Changes 24/06-09: Reduced his dragon size, rewrote parts of the profile, added a sword and Dark Magic and elaborated on his personality.
Human name: Derek Wymond, meaning gifted ruler and protector
Race: Dragon
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Hair: Dark Blonde
Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 198 lbs
Dragon name: Isith Nawarath
Scales: Green
Total Length: 31 ft. \ 9,4 m
Neck Length: 10 ft. \ 3 m
Tail Length: 11 ft. \ 3,3 m
Body Length: 10 ft. \ 3 m
Standing Width: 5 ft. \ 1,5 m
Maximum Height: 12 ft. \ 3,6 m
Wingspan: 36 ft. \ 10,9 m
Weight: 2,500 lbs. \ 1 134 kg
In hard times, dragons can be born as young humans to be cared for by humans, to protect the young wyrmling from danger even the parents cannot defend against. The dragon mother makes a deal with a human family, with the protection of the family in return for their care. This is usually kept secret from the other villagers and the young wyrmling itself as a dragonborn is looked upon as something dark and evil, a abnormity of the order in the world. So, most dragon born grow up unsuspecting of their true heritance.
The dragon traits appear sometime after the human shell reaches maturity, about the age of 20 or earlier. When this happens, the human parents take the adoptive child to their true mother. Often, the traits of a dragon born are not clearly visible until just before they reach full transformation, but premature traits such as orange lizard eyes or scaly skin which appears from time to time, have been reported. When they have once reached transformation, the dragon born is able to change into a dragon at will until released by their parent.
When taken to their mother, the wyrmling is released of the spell which binds it to the human body, and it become a full dragon. In several cases, the dragon retains the ability to shape shift back into their old human bodies to be with humans. But if the dragon born never meet with their mother, they will not be free from their bonding spell, and is forced to live as a human, with the ability to turn into a dragon for periods, until the spell weakens enough over time or their human body dies of old age. (Which is what happened to Derek)
Dragons can breathe fire almost right after their transformation, as the purpose of the adoption process is to keep the wyrmling out of danger until they can defend themselves. Also, the knowledge their powers, and their inheritance awakens as soon as their transformation happens.
Appearance:
Human: Derek is a strongly built man, a trait which follows those that are dragonborns. His face is sharp, with clear facial lines and a full jaw. He cuts his beard each day, but if left uncut, it grows quickly into a full, ragged beard. He tries to keep his dark hair half short, long enough to cover his ears, but it does not reach his face.
He tends to wear a brown, open jacket, blue pants and a colored shirt, simple clothing to blend in with the crowd, but still enough to be individual.
Pretty accurate image by XTrinitkaX of DeviantArt
Dragon: His true form, the dragon, is a somewhat small, and green, dragon, compared to the full grown dragons.
The whole body is covered in dark green scales, which glimmer with a light green color in the sun. They are not especially sharp, but they are pretty sturdy when it comes to protection. However, they are not fully grown, so they are not as hard as a grown up dragon's, and can be cut. Each scale is about 5 centimeter in size, and overlap only slightly, creating a somewhat smooth surface. On the underbelly, the scales are much larger, and much stronger.
Small spikes protrude down the length of the neck, about 5 centimeters in diameter at the base. At the end of the neck, there is a gap in the spikes, but the rest of his spine and tail is spiked. His talons are razor sharp, strong enough to cut through iron, but is still able to handle items with delicate precision. On the back of his head, two long horns protrude backwards.
His wings are like thin velvet, spread out by two strong limbs. When completely spread out they span over 30 feet, and when fold back they fold up nicely against the body. The surface of the wing is soft and warm, and is reminiscent of a bat’s wings. The fine membrane is somewhat translucent with the thin, numerous veins just showing through the brown underside. From the over side, the color is a lighter variation of his green scales.
Weapons:
Slayer of Hope - A jagged long sword enchanted with the ability to turn invisible when in its scabbard. The edge is made of hard silver-steel and can withstand most blows without needing sharpening. The sword also has a strong resistance to fire, and does not conduct heat at all.
