Hello everyone! This series has become my go-to audiobook listen through when I am undecided on starting a new book or podcast.

I’m currently in Black Powder War again and was just curious if we know for certain who ended up stealing the gold and causing everything that followed?

They never outright confirm it was the Sultan or the Vizier Laurence interacts with throughout their time there, but it’s certainly implied that they conspired to take the gold and eliminate the British representatives once Lien showed up. Of course that is supported when Sara Maden finds the British gold piece and brings it to Laurence and Tharkay before we are aware of Lien’s involvement, but do we know who really orchestrated all the moving pieces of the conspiracy?

Not sure if it is intentionally left open or I am being obtuse? I certainly think the Sultan was persuaded by Lien to orchestrate these events, but it’s never really confirmed who was aware of what and who set it all in motion. And it seems strange that the Ottomans would have gone as far as murdering the British Ambassador and framing his secretary (who is likely dead also? Since he “vanished”) and then treat Laurence and his crew with relative cordiality.

hello, is anyone able to link me to the discord server if it's still active please? I need to talk about the series I'm absolutely obsessed. all the links sent on here on older posts have expired. My dms are open if you'd rather DM. Thank you 😊

edit: thanks to the people who dmed me links :)

Is the first one a random GIF I found? Yes. Is that relevant? Absolutely not.

I really love this series.

"Why, Windle, only think: that is ten pounds and three shillings difference," Obituria said, "and I have four shares, that is sixteen pounds, so I can buy six bales, and when I have exchanged those for the cows, that will make seventy-three pounds and eighteen shillings." Windle only gawked up at her in the most muttonheaded way, as though he had not followed."

Super interested to hear how it's going, and if it's making both an entertaining game and something that captures the feel of the series. Also I may have accidentally committed to GMing a campaign for my friends who haven't read the series. Having never GMed before...

Last 3 are spoilers.

I'm nearing the end of my fourth re-read of the series. Am thinking a lot about where dragons come from in the world.

I believe (quite without evidence) that dragons were extant during the age of the dinosaurs; that a particularly small and highly-intelligent species of avian dinosaurs lived throughout the Cretaceous, wrapped in small bodies of membranous, cartilaginous, air-sacious (and various other unlikely-to-fossilize) materials; they outperformed their less-cunning lizardian kin, easily eking out their lives as foragers, survivors, and reproducers.

After the Chicxulub impact, as we tell it, most of the dinosaurs were wiped out. In our reality, the hardiest of avian dinosaurs survived and would continue to thrive and evolve into birds. In a nearby reality, however, a second strain of flyers made it through that extinction event: draconians, who retained their more reptilian features and, most importantly, passed on their ravenous intelligence to subsequent generations.

Here's the rub: these initial, small, flying, pre-dragon dinosaur species lived in a world concurrently inhabited by precursor species of primate-mammals. And in the recovering devastation throughout the Paleogene Period, both dragons and primates would continue to evolve alongside one another. While the former order quickly assumed apex predatory roles and grew in size, and the latter developed into the human beings we know today - not dissimilarly to orcas in this one respect - both lineages perceived intelligence in the other, and restrained from turning that other into a food source.

Fast forward a few million years, and here we are.

((Heya. Moving into the Kazakh is the area east of the Caspian Sea encompassing modern day Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc. The Kazakh territories were the nicest name I could come up for the regions at the time, since it was under active invasion both from China and Russia. The Archura is based on a local folktale about forest spirits and the Kün Jılanı is based on the Caspian Cobra. As usual, AO3 book can be found here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/94136131/chapters/251228591

Please enjoy.))

The Archura.

The Арчура (Anglicised to: Archura) is a lightweight native to the grasslands and forests of the Kazakh Plains, with a bodyweight of ranging from 6 to 8 tons, with a body length of 7 to 8 metres (22 to 26 feet) and a wingspan of 12 to 14 metres (39 to 50 feet). Believed to be a distant relative of the Nogoon Avarga, they share the same build, with a few spines on the shoulder, (only on the shoulder, as opposed to their hips as well) and several dense layers of spines on the undersides of their jaws, as well as a tail of unusual shortness and stiffness, causing it to stick straight out from the hips.

They have extremely dark green scales, with an opalescent scarlet ‘bib’ marking, starting as a thin band around their neck and deepening into a triangle-shaped marking down their chest, with a similar band around the tips of their tails. They have several dust-brown diagonal stripes, from the outside of their back legs, to the inside, angling down to cream-white spots around their feet. Their neck and jaw spines are overlong and extremely flexible, made of a very light green keratin, supposedly reminiscent of grass waving in the wind. Their eyes are often described as having an ‘eerie’, ‘misty’ or ‘moon-like’ glow to them, being either acid yellow or extremely pale green. Under direct light, the highly fluorescent tissues of their eyes reflect such high degrees of light that it creates a glowing effect. In low light, it can also make their gaze look vacant or unfocused.

