel to sustain himself.

Another one of his characteristics is a sonic roar called a bit poetically the “divine wind”; his sides expand like bellows and what comes out of his jaws is not flame but something akin to raw force. The roar sounds like cannonfire and has been known to shatter wood and stone completely at close range, rupture eardrums, cause tidal waves (if used properly, which is tricky) terrify horses and uproot trees and structure as if a localized hurricane had passed through—hence the name. The divine wind has a maximum effective range of a hundred yards, but most lethal effects occur within the first forty—eardrum destruction and wood shattering and all that. The sound travels far; in the third book, one of Temeraire’s relatives uses the divine wind from a great height far beyond its range—not to hit a target, but to demoralize the troops below.

Temeraire himself hasn’t learned to do this yet—neither has he learned the tidal wave trick, or the way to roar at frozen earth to break up the frost and loosen the clods to make the digging easier (he usually just makes a blasted crater). The divine wind is also effected when Temeraire has a sore throat of any kind; several vessels in his throat burst when he tried to use the ability after suffering severe damage from smoke inhalation. A simple cold doesn’t affect the ability much, except perhaps in its predictability; when sneezing, little puffs of the divine wind come out with the sneeze, with predictable1 results on any nearby wooden structures.

His constant twisting and turning midair does put more strain on his usual leather harness than normal, widening any existing tears faster and requiring repairs or replacement often. In heavy engagements, he often goes aloft with a heavily reinforced harness and wearing true armor of some kind—usually panels of chainmail, to foil an enemy’s claws or musket balls and protect the leather straps of the harness. Such kit lengthens the harnessing time significantly.

Temeraire’s scales are not invulnerable; tough, as one would expect a reptile of that size to be, but even musketballs will penetrate this defense. A single bullet won’t do much initially, but a whole volley loosed at once and focused on one spot will. Bullet wounds can easily become infected if they go unnoticed—and since there’s a lot of dragon, being unnoticed is easy to the untrained eye. Particularly Temeraire’s, since he tends to ignore such small wounds until they’re pointed out, usually with a pair of big tweezers and a cauterizing iron.

Kingdom or Faction: Follows Kushana like a big scaly puppy Technically Unaligned, Active

Primary Role: Soldier (a very big flying one) and troop transport

Soldier or Siege Company: N/A

Tarot Cards:

Past: The Sun
Present: The Chariot
Future: Justice

Title: His Imperial Majesty’s Dragon (…what?)

Artifacts: N/A

Setting Considerations: N/A

Notes: I spoke to Void about Temeraire’s suitability to be apped, and as he is a very young dragon with minimal superpowers he is Okay.

I have also plotted with Kushana's mun about her being Temeraire's captain.

Sample Post:

What does your presence bring to your kingdom?
-Well…I am the only dragon the emperor has now, or at least I think, so that must count for something! But the ships around me are so much larger than I, and stronger…though they’re not so nimble and terribly noisy and smelling of metal and oil. They can carry more bombs than I can, but they aren’t as clever with their placement.

And they can’t talk at all, which is boring.

The pressures of court have become too much for you to bear, what do you do?
-I fly away. Words alone can’t take my wings away, no matter how much they want to.

For what cause are you willing to sacrifice yourself?
-I am Kushana’s dragon. So if she tells me to, I…suppose I would. I wouldn’t like it, but I would do it because she asked.

Is this what this “duty” thing is about? I’ve never understood that.

What do you need to know that you do not know already?
-What is duty? For that matter, what is property, and law? Law is easiest to understand, in a way—one who is stronger, in person or in words, makes decisions and the rest must follow. But that doesn’t seem quite right, so I must be getting it wrong somewhere…

What are your aspirations?
-I wish to be strong. Strong enough that my captain notices, and is proud—then I too can be proud. I am many times bigger than she is, but her opinion is as important as that of a creature twice my size.

Everything you love and held dear has been taken from you in the blink of an eye. What do you do?
-I would…I would be very, very angry. A dragon’s rage is not something to be questioned.

…but yet…while I live, there is hope.

Hope of vengeance. Hope of justice.

Who deserves to pass judgement upon you, and who do you deserve to judge?
-My captain, most definitely.

The second I am…well, I don’t know. Maybe…those men that squirm and squeal like great children in my presence, even though I mean no harm at all. They are very annoying and I wish they’d stop that nonsense.

What do you do in the face of great adversity?
-I gather my strength, and I fight. There is always hope of victory, if one is bold enough to seize it.

It is the eve of a great battle, and the troops have made camp for the night. Where are you and what are you doing?
-I am with my captain—if she will have me—or practicing drills. Or if the battle is to be hard, I am resting—or trying to. Sitting still right before a fight is hard, sometimes…well, a lot of the time.

At the end of the journey, what remains in your satchel?
-I have no satchel at all, only my harness—and my captain at my back.