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[kazilik]

Player Information:
Name: Mandy
Age: 26
Contact: plurk: tyriangalley
Game Cast: Molly Carpenter (magicalpadawan),Combeferre (philosophe)

Character Information:
Name: Iskierka
Canon: The Temeraire series
Canon Point: The end of Victory of Eagles.
Age: A little over 1 year old.
Reference: Her page on the wiki.

Setting: Primarily, Iskierka’s world is mostly similar to our own. The Temeraire books are set during the Napoleonic Wars, mostly -- except there’s an added bonus of dragons. The war’s progress so far is almost the same as it was in our world. But more on that later, now we get to talk about dragons.

Dragons: There are three classes of dragons, based on size-- lightweights, middle-weights, and heavyweights. They vary in size from a bit larger than a draft horse to over 120 feet in length and around about 50 tons. Lightweights tend to travel at about 60 mph, while the larger dragons come in at about 30 mph. They are all four-legged and winged, their flight ability is due to air sacs making them buoyant and magical handwaved science.

Their eggs can take anywhere from months to years to hatch, and are generally kept in warm places to keep them safe. Dragon eggs are extremely valuable, especially in the case of Iskierka’s -- fire-breathers are few and far between, and she is the only one in England’s Aerial Corps. The young dragons learn languages within their shell, being able to pick up on the languages of the people they are surrounded by. Most lose this skill soon after hatching; but in this way a dragon can become fluent in many languages, if their egg is moved around often enough. The only known exception to this rule is the Celestial dragon, which can learn language extremely quickly. Feral dragons have been known to make up their own languages, as well. Dragons can be as intelligent or as lazy as any human, it simply varies in their personality -- and, usually, that of their captain as well. Sexual maturity is reached within about a year, and they can live as long as 200 years, if not more.

All dragons have what seems to be an innate grasp of strategy and, of course, flight. They are self-sufficient upon hatching, and some have special abilities such as fire-breathing or acid-spitting. Iskierka’s particular breed can flame for at least five minutes and shoot 80-yard bursts of flame. A dragon’s social hierarchy is usually based on size and strength, no matter how much one might think they are entitled to first pick of the food. There is quite a lot of value placed on treasure and trinkets -- the more capital one has, the more impressive they are. It is a mark of how much they have gained and how good they are at defending it; and dragons are quite easily able to understand such human concepts as money. The problem is, they see nothing wrong with taking something if it is unattended, as it was clearly unprotected and therefore unwanted. Dragons are very jealous of their hoards, and will most certainly fight or threaten anyone who threatens their treasure.

This extends to humans they consider ‘theirs’ -- their captains and their crews, for the most part. If a dragon’s captain is killed, the dragon will become unfit for duty and more than likely be sent to a breeding ground for the rest of their lives. Dragons are quite happy to fight for their captains, for money, or because it will please their captains, concepts like ‘duty’ and ‘honor’ don’t really make much sense to them.

The world: As we said, the world is pretty much similar to our own. Dragons populate the world as well, however, and some countries are even ruled by dragons. The country borders and empires are almost exactly the same as our own, save for Africa and Central America. Africa is what is known as the ‘Tswana Empire’, and consists of tribes ruled by dragons who are currently fighting fiercely against slavery and European influence. Central America and much of South America is ruled by the Incan Empire, but not very much is known about them. They never fell because dragons were immune to diseases brought by the Spanish invaders, and as such, they are also primarily ruled by dragons.

However, the treatment of dragons differs greatly throughout the world. In China, dragons are respected and treated as full members of society and citizens in their own right; they are given pavilions and used in public transportation. Some serve in the military, some in government, and Celestials, like Temeraire, are essentially part of the Imperial family and given as companions to Emperors and princes. Turkish dragons are also considered citizens, and generally serve in the military -- in Temeraire’s stay there, he sees dragons roaming the streets along with normal people. In Africa, dragons are considered reincarnated ancestors. Tales of their past lives are sung to the eggs as they brood, and dragons generally become leaders of societies in the Tswana Empire.

In Europe, however, dragons are seen as mostly useful tools for military warfare, and sometimes as terrifying threats. They were only domesticated after the arrival of Julius Caesar and the Romans, and the majority of the human population considers them as basically slightly terrifying beasts of burden. They are bred specifically for combat and kept in coverts away from human civilization. Upon hatching, they are immediately placed with a captain and given a name, which causes them to basically become family to their captain. They are given crews based upon their size and placed into training shortly after birth. Dragons who do not accept captains are placed in breeding grounds and given caves and food, but not much else. The ones who do serve are very proud of their status as weapons, as they do not know much else than that. The only way one can get a dragon to do something they do not wish to is to threaten their captain’s well-being.

