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PLAYER INFO
Name/Nickname: Mandy
Age: 25
Journal: maplepancakes
AIM/MSN/IM: PANDABEAR1328
Email: silvershine_@hotmail
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Iskierka
Canon: Temeraire series
Point taken from canon: Book 7
Age: three, but is considered an adult by dragon standards
Gender: Female
Appearance: Iskierka has several different colors splattered across her body. She has mostly dark red scales, though her underside is a shade of purple. Along the edges of her wings and her back are dark green patches, which are separated from the red parts by a thin line of black. Also, along her back and tail, she has several bone-spikes, all of which emit steam. On her head she has two long horns, which are the same shade of purple as her underbelly. To top it all off, she has yellow eyes.
She is also quite a large dragon. Officially she is “just a little smaller than Temeraire,” who is about 100 feet long and 18 tons. She is also a heavyweight, the largest classification of dragons in the Aerial Corps, so it’s very unlikely that she would be too much smaller than that. (all heavyweights are 18 tons or more)
She’s actually on the cover of the third book, which you can see here (click on the picture of the cover to see a larger version.) There’s also another picture of that cover, as well as some fanart of her, on the page I linked in the background section.
Iskierka has a fondness of gold, jewels, and other things like that. While she does keep her adornments simple, as anything too complicated will just be a hindrance in a fight, she does like to wear gold and gemstones. This is usually in the form of some kind of necklace or breastplate.
Other than her dragon-bling, the only thing she wears regularly is her riding harness, which is used when she goes into battle. It’s basically several leather straps that run along her neck and body, hooking around the legs and underneath her for support. This is moreso used for her crew, as they attach themselves to the straps of the harness to keep from falling off while she flies. Also there is netting attached to the harness, which is used to carry luggage, guns, bombs, rations, and anything else Iskierka and her crew might need.
At the time she arrives in Kanna, she won't have any of her usual adornments.
Background: link
Personality: Once upon a time, a dragon and his crew had to get some dragon eggs from Turkey to England. But Europe was engulfed in war, because a certain French leader from Corsica decided that it would be pretty awesome to be in control of an entire continent. With very little safe ground in-between, it was basically a game of ‘hide-and-go-run-from-the-French’ for a good thousand miles or so. But while they were over Poland, just barely halfway to their destination, one of the eggs decided that this whole ‘war’ thing sounded like a grand ol’ time. Without any consideration for the people around her, and against the protests of the dragon in charge of her egg, Iskierka hatched her way into the world amid gunfire and chaos.
Iskierka’s birth is actually very representative of the kind of person she is. Born in the middle of a battlefield, Iskierka has only known fighting for her entire life. She had a minimal amount of downtime, during which she learned the basics of battle tactics and formation flying, but otherwise she has been fighting against France. Normally a dragon has at least several months, maybe even a year, to learn all the information they need, but with France leering over the English Channel the Aerial Corps thought it best to get her out and fighting as soon as possible.
This isn’t to say that she dislikes it, though. In fact, Iskierka lives to fight. Within 24 hours of her birth she tried to pick a fight with another dragon over a meal, and she wanted to take on the French army before she was even big enough to carry a person on her back. Even as she grew older, she still had a habit of picking fights whenever she felt like it, usually for good reason but sometimes simply because she was bored. Fortunately she learned to take on the enemy only, and she mostly leaves the other English dragons alone.
Luckily for her, fighting is something she does very well. Even though she is one of the youngest dragons in the story at three years old, she is already a formidable fighter. Not only is her fire-breathing dangerous, but she has precision and good intuition in a fight. She has defeated dragons ten times her age in one-on-one fights, and she has no qualms about jumping into a fight whenever she can. She has made mistakes in the past, like getting into situations where she is outnumbered and captured, but she learns from those mistakes, and she has become an even better fighter because of it.
Iskierka is skilled in mental and social battles as well. While she does have quite a temper, she has been shown to be able to position herself just right to be able to influence people to get the outcomes she wants. For example, she was able to convince a queen that it was a good idea to marry her captain, Granby, even though neither of them spoke the same language as the queen and the queen was interested in marrying someone else entirely. Iskierka is just good at weaseling her way into getting what she wants, though she often makes promises she probably shouldn't to get there.
Unfortunately, all of this just serves to make her ego grow. Iskierka thinks she knows what's right, and everyone should go along with her plans because she knows best. In reality, she is still very young, and her plans are not always well-thought-out. She plans for the immediate moment, not for the future, and she often flies by the seat of her pants because of it. Even when she is wrong, she refuses to admit it, and she tries to twist her defeats to sound like victories in a way. She just can't accept when she is wrong.
But her youth and relative inexperience isn't always a bad thing. Because of her young age, Iskierka is very inquisitive. She wants to know what something thing is, what it does, and how she can use it. This is usually offered as an ironic contrast to her know-it-all attitude: she will claim to know what to do when fighting a ship-of-the-line while in the same breath asking what a ship-of-the-line is. And she isn’t patient enough to sit around and find out all of the little details, either. She usually has to find out the specifics through trial and error, or through getting lectured. A great example of this is in the fourth book: Temeraire tells her how to earn capital (in this case, capturing ships and claiming the reward), and she immediately runs off and captures a fishing boat, only to be later told that it has to be an enemy ship in order for her to get the reward. Then another dragon has to clean up her mess by replacing the boat before the owner reports them to the Admiral.
Along with this curiosity, though, Iskierka can be very impressionable. She doesn't yet have the experience to tell when someone is feeding her a line of bullshit or not, so she takes most of what she's told (as long as it doesn't contradict her already-formed opinions) at face-value. If it's a subject unknown to her, she can be told blatant lies and believe them to be the truth.
