Zari! Congratulations on impressing a dragon here at Ista Weyr! We hope that he or she is everything that you could want in a lifemate, though this inspiration is just a guideline for how to play your dragon. You are not required to follow all or any of it. The dragon is /yours/. Members of SearchCo have put many hours into the creation of your dragon, and we are excited to see how you develop the personality in your own, unique way. — Sadaiya, D’baji, D’rani and Lida

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Messages

What Have I Become? Egg
An insular grey mist shrouds the lustrous black of this bleak and broody egg. It shifts and fades as the light dictates, leaving the fragile darkness naked and exposed. Thick concentric circles disturb the bracken stillness, sending dissonant echoes across the surface, to rend the gloom and reveal it for the deep crimson it is.

Egg Emits
Whispering into your mind comes a vision, cloaked in static. That fuzzy noise that comes with an absence of noise. When you are keenly aware of Silence. The vision shimmers, solidifying, into a dark pool set among a black abyss, cloaked in curling mists. The pool's water is calm, but it is not clear. Approaching closer sends a stone tumbling into it, and the liquid moves - not with water's grace - but with a more sluggish nature. There is a flicker of light, like a match being struck, and the pool is revealed to be a dark red. Blood. The silence hisses, and then you are alone once again, on the Sands. (Sienna)

The egg has nothing more to offer. Mists curling over a pool of blood - or blood red liquid. An occasional ripple moves across the surface from an unknown source, and the silence presses in against your thoughts, pushing like a change in air pressure. (Sienna)

Curiosity… doesn't kill; it forebodes. There's a creeping, wet warm down around your feet, but it doesn't last - it dries, slowly, working its way to nothingness, bits of sensation breaking away in chunks until the contact has been severed. (D'baji)

There's a sinking feeling, a feeling that keeps your feet anchored to the sands for just a moment as a prickling slowly creeps up your spine. There.. somewhere near your feet is a coagulating pool of something red and warm, sticky and wet as it continues to pull you inwards, downwards.. And then, as quickly as it started, the pool and feeling scab over, and you are released. (Lida)

This egg feels ominous. At first it's not clear why, but the initial impression of looming doom is quickly followed by a soft, whispering static, one part words you can't quite make out and one part white noise. The whispering vanishes after a few seconds, at which point you realize that your fingers are sticky. Even the ones that aren't touching the egg, as though you've been mucking around in *something* wet and goopy. (SPOILER ALERT: IT'S BLOOD.) (Ei'es)

Shimmering into your mind comes a vision, along with static - white background noise. Easy to ignore, but if focused on can become terribly annoying. There is darkness at first, and then things slowly resolve into an image more concrete than the intangible absence of everything from before. Mists drift across your eyes, like the cloudiness that sometimes plagues in the wee hours of the morning after a long day, and when sleep is still far from reality. A pool shimmers forward in the vision, the surface sluggish and looking not quite like water. When pinpricks of light appear it gives a reason why - the liquid is not water, but a dark, unique red. Blood. Ripples shift the surface in slowly undulating waves, and the silence continues to press down against your thoughts. (Sienna)

Hatching Message
What Have I Become? Egg stills, the rippled surface seeming to grow calm as well as fate intervenes. There is then a sudden rending and the surface is torn away, sand drifting to the wayside. The facade falls away, revealing a solid green dragonet who sits within the remains of her egg for a moment; a shard of shell balanced precariously like a crown atop headknobs. Swamp Water Waiata Green Dragonet blinks whirling eyes as she takes her first gander at the world.

Swamp Water Waiata Green Dragonet
Turbid slate washes a small, round chest, giving way to muddy greens that seep across a rotund tummy, but stagnate with cerulescent blooms right before rounded hips give way to wide-set legs. Willow striations accent the joints of her limbs where her hide fits her frame just a bit too loosely, tangling with dry bracken at her shins before too-long talons are overtaken by glaucous gumbo. Mangrove pinions are planted high upon her back, darkened roots disappearing amid too-large wingsails, from which murky run-off trickels down along subtle ‘ridges. Grey moss masks her rounded head, understated eyeridges made to stand by the wrinkled hide with greenstone accents that don’t quite stretch into a coherent shape around small, sharp eyes.

Adult Desc
Turbid slate washes the expanse of chiseled chest, interrupted only by slivers of sedge where strong shoulders and thick neck join her broad breast. Muddy greens seep across compact sides where rib-bones and muscle stretch her smooth hide, stagnate with cerulescent blooms where strong hips broaden into bowed hind legs. Willow striations brush over muscled limbs, tangling with dry bracken at her shins before talons are overtaken by glaucous gumbo. High-planted mangrove pinions are perked upon back, with darkened roots disappearing amid the brackish pools of thin wingsails, from which murky run-off trickles down along subtle ‘ridges. Grey moss masks her wide wedge head, understated eyeridges made to stand out only by the wicked greenstone accents, serrated sickles cutting around small, sharp eyes.

