Belladonna

Belladonna is the solitary matriarch of our clan, known for being unfriendly to strangers and standoffish to friends. She may not be very sociable but she loves her clan with a ferocity that can only be matched by the violence of nature.

Bella's life started with her being abandoned as a hatchling, the runt of her clutch. She doesn't remember watching her mother and clutchmates fly away, but she remembers the weeks of hunger that followed. She tried to hunt and feed herself but found little success. She was almost dead when she was found by Harbinger, also a lone hatchling, but far bigger and stronger than she was. He brought her food and, when she had regained her strength, tried to teach her how to hunt. Once she was able to care for herself she tried to loose Harbinger several times, offput by his overly friendly nature and preferring to be alone. But he always managed to find her, and eventually she gave into his assertions that they were now family. The two have been inseparable ever since.

As the two dragons grew in both size and strength they established a lair of their own and started attracting other cast off dragons, the beginnings of their clan. For a time the clan was growing and thriving in their mountaintop lair, but then a great natural disaster forced them out of the lair they had called home. For years the clan traveled, barely able to scrape together enough resources to keep them going. During these dark years Belladonna's leadership and cunning saved her clan from elimination time and again, reaffirming the clans unwavering loyalty to her. These years of hardship went on so long that the clan started to lose hope that they would ever find a place for them again, but it was Bella who found their new lair, a hidden grove in the Gladekeeper's lands.

Now the clan is thriving again. Bella watches new dragons arrive and new babies hatching and knows that she lead her clan, her family, to a place they can live in peace for as long as possible. She has retreated from leadership, letting her daughter Ironside take on the role of clan leader and spending her days lounging in the sun on the rocky outcropping just outside the small cave she sleeps in. She still stays mostly apart from the rest of the clan, preferring her own company, but will come down occasionally to spend time with her fellow elders or meet the new hatchlings. She is respected and honoured by her clanmates, and the younger generation listens with awe to the stories of how she lead the clan through their years of hardship. Belladonna, who's first moments were spent abandoned by her family, has a new family now and she will continue to watch over them until the end of her days.


Art by Whiteboard