As with all dragons, Iskierka loves shiny things. She hoards gold and jewels, wearing as much of it as she can get away with while still being able to fight. She even makes her captain, John Granby, wear a coat covered in the same gaudy jewelry. It’s a sort of status symbol among her and the other dragons: she earns enough capital to pay for such things, and it’s better to wear your wealth than to keep it in the banks. Many of the other dragons are jealous of her for this, but Iskierka loves the attention. It’s also worth noting that the promise of a reward is very tempting to Iskierka, and as long as it doesn’t go directly against her own interests in some way she will likely go on any wild goose chase for gold.
Along with gold, there is one other thing Iskierka is horribly possessive over: her captain. Granby has been with Iskierka from the moment she was born, and while she doesn’t always listen to him he is still the light of her life. She is very devoted to him, and she won’t let any harm come to him. In fact, harming Granby is the one thing that will over-ride her love of treasure. For example: normally she takes prisoners alive, as they are worth more money that way. But when Granby was captured by the French and injured during his captivity, Iskierka expressed a desire to kill the men responsible for his mistreatment, regardless of how much money she would lose. Along with that, the only reason Iskierka listens to orders (when she does at all) is because the Admiral has threatened to separate her from Granby if she disobeys all the time. Of course, she takes this to mean that she’ll be alright with only disobeying sometimes.
Iskierka has caused quite a stir in England for a couple of reasons, actually. The first, and most obvious, is her behavior. While most young dragons are as arrogant and impatient as she is, they are also very obedient to their captains. Typically an order from a dragon’s captain is all it takes to get a dragon to be obedient, though some might take a few liberties with how the orders are carried out. (Sound advice given to young captains is that, if you’re going to give a moody dragon an order, be very, VERY specific about what you want.) But Iskierka will blatantly ignore orders from Granby at times, as she thinks she knows what to do more than he does. Nevermind that Granby has been in the Aerial Corps for twenty years and Iskierka doesn’t even have four years to her name yet. This bothers many of the higher-ups in the military, especially those who don’t work directly with the dragons and see them only as beasts of burden. To them, a dragon is only valuable as long as they’re controllable, and the fact that Iskierka is such a loose cannon is a threat.
However, Iskierka does get a little bit of leniency in terms of behavior, and that’s because of the second big point about her: she is not from a breed of dragons that is native to England. She is a Kazilik, which is a breed native to Turkey. Kaziliks are highly prized because they’re the only breed of heavyweight dragon that can breathe fire. All other firebreathing dragons are much, much smaller, which severely limits their usefulness in battle. Not only that, but none of the fire-breathing breeds are native to England, while France has many of their own breed of fire-breathers, the Flamme-de-Gloire. Because of this, Iskierka is highly valuable to England, and the higher-ups are willing to let small infractions slide in order to keep her happy and willing to fight.
More recently, Iskierka has begun to use her rarity to her advantage. Turkey keeps their dragons really close to home, so she is pretty much the only heavyweight fire-breather available for making dragon-babies. To date she has promised out three of her future eggs to various people in an attempt to form various alliances and ensure the best possible life for herself and her crew. This causes a lot of problems, though, since it's become very clear that she is not entirely loyal to Britain, who she is supposed to be fighting for. Really Iskierka gives no fucks about anyone except her precious people and acts only for their sake.
Abilities/Strengths:
Fire-breathing: Iskierka is a pretty talented fire-breather. As a juvenile she could shoot flames eighty yards out, and she could keep going for five minutes straight. These have only improved since she has gotten older. Generally speaking, if an object is made of something flammable, Iskierka can light it on fire and make sure it burns down.
Insta-heater: along with her fire breath, Iskierka has hollow spikes in her back that shoot out steam. These things, along with her naturally-warmer body, make her a very good bed-buddy, and other dragons (and sometimes humans) often cuddle up next to her on cold nights to keep warm. She could probably heat a house with her steam alone, provided she could actually get into the building.
Size: Iskierka is a heavyweight, and while she’s on the small side of being a heavyweight (estimates have her as just inside the weight limit for a heavyweight, though she’s technically not done growing yet) she still has 18 tons of mass. If all else fails, she can step on things and make them go squish.
Flight: Iskierka has wings and can fly.
Tough hide: Dragon scales are tough, and it takes special weapons to penetrate her hide and actually hurt her.
Ship-stealing: apparently Iskierka is a pretty damn good pirate, because she makes enough money stealing French ships that the other dragons are jealous of her skills at it.
Bravery: Iskierka is not afraid of battle. She will go into a fight even if she is over-powered and out-numbered.
Intelligence: She’s not the smartest dragon in the Aerial Corps, she is certainly brighter than most of them. She seems to be able to grasp concepts like math, reading, and politics, though she does find them boring usually and only does them when there’s nothing else to do.
Languages: Because of how dragons learn languages (see the ‘other’ section for more details, it’s a little long) Iskierka can speak English and Turkish.
Weaknesses:
Size: While her size can be good in some situations, it makes it very difficult to be around people. She can’t go into most cities, as they just aren’t built to accommodate an 18 ton dragon, and most people would be terrified of her even if she could manage to get in. As such, she typically has to stick to the outskirts of towns and the countryside, relying on her captain and crew to do any running-around in town that she might need.
Impatience: Iskierka has serious difficulty sitting still when there’s a battle going on. Don’t ever trust her with stealth missions. Ever.
Greed: She loves shinies. A lot. And she gets upset when someone has more shinies than her. She is also very fond of her crew, and gets very possessive of them. (It’s not uncommon for crewmen besides the captain to move to other dragons for whatever reason, but this makes Iskierka cranky.)
