Ocean Crest Egg

The crest of the egg radiates a soft ocean green on one side, a tiny trail of white colored foam dances across the upper surface of the egg, leaving a shimmering trail of creamed colored innocence in its wake. Upon the other, fierce wisps of creamy wind patterns send a torrent of rushing white froth and foam to crest on the top of this silvery white egg. Circling around the bottom of the shell, with sinister intent, a blackened gray radiates tendrils of anger around the middle, before tingeing the purity of the surface with the darkness of the approaching storm, wave after wave rising from its very depths.

Hatching Message

Ocean Crest Egg shimmers one final time, like the surf as it finally crashes over the reef and collapses into the tranquility of the protected shallows. Riding its final stormy breakers, the wetling newborn inside slides out and over the wrecked shell. Dark and sleek and rounded bulk, he body-surfs the flotsam and jetsam of his egg with natural flair and arrives on the sand like a beached sea-cow.

Mermaid of the West Indies Blue Dragonet

Drawn from castaway dreams, a venus rises from the briny deep into gracefully draconic azure and blue. Yet fantasy is beached in reality, and this portly siren comes with an overbite, a broad muzzle, and small beady eyes. Still, his frame is streamlined and sleek-built for water not air-and everything about him marks him as the ocean's own: the broad canvas of his wingsails, the salty grit talons and toes, the nubby barnacle hues clinging to his broad belly and sides. Water's light ripples down his hide, gilding the blue surf that washes him from the roll of his rounded head over the swell of thick shoulders, the stormy crests of his spine and the pudgy sweep of his rump to the waving curl of his short tail. A sea cow he may be, a manatee's reflection, but his stolid gentle bulk endures after the mists of dreams are gone.

Public Impression Pose

Mermaid of the West Indies Blue Dragonet is there, all of a sudden. Right by Zarelyn. The little blue peers up quizzically from his homely little eyes, and then sticks his nose out, rubbing it firmly up and down her leg. There. That help with the itching at all?

Private Impression Message

Silence. Deep, profound silence that leaves your ears ringing with the pressure of it. Stillness invades your being, replacing the hubbub and clamour of the Sands with something much more profound. Breath comes short, as if being choked off, and your ears take on that liquidy feeling of being submerged in water. « Zarelyn. » The word, deep and rumbly, bubbles to the surface of your mind, stilling the panicky feeling of drowning. An eerie, sonorous song rises at the same time, pulsating and hauntingly clear. « You are the one for Morvorth. A real candidate. And now we shall travel together. »


Theme Inspiration

Manatees! Sea-cows! They're big, they're slow, and they're not really the brightest things in the world, but there's something appealing about them nonetheless. Not least the fact that these ungainly creatures are thought to have singlehandedly spawned the myth of mermaids, reports of which date back to Pliny the Elder. The truth behind the romanticised image of long-haired, fish-tailed maidens is rotund little blue-grey mammals. The truth behind Zarelyn's forgotten childhood dream of Impressing a dragon is Morvorth.

Despite dwindling numbers due to boat propellors and despite their ungainly appearance, there's something undeniably cute about manatees. Despite the familiarity that breeds contempt which adult Zarelyn now has when it comes to dragons, we hope that you and she will find that Morvorth is the same way. He may have rather homely looks (and we all know what side of the family that came from!), but he's an endearing dragon, something few will be able to deny.

Description Inspiration

Morvorth's description is, of course, derived from the cow of the ocean. The broad muzzle, overbite, and small eyes are direct homage to that gracefully ugly creature. But that's not all there is to his looks. His watery coloring is based on the look of sunlight through water. The barnacle markings are self-evident, as are his canvassy wingsails and the salty talons. He's a watery one, your Morvorth, something coughed up by the sea to live on land.

Name Inspiration

Likewise, Morvorth comes from the Cornish word 'morvor' meaning 'mermaid', but it's a chubby little masculine word. Because of the link between mermaids and manatees, we thought it fit nicely. We know it's a couple of letters longer than you wanted, but we felt it was simple enough that it felt short.

Inspiration

He's got his mother's broad build, but whereas Cadgwith is craggy, Morvorth is velvet soft and padded. Fat? Well, maybe, but not as much as he looks… He really genuinely truly is big-boned. Nor should anybody assume that he's clumsy-he's very good about carrying his weight, even in those awkward early growth-spurt stages. Like his father, he is that rare dragon who's a natural in all elements: water, air and land (you can test fire too if you really want, but we wouldn't recommend it). His natural walking pace is a glide so steady that you may notice people checking his feet for the wheels.

