Grendel

~ Second of the elemental Aberrations: purchased Wavecrest Saturnalia, 2022, 100G ~



Grendel is their collective, 'social' name. Privately and individually, they are called Bud and Furl. Their kind has a reputation to maintain, after all; but - surprise, surprise! - nature aberrations actually like nature. They are impressed by its strength, exuberance and versatility; that somehow, no matter the odds against it, life always finds a way. Secretly, they feel that perhaps there is much less difference between the sister flights than it at first appears; but of course it would never do to suggest this to nature dragons of a longer standing, so they keep their opinions - and their true names - to themselves.

Nature Aberrations, as one might expect, develop in shades of green and brown, the better to blend with the jungles they call home. Their markings reflect the dappled shade of the sun penetrating the forest canopy, and the oozing quagmires of the mangrove swamps. Their terts are expressed in two forms: either the polypore gene, found also in shadow Aberrations, but with colours in the earthy, green-orange range; or a gene known as 'fangs' in which tusk-like blades grow out from the dragon's heads, necks and chest, wickedly sharp thorns of a material that is not quite bone and not quite wood but some curious amalgam of the two.


Another variant, with tapir/striation in browns, like tree bark, and polypore. Other common patterns are ground/fissure, orb/weaver, slime/sludge, speckle/freckle, swirl/marbled.