Her captain: It’s hardly unique to her, because all dragons are like this, but it’s worth mentioning. Iskierka can be manipulated through the use of her captain. While she doesn’t like it when he’s threatened, she will definitely obey any orders given if her captain’s life is in danger. She will also do the same at serious threats to separate her from her captain. The one sure-fire way to control a dragon is to have their captain’s life in your hands, and this holds true for Iskierka as well.
Pride: Iskierka has a hard time admitting when she’s wrong. If she does something wrong, she’ll try to find some way to blame someone else for the problem. She also has very selective hearing and will pretend she doesn’t hear complaints if she can get away with it, so saying it’s her fault for not listening to directions won’t do any good.
Ego: Because she’s so good at earning capital, Iskierka has gotten an inflated ego about it. She brags about how much money she has and how she can provide for her captain and how she has her own awesome pavilion and so forth.
Weak points: her tough scales are completely impenetrable. Spots near the joints (hips, behind the knees, elbows, armpits, etc.) don’t have scales, and are easily penetrated by gunshots and other weapons. Also, obviously, her eyes and mouth are weak points as well.
Fire: Her main weapon is her fire, which is pretty much normal fire and follows the same rules as fire. If it’s too wet, or if she’s surrounded by things that won’t burn, her fire is useless. Also she’s not immune to fire herself, and she can burn herself with her own fire if she’s not careful.
Bloodlust: The thrill of battle is too much for Iskierka, and she is sometimes overtaken by the need to fight. She will often leave her formation to go fight one-on-one, because she thinks formations are boring and fighting is more fun. She also skips out on non-combat patrols to go fight a French ship if they’re anywhere nearby.
Defining Quote(s): "Oh! Oh! They are attacking us! Quick, let us kill them!" – Iskierka, barely an hour after hatching.
“Well, you did not say it must be a French ship.” – Iskierka, after finding out she won’t be paid for capturing an English fishing boat
“You are disobeying orders again, I am sure of it: Granby would never let you come.”
“Oh well, one cannot always be obeying orders.” – Temeraire and Iskierka, about Iskierka sneaking away from the Covert.
“I am sure she will be a bad influence upon the eggs.”
“At least you need not fear for their safety.”
“Unless she should set the ship on fire.” – Temeraire and his captain Laurence, about Iskierka
Other: Okay. So. There’s some book-specific terminology and concepts I used in my app, and I’ll explain it here.
The Aerial Corps is the branch of the English military that deals with the dragons. It’s pretty much like an 1800s version of the RAF, except they have dragons instead of planes. Also they’ve been around for a while, at least several hundred years. The books at one point mention Queen Elizabeth visiting a Covert, so I’m guessing that they were well-established before then.
Coverts are where the dragons hang out when they’re not fighting. They’re a lot like military barracks, but they’re much larger and built to accommodate the dragons. They’re also a good distance from major cities, as dragons aren’t fully integrated into English society yet.
Whenever a ship is captured and turned in to the English military, whoever captured it gets a monetary gain (paid by the government) based on the worth of the ship. This is called capital, and it’s one of the few ways dragons can make money in England. While dragons are paid for their service in the form of free housing and meals, they do not earn an actual paycheck. This is why Iskierka has taken to capturing French ships in order to support her love of shiny things.
Flying in formation is actually a very important part of military life for heavyweights. There are very few dragons with breath weapons (Iskierka is the only fire-breather, Temeraire has the Divine Wind, and there are a handful of acid-spitters), and the formations are structured so that the dragons with breath weapons are surrounded by the other dragons and protected while they attack. The idea is that the other dragons will fend off attacking dragons long enough for the dragon with the breath weapon to do some serious damage to the other army’s ships, armies, and anything else. So, the fact that Iskierka leaves her formation behind sometimes is a Really Big Deal, because it limits her effectiveness in battle and puts her in danger of being captured. (Also, amusingly enough, it means that women are usually in charge of formations, as the acid-spitting breed of dragons will only take women as captains.)
Dragons are also special in that they learn most of their knowledge ‘in the egg.’ That is, once they’ve reached a certain stage of development, they basically listen to the conversations around their egg all day. When they hatch, they basically have the knowledge of a small child, because they’ve done a lot of mental development inside their egg. It’s also how they learn languages, too: whatever languages are spoken frequently around the egg is what the dragon will be able to speak when they hatch. In Iskierka’s case, she spent most of the time before she hatched in a Turkish bathhouse, but she also spent about six weeks or so in the company of an English crew, so she knows both languages.
While dragons love their captains more than anything in the world, they also will typically have more than one captain in their lifetime. This is because dragons live much, much longer than humans could even hope to live, and dragons are so valuable that they have to be kept on active duty even if the captain dies or is too old to fight anymore. What usually happens is that a descendant of the first (or previous, if a dragon has had more than one) will become the new captain, mostly because of the bond the dragon shares with that captain and their family. This isn’t always the case, though, as some captains might not have children, or the children might be too young to be a captain. In those cases, the dragon will either pick someone else they are fond of to be their captain, or they will decide to retire. The military really pushes for the former, though. (Granby is Iskierka’s first captain, by the way.)
The novels are set at the very beginning of the 1800s. It’s mid-1809 at the point I’m taking Iskierka from. Her way of speaking might seem a bit formal, but it’s actually how she speaks in the novels and it’s pretty much the standard among the Aerial Corps.
Finally, in the seventh book Granby lost his left arm just below the elbow, and he has to get a peg-arm or a claw or something attached to it so he can hold onto Iskierka's harnesses.
