Dawning
(#33119988)
See, these ideas do not have to be mutually exclusive...
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
7.49 m
Wingspan
6.98 m
Weight
891.15 kg
Genetics
Chocolate
Petals
Petals
Sunset
Butterfly
Butterfly
Raspberry
Okapi
Okapi
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 1 Coatl
EXP: 0 / 245
STR
6
AGI
7
DEF
6
QCK
7
INT
7
VIT
5
MND
6
Biography
|
Personality (featuring the talent of MythicalViper)
If you've visited the clan before, chances are, Dawning was the first dragon you met. She's the clan's diplomat, both collected and poised, not to mention her way with words. Her calming tones can soothe the most irritated of all dragons, and her answers are always well-thought-out replies. She is able to keep her rationale in the most heated arguments, allowing her to come out of any debate with all her feathers in place and on the winning side. However, her thoughtfulness has its disadvantages. Dawning takes quite a lot of time to come up with a reply, mauling over the pros and cons of each sentence and triple-checking to make sure she wouldn't offend anyone, while not hiding the truth from them. For this reason, most conversations with Dawning end up lengthy and mostly silent, with the poor victim squirming in their seat as Dawning contemplates the best way to tell them off.
Despite being blind, Dawning is perfectly capable of getting around on her own. Being a Lightning dragon, she can navigate her way around using electroreception to generate electric fields. Most of the time, this is fine, but woe to the dragon wearing full armour and any other shiny trinkets. The magnetic field Dawning generates is enough to attract most metals, and unlucky victims will find themselves walking one second, then unintentionally flying the next as their armour and pretty apparel hurtle enthusiastically through the air. Dawning is very physically fragile, making her unsuited for battle, as she can't withstand a single enemy attack. While she prefers to reserve her magic for navigational means, when she does take to the field, her speciality is lightning magic, using static to paralyse her opponents - a method of attack well-suited for her, as Dawning is too kind to ever want to hurt anyone, not even a rival. Most of the time, though, Dawning stands behind the lines, advising the ones leading the battles. She would hate to admit it, but it's safer this way, as her inability to see does cripple her by not allowing her to know what's going on. Because of her physical ineptness, Dawning is very dependent on other dragons to defend her, something that bothers her to this day. Dawning's perfectionism has deep claws. She is very adamant about what she wants to happen and how she wants something to happen, and she will work with everything she has to achieve her goal. She enjoys carrying out perfect plans and making sure everything goes smoothly. The moment something is a little off, Dawning will get nervous, sending a good electrical current through her feathers and making them fluff up. The moment something goes terribly wrong, Dawning will stay calm, but get increasingly frantic. When that happens, it's Dawning's best friend Chiaroscuro's cue to step in. No matter what happens, the shapeshifter is able to calm her down, much to everyone's relief, as the electricity Dawning throws off can get slightly dangerous during rainy weather. |
Early Life (featuring the talent of MythicalViper)
Perfection is a commodity in the Shifting Expanse. It's to be expected, as Lightning dragons mostly deal in machinery, and a single flawed mechanism can cause a project to fall apart. For that reason, precision is a skill greatly valued and even considered necessary. Everything must be perfect. Everything must work perfectly. If something doesn't work the way it should, then it must be discarded. Perfection had no space for the flawed.
Even if the flawed in question was a dragon.
Her parents were proud of her when she was first born. Coatl dragons were one of the master engineers in the Shifting Expanse. Having migrated from the Ashfall Wastes, they were valued for their ability to tinker in the most dangerous, heated environments. An addition to their clan was an addition to their reputation, or so Dawning's parents thought.
It didn't take long for them to realise how wrong they were. Unlike their other hatchlings, Dawning had problems getting around. She kept running into things, bouncing off the walls with a startled sound and ending up as a fluffy little ball on the ground. She couldn't read, blinking emptily at the books her parents presented to her, though she could speak surprisingly well for such a young dragon. Most importantly, she couldn't build a single thing. Her parents would put tools in her claws and expect her to screw in a nail or flatten out sheets of metal, but Dawning would simply stumble around, unbalanced by the heavy tool and confused as to what she was to do.