The aerial combat dragons are used in is fast-paced and based on formations, with heavyweights protecting the smaller and faster dragons, or the most valuable ones at the head of the groups. Crews serve on the dragons by attaching to harnesses, from which they throw bombs, send signals, and generally try and protect the dragon from being boarded and ensure the safety of their captain.

Aviators are generally considered separate from Proper Society, of a lower sort of class than officers in the navy or the army. They are generally third or fourth gentlemen's’ sons, and the degree of their bonds with their dragons is such that they generally don’t marry outside of the Corps, nor are they permitted to duel. Dragons will not let their captains stray for too long, and there is little space for them in cities, and so most captains have rooms at the covert. Aviators are considered a rowdy lot, generally no better than the beasts they captain, and they tend to prefer it that way. In the case of British aviators, their separation is a good thing -- women serve in the British Corps, as they are they only ones whom the valuable acid-spitting dragons will allow to captain them.

the story so far: Iskierka does not properly enter the story until 1806 -- her egg is to be sold to the British along with two others for a very high sum, and Temeraire and Laurence are sent from China to retrieve it and return it to England immediately. By the time they arrive, the British embassy and the money for the eggs has gone missing. After waiting and waiting on the diplomats, Temeraire and Laurence discover that the Sultan has indeed received the gold but reneged on handing over the eggs, more than likely at the urging of Lien, one of Temeraire’s enemies. However, they embark on a mission to take the eggs by force and succeed, though the smallest egg and one of Temeraire’s crewmen is lost in their flight.

Instead of returning to England, Temeraire and Laurence are ordered to help on the Eastern European front in the fight against Napoleon. Temeraire takes the opportunity to tell the brooding eggs about the hatching process. Soon after, Iskierka hatches in Poland and promptly chooses Granby as her captain, telling him her name without even waiting for him to give her one. A day after her hatching, she was very insistent on fighting a French patrol that was in the area, despite being far too small to do anything but be a nuisance. She also had the tenacity to challenge Temeraire (by then fully grown) over a cow, though he ignored her and picked her up in his teeth to quiet her. She would continue to be fiesty and argumentative throughout their travels. Eventually she had to be chained down to stop her from launching into battle whenever possible, though she was finally permitted to help during their flight from Danzig, and shot flame at their French pursuers.

Upon their arrival in Britain, Iskierka did not get any easier to control. She was finally outfitted with a proper crew and harness, and grew very jealous of all the capital Temeraire had accumulated. She decided to steal a fishing ship in an attempt to gain some capital of her own, but was forced to return it, much to her annoyance. She continued to be willful and undisciplined, not really caring of when and where her flames were targeted. However, she was still useful, and so was sent on patrolling missions with the feral dragons Temeraire had encountered in East Asia. They grew very good at capturing ships, and eventually Iskierka had gained enough capital to build herself a pavilion in the covert. She also bought Granby a number of coats -- which she then had encrusted with jewels and gold brocade, so Granby would be the finest captain in all of the Aerial Corps. Due to her disobedience, eventually the Admiral had to step in and tell her that she would take Granby away from Iskierka, if she persisted in disobeying orders. As a consequence, Iskierka agreed to follow orders that she disliked, though she insisted that some of them should be agreeable to her.

During the invasion of Britain, however, Iskierka and the feral dragons grew very bored with scouting for the supply lines. They returned to London, where Napoleon and his army were camped, and Iskierka and Granby were taken captive. Lien attemped to convince Iskierka to defect to the side of the French, but she refused. Eventually they were rescued by Laurence and returned to the north, where the Battle of Shoeburyness was about to begin. Prior to the battle, however, Wellesley (who would soon become the Duke of Wellington) ordered Granby to abandon Iskierka if she should disobey orders again. This was done in Iskierka’s presence, and she was horrified and immediately promised good behavior for the rest of the campaign.