Action Writing Sample: [A video feed starts as the hitomi in question clatters to the ground and happens to hit the 'record' button as it does so. It has apparently been dropped in the middle of a pasture, as there are cows all around it, mooing and coming over to inspect the fallen hitomi. One cow in particular sniffs at it, nudging it slightly with its nose, and eventually the hitomi is pushed up against a fence post and is sort of lopsidedly propped up.
The cow in question apparently gives up on the interesting device, and walks away to munch on some grass. With the cow gone, the rest of the field is clearly visible, with cows wandering and mooing and eating. This goes on for a good two minutes or so.
Suddenly there is a blur of red and purple, and in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment one of the cows is carted off.
The cows start running off at that point, trying to get away from whatever just picked off one of their own. Soon after, a giant dragon lands in the field where the cows had been, and it is finishing off the cow it had picked off.]
Oh this is absolutely heavenly! It has been far too long since I've had a good meal. Those alpacas were far too tough and furry for my likes, they were like sheep but with more toughness and neckmeats. I shall be all too happy to never see one of those beasts again, dreadful things.
[At this point, the dragon finally notices the hitomi, and she leans in to look it over. ]
What's this? I haven't seen one of these contraptions since I was lost in that other world. How could there be one here? I better not be stuck in that horrible land again, I have important matters to attend to! Granby will no doubt choose a plain arm replacement if I am not there to show him the error in his ways. He cannot possibly be respectable without at least a gold-plated hook.
[As she is talking, some nomads are running up to her, shouting at her over the cow she had just eaten. Finally she notices them, and she sighs and rolls her eyes.]
Not again! They have no need to carry on as if I were a common criminal. And anyway they should be giving me the cow as a 'welcome back' present, I surely deserve that at this point.
Third Person Writing Sample: It was a bright day, and the three dragons Iskierka, Temeraire, and Kulingile were sunning themselves on some rocks near the small town they had taken refuge in. South America was a strange continent, and the jungle seemed intent on killing them, but thankfully this village was on the coastline, making it much safer than the inland. After such a treacherous journey over the Pacific Ocean, all three of them were glad to have a moment of rest without having to worry about starvation.
But while they were well-fed on whales and dolphins, Iskierka was growing tired of their seafood diet, and she longed for the cows and sheep of Britain. It had been so long since she had been to the small, dreary island, but she still missed many of the comforts of civilization. "I will be glad to be done with fishing," she said finally, turning her head to look at her two fellow dragons, "Surely one of the villages here must have something to eat besides fish."
"We are along the coastline, so many of these villages are fisherman's villages," Temeraire said practically, "And anyway, if they had cows to eat they would not share them with us."
"But we might be able to purchase one," Isierka said, thrashing her tail impatiently, "Even if they do not want to share, surely they would like the gold."
Temeraire snorted at her. "What gold do you speak of? I am sure you have not found a way to retrieve yours from the bottom of the ocean."
That earned a hiss from Iskierka, and she pointedly turned her head away. Her lost treasure was still very much a sore point with her, one that she would not recover from until she claimed enough gold and jewels to fill another hoard. Those stupid sailors, why did they have to be so drunk and useless? The ship would not have sank if they hadn't been carrying on like ninnies, Iskierka was sure of this.
But as she fumed silently to herself, the only sound coming from her being the puffs of steam emitting from her spines, she noticed something. Out in the field, near the treeline, was a bizarre creature. It looked like a sheep, kind of. It was definitely fluffy like a sheep. But it didn't look right at all, the neck was far too long, as if someone had grabbed the head of a sheep and pulled on it. Iskierka tilted her head curiously, trying to puzzle out what it was, but she had no idea.
"Look," she said, sounding as puzzled as she felt as she sat up properly, "Do you see that?"
The other two dragons sat up as well, and they craned their heads to either side of Iskierka's so that they could see as well. "Oh," Kulingile said, "It is a beast of some sort!"
"Well yes, obviously it is," Iskierka commented, "That is plain to see. But what beast is it?"
Temeraire studied the creature for a long time before finally saying, "It looks like a sheep of some sort. Perhaps the sheep in South America are all like that."
It seemed plausible, but Iskierka wasn't convinced. For one, none of them had been to South America before, so Temeraire had no way of knowing what that thing actually was. "How could you know, if you have not been here before?"
"It is a guess, and a far better one than you could make," Temeraire spat back at her, "If you are so unsure, you may track down one of the locals and ask them what those things are."
It was a good idea, but Iskierka wasn't eager to do that. She couldn't speak the language of any of the humans here in South America, and she would no doubt have to ask Temeraire to translate. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing her ask, either. So, she opted for another method. All sheep tasted the same, so she would need to taste this one to see if it was a sheep or not. Getting up on her haunches, she said, "Wait here, I will see if it is a sheep or not."
About fifteen minutes later she returned, licking the blood off of her talons. "It tastes like a sheep," she said finally, satisfied with herself. "It must be one."
Kulingile pouted at Iskierka. "You could have shared it."
"There was not enough of it to share and get a proper taste of it at the same time," Iskierka insisted, "And anyway, there are bound to be more of them, go catch one for yourself."
It was a weird creature, but Iskierka was satisfied. Finally she had a meal that was not fish! It was a little tough to get through the wool on it, but the sheep-creature tasted absolutely heavenly compared to the diet she had been living on for the past couple of months.
"Come," she said, "Let us catch some more. We are due back within an hour, so we might as well eat our fill."
Of course, she had no idea that those 'sheep' were not sheep at all, nor did she know that they actually belonged to someone else, and that all three of them would be in deep trouble when they returned.