Impression Message
Swamp Water Waiata Green Dragonet notices a bastion of calm in the crowds and peeks out from behind the latest camouflage-of-choice. Her eyes narrow in her odd, rounded head before she bounds towards it. Prey isn't always coordinated, it seems: The green trips over her own two feet, sending her rotund little body top over teakettle and comes to rest at the feet of the nervous, taciturn girl before looking up.

Personal Impression Message
The sands and people around you go out of focus, but do not fade entirely. Some part of your mind however plays host to something new and it sits there, ruminating for a moment. A voice finally presses in, the sound of it filling you with a sense of purpose. There is a smell and a small part of you registers that the scent is of you, yourself: from the sweat brought on by hot sands to the smell of a new robe. « Zari, » that voice is very succinct, infused with a swirling sort of patois. « I am Ghwerigeth. » Your scent fades to be replaced by the unmistakable one of raw meat. « I hunger. We should be tending to that. »

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Name Inspiration
The name ‘Ghwerigeth’ comes from the troll Ghwerig in David Eddings Elenium and Tamuli series. It was as chewy to say as you had requested AND had the g and w that you seemed to want in your candidate questionnaire. The way I pronounce it, it’s a bit guttural, but not so much that it lacks grace entirely. Almost phlegmy at the start with the hard g at the end. Naturally, it is up to you though!

Egg Inspiration
I hurt myself today / To see if I still feel / I focus on the pain / The only thing that's real
The dissonance of the opening chords of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt really sets the stage for a very bleak and brooding piece. Upon visualization, I could see a deep and still pond, hidden beneath a thick, insulating mist. Small pebbles are then dropped into the pond and, in disturbing the shrouded surface, they reveal that it's really a pool of blood. It is a song of deep and unabiding regret, and the pain of it is so tangible from the first note to the last. (Or non-note. What do you call the white noise that begins and ends the piece?)
What have I become? / My sweetest friend / Everyone I know / Goes away in the end

Link to Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prDoGmY5kj8&feature=related

Description Inspiration
So a blue pit bull walks into a swamp… Yeah, it’s not the start of a joke, that’s pretty well what I envisioned when I read what you wanted for physicalities. Ghwerigeth’s colouration tends more toward the grey and pale greens, with some blue-ish tints, not only because I think blue pit bulls are absolutely gorgeous, but because I think the colouration fit better for what you wanted in ‘natural and unaware’ and also more ‘huntress’. (I just can’t imagine a dragon as rooted in nature as yours with a bright orange vest or something.) Her colouration is a bit more muted, a bit calmer, but her shape, her phyisque? That’s where the ‘oomph’ is. Or at least, it will be, once she grows up. When she’s little, she’s going to be round and wrinkly and adorable, just like little pit bull pups.
Her colouration will stay pretty well the same from dragonet to adult dragon, with the exception of the sedge highlights - and the reason for that is given below.I took her colour words from mineral and plant examples, to try and stick to the swamp/nature motif. I also tried to dim some of the more vibrant colours, like with the grey moss or the dried bracken ferns - most of the plant life I pictured her with is a bit old, but more dried than decayed. Or maybe lying in wait…

As to her shape, I tried to touch on everything you asked for: the strong chest and shoulders, the slender waist, the wider hips and bowed legs, the wedge-shaped head. I added some of my own touches too; her wings sit high on her back as a salute to the pit’s ears, which always look alert, even when they’re kind of floppy and the dog is feeling pretty chill. I wanted to downplay the shape of the headknobs and eyeridges as much as possible, because to me it’s the domed head of the pit bull that always stands out the most. That, and the ears were already covered.
Some special quirks I particularly enjoyed: the sedge accents on her chest are based on those little ridges that you see on the adult pit bull where their neck and shoulders meet the chest.

I was envisioning the wicked swirl designs that you often see with tribal tattoos for her ‘war paint’, and I used greenstone because, when I image-searched it, I found pendants similar to what I was going for. Besides, it gave me a chance to mention ‘sickle’, which in turn makes me think of machetes hacking through overgrowth, which I thought was a little bit fitting.

Also, it’s not in the desc (which was getting kind of long, although I’m sure I could fit it somewhere for you if you like after the hatching), but there is probably also a little bit of greenstone on the outside of her headknobs, for no reason but that I love the idea of giving a bit of a shout-out to the identification tattoos that a lot of dogs have these days.