Strengths and powers:
Human:
- Shape Shifting: He can, as a human, change, or add, body parts of the dragon such as claws, head, legs or wings. The transformation is a progressive one, where the change is clearly visible as the skin turn green and scaly, and as the shape is changed. He has a long time ago found out that if he shape shifts in a special way, he can keep his cloths when he shifts. This results in a fusing of his cloths with his skin in the seam of the shift. It also applies when he transform into a dragon, and back. The change takes about one to two seconds depending on the part.
- Transforming: Just like shape shifting, he can transform completely into a dragon. This change takes about three to five seconds, and just like shape shifting, the whole process is clearly visible.
In this process, his body mass rapidly expands, engulfing all clothing and items. In example, if he had a spear through his leg, the transformation would engulf the spear in his leg and sewer the connection to the parts not engulfed. The spear would also not be 'present' while dragon, but as soon as he becomes a human, it returns.
- Healing: One of the only traits that actually do good for the human body is the healing. It is almost as effective as the dragon healing, but it takes a little longer to heal.
- Strength: As human, he is stronger and faster than most and can stand ground against most normal opponents and with effort, abnormal opponents.
- Dark Magic: While human, Derek can convert his dragon energy into spells, such as balls of dark energy which explodes on impact and protective wards which protects him from attacks. He can also siphon energy from magic saturated items instead of his dragon form.
Dragon:
- Fire: He is a dragon: he can breathe fire... The flame can reach up to 3000 degrees, as hot as a welding torch, strong enough to melt steel. It is an easy ability, and he can do everything from letting out a small flicker of flame through his nose, or to a blazing inferno.
- Strength: He is strong enough to lift himself in the air along with a little more than 250 kg, can lift about a ton on the ground, and have the strength to bend steel with ease. But even with that power, he can still be gentle when he uses it, and can almost pick a flower. (At least a sunflower..)
- Abilities: His sight is extremely well; he can with ease see things miles away. In addition, he have heat vision, and can see in the dark. His senses are also keen, and he can smell and hear even better than a wolf.
- Healing: His body regenerates itself much faster than a human body, but not instantly. After a day of rest, most damages will be healed. Larger wounds, such as a open wound, he must tend to heal. When he is wounded as a dragon, he can turn back to a human and the wounds will still heal, even though he is not a dragon.
- Ability to speak: While dragon, Derek can both speak human language abd Draconic, the dragon language.
Weaknesses:
Human:
- When shape shifting, all damage done to the dragon parts are inflicted to his dragon form.
- After transforming to a dragon, or back, he cannot redo the transformation straight away. He needs to be in that form for ten minutes or so before transforming back.
- When human, he is just as vulnerable as a regular human.
- Even though he is stronger than most, he is still bound to the natural limits of the human body. There is no magic strength.
- When using Dark Magic it leaves a heavy toll on his dragon form. Only half of the energy drained is converted to usable Dark Magic, and after excessive use, he is unable to turn into a dragon at all.
Dragon:
- He cannot continuously breathe fire. He can only breathe fire for about two minutes continuously before he needs to "recharge". The breath "recharges" with one minute of fire breathing for each five minute.
- As a dragon, he is bigger and requires more room to maneuver.
- Damage to his dragon form is carried over to the next time he transforms, unless it has healed (see dragon powers)
- As a fire elemental type he is weak against ice and water, and as a dark elemental, to light and holy magic. (However, this only applies to attacks, as he has no weakness to natural occurrences of water) In addition, he is also weak against wind magic and natural strong winds, as he still lacks the stability to fly through them unaffected. (This is obviously because his wings)
Personality:
Derek’s back-story is a story filled with grief and sorrow, and he reflects his feelings into his behavior; he is often sulky, befriends nobody and expresses hate against most beings. So strong is his emotions, they are contagious to others. Not often is he seen laughing, and he spends most of his time on his own.
He is very aggressive, often being the first in a battle to attack. He is hard to trust, and finds it hard to trust people back. And even when he gains the trust of another, he is not completely trustworthy. He rarely speaks, but when he speaks, it is often carefully selected words.