Name/Nickname: Mandy
Age: 25
Journal: maplepancakes
AIM/MSN/IM: PANDABEAR1328
Email: silvershine_@hotmail
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Iskierka
Canon: Temeraire series
Point taken from canon: Book 7
Age: three, but is considered an adult by dragon standards
Gender: Female
Appearance: Iskierka has several different colors splattered across her body. She has mostly dark red scales, though her underside is a shade of purple. Along the edges of her wings and her back are dark green patches, which are separated from the red parts by a thin line of black. Also, along her back and tail, she has several bone-spikes, all of which emit steam. On her head she has two long horns, which are the same shade of purple as her underbelly. To top it all off, she has yellow eyes.
She is also quite a large dragon. Officially she is “just a little smaller than Temeraire,” who is about 100 feet long and 18 tons. She is also a heavyweight, the largest classification of dragons in the Aerial Corps, so it’s very unlikely that she would be too much smaller than that. (all heavyweights are 18 tons or more)
She’s actually on the cover of the third book, which you can see here (click on the picture of the cover to see a larger version.) There’s also another picture of that cover, as well as some fanart of her, on the page I linked in the background section.
Iskierka has a fondness of gold, jewels, and other things like that. While she does keep her adornments simple, as anything too complicated will just be a hindrance in a fight, she does like to wear gold and gemstones. This is usually in the form of some kind of necklace or breastplate.
Other than her dragon-bling, the only thing she wears regularly is her riding harness, which is used when she goes into battle. It’s basically several leather straps that run along her neck and body, hooking around the legs and underneath her for support. This is moreso used for her crew, as they attach themselves to the straps of the harness to keep from falling off while she flies. Also there is netting attached to the harness, which is used to carry luggage, guns, bombs, rations, and anything else Iskierka and her crew might need.
At the time she arrives in Kanna, she won't have any of her usual adornments.
Background: link
Personality: Once upon a time, a dragon and his crew had to get some dragon eggs from Turkey to England. But Europe was engulfed in war, because a certain French leader from Corsica decided that it would be pretty awesome to be in control of an entire continent. With very little safe ground in-between, it was basically a game of ‘hide-and-go-run-from-the-French’ for a good thousand miles or so. But while they were over Poland, just barely halfway to their destination, one of the eggs decided that this whole ‘war’ thing sounded like a grand ol’ time. Without any consideration for the people around her, and against the protests of the dragon in charge of her egg, Iskierka hatched her way into the world amid gunfire and chaos.
Iskierka’s birth is actually very representative of the kind of person she is. Born in the middle of a battlefield, Iskierka has only known fighting for her entire life. She had a minimal amount of downtime, during which she learned the basics of battle tactics and formation flying, but otherwise she has been fighting against France. Normally a dragon has at least several months, maybe even a year, to learn all the information they need, but with France leering over the English Channel the Aerial Corps thought it best to get her out and fighting as soon as possible.
This isn’t to say that she dislikes it, though. In fact, Iskierka lives to fight. Within 24 hours of her birth she tried to pick a fight with another dragon over a meal, and she wanted to take on the French army before she was even big enough to carry a person on her back. Even as she grew older, she still had a habit of picking fights whenever she felt like it, usually for good reason but sometimes simply because she was bored. Fortunately she learned to take on the enemy only, and she mostly leaves the other English dragons alone.
Luckily for her, fighting is something she does very well. Even though she is one of the youngest dragons in the story at three years old, she is already a formidable fighter. Not only is her fire-breathing dangerous, but she has precision and good intuition in a fight. She has defeated dragons ten times her age in one-on-one fights, and she has no qualms about jumping into a fight whenever she can. She has made mistakes in the past, like getting into situations where she is outnumbered and captured, but she learns from those mistakes, and she has become an even better fighter because of it.
Iskierka is skilled in mental and social battles as well. While she does have quite a temper, she has been shown to be able to position herself just right to be able to influence people to get the outcomes she wants. For example, she was able to convince a queen that it was a good idea to marry her captain, Granby, even though neither of them spoke the same language as the queen and the queen was interested in marrying someone else entirely. Iskierka is just good at weaseling her way into getting what she wants, though she often makes promises she probably shouldn't to get there.
Unfortunately, all of this just serves to make her ego grow. Iskierka thinks she knows what's right, and everyone should go along with her plans because she knows best. In reality, she is still very young, and her plans are not always well-thought-out. She plans for the immediate moment, not for the future, and she often flies by the seat of her pants because of it. Even when she is wrong, she refuses to admit it, and she tries to twist her defeats to sound like victories in a way. She just can't accept when she is wrong.
But her youth and relative inexperience isn't always a bad thing. Because of her young age, Iskierka is very inquisitive. She wants to know what something thing is, what it does, and how she can use it. This is usually offered as an ironic contrast to her know-it-all attitude: she will claim to know what to do when fighting a ship-of-the-line while in the same breath asking what a ship-of-the-line is. And she isn’t patient enough to sit around and find out all of the little details, either. She usually has to find out the specifics through trial and error, or through getting lectured. A great example of this is in the fourth book: Temeraire tells her how to earn capital (in this case, capturing ships and claiming the reward), and she immediately runs off and captures a fishing boat, only to be later told that it has to be an enemy ship in order for her to get the reward. Then another dragon has to clean up her mess by replacing the boat before the owner reports them to the Admiral.
Along with this curiosity, though, Iskierka can be very impressionable. She doesn't yet have the experience to tell when someone is feeding her a line of bullshit or not, so she takes most of what she's told (as long as it doesn't contradict her already-formed opinions) at face-value. If it's a subject unknown to her, she can be told blatant lies and believe them to be the truth.