He is slow, there's no denying that. However, be careful of underestimating him, for he's always on the move even when you don't realise it. He's a bit like that crawling baby who is suddenly over the other side of the room checking out the wires behind the television. He often doesn't have a destination in mind, but he'll get there in his own good time and sooner than you might think.

The mind is quicker than quicksilver,
more slippery than ice.
The rain rivers the windows.
Fog moves into mountain the town.
There is no hiding memory
forgotten lying deep in the trunk.
I know when the sun shines.
I know hail's thrash at the windows.
I sit in silence. Emptiness. Waiting.
The tide moves on the Sound. _
~ Quicksilver, by Jan Haag

Morvorth's presence in your mind is deep. Ocean-deep, one might say, and silent. It's not really silence, however, so much as the sort of stillness that weighs on your ears, a low-threshold rhythmic noise that you don't notice after a while. It just becomes part of what you know, and it's hard to notice that he's there unless you concentrate on it. You have to look for him in your head, seeking deep within. And when you find him-because, rest assured, he is always there-he rises through all those layers of pulsating silence, surfacing like a manatee does from the water, just enough so that you can focus on him.

He enters into conversation with other dragons in the same way. Silence, followed by rising awareness of his presence. For you, though, the silence is always present, a part of life like breathing. His actual mental voice is deep, as well. Not ponderously deep, like one might guess from looking at his body, but rumbly and almost seductive, like the sound of the ocean. It's backed up by a pulsing whalesong, sonorous and hauntingly beautiful, especially when superimposed on that not-quite-silence. And the entirety of his mental touch has a hazy submerged quality that may leave you shaking your head to rid the water from your ears until you become accustomed to it.

He's not a vocal dragon though, either mentally or physically. As a weyrling at least, he will have a habit of calling out with high-pitched whistles as a way of affirming his location should you stray too far, but he's normally content for his presence to be that vast stillness in which you can lose yourself. Perhaps Sidramuntalath's endless contemplation of the immensity of the Universe has rendered it so comprehensible to him that it can now manifest and be contained within his children. How else could Morvorth hold an ocean within his brain? Yet he is not wise, Morvorth, and his mind is not quicksilver. However, he can take in any concept that is thrown at him and send it peacefully bobbing about the currents of his mind.

During a storm in 1992 thousands of rubber ducks fell overboard as they traveled aboard a container ship from China to Seattle. Since then they have journeyed through the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans. A few have broken away from the main flock to show up in more random destinations, although it is predicted that most of them will beach on the eastern coast of North America any day now (For details click Here and Here.). This is how Morvorth works. New ideas, experiences and concepts will hit his waters like flotsam and jetsam and at some point or another they will wash up against the shores of conscious thought-either his or yours. So expect to get questions like « Why does the top of the lake freeze when there is water underneath? » in the middle of summer. Draconic memory being what it is, he'll never remember why he is wondering about such a thing. You may have to fill in the gaps: "Yes, I know hot water rises and cold water settles down to the bottom, but…. It's just how it works." This will most likely be enough for him, although some of his questions may give you insomnia until you find out the answer.

I slept and dreamed that life was beauty. I woke - and found that life was duty.
~ Beauty and Duty, by Ellen Sturgis Hooper

Morvorth isn't really the sort of dragon to pull stunts. To go on wild and wacky adventures. To eternally shock his rider with his latest mad idea. Yet Zarelyn shouldn't breathe that huge sigh of relief yet. Morvorth is a creature of… habit. Occasionally he'll pick up new ones. Occasionally, he'll let go of old ones. But he knows what he likes to do, so he'll do it and he's not one to be broken of a habit easily.

Don't worry, some of them are rather cute. He's a tactile little critter for starters. That constant mind-link isn't enough for him, particularly when young. Perhaps he loses you in himself as well, but at any rate, he likes to have some kind of physical contact. Weyrling chores for you will be punctuated by a tail creeping around your ankles at inconvenient moments, or a wing suddenly colliding with your head, or a nose-tip burying itself into your shoulder and going 'plrrr.' It's that nose-tip that will be felt most often-although such 'kisses' may be less endearing as they get larger. Still, getting winded by dragonslobber in your torso is a small sacrifice to make for lifelong companionship.