Derek is neither good, nor evil, but only care for himself. Friends mean little to him, and enemies are just people with a more than usual hate for him. But more than others, he despises what he is, a dragon trapped in a human body.
Just as other dragons, Derek is extremely arrogant. He believes himself superior to other races, knowing that he is one of the most powerful creatures in the world, or at least when he grow older. His view of humans are like humans view animals; as pray or as beast of burden. He is likewise greedy, as all other dragons, and is constantly on the look for treasure of great value. However, Derek was never freed from his human body and thus still retains his human emotions and drives, which weakens his arrogance and greed a few notches. This can sometime cause him to have a personality crisis, as part of him thinks of humans as pitiful creatures and the other part thinks of them as equals.
Birthplace:
Map 'borrowed' from Ramah of Cartographers Guild:
http://fluesopp.org/images/div/VaniyaMap.jpg
Derek was born in Lind in Ambvrria.
Bio:
I can still remember the sadness I felt when my mother died. True, she was my surrogate mother, but back then, eight years old, I didn’t know what I now know. To me, she was the world, and as of that moment, my world was torn apart. I was left parentless; in a world where orphans were not though well of. It was an evil omen, and they said that the fate of the remaining children was cursed, even more so when there was only one, as I was. I was cursed, they said, and I knew it to be true. I was the cause of my parents’ death.
As I now look back, I realize it was only a kid’s way of reacting to such a dramatic event. It was not I who was the cause of their death. Nor did I have anything to do with it. I was on a trading journey with our neighbors to another village down the coast. They needed a hand with the horses, and I was curious about the world outside, so I joined them. The journey should take about five days, two days of journey each way and one day in the village. It was on the second day of the journey the bandits attacked… Had I just been there to protect them, I cursed myself.
But life continued. I was taken care of by the neighbors I traveled with; I was fed and clothed, but I never got a position as a real son. But I cannot blame them. Everyone thought I was cursed, even most of my new siblings. Only my even aged ‘brother’, Kain, understood me. Actually, he was probably the only one that truly understood what I had experienced.
As the years passed, people seemed to forget the death of my parents, the previous fear of me slowly vanished, but I never was attached to anyone so much as I was to Kain. We grew up together, worked together, and flirted with girls together. In most ways, we had become just as twins. We had our quarrels, but at the end of the day we were always friends again. I shared my secrets with him, and he shared his with me. So it was not strange that he was the first to notice.
We were working in a sunflower field when it first happened. We were both twenty years and were discussing what we would do when we got older. Kain wanted to be a hunter, he told me, to stalk the pray until they feel safe, and then strike! I laughed at his sudden vigor as he struck a sunflower, breaking its stalk. “At least sunflowers stay still,” I remember saying, before a shockwave flooded through my veins. I must have looked much worse than I felt, because as soon as Kain saw me he rushed to my side to support me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. I could not answer. I did not know, although I knew I was not ill. Actually, the feeling I had was the feeling one had when a chip is pulled out of your finger, or when poison is drained from an infected wound. I felt like a sickness which had lingered in my body since my birth had finally left me, a sickness I had not been aware of.
“Your eye…” Kain said with both awe and fear in his voice. “Your eye…”
I blinked and felt strange when my left eyelid closed. Then a gushing feeling flooded from my head to my toes. I blinked again, and this time both eyes felt strange. I realized Kain had released his hold on me and stood a few feet away, watching me in with mixed emotions. Then I felt something itchy on my hand. I let out a gasp as I looked at the green scales which started to form on the back of my hand. My head started spinning.
“Help, Kain!” I pleaded desperately as my eyes were clouded with darkness, “What’s happening to me?!”
I think he had problems making the decision he made, but when I woke up, I was lying in my bed, home. Then, I could not quite remember what had taken place before I fainted. I did remember the good feeling, and that Kain had been afraid, and that there was something about me.
“You’re awake,” Kain said as he entered the room with his mother, she was carrying a tray of food.
“You have probably been out in the sun for too long,” she said as she put the tray down by my bed and left. “Get some rest,” she advised me as she went out the door. We were silent for a long time after his mother left. Finally, I managed to ask, “What happened, in the fields?”