As with all dragons, Iskierka loves shiny things. She hoards gold and jewels, wearing as much of it as she can get away with while still being able to fight. She even makes her captain, John Granby, wear a coat covered in the same gaudy jewelry. It’s a sort of status symbol among her and the other dragons: she earns enough capital to pay for such things, and it’s better to wear your wealth than to keep it in the banks. Many of the other dragons are jealous of her for this, but Iskierka loves the attention. It’s also worth noting that the promise of a reward is very tempting to Iskierka, and as long as it doesn’t go directly against her own interests in some way she will likely go on any wild goose chase for gold.
Along with gold, there is one other thing Iskierka is horribly possessive over: her captain. Granby has been with Iskierka from the moment she was born, and while she doesn’t always listen to him he is still the light of her life. She is very devoted to him, and she won’t let any harm come to him. In fact, harming Granby is the one thing that will over-ride her love of treasure. For example: normally she takes prisoners alive, as they are worth more money that way. But when Granby was captured by the French and injured during his captivity, Iskierka expressed a desire to kill the men responsible for his mistreatment, regardless of how much money she would lose. Along with that, the only reason Iskierka listens to orders (when she does at all) is because the Admiral has threatened to separate her from Granby if she disobeys all the time. Of course, she takes this to mean that she’ll be alright with only disobeying sometimes.
Iskierka has caused quite a stir in England for a couple of reasons, actually. The first, and most obvious, is her behavior. While most young dragons are as arrogant and impatient as she is, they are also very obedient to their captains. Typically an order from a dragon’s captain is all it takes to get a dragon to be obedient, though some might take a few liberties with how the orders are carried out. (Sound advice given to young captains is that, if you’re going to give a moody dragon an order, be very, VERY specific about what you want.) But Iskierka will blatantly ignore orders from Granby at times, as she thinks she knows what to do more than he does. Nevermind that Granby has been in the Aerial Corps for twenty years and Iskierka doesn’t even have four years to her name yet. This bothers many of the higher-ups in the military, especially those who don’t work directly with the dragons and see them only as beasts of burden. To them, a dragon is only valuable as long as they’re controllable, and the fact that Iskierka is such a loose cannon is a threat.
However, Iskierka does get a little bit of leniency in terms of behavior, and that’s because of the second big point about her: she is not from a breed of dragons that is native to England. She is a Kazilik, which is a breed native to Turkey. Kaziliks are highly prized because they’re the only breed of heavyweight dragon that can breathe fire. All other firebreathing dragons are much, much smaller, which severely limits their usefulness in battle. Not only that, but none of the fire-breathing breeds are native to England, while France has many of their own breed of fire-breathers, the Flamme-de-Gloire. Because of this, Iskierka is highly valuable to England, and the higher-ups are willing to let small infractions slide in order to keep her happy and willing to fight.
More recently, Iskierka has begun to use her rarity to her advantage. Turkey keeps their dragons really close to home, so she is pretty much the only heavyweight fire-breather available for making dragon-babies. To date she has promised out three of her future eggs to various people in an attempt to form various alliances and ensure the best possible life for herself and her crew. This causes a lot of problems, though, since it's become very clear that she is not entirely loyal to Britain, who she is supposed to be fighting for. Really Iskierka gives no fucks about anyone except her precious people and acts only for their sake.
Abilities/Strengths:
Fire-breathing: Iskierka is a pretty talented fire-breather. As a juvenile she could shoot flames eighty yards out, and she could keep going for five minutes straight. These have only improved since she has gotten older. Generally speaking, if an object is made of something flammable, Iskierka can light it on fire and make sure it burns down.
Insta-heater: along with her fire breath, Iskierka has hollow spikes in her back that shoot out steam. These things, along with her naturally-warmer body, make her a very good bed-buddy, and other dragons (and sometimes humans) often cuddle up next to her on cold nights to keep warm. She could probably heat a house with her steam alone, provided she could actually get into the building.
Size: Iskierka is a heavyweight, and while she’s on the small side of being a heavyweight (estimates have her as just inside the weight limit for a heavyweight, though she’s technically not done growing yet) she still has 18 tons of mass. If all else fails, she can step on things and make them go squish.
Flight: Iskierka has wings and can fly.
Tough hide: Dragon scales are tough, and it takes special weapons to penetrate her hide and actually hurt her.
Ship-stealing: apparently Iskierka is a pretty damn good pirate, because she makes enough money stealing French ships that the other dragons are jealous of her skills at it.
Bravery: Iskierka is not afraid of battle. She will go into a fight even if she is over-powered and out-numbered.
Intelligence: She’s not the smartest dragon in the Aerial Corps, she is certainly brighter than most of them. She seems to be able to grasp concepts like math, reading, and politics, though she does find them boring usually and only does them when there’s nothing else to do.
Languages: Because of how dragons learn languages (see the ‘other’ section for more details, it’s a little long) Iskierka can speak English and Turkish.
Weaknesses:
Size: While her size can be good in some situations, it makes it very difficult to be around people. She can’t go into most cities, as they just aren’t built to accommodate an 18 ton dragon, and most people would be terrified of her even if she could manage to get in. As such, she typically has to stick to the outskirts of towns and the countryside, relying on her captain and crew to do any running-around in town that she might need.
Impatience: Iskierka has serious difficulty sitting still when there’s a battle going on. Don’t ever trust her with stealth missions. Ever.
Greed: She loves shinies. A lot. And she gets upset when someone has more shinies than her. She is also very fond of her crew, and gets very possessive of them. (It’s not uncommon for crewmen besides the captain to move to other dragons for whatever reason, but this makes Iskierka cranky.)