The Battle of Shoeburyness was fought at the mouth of the Thames, and involved the army, the aerial corps, and the navy. Arthur Wellesley received the title of Duke of Wellington at the end of this battle. Both Iskierka and Temeraire fought in this battle, along with quite a few dragons from the breeding grounds. Iskierka mostly served as defense, flaming away happily at any dragons she could reach. She was instrumental in the dropping of fire-bombs, which a quick-thinking dragon made up out of extra dragon harnesses doused in liquor. Eventually the navy arrived, and combined with the work of the fire-bombs, the French were defeated. There were quite a few British ships lost, however, as during the retreat, Lien called up the Divine Wind and made a tsunami, which resulted in the death of Admiral Nelson and the loss of all of his fleet save one. Iskierka will be arriving after this battle.

Personality: She’s a little shit. ….To elaborate more -- Kaziliks are a breed known for their love of fighting, and Iskierka is an excellent example of that. She is fiesty, argumentative, and stubborn as all hell. (Most dragons are.) This is exacerbated by the fact that she knows full well how valuable she is to the Royal Aerial Corps, being the only firebreather they currently possess. She will do exactly as she pleases, when she pleases, and protest most vehemently when she is brought to task. Basically? She’s a bit of a brat.

Iskierka is certainly not as curious or drawn to intelligence as Temeraire is. Those factors would seem to vary from breed to breed, judging by the other dragons we see in canon. She is clever, yes, but only when it suits her to be, and finds reading and the like incredibly boring. Like Temeraire, she is rather naive when it comes to the world at large -- she is, after all, just over a year old, and has been fighting a war for most of her life. She doesn’t take well to the sorts of political maneuvering that say, Lien does -- but if there’s a chance of a fight involved? She is there in a flash.

Due to her ...rambunctious sort of ways, Iskierka is not the easiest dragon in the world to get along with. If you share her interests (mainly capturing prizes and fighting), she will get along reasonably well with a person. Or dragon, as the case may be. Diplomacy and patience are certainly not one of her strong points -- she has been known to disobey orders and fly back to fight Bonaparte, simply because she was bored. Boredom is a thing she severely dislikes, especially when being made to run a glorified guard duty. Give her action and adventure over following a train of soldiers north any day.

Like most (if not ALL) dragons, she has a bit of a greedy streak. One of her favorite things to do is capture prizes so she might get capital in order to build herself the fanciest pavilion she can manage, and provide jewelry and other fine things for herself and her captain. She tends to brag about this fairly often, especially if she knows it will make someone (usually Temeraire) jealous. On the other hand, of course, she has her moments of jealousy too -- and tends to curl up in a big steaming ball and sulk when she’s been shown up or proven wrong.

She is most definitely vain, too, having been told she is Very Important to the Royal Aerial Corps ever since she was an egg tends to have that effect on one. Unfortunately, this has only proven to make her pretty much a spoilt brat. She does what she wants, without thought of consequences -- only the fact that she will get some prize money, or perhaps see some excitement in fighting. She can be intimidated or frightened into agreeing -- it has worked a few times, with superior officers, but not for very long. As a result, she is not ….entirely reliable, but still very important to the Corps.

Upon her arrival in Keeliai, she will be rather distressed at her sudden lack of a captain. Like all dragons, she is extremely attached to her captain, and will likely sulk and pine after him if he should be away from her for far too long. Once she realizes Temeraire and Laurence are present, however, she will relax at least a little. She will treat the news that she is ‘in between’ with a great amount of skepticism at first, but more than likely, she will eventually ignore it as she finds other things to distract herself with. Once she has gotten used to her new situation, she will likely take great joy in hunting down the various gangs and fighting them, and exploring what she can of this new place. Eventually she will resign herself to the fact that she must be without a captain for now, though she will not be very happy at all about it. But as long as there’s fighting and capital to be won, she will be mostly content.

Appearance: Iskierka is a heavyweight dragon, though her length and weight are not remarked upon in the series. She is a Kazilik, a Turkish breed of dragon prized for the fact that they are the only heavyweights that are fire-breathers. She is mostly red in color, sinuous and long, covered all over with large black spikes. She also has green stripes and spots that look a bit like those of a leopard, along with a purple stomach and yellow eyes. Her spikes constantly emit steam, most likely because of her fire-breathing abilities. In addition to all those spikes, Kaziliks have two distinctive horns on their foreheads.

On Tu Vishan, she will of course be shrunk down to 30 feet. As in the case of Temeraire, her length is mostly in her neck and tail, so she’ll be able to fit pretty easily into an apartment about the same size of his. She will be able to use a console with some difficulty, especially once she realizes it’s one of the better ways of communication on turtleback. In her case, it’s a bit difficult to carry people on her back due to her spikiness, but she should at least be able to carry one or two people in a pinch.