She was blind, the healers told her parents. A recessive hereditary trait that had a less than likely chance of appearing in a newborn, yet it presented itself in Dawning. Of the five senses dragons were supposed to be born with, Dawning was only gifted with four. She couldn't see, much less read, and definitely not build. She would have trouble getting around without aid, the healer said, and then suggested that they send Dawning off to a famous Light school for the blind.
A flaw. A burden. Her parents' love for her diminished from day to day. As Dawning's siblings shone in a variety of ways, Dawning continued to stumble around in the darkness, unable to find a way or a guide to light her way. Her parents ended up completely ignoring her, not wanting to spend the treasure it would take for her to go to school. Nothing was going to change the fact that Dawning was blind, not even education. She was imperfect, and there was no changing that.
It was hard for Dawning to accept that she was no longer loved. Though she could not see, she could hear and feel. She had every cosy moment with her parents engraved in her brilliant mind, and she remembered every loving word they'd told her. When her parents ceased to come into contact with her, and when their words turned bitter with hate, Dawning was forced to pick up the hint: she was unwanted, and it would be better for everyone if she went away.
But where would she go? Her home was here, not in the outside world beyond her clan. Frustrated and afraid, Dawning wandered around the clan's lair, groping her way along the walls and eventually ending up in spellcasting room. There, a dragon was teaching a group of hatchlings how to cast lightning spells; he was telling them how to use magic.
Magic. That became Dawning's first speck of light in her starless sky. She couldn't build a machine or a drone, but she could use magic, and she didn't need sight to do it. Day after day, she made her way to the spellcasting room, tucking herself out of the way in some small corner to listen to the teacher's voice. She couldn't read, much less jot down notes, so she relied entirely on her memory to perform spells.
When she learned of a spell that would allow her to create magnetic fields, this became a breaking point for Dawning. Most Lightning lairs are made of metal, and by using electrical currents, Dawning could feel and pinpoint the positions of everything. Excited, she ran to her parents bubbling over with enthusiasm, for the first time not crashing into the walls. She told them of her discovery and begged for them to give her a chance, but she was shunned. Even if she could sense her surroundings, Dawning couldn't learn how to thread wires or splice metal together. Her blindness caused clumsiness, which prevented her from performing anything fine-motor, and that was unacceptable. Her parents told her to stop trying. Nothing she could do would deny the fact that she was imperfect, and if she was imperfect, then she would never be accepted, and they would never see her as their child.
It was indeed a breaking point, because their words broke Dawning's heart.
Plagued by guilt and sorrow, Dawning left her clan, using her newfound skill to find her way. Stumbling, she went by foot, afraid of flight for fear she would crash into other creatures. She ended up at the coastline and followed it north, day after day, sand wearing away the pads of her feet as she walked. She slept in the darkness when she no longer felt the sun on her feathers, and she ate whatever she could find, using her sense of smell to scavenge seafood unlucky enough to wash up on the beach. She ran and risked flight only when she sensed predators on her tail.
She found few kindnesses as she navigated through the darkness that had become her world. Occasionally, other travellers would stop and share a story with her, and a meal. Once, a healer from the Wind Flight healed her wounds and warmed her with a handmade cloak before moving on to wherever the wind blew. Another time, a scholar from the Light Flight taught Dawning bits and pieces about magic, about spellcasting, the only star in her night sky.
But most of the time, other dragons ignored her. A Coatl shuffling along the road, shrouded by a cloak, was nothing unique to stare at. Most dragons wouldn't know she was blind unless they stopped to talk to her. And since rarely anyone did, Dawning was ignored. She was used to it, so it didn't bother her.
But just because it didn't bother her didn't mean it was okay.