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Ghwerigeth will never be the most verbose of dragons. Not quite as silent as, say, Kehemath, but more precise and not erudite than actually QUIET. Since her world-view is fairly simple, she doesn’t concern herself with big words or terribly intricate mindscapes. When she does speak, it’s surprisingly alluring. What I have in mind for this is Calypso from Pirates of the Carribean, though instead of the ocean in her voice, it’s the swamps. The bayou, as the case may be, which works just as well for her.

The touch of her mind is as straight-forward as the words she uses: flying is associated with that ozone tang of the atmosphere, hunting the strong taste of hot blood. If she thinks about a place, it is likely that the landscape’s flora, fauna, and weather will figure in. Southern Boll would be heavy with blooms of fellis and leave a humid summer warmth across your skin, whereas High Reaches would be dry and chill with the scent of evergreens. This is more how she recalls a place than the look of it, unsurprising given her connection with nature.

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Like her desc, Ghwerigeth’s physicalities are very much based on the pit bull. When she’s young, she’ll be rough and tumble - in the most literal sense of the words. She’ll move along the ground at a bit of a bounce, the puppy version of the bow-legged swagger that pit bulls tend to have as adults. Whens he’s really little, she’ll tend to trip over her feet a bit when she gets too excited about something. She’ll love the feel of tumbling, and might even start doing this on purpose. As an adolescent, when her stance has started to widen a bit, Ghwerigeth will maintain some of the puppy bounce, but will have incredibly sure footing. By the time she’s ready to start rising to mate, she’ll have the bowed legs enough to have that side-to-side swagger so particular to the wider pit bulls and other breeds like bulldogs. The swagger will become more pronounced once she’s full grown, as the width of her stance and the bow of her legs will increase just that much more. Although she’ll become far more confident in her own body, Ghwerigeth will probably never outgrow the love of rough-and-tumble play, which might see you hanging around a weyrling class or two after your own. (Or Raeklith or Kzydnth or Iqiazath, who all still do that sort of thing on a regular basis, despite being full grown.)

As a dragonet, Ghwerigeth will be… well, let’s face it, she’s a fat dragon baby. As she grows, however, Ghwerigeth will become steadily slimmer and stronger, though she’ll only really start to put on muscle when she’s a bit into adolescence. It won’t take her long,at that point, to figure out just how solid she really is on the ground, and she might take to imposing herself in front of fast moving objects (uh, like other dragons) to see if she can’t make them bounce off of her or trip over her. This, plus the fact that her jaws, chest and neck are incredibly strong, will probably develop into a love of pulling and carrying things. Her energy levels are based on pit bulls, of course, so she’ll have plenty of energy to burn. This will mean she’ll want to increase the weight all the time, make whatever games she’s found harder, more challenging, and play longer. For example, she might by assisting you in carrying fire stone sacks, but will soon working her way up to dragging around much bigger things - like her kill.

Ghwerigeth’s hunt will have two major parts: in the tracking of the ‘beast she wants, she will be stealthy, slow, circling on the ground with legs wide, or airborne with legs tucked close (since she depend on her wings for stability there). When it comes time to strike, Gwherigeth will prefer by far to use her jaws over her talons. She won’t rip and tear and spill blood unnecessarily; she’ll grab hold of the beast, crush its bounds, shake it, and once it’s dead (or almost there) will have a tendency to drag it in circles around the plateau, usually completing at least three or four full rotations before she’s willing to settle and eat. (She’ll also probably be in the habit of offering some to you, once she’s finally settled.)

Airborne Ghwerigeth is a different kind of creature. She won’t be one for aerial acrobatics so much as one to try and maintain as steady a flight as she can. She’ll love broad, arching flight over the faster, zippier kinds. When turning, she’ll have a tendency to follow her head, more than most dragons. It might take you a while to teach her to look one direction while going the other. Ever seen a pit bull who’s grabbed hold of a tire swing and is hanging by its mouth, swinging in the air? Those are Ghwerigeth’s aerial turns.

In mating flights, she’ll tend to try and keep a wide berth between herselves and the chasers, being especially distrustful of the little, nimble blues (like Kanyith) who can take advantage of it should she pass too close. (Her catchers will probably be on either end of the spectrum; the acrobats, or the big browns and bronzes who are less agile, but can move in sweeping patterns that she might not anticipate to intercept her own.)

Ghwerigeth’s steadiness in the air will make her ideal for performing rescue missions in stormy weather, or for flying sweeps (as she won’t jostle you around so much that you can’t see!). She could easily find you both a place in either Uprush or Riptide wing, though there’s no reason the two of you couldn’t join Breakwater as well - so long as there’s plenty of play and training on the side to keep up with her energy. So long as that’s dealt with, she’ll totally be able to lounge around in the sun and wait for whatever meetings may come up.