Abilities: Being a dragon! Like Temeraire, her claws and teeth are very sharp, even with her size changes. Her scales might be a little tougher than others, if only because of all the spikes, but it is comparable to tough hide, not armor. She is accustomed to working in a team, though she doesn’t particularly enjoy it, and knows the aerial corps training, even if she doesn’t really ...do much of it.

Flight: Unfortunately we don’t get nearly as many details about Iskierka as she is not precisely a main character, but it can be assumed her top speed is a bit less than Temeraire’s 40 mph. She is a heavyweight, yes, but not nearly as fast as a Celestial. So, probably more like 30 would be her top speed.

Fire: Iskierka is the only British dragon that can breathe fire. In canon, she has been seen to shoot at least 80 yard bursts of flame, and can do so continuously for at least five minutes. Her ability can be scaled down with her size if necessary, too.

Intelligence: --Another thing we don’t get to learn a lot of, concerning Iskierka. It can be assumed that like most dragons, she does not have much interest in politics, reading, and education. However, dragons tend to pick up the languages they hear in the shell -- so she can certainly speak Turkish and English, and perhaps a bit of Polish. She may have learned some of the feral dragons’ language if only due to working amongst them for so long, but not enough to be conversant.

Inventory: Nothing, much to her chagrin.

Suite: Fire district! Dragons have a bit of a taste for the finer things in life, especially Iskierka. She'll more than likely need a two or three floor suite, just due to her size...and the fact that she will be jealous if hers is smaller than Temeraire's.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person: She had drifted off to sleep at the covert, content in her fine pavilion and knowing that Granby was, as ever, close by. She did not certainly expect to be awoken by the splashing of water at her sides, and started awake with a bit of a thrash, causing the kedan in the boats nearby to rock dangerously. Somehow over her loud demands of information, the kedan made their points clear -- if Granby was in fact present, the only place she would find him would be in Keeliai. Iskierka made her skepticism clear, but a quick look around her proved that Granby was, for the moment, nowhere to be found. Her wings did not seem to work properly enough for her to make a quick flight possible at the present. With a huff and a large amount of steam coming off her, she did, at least, manage to climb aboard the raft the kedan had brought along with them.

These people, whoever they were, were very odd, Iskierka was certain she had never seen anyone human with blue skin in her life. Thankfully, they stayed clear of her and her doubtful looks, though perhaps that was more due to the spikes and the steam than any real fear of her. She should most certainly be searching for Granby, but her wings felt as though she was stuck in a sort of very strong mud, and she could not precisely muster enough energy for a proper take-off from this raft.

Where was Granby, though? She could only hope he was safe, wherever they might be taking her, and he would find her there. If they had hurt him, or they tried, of course she would fight them -- she was very good at that. It might just have to wait until after this nap. She found she was still nearly as tired as she would be after a very long battle, though she had not been fighting at all before her arrival here. In all her ponderings, she could not likely be bothered to pay attention to whatever the people in the boats surrounding her were shouting at her. She could, at the very least, shoot a flame at them. There. Now they would keep their distance, hopefully, and once they got to land she would fly and figure out the quickest way to return to her Granby.

Network:

[There is a very disgruntled dragon peering at the camera. She’s a bit of a terrifying sight, being large and red and spiky and ...well, there’s definitely steam coming out of those spikes. She leans close and nudges the screen carefully with her nose, then settles back.]

This place seems very dull to me, I cannot imagine why I was brought here if there is nothing interesting, at all, going on. There is not even a proper aerial corps or a navy, so how is one supposed to gain capital? It is very rude to be snatched up out of one’s home, you know, and placed upon the back of a large turtle without so much as a by-your-leave. [There’s a bit of a huff, and steam obscures the camera for a moment, and then Iskierka has subsided into a sulky pile of curls.]

Granby will certainly be asking after me, even if what the people say here is so, that we are in-between. [And there’s another annoyed little grumble. She has never had patience for this sort of thing.]

I have already lost track of him once, I shall not do so again. Pray, has anyone seen a tall, dark-haired man about? He would be in a fine coat -- gold braid and green, and he is called John Granby. Tell him Iskierka is looking for him, and she is quite alright, but I should like to see him.