Her journey eventually took her to the Starfall Isles, where what little strength Dawning had failed her. She was never physically fit to begin with, and months of walking had tired her out and worn her to the bone. She collapsed on the side of the road, where a bunch of bandits were waiting for an easy catch.
Said easy catch became Dawning. The bandits were quite disappointed by her lack of possessions, but they decided she'd make a good servant at their hideout, or at least a useful hostage. They bound her up in rope and magic and carted her away, hoping to make a quick escape before the dragons that'd been on their heels could catch up. Thinking that no one would follow them into a dangerous place, they went straight to the Star Wood Strand.
The bandits chose the wrong place to bring a kidnapped dragon. Though the Star Wood Strand's reputation was enough to keep most dragons at bay, a selected few dragon clans had put down roots there, and were more than happy to give the corrupted dragons a good beating. Dawning, who had remained semi-conscious throughout the entire endeavour, unable to fight back, was alarmed to hear the sounds of a scuffle. Immediately, she used what energy she had left to defend herself, encasing her entire body in electricity to give the first dragon foolish enough to touch her a very shocking warning.
The unlucky victim was Chiaroscuro, a Mirror from the dragon clan thrashing the bandits, and he was shocked to the teeth while trying to untie what he assumed was a bag of stolen goods. Lo and behold, it was a dragon with exceptionally startling defences. Chiaroscuro managed to calm her down with words, but Dawning remained suspicious of his intentions. She curled up, huddling in a pile of rope and bags as the Arcane clan approached her curiously, wondering what a Lightning dragon was doing here.
Dawning probably would've stayed there forever, but she didn't have the strength to keep up her magic, and after everything that had gone down in the past few hours - or months, really - she was exhausted. She tried to run away, but before she could, her magic failed her and she collapsed.
She was too tired to care what was going to happen to her. If they wish to kill me, she thought, they might as well.
When she woke, it was to warmth. She found herself in a soft bed with blankets, next to a comfortable hearth. For a moment, she wasn't sure whether or not she was alive. She almost thought that she was dreaming, but this warmth was real, and so were the voices of the dragons watching over her.
Clan Wonderstark, they told her. The name of the clan that had saved her. Dawning didn't have much time to process that before she was fed a good meal and had her wounds treated. Through dreamlike motions and conversations, she was spoken to, for the first time in so long. The dragons of the clan gave her new apparel and medicine for her scratches, and an Imperial named Eoin, who was brought in after her, carried her around on his back, speaking in poor Coatl, much to her amusement.
But with her initial joy came suspicion and fear. Dawning was afraid that this was all a trick, that at any point in time one of the dragons would throw her out of the lair, or prank her, or show their true self and tear her down from the inside. Her words, which had at first flowed fluently while speaking to her saviours, became hesitant and guarded. Noticing this, Chiaroscuro asked her what was wrong.
Her reply was hesitant but full of conviction. She told him that she was useless because she was blind. There was nothing she could do right. Not even magic could fix her flaws. She was worthless and she was a burden, and because of her imperfections, she belonged nowhere.
"I'm broken," she said, because they needed to know, because she could not bear to let her heart be pierced through again. "You need to know that."
"Well, I think we all are," Chiaroscuro replied. "But if you're not alone, it's easier. If you're not alone, you can cope, and you can rebuild, and you can heal." he smiled at her. "It's okay to be broken."
"Why?" she demanded. "How is that good? How will that solve anything?"
"Because," he told her, "that is how the light gets in."
We are all broken, all flawed, all imperfect in some ways. And because we are imperfect, we are labelled. There are two kinds of labels, Chiaroscuro told Dawning. The first one was the labels that you gave yourself. It's the label that gives you purpose, a meaning, a definition. It's a mark that makes you feel good about yourself. It creates a place where you are accepted, a sanctuary where you are safe. The labels that you choose are the ones that make you feel better.