Kain closed his eyes, and shuddered; he did that when he had bad news. “You suddenly got pale, as if you were about to faint,” he said silently. “But before you did, your eyes got all orange. You looked like a demon of some kind.”
I shuddered myself. Was I truly a demon? This buggered me for the whole next week. I kept looking in the mirror to see if my eyes would turn orange, but nothing happened, until the next time we were out in the fields again. I suddenly got the good feeling again, like a cleansing flood that rushed through my veins, making me feel alive and full of energy. Then, a ripping sound, and I almost fell backwards by some new weight attached to my back. I tried to turn my head to see what was happening, but my view was blocked by something leathery material. I turned to see better, but to my horror, the leathery veil followed. Then, as if I’ve always known, I realized what the leathery veil was. I had grown wings! Like a seed, surviving the harsh weather of winter underground just to spring into full bloom at spring, I awakened. I had always known, I had just not been aware. I was, and I did not shudder by the thought, a Dragon!
I tried to spread my wings; each was almost as large as I were, and in the small path between the sunflowers, I could not fully spread them. But just like a salmon know he must go upriver to spawn, I knew I had to return to my mother, to get free of my spell which held me bonded in my body. The massive amount of knowledge I just suddenly became aware of was no shock; I always knew.
“Derek,” someone exclaimed, and I looked up. “Kain,” I exclaimed back and retracted my wings back into my body. Kain look at me, terrified and shocked. “Demon,” he whispered and made the sign of the cross. By that motion, I felt a slight nausea, but I held up my hand to stop him. “No, I’m no demon,” I said, although a bit unsure about that part, as his sign, however weak, had really affected me. “I’m a dragon.” Kain’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open in both terror and surprise. I tried to explain my revelation the best I could, while Kain turned from scared, to shocked, to angry.
“So, it was true,” he muttered. “You were truly cursed.”
I closed my eyes and lowered my head.
“Apparently,” I said and looked at him. “But, at the same time, I don’t feel like I’m cursed. It’s like I’m reborn, like a flower sprung free from the ground!”
“But don’t you understand? They’ll kill you if they see you. Haven’t you heard? People hunt dragons!”
“I know,” I said. They could only dare to try. We had walked out from the sun flowers and stood on a hill with the village far below. “I have to go now,” I said and took a step forwards, and wings grew on my back. “I guess this is farewell.” Kain looked at me with sadness in his eyes. Somewhere deep inside me something told me I should at least shed a tear, but I didn’t listen. Instead I spread my wings, bat them twice, and with one powerful blow I shoot into the sky. Seconds later, I had completed my transformation and was flying straight towards where my instincts told me to go.
The next I remember was the sadness that I was alone in the world. It was not a strong sadness, only a shadow over what I once felt. Dragons are used to be alone. But I was not yet a dragon. There was still a good portion of human left in me, which I now realized I had to carry with me for perhaps 80 more years. I tried to remember what it was, to be a human. I had almost forgotten it, but as soon as I tugged at the loose thread, everything came loose and I started to cry, like a human. I suddenly remembered my human feelings, the grief I had felt when I lost my surrogate mother, the same grief I now felt at the loss of my real mother. I remembered how I had found her; the skull was gone, but the bones were left as a reminder of the great victory. A strong hatred against humans started to fill my heart.
But in my early days as a dragon, I don’t remember much. Only emotions, like the strong hatred I felt for my old village when I returned, and found Kain hung because he was seen with me when I left. I remember anger when I destroyed the village, burned down every singly home, leaving no one left to tell the tale, and I remember grief when I realized nothing I could do would get Kain, my mother or my surrogate mother back.
Then my life stabilized itself. I found myself capable of retaining my human part both a curse and a blessing. Without it, I’d probably be killed by the constant raids on dragons, but without it I wouldn’t need to live with the grief. People here tell me grief is a passing emotion. At least for those whose lifespan is as long as dragons. But I am still in the early days of life, merely a hatchling, and my grief lingers with me every day, and I, Isith Nawarath, by the human name Derek Wymond, long for the day I can shed my human body, to truly become a dragon.