Ghwerigeth is a swamp creature, and this will express itself especially around water. She loves mud. She loves shallows. She loves digging her strong talons into the ground and murkying up the water of the basin. She’ll be able to swim decently enough, although her shape doesn’t lend itself quite so much to the activity, but what really will keep her in the shallows is the play there. And if you ever come across a mud puddle, beware. She won’t even know why exactly, but she’ll be drawn to the sensation of mud squishing between her toes, and to the feeling of wet mud drying up and cracking off her chest and shoulders. In other words: keeping this dragon clean will be difficult. Thankfully, she’s coloured in such a way that so long as she doesn’t smell bad, it’s unlikely anyone will really notice whether she’s spotless or not.

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You’d mentioned that you had in mind a more primal sort of dragon, which is where the idea for a troll came to me. Not in the same sense of the mindless creatures that plague many fantasy novels, but the structured pre-society that can be found in David Eddings books.

As a rundown, the trolls worship five different gods: the god of kill (or battle), the god of ice (or weather), the god of fire, the god of eat, and the god of mating (or family). Ghwerigeth herself lives in a world compartmentalized by primarily these things. It doesn’t make her unintelligent, just relatively pragmatic and, really, when you think about it? What can’t be fit into these categories. It saves time.

Saving time is something Ghwerigeth excels at. Her nature allows her to see to the heart of things fairly quickly in a way that could almost be considered wise. It leaves no room for holding grudges or worrying about what will come. Right now, there is something to be taken care of, something in front of her face, and the ability to let go of perceived wrongs or irritations lets her give her all to any task, whether it is assuring a fellow dragon of the impersonal nature of mating flights or hunting that perfectly juicy buck that’s right there (for, indeed, while the herdbeasts may be fatter on the other side of the continent, they are OVER THERE and it just makes sense to eat THESE).

When she’s after that luscious herdbeast, it is time for her to test her wiles. She prefers the sneak attack, to use terrain to her advantage before pouncing. Were thread still falling, this same mindset would apply. Her moves would be agile and she would be able to dodge with alacrity. Though some dragons may not appreciate being used as a living shield, she takes advantages where she sees them. Ghwerigeth is a survivor, so being the fittest makes sense. This attitude will do her well in the weyr games which will provide her opportunities to test and hone her skills.

She’s a sensual creature, so all senses are equally used in her every day life. People and dragons have their individual smells, so it’s quite likely that she’ll take a big sniff of those that spend time with her. Don’t be surprised, as well, if she wants to try your dinner and you see a big pair of young dragonet eyes looking soulfully up at you and your steak.

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Ghwerigeth’s proddiness is like that of any animal in search of a mate. She’ll be extra assiduous about her appearance, taking care to make her hide as clean as possible before she struts her stuff in front of her potential suitors. The effect on you will likely be that of heightened senses. Food will be EXTRA luscious, for example, and colors will take on an additional depth. It may even get to be a little irritating, like you may find that wearing normally acceptably rough fabrics becomes almost more than you can bear or that high pitched noise that comes from SOMEWHERE in the living caverns may keep you from going there altogether.

When it comes to mating flights, she takes no souvenirs. Romance? Feh. This is the HUNT and for once, it is she who is the prey. It’s a vaguely uncomfortable scenario for her at the outset, given her huntress nature and that the innate worry that comes from being tailed is DEFINITELY not natural to her. So she slinks, she hides, she dodges and tries to blend in with her surroundings, preferring to take low to the trees and let them camouflage her from beneath before making that arrow-shot towards the blinding orb of Rukbat’s fire to blind her pursuers. Instinct drives her even in this, and her instinct is something that makes her a most canny dragon in many respects. Afterwards, however, there will be nothing more than a fond, fleeting memory of a good time. It’s likely she will show preference BETWEEN flights and feel an extra affection for a particular dragon, but in the air it’s up to chance entirely as she flees her pursuers.

Credits:
Dragon: Ghwerigeth
Colour: Green
Name: Sadaiya
Egg: What Have I Become? Egg
Egg Desc: YOU! (no modesty for you), SearchCo-tweak
Dragonet: Swamp Water Waiata Green Dragonet
Dragonet Desc: D’baji, D’rani-tweak, Sadaiya-tweak
Messages: D’rani, Sadaiya tweak
Inspiration: Sadaiya, D’baji, Lida, D’rani with Sienna prettifying it.

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Zari’s Green Ghwerigeth
Harper's Tale: 59th PC Clutch
Ista Weyr
Sadaiya’s Gold Jivayath and T’sei’s Bronze Xhiyanth
April 15th, 2011
Alys (Alyssa) and Green Rakshamanith
Charli (Malachai) and Green Dzakath
Trek (Trekana) and Blue Kanyith
Kanga (Kangarru) and Brown Ruenalth
N’ayl (Lyzan) and Brown Gudrotgoth
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