Then there were the labels that others gave you. Those are the labels that make you feel worthless and like a burden, like there is no meaning in your existence, that no matter what you do, you cannot shine, and you cannot walk out of the darkness of your mind. Those are the labels that make you feel small, alone, and isolated. Those were the labels that make you feel worse.
"So how do you label yourself?" he asked.
Dawning took a deep breath, then another.
"I'm blind," she said. "It's my label. My identity. But that doesn't make me worthless."
"Then it doesn't matter what other dragons tell you: you are not worthless," Chiaroscuro said. "If they think you are, then they're wrong. They do not have the right to define you; that power belongs to you, and you alone. You are not worthless, Dawning. You're so much more."
And she was, wasn't she? She had learned so much, experienced so much, and as she walked through the darkness, she'd been too busy looking for a light source to realise that she was her own light source. She could light up her own darkness, and she didn't need others to do it for her.
Dawning joined Clan Wonderstark on that very day. The clan didn't drive her out or scorn her; instead, they welcomed her with open arms. She was given a place, a purpose, a berth to return to, a home to love.
And as she went to sleep that night, her darkness wasn't so dark anymore.
By iluvdragons!
Bio Layout: CityTurtle
Even if the flawed in question was a dragon.
Her parents were proud of her when she was first born. Coatl dragons were one of the master engineers in the Shifting Expanse. Having migrated from the Ashfall Wastes, they were valued for their ability to tinker in the most dangerous, heated environments. An addition to their clan was an addition to their reputation, or so Dawning's parents thought.
It didn't take long for them to realise how wrong they were. Unlike their other hatchlings, Dawning had problems getting around. She kept running into things, bouncing off the walls with a startled sound and ending up as a fluffy little ball on the ground. She couldn't read, blinking emptily at the books her parents presented to her, though she could speak surprisingly well for such a young dragon. Most importantly, she couldn't build a single thing. Her parents would put tools in her claws and expect her to screw in a nail or flatten out sheets of metal, but Dawning would simply stumble around, unbalanced by the heavy tool and confused as to what she was to do.
She was blind, the healers told her parents. A recessive hereditary trait that had a less than likely chance of appearing in a newborn, yet it presented itself in Dawning. Of the five senses dragons were supposed to be born with, Dawning was only gifted with four. She couldn't see, much less read, and definitely not build. She would have trouble getting around without aid, the healer said, and then suggested that they send Dawning off to a famous Light school for the blind.
A flaw. A burden. Her parents' love for her diminished from day to day. As Dawning's siblings shone in a variety of ways, Dawning continued to stumble around in the darkness, unable to find a way or a guide to light her way. Her parents ended up completely ignoring her, not wanting to spend the treasure it would take for her to go to school. Nothing was going to change the fact that Dawning was blind, not even education. She was imperfect, and there was no changing that.
It was hard for Dawning to accept that she was no longer loved. Though she could not see, she could hear and feel. She had every cosy moment with her parents engraved in her brilliant mind, and she remembered every loving word they'd told her. When her parents ceased to come into contact with her, and when their words turned bitter with hate, Dawning was forced to pick up the hint: she was unwanted, and it would be better for everyone if she went away.
But where would she go? Her home was here, not in the outside world beyond her clan. Frustrated and afraid, Dawning wandered around the clan's lair, groping her way along the walls and eventually ending up in spellcasting room. There, a dragon was teaching a group of hatchlings how to cast lightning spells; he was telling them how to use magic.
Magic. That became Dawning's first speck of light in her starless sky. She couldn't build a machine or a drone, but she could use magic, and she didn't need sight to do it. Day after day, she made her way to the spellcasting room, tucking herself out of the way in some small corner to listen to the teacher's voice. She couldn't read, much less jot down notes, so she relied entirely on her memory to perform spells.