After all, Morvorth's companionship is not lightly given. He's not really a social sort of dragon. He's happy to go for a stroll around the bowl and meet whoever he may meet, but he'll make no effort for a reunion, and he will not linger to play with his clutchmates if he wants to go elsewhere. He's a restless soul who likes to be on the move. It all boils down to a short attention span. He is not particularly discriminating, however: while you are always his traveling companion of choice, his other comrades can be of any species, whether dragon or llama or human or brat. All that is required is that they provide him with some source of pastime, preferably one that doesn't involve sitting still. He does have a love of organised games and if he can involve himself in one, he could be absorbed in that for a good hour. This will often be a refreshing way of leaving him safely occupied while you get on with other things. Conversely, it will often be a way of refreshing your mind whether you want to or not. Should he spy weyrfolk sledding on the mountains when you return from winter sweeps, he will not see the point in returning to the weyr before joining in. Sledding can be a revolutionary experience when your sledge is a hulk of blue dragon belly-flopping down the mountainside-particularly since, unlike most who participate in the sport, he will have no compunctions about going over the edge of the mountain.

Manatee bodysurfing involves groups of manatees riding the powerful currents generated below flood dams when the gates are partly open. Sessions of bodysurfing can last more than an hour. Bodysurfing manatees frequently nuzzle on another and vocalize between rides.
~ SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database

For all of that, he's surprisingly good at lessons-practical ones at any rate. Maybe he's just afraid of Zuleikath's wrath if he doesn't keep the pace, but he'll shine in formations both on the ground and in the air, able to mimic exactly what his leader's doing and keep the pace. Be warned though, he may not fare so well when he's the leader. Getting him to do what you want him do when it counts may not be a lesson he'll learn easily. « But Zarelyn… I want to go over there. It will work just as well. » His first threadfall may come as a nasty shock for Morvorth when he finally encounters something more stubborn than he is.« I don't want to bank now! » « What's that clump doing there? » « Duck? Oh, duck! » -and go between. He'll get used to it in time, but he'll never quite forgive Thread for forcing him into actions, and he'll always be irritated before, during and after a Fall. Of course, he's a creature of habit. He'll probably miss the routine of Fall in another fifteen turns when it's gone, and drag you out to spend a couple of hours just flying and flaming and skipping between for the fun of it.

Although Morvorth goes his own way, he's also easily led. His lack of discrimination will show again in his choice of who to follow, since he'll be as likely to go along with Taiith's crazy schemes as Chrideth's. The one person whose lead he won't follow is you. Why? Mostly because he takes you for granted. You're always there. It's a backhanded compliment as he's comfortable enough with you to argue-with anybody else, he's more likely to wander off without explanation. Remember that when he carries you off to go pub-crawling with Taiith, instead of ferrying furniture to your new weyr. There will however come a time when Zarelyn will not be ready to drop everything and go with Morvorth. Perhaps a lover or a child will vie for her affections. Perhaps illness or injury will keep her in the infirmary and away from him. When that happens, you'll know that Morvorth does care for you. He won't readily show jealousy, but he always wants you close enough to touch. He'd be lost in his own mind without you to navigate it for him.

When he does lead? He can, if it comes to that, although he will never yearn for followers, minions, the way that some dragons will. His attitude tends to be: « If they want to come with me, then let them. » However, he is aware of his responsibility and you may notice that it does not sit entirely well with him. He will fret a little if leading a wing, tilting his head just as much as is necessary to check that everybody is still with him. He'll also vocalise frequently in that whistly voice of his and encourage the wing to return the calls in order to keep orientation, like shepherds to sheepdogs. Of course, One Man and His Dog can't match up to One Dragon and His Wing in full surround sound.

He is able to take most of life's developments in his stride, and so he'll cope with leading if called upon. Sitting still is what will frustrate him (and thus you) the most. Lessons that are lecture-based will be a trial. He'll get bored. He'll fidget. He'll want to wander off. And that's if you're lucky. Firestone-training at least will suddenly put him in his natural element. Like cows of both land and sea, Morvorth is a natural grazer, and the fact that he's also a carnivore who only needs to eat every few days will not stop him. His snack of choice? Stone. Fortunately, firestone is fairly soft as stones go, and while dragon teeth can cope with that, they won't be able to munch through the bowl wall. Fortunately, we say, because Morvorth will make a good go at it. He'll grind his teeth against his couch, when you make him stay still long enough to fit him for straps. Boring anatomy lessons will remind him of his second stomach and have him gnawing the walls of the weyrling barracks. Let us not even speak of the embarrassments of visiting other weyrs, Weyrs, holds… Let us instead focus on the bright side that you will have no problems directing people to your own personal weyr: "Take a right at the lake and it's the one with the toothmarks."

