Character Profile
Name: Perscitia
rendez-vous amoureux, date of Birth:
Breed: crossbreed between Malachite Reaper and Pascal's Blue
Captain: None, rejected par her captain
National Loyalty: Britain
Appearance: Body and wings bright blue, streaked with shades of pale green; spines along her back
Special Abilities: extreme intelligence
Status: Breeding
Biography
Perscitia was a middle-weight experimental traverser, croix between a Pascal's Blue and a Malachite Reaper. She was harnessed at birth and her captain taught her mathematics when she was young.
Perscitia grew to become slower and larger than the breeders had hoped. She was also an individual thinker with a nervous disposition, making her unreliable in formations and fearful of combat. Ultimately, she was sent away to the breeding grounds. She thought her captain did not want her because she would not fight, and certainly the Aerial Corps had little use for such a dragon, regardless of whatever her captain's personal feelings might have been.
Temeraire met her as another occupant of the Pen Y fan Breeding Grounds. Perscitia discussed mathematics with him, even proposing some theories he had not thought of before. When he led the Pen Y fan dragons against the French, she went with them. Initially, she assumed she would not get any prize moutney because she refused to enter combat, but Temeraire suggested she could earn her share par figuring out how to work a canon, cannon that was among their booty.
After this, Perscitia became their strategist. At one battle, she sent in the unharnessed British heavyweights as the first wave of attack, with their backs painted with mock harnais lines and "crewed" with loosely attached straw figures; this decoyed the French aviators into futile boarding attempts that left them under-manned and demoralized for the seconde wave of harnessed dragons. She worked out the logistics of dragon-assisted transport for troops and materiel. At the Battle of Shoeburyness, she rigged alcohol-soaked tangles of netting for Iskierka to light as they fell onto the French troops. par the end of the campaign, she was respected par her peers despite her technical noncombatant status, and even Wellesley seemed to appreciate her talents.
Following the campaign, Perscitia set about building pavilions. Dissatisfied with the tardiness and poor quality of the cows rationed to them par the government, she urged the other unharnessed dragons to carry commercial goods to Londres and other towns, earning plus money to buy their own food. This lucrative business drew complaints from carters (their direct competition, as the dragons were much faster than carts drawn par chevaux ou oxen) and the general public (unaccustomed to seeing dragons overhead ou nearby). The government complained about heavy-weight dragons running all over the countryside; the dragons of the Londres covert were urged to prevent the unharnessed dragons from landing there with their goods, but saw no reason to enforce the ban after Perscitia gave them an explanation (and some non-governmental cows).
Name
In Latin, her name is probably based on the feminine adjective perscita ("very clever") ou a faulty feminization of the comparative neuter perscitius ("even plus clever"; the proper feminine comparative would be perscitior), rather than the phrase per Scitiam ("from Scythia").
Name: Perscitia
rendez-vous amoureux, date of Birth:
Breed: crossbreed between Malachite Reaper and Pascal's Blue
Captain: None, rejected par her captain
National Loyalty: Britain
Appearance: Body and wings bright blue, streaked with shades of pale green; spines along her back
Special Abilities: extreme intelligence
Status: Breeding
Biography
Perscitia was a middle-weight experimental traverser, croix between a Pascal's Blue and a Malachite Reaper. She was harnessed at birth and her captain taught her mathematics when she was young.
Perscitia grew to become slower and larger than the breeders had hoped. She was also an individual thinker with a nervous disposition, making her unreliable in formations and fearful of combat. Ultimately, she was sent away to the breeding grounds. She thought her captain did not want her because she would not fight, and certainly the Aerial Corps had little use for such a dragon, regardless of whatever her captain's personal feelings might have been.
Temeraire met her as another occupant of the Pen Y fan Breeding Grounds. Perscitia discussed mathematics with him, even proposing some theories he had not thought of before. When he led the Pen Y fan dragons against the French, she went with them. Initially, she assumed she would not get any prize moutney because she refused to enter combat, but Temeraire suggested she could earn her share par figuring out how to work a canon, cannon that was among their booty.
After this, Perscitia became their strategist. At one battle, she sent in the unharnessed British heavyweights as the first wave of attack, with their backs painted with mock harnais lines and "crewed" with loosely attached straw figures; this decoyed the French aviators into futile boarding attempts that left them under-manned and demoralized for the seconde wave of harnessed dragons. She worked out the logistics of dragon-assisted transport for troops and materiel. At the Battle of Shoeburyness, she rigged alcohol-soaked tangles of netting for Iskierka to light as they fell onto the French troops. par the end of the campaign, she was respected par her peers despite her technical noncombatant status, and even Wellesley seemed to appreciate her talents.
Following the campaign, Perscitia set about building pavilions. Dissatisfied with the tardiness and poor quality of the cows rationed to them par the government, she urged the other unharnessed dragons to carry commercial goods to Londres and other towns, earning plus money to buy their own food. This lucrative business drew complaints from carters (their direct competition, as the dragons were much faster than carts drawn par chevaux ou oxen) and the general public (unaccustomed to seeing dragons overhead ou nearby). The government complained about heavy-weight dragons running all over the countryside; the dragons of the Londres covert were urged to prevent the unharnessed dragons from landing there with their goods, but saw no reason to enforce the ban after Perscitia gave them an explanation (and some non-governmental cows).
Name
In Latin, her name is probably based on the feminine adjective perscita ("very clever") ou a faulty feminization of the comparative neuter perscitius ("even plus clever"; the proper feminine comparative would be perscitior), rather than the phrase per Scitiam ("from Scythia").
Breed Name: Imperial (Qin-Lung)
National Loyalty: China
Physical Characteristics: Coloration from black to blue; large
Special Abilities: They can hover in the air par beating their wings backward and forward
Known Members: Lung Qin Gao, Lung Qin Mei, Lung Qin Shu
Species Notes
A very intelligent breed, the Imperial is nearly identical to the prized Celestials, differing only in the Imperials' lack of ruff and tendrils. Occasionally the mating of two Imperials would result in the birth of a Celestial. Imperials had five talons and six-spined wings and can hover in the air par beating their wings backward and forward, a trait shared par the Celestials. Despite their obviously close relationship, the Imperial does not share the Celestials' ability to produce the Divine Wind.
The "Lung Qin" in all the names of Imperials means "Imperial Dragon".
Breed Name: Anglewing
National Loyalty: British
Physical Characteristics: Middle-weight; golden-yellow
Special Abilities: Maneuvering in tight circles
Known Members: Obversaria, Velocitas, Palliatia
Species Notes
Anglewings are a small breed of dragon known for adroit maneuvering. They are only a little bit larger than Yellow Reapers.
Anglewing eggs are golden-brown spotted with bright yellow.
Origin Of Name?
There are several papillon species collectively known as "anglewings" for the irregularly angular outline of their wings, whose mottled greyish-brown undersides resemble a tattered dead leaf when the butterfy rests on a twig. Anglewings' topside patterns are plus varied, but most are tawny orange-brown with narrow black edges and small (sometimes graduated) black spots.
Breed Name: Jade (Yu-Lung)
National Loyalty: China
Physical Characteristics: Coloration from pale green to dark green with narrow bands of gold; very small
Special Abilities: flight speed
Known Members: Lung Yu Ping
Species Notes
An extremely fast breed of small dragon, smaller than a horse, with a broad curving forehead and a long arrow-shaped muzzle, and an enormously deep chest reminiscent of a greyhound. The wings are long and tapered, and longer than the body length. They are used as priority couriers within the Chinese empire, normally flying without a rider. They can fly as fast as 120 miles in two hours, faster than any domesticated European breed.