When she learned of a spell that would allow her to create magnetic fields, this became a breaking point for Dawning. Most Lightning lairs are made of metal, and by using electrical currents, Dawning could feel and pinpoint the positions of everything. Excited, she ran to her parents bubbling over with enthusiasm, for the first time not crashing into the walls. She told them of her discovery and begged for them to give her a chance, but she was shunned. Even if she could sense her surroundings, Dawning couldn't learn how to thread wires or splice metal together. Her blindness caused clumsiness, which prevented her from performing anything fine-motor, and that was unacceptable. Her parents told her to stop trying. Nothing she could do would deny the fact that she was imperfect, and if she was imperfect, then she would never be accepted, and they would never see her as their child.
It was indeed a breaking point, because their words broke Dawning's heart.
Plagued by guilt and sorrow, Dawning left her clan, using her newfound skill to find her way. Stumbling, she went by foot, afraid of flight for fear she would crash into other creatures. She ended up at the coastline and followed it north, day after day, sand wearing away the pads of her feet as she walked. She slept in the darkness when she no longer felt the sun on her feathers, and she ate whatever she could find, using her sense of smell to scavenge seafood unlucky enough to wash up on the beach. She ran and risked flight only when she sensed predators on her tail.
She found few kindnesses as she navigated through the darkness that had become her world. Occasionally, other travellers would stop and share a story with her, and a meal. Once, a healer from the Wind Flight healed her wounds and warmed her with a handmade cloak before moving on to wherever the wind blew. Another time, a scholar from the Light Flight taught Dawning bits and pieces about magic, about spellcasting, the only star in her night sky.
But most of the time, other dragons ignored her. A Coatl shuffling along the road, shrouded by a cloak, was nothing unique to stare at. Most dragons wouldn't know she was blind unless they stopped to talk to her. And since rarely anyone did, Dawning was ignored. She was used to it, so it didn't bother her.
But just because it didn't bother her didn't mean it was okay.
Her journey eventually took her to the Starfall Isles, where what little strength Dawning had failed her. She was never physically fit to begin with, and months of walking had tired her out and worn her to the bone. She collapsed on the side of the road, where a bunch of bandits were waiting for an easy catch.
Said easy catch became Dawning. The bandits were quite disappointed by her lack of possessions, but they decided she'd make a good servant at their hideout, or at least a useful hostage. They bound her up in rope and magic and carted her away, hoping to make a quick escape before the dragons that'd been on their heels could catch up. Thinking that no one would follow them into a dangerous place, they went straight to the Star Wood Strand.
The bandits chose the wrong place to bring a kidnapped dragon. Though the Star Wood Strand's reputation was enough to keep most dragons at bay, a selected few dragon clans had put down roots there, and were more than happy to give the corrupted dragons a good beating. Dawning, who had remained semi-conscious throughout the entire endeavour, unable to fight back, was alarmed to hear the sounds of a scuffle. Immediately, she used what energy she had left to defend herself, encasing her entire body in electricity to give the first dragon foolish enough to touch her a very shocking warning.
The unlucky victim was Chiaroscuro, a Mirror from the dragon clan thrashing the bandits, and he was shocked to the teeth while trying to untie what he assumed was a bag of stolen goods. Lo and behold, it was a dragon with exceptionally startling defences. Chiaroscuro managed to calm her down with words, but Dawning remained suspicious of his intentions. She curled up, huddling in a pile of rope and bags as the Arcane clan approached her curiously, wondering what a Lightning dragon was doing here.
Dawning probably would've stayed there forever, but she didn't have the strength to keep up her magic, and after everything that had gone down in the past few hours - or months, really - she was exhausted. She tried to run away, but before she could, her magic failed her and she collapsed.
She was too tired to care what was going to happen to her. If they wish to kill me, she thought, they might as well.
When she woke, it was to warmth. She found herself in a soft bed with blankets, next to a comfortable hearth. For a moment, she wasn't sure whether or not she was alive. She almost thought that she was dreaming, but this warmth was real, and so were the voices of the dragons watching over her.