Of course, the natural result of this is that you'll have to be terribly careful of his teeth. He'll need regular trips to the dragonhealer to check that he isn't wearing them down too far-the last thing you want is a dragon with toothache in the middle of Fall. If you can stomach it, it may be a good idea to keep a stock of firestone in your weyr at all times so that he can chew that softer stone rather than your ledge. Or maybe pumice and bones will be safer options. The onus will be on you to check what he's chewing though as Morvorth won't remember.

When it comes to flights, Morvorth is as innocent as the impression his cuddly-chubby form gives. 'Sex' just isn't in his vocabulary. Thus, he approaches flights with a charming, almost childlike curiosity — perhaps to the point of where other dragons would accuse him of playing dumb, especially after he wins a few. The instinct is bred into his bones, and with a weyr full of turn-on-a-tail greens, there's certainly enough action to keep his active (some might say wandering') mind busy. To him, though, it's not a flowery, gushing romance-fest or a skeevy singles bar (for lack of a better metaphor ;P); it's a curious game of tag, where Something is Up, but he only knows that he /must/ win, because the prize is surely something Special. Not to say that Morvorth is immature — by the second or third time 'round, even he figures out what mating flights entail, though he may not always remember, going into one, or end up forgetting by the time he's snared the female. It's just that there is an honesty, a purity to his emotions regarding flights that may be contrast to some of his creepier, floofier, or even skankier clutchmates.

It's hard to predict how Morvorth will react afterwards. Sometimes, he'll be near-inseparable from the lucky (?) green; other times, it's a quick cuddle and something else has distracted him. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the green's opinions. He's as likely to send more than a few greens running as he is to break a few hearts with his unintentionally cruel behavior. He never means to offend; it's just that That Was Nice and He's Done Now, 'Kay? Or, in the other case, something draws him to the green where (for once) the idea of her pops up in his percolating brain with uncharacteristic consistency. Usually he's not too obnoxious - well, besides letting you know the /exact/ moment that She woke up, or insisting you watch Her wing do practice drills. A little stalker-ish, perhaps, but sooner or later (like everything else) Morvorth's fixation will become idle curiosity, and then momentary distraction. But until then oh, the poor green!

Hover outside of time with dreams, with hopes free _
to be or not be, careful with spring urges
once willed beyond harmony seeking to see
no choice tenders the shining light of sun, moon
stars. Wind, rain move across the wild world to chime
webs of spiders entangled threads which pontoon
febrile choice and the choiceless leach of seized time.
Down the clear straight passage of might-be surges
the density of is. Timelessness free falls
into time. The known event now emerges
as action, "will" that waited as "was" will cease
yet ever be seen, unseen. Holography,
real as vision, dissolves when the last piece _
disappears from the pool of eternity.
~ Dus la phab, "to fall into time" (Tibetian), by Jan Haag

Manatees don't mate for life, but Morvorth is not really a manatee anymore than a manatee is really a mermaid although they share traits. Morvorth has found his lifelong love in you, Zarelyn, and he needs no other. Who he is really is something only you can answer and perhaps that answer will not be as written here. The important thing is that he is yours and you, as the little things in life will constantly remind you, are his.

Credits

Inspiration: Ciera, Nuff, Pyrene

Clutchmates:
Shiver Me Timbers Blue Taiith and A'ran (Caeran)
Tea with Alligators Green Chrideth and Alasse
Predatory Assassin Bug Green Zuleikath and El'wyn (Llewellyn)
Dancing Hula Charm Green Hiakith and Lexi (Lexia)
Quints Curious Treefrog Green Ainth and Lauria
Lost Gem of IndianShore Brown Neshath and Kal (Kaltia)
Shipwrecked SargassoSea Brown Kzavketh and Imi (Ulimi)
Sun 'n Sangria Summer Brown Seishuth and K'bai (Kibai)
Flaming Pink Flamingo Brnze Minoyath and M'nty (Monty)
Migratory Visitor Heron Brnze Jydhaeth and L'uc (Lucan)