Her captain: It’s hardly unique to her, because all dragons are like this, but it’s worth mentioning. Iskierka can be manipulated through the use of her captain. While she doesn’t like it when he’s threatened, she will definitely obey any orders given if her captain’s life is in danger. She will also do the same at serious threats to separate her from her captain. The one sure-fire way to control a dragon is to have their captain’s life in your hands, and this holds true for Iskierka as well.
Pride: Iskierka has a hard time admitting when she’s wrong. If she does something wrong, she’ll try to find some way to blame someone else for the problem. She also has very selective hearing and will pretend she doesn’t hear complaints if she can get away with it, so saying it’s her fault for not listening to directions won’t do any good.
Ego: Because she’s so good at earning capital, Iskierka has gotten an inflated ego about it. She brags about how much money she has and how she can provide for her captain and how she has her own awesome pavilion and so forth.
Weak points: her tough scales are completely impenetrable. Spots near the joints (hips, behind the knees, elbows, armpits, etc.) don’t have scales, and are easily penetrated by gunshots and other weapons. Also, obviously, her eyes and mouth are weak points as well.
Fire: Her main weapon is her fire, which is pretty much normal fire and follows the same rules as fire. If it’s too wet, or if she’s surrounded by things that won’t burn, her fire is useless. Also she’s not immune to fire herself, and she can burn herself with her own fire if she’s not careful.
Bloodlust: The thrill of battle is too much for Iskierka, and she is sometimes overtaken by the need to fight. She will often leave her formation to go fight one-on-one, because she thinks formations are boring and fighting is more fun. She also skips out on non-combat patrols to go fight a French ship if they’re anywhere nearby.
Defining Quote(s): "Oh! Oh! They are attacking us! Quick, let us kill them!" – Iskierka, barely an hour after hatching.
“Well, you did not say it must be a French ship.” – Iskierka, after finding out she won’t be paid for capturing an English fishing boat
“You are disobeying orders again, I am sure of it: Granby would never let you come.”
“Oh well, one cannot always be obeying orders.” – Temeraire and Iskierka, about Iskierka sneaking away from the Covert.
“I am sure she will be a bad influence upon the eggs.”
“At least you need not fear for their safety.”
“Unless she should set the ship on fire.” – Temeraire and his captain Laurence, about Iskierka
Other: Okay. So. There’s some book-specific terminology and concepts I used in my app, and I’ll explain it here.
The Aerial Corps is the branch of the English military that deals with the dragons. It’s pretty much like an 1800s version of the RAF, except they have dragons instead of planes. Also they’ve been around for a while, at least several hundred years. The books at one point mention Queen Elizabeth visiting a Covert, so I’m guessing that they were well-established before then.
Coverts are where the dragons hang out when they’re not fighting. They’re a lot like military barracks, but they’re much larger and built to accommodate the dragons. They’re also a good distance from major cities, as dragons aren’t fully integrated into English society yet.
Whenever a ship is captured and turned in to the English military, whoever captured it gets a monetary gain (paid by the government) based on the worth of the ship. This is called capital, and it’s one of the few ways dragons can make money in England. While dragons are paid for their service in the form of free housing and meals, they do not earn an actual paycheck. This is why Iskierka has taken to capturing French ships in order to support her love of shiny things.
Flying in formation is actually a very important part of military life for heavyweights. There are very few dragons with breath weapons (Iskierka is the only fire-breather, Temeraire has the Divine Wind, and there are a handful of acid-spitters), and the formations are structured so that the dragons with breath weapons are surrounded by the other dragons and protected while they attack. The idea is that the other dragons will fend off attacking dragons long enough for the dragon with the breath weapon to do some serious damage to the other army’s ships, armies, and anything else. So, the fact that Iskierka leaves her formation behind sometimes is a Really Big Deal, because it limits her effectiveness in battle and puts her in danger of being captured. (Also, amusingly enough, it means that women are usually in charge of formations, as the acid-spitting breed of dragons will only take women as captains.)
Dragons are also special in that they learn most of their knowledge ‘in the egg.’ That is, once they’ve reached a certain stage of development, they basically listen to the conversations around their egg all day. When they hatch, they basically have the knowledge of a small child, because they’ve done a lot of mental development inside their egg. It’s also how they learn languages, too: whatever languages are spoken frequently around the egg is what the dragon will be able to speak when they hatch. In Iskierka’s case, she spent most of the time before she hatched in a Turkish bathhouse, but she also spent about six weeks or so in the company of an English crew, so she knows both languages.
While dragons love their captains more than anything in the world, they also will typically have more than one captain in their lifetime. This is because dragons live much, much longer than humans could even hope to live, and dragons are so valuable that they have to be kept on active duty even if the captain dies or is too old to fight anymore. What usually happens is that a descendant of the first (or previous, if a dragon has had more than one) will become the new captain, mostly because of the bond the dragon shares with that captain and their family. This isn’t always the case, though, as some captains might not have children, or the children might be too young to be a captain. In those cases, the dragon will either pick someone else they are fond of to be their captain, or they will decide to retire. The military really pushes for the former, though. (Granby is Iskierka’s first captain, by the way.)
The novels are set at the very beginning of the 1800s. It’s mid-1809 at the point I’m taking Iskierka from. Her way of speaking might seem a bit formal, but it’s actually how she speaks in the novels and it’s pretty much the standard among the Aerial Corps.
Finally, in the seventh book Granby lost his left arm just below the elbow, and he has to get a peg-arm or a claw or something attached to it so he can hold onto Iskierka's harnesses.