Clan Wonderstark, they told her. The name of the clan that had saved her. Dawning didn't have much time to process that before she was fed a good meal and had her wounds treated. Through dreamlike motions and conversations, she was spoken to, for the first time in so long. The dragons of the clan gave her new apparel and medicine for her scratches, and an Imperial named Eoin, who was brought in after her, carried her around on his back, speaking in poor Coatl, much to her amusement.
But with her initial joy came suspicion and fear. Dawning was afraid that this was all a trick, that at any point in time one of the dragons would throw her out of the lair, or prank her, or show their true self and tear her down from the inside. Her words, which had at first flowed fluently while speaking to her saviours, became hesitant and guarded. Noticing this, Chiaroscuro asked her what was wrong.
Her reply was hesitant but full of conviction. She told him that she was useless because she was blind. There was nothing she could do right. Not even magic could fix her flaws. She was worthless and she was a burden, and because of her imperfections, she belonged nowhere.
"I'm broken," she said, because they needed to know, because she could not bear to let her heart be pierced through again. "You need to know that."
"Well, I think we all are," Chiaroscuro replied. "But if you're not alone, it's easier. If you're not alone, you can cope, and you can rebuild, and you can heal." he smiled at her. "It's okay to be broken."
"Why?" she demanded. "How is that good? How will that solve anything?"
"Because," he told her, "that is how the light gets in."
We are all broken, all flawed, all imperfect in some ways. And because we are imperfect, we are labelled. There are two kinds of labels, Chiaroscuro told Dawning. The first one was the labels that you gave yourself. It's the label that gives you purpose, a meaning, a definition. It's a mark that makes you feel good about yourself. It creates a place where you are accepted, a sanctuary where you are safe. The labels that you choose are the ones that make you feel better.
Then there were the labels that others gave you. Those are the labels that make you feel worthless and like a burden, like there is no meaning in your existence, that no matter what you do, you cannot shine, and you cannot walk out of the darkness of your mind. Those are the labels that make you feel small, alone, and isolated. Those were the labels that make you feel worse.
"So how do you label yourself?" he asked.
Dawning took a deep breath, then another.
"I'm blind," she said. "It's my label. My identity. But that doesn't make me worthless."
"Then it doesn't matter what other dragons tell you: you are not worthless," Chiaroscuro said. "If they think you are, then they're wrong. They do not have the right to define you; that power belongs to you, and you alone. You are not worthless, Dawning. You're so much more."
And she was, wasn't she? She had learned so much, experienced so much, and as she walked through the darkness, she'd been too busy looking for a light source to realise that she was her own light source. She could light up her own darkness, and she didn't need others to do it for her.
Dawning joined Clan Wonderstark on that very day. The clan didn't drive her out or scorn her; instead, they welcomed her with open arms. She was given a place, a purpose, a berth to return to, a home to love.
And as she went to sleep that night, her darkness wasn't so dark anymore.
Trivia
╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ >After Nereus was killed, Dawning took to dressing in more intimidating gear to deter assassins. >Dawning often partners with Beastclan ambassadors in Chiaroscuro’s absence. >After spending time with Nereus for so long, she has learnt how to talk to fae without too many problems by using her mane as an approximate for fae fans. She still has a little trouble reading back on their intent, however. ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯ |
Relationships
╭━━━━━━━━━╮ best friend tutor assists reluctant associate |
Art
By iluvdragons!
Bio Layout: CityTurtle
Click or tap a food type to individually feed this dragon only. The other dragons in your lair will not have their energy replenished.
This dragon doesn't eat Insects.
This dragon doesn't eat Meat.
Feed this dragon Seafood.
This dragon doesn't eat Plants.
Exalting Dawning to the service of the Arcanist will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.
Do you wish to continue?
- Names must be longer than 2 characters.
- Names must be no longer than 16 characters.
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- Names must be no longer than 16 characters.
- Names can only contain letters.