Action Writing Sample: [A video feed starts as the hitomi in question clatters to the ground and happens to hit the 'record' button as it does so. It has apparently been dropped in the middle of a pasture, as there are cows all around it, mooing and coming over to inspect the fallen hitomi. One cow in particular sniffs at it, nudging it slightly with its nose, and eventually the hitomi is pushed up against a fence post and is sort of lopsidedly propped up.
The cow in question apparently gives up on the interesting device, and walks away to munch on some grass. With the cow gone, the rest of the field is clearly visible, with cows wandering and mooing and eating. This goes on for a good two minutes or so.
Suddenly there is a blur of red and purple, and in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment one of the cows is carted off.
The cows start running off at that point, trying to get away from whatever just picked off one of their own. Soon after, a giant dragon lands in the field where the cows had been, and it is finishing off the cow it had picked off.]
Oh this is absolutely heavenly! It has been far too long since I've had a good meal. Those alpacas were far too tough and furry for my likes, they were like sheep but with more toughness and neckmeats. I shall be all too happy to never see one of those beasts again, dreadful things.
[At this point, the dragon finally notices the hitomi, and she leans in to look it over. ]
What's this? I haven't seen one of these contraptions since I was lost in that other world. How could there be one here? I better not be stuck in that horrible land again, I have important matters to attend to! Granby will no doubt choose a plain arm replacement if I am not there to show him the error in his ways. He cannot possibly be respectable without at least a gold-plated hook.
[As she is talking, some nomads are running up to her, shouting at her over the cow she had just eaten. Finally she notices them, and she sighs and rolls her eyes.]
Not again! They have no need to carry on as if I were a common criminal. And anyway they should be giving me the cow as a 'welcome back' present, I surely deserve that at this point.
Third Person Writing Sample: It was a bright day, and the three dragons Iskierka, Temeraire, and Kulingile were sunning themselves on some rocks near the small town they had taken refuge in. South America was a strange continent, and the jungle seemed intent on killing them, but thankfully this village was on the coastline, making it much safer than the inland. After such a treacherous journey over the Pacific Ocean, all three of them were glad to have a moment of rest without having to worry about starvation.
But while they were well-fed on whales and dolphins, Iskierka was growing tired of their seafood diet, and she longed for the cows and sheep of Britain. It had been so long since she had been to the small, dreary island, but she still missed many of the comforts of civilization. "I will be glad to be done with fishing," she said finally, turning her head to look at her two fellow dragons, "Surely one of the villages here must have something to eat besides fish."
"We are along the coastline, so many of these villages are fisherman's villages," Temeraire said practically, "And anyway, if they had cows to eat they would not share them with us."
"But we might be able to purchase one," Isierka said, thrashing her tail impatiently, "Even if they do not want to share, surely they would like the gold."
Temeraire snorted at her. "What gold do you speak of? I am sure you have not found a way to retrieve yours from the bottom of the ocean."
That earned a hiss from Iskierka, and she pointedly turned her head away. Her lost treasure was still very much a sore point with her, one that she would not recover from until she claimed enough gold and jewels to fill another hoard. Those stupid sailors, why did they have to be so drunk and useless? The ship would not have sank if they hadn't been carrying on like ninnies, Iskierka was sure of this.
But as she fumed silently to herself, the only sound coming from her being the puffs of steam emitting from her spines, she noticed something. Out in the field, near the treeline, was a bizarre creature. It looked like a sheep, kind of. It was definitely fluffy like a sheep. But it didn't look right at all, the neck was far too long, as if someone had grabbed the head of a sheep and pulled on it. Iskierka tilted her head curiously, trying to puzzle out what it was, but she had no idea.
"Look," she said, sounding as puzzled as she felt as she sat up properly, "Do you see that?"
The other two dragons sat up as well, and they craned their heads to either side of Iskierka's so that they could see as well. "Oh," Kulingile said, "It is a beast of some sort!"
"Well yes, obviously it is," Iskierka commented, "That is plain to see. But what beast is it?"
Temeraire studied the creature for a long time before finally saying, "It looks like a sheep of some sort. Perhaps the sheep in South America are all like that."
It seemed plausible, but Iskierka wasn't convinced. For one, none of them had been to South America before, so Temeraire had no way of knowing what that thing actually was. "How could you know, if you have not been here before?"
"It is a guess, and a far better one than you could make," Temeraire spat back at her, "If you are so unsure, you may track down one of the locals and ask them what those things are."
It was a good idea, but Iskierka wasn't eager to do that. She couldn't speak the language of any of the humans here in South America, and she would no doubt have to ask Temeraire to translate. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing her ask, either. So, she opted for another method. All sheep tasted the same, so she would need to taste this one to see if it was a sheep or not. Getting up on her haunches, she said, "Wait here, I will see if it is a sheep or not."
About fifteen minutes later she returned, licking the blood off of her talons. "It tastes like a sheep," she said finally, satisfied with herself. "It must be one."
Kulingile pouted at Iskierka. "You could have shared it."
"There was not enough of it to share and get a proper taste of it at the same time," Iskierka insisted, "And anyway, there are bound to be more of them, go catch one for yourself."
It was a weird creature, but Iskierka was satisfied. Finally she had a meal that was not fish! It was a little tough to get through the wool on it, but the sheep-creature tasted absolutely heavenly compared to the diet she had been living on for the past couple of months.
"Come," she said, "Let us catch some more. We are due back within an hour, so we might as well eat our fill."
Of course, she had no idea that those 'sheep' were not sheep at all, nor did she know that they actually belonged to someone else, and that all three of them would be in deep trouble when they returned.