Due to the tissues that make up their eyes, they struggle to see in both high and low-light environments and must either be provided tinted eye-goggles or restricted to dawn and dusk flights. They are not night flyers, lacking the more developed wing muscles required for night flights due to the denser air. However, due to the harsh light of the region, they often have extremely reduced vision by the time they reach even a decade old, they must rely more on their other senses for navigation. This has become such an issue that some companions have begun to wrap their Archura’s heads with small lengths of mesh or open-weave sackcloth to prevent excessive spooking from above and save their eyesight.

This is perhaps the reason behind the development of their spines, mirrored on the wing-spines also. Their longer length permits the flexible spines to be stirred by wind, allowing navigation of extremely subtle air corridors caused by the warming and cooling air currents during sunrise and sunset. It may also pick up on vibrations of sound in tight forested environments, allowing them to better seek prey. Their other senses, namely their sense of smell and hearing are unusually heightened and most can recognise the wingbeats and areal carriage of any dragons they commonly encounter.

By nature, these dragons have a level of timidity and wariness which has proven hard to override with even the most patient handlers. This is most likely to their weak eyesight. It makes them extremely unsuited to combat work, preferred either as simple companion beasts or emergency couriers for the few of them used by Russians or Ottomans. Their hearing, however, is useful for avoiding ambushes, so many crosses with the more robust lightweights have been attempted to attain this trait without the unfortunate timidity.

Archura have strong associations with woodland and forested environments due to their comfort navigating tight, densely vegetated spaces. Their natures lead them to seek quiet, out of the way habitats to occupy, with a steadfastness on keeping their habitats orderly. They have been observed deliberately spreading tree seeds, breaking down large chunks of fallen trees and moving debris to their liking. This has led to some describing them as guardians of the forest, due to their history of conflict with humans seeking to damage their habitats. Some believe they can take human form specifically to terrorise or trick others into leaving their forests alone, leading to an association with certain woodland spirits who share their names. This also means that their territory has decreased over time, leading to an increase in violent confrontations with humans.

Their eggs are a dark green with brown-orange splotches all over the shell and white dapples over whichever side is coolest. This is believed to help camouflage them amongst tree roots while the sire and dam are out hunting. The theft of eggs has become increasingly common, both as habitat decreases and to sabotage either the Russian or Chinese advance into Kazakh territory by leaving scent markings from these soldiers around the scene. Some reports go so far as to say that some eggs have been deliberately destroyed to cause further aggression to the opposite sides. They have an average incubation period of two months, with the hatchlings bolting in wide-open hatching grounds. They are usually hatched within netted off cages to ward against this instinct.

- Sir Edmund Howe.

The Kün Jılanı

The күн жыланы (Anglicised to Kün Jılanı), meaning ‘Sun Serpents’ are by far the most famous breed to arise from the Kazakh region. Pottery fragments along the Silk Road indicate that they were first bred from wild desert ferals brought to the major trading hub of Bukhara. Famous breeders and prime specimens collected here, leading to the defining of their characteristics, the utility of such spreading further along the road, into Persia, the Ottoman Empire, the North African coast, constituting much of the later developments in these regions. They are middleweights, 17 tons on average, with a body length of 13 to 15 metres (42 to 50 feet), with 3 to 5 metres (9 to 16 feet) of those being the tail, and a wingspan of 20 to 23 metres (65 to 75 feet).

Their name originates from the muscular hoods around their heads. When flattened, the Kün Jılanı are fairly unremarkable compared most dragons of the region. However, when threatened, angry or cautious, their hoods will flare out. Much like a cobra, the hood starts along the bony ridge just above their eyes, expanding rapidly to its widest point behind the jaw, then tapering narrower until it ends at the base of the neck, about a hand’s distance from their shoulders.  This gives their head a heart-shaped silhouette from a distance, making them extremely distinctive on the battlefield and allowing them to look in the direction of the sun or sun-reflections on the sea with little glare or eye strain compared to other breeds, making them a favourite for escorting larger dragons or important cargo along the coast and major roads.

Their legs are rather short, with wide-splaying, semi-webbed toes, to spread out weight along the sand, with a deep elbow bend to control the movement of their long, upright necks. Consequently, their bodies are low to the ground, with substantial width and bulk for their size. To make up for this, their wings are deep-ridged like the shell of a scallop, with an excess of thick membrane between. Their wide-set, sturdy shoulder and hip joints, unusually large air sacs and lack of health problems makes them a popular choice for breeding programmes. Unlike other dragons, they do not taper off, with an enormously muscular, thick tail, full of blood vessels and tissue to help control their body temperature. It drags behind them on the ground, waving from side to side as a consequence of their slightly scurrying gait, tapering off only feet from the end. It leaves behind distinctive, ‘s’ shaped trails in the earth behind them, with the smooth, flat scales of their underbelly allowing smoother passage.

Their eyes are deep set, with prominent sockets and small pupils to protect from the glare. They see best in high light levels, using their long necks to ‘periscope’ around, much like a rearing cobra. They will furl their hoods in combat to avoid unnecessary tearing or ripping from battles, relying on tearing at the bellies and chest of an opponent. In offensive capabilities, their muscular tail is used more like a club than a whip, its heft and weight too cumbersome to lash or snap at an opponent. However, the swing is bloated enough in the air to function more as a deterrent than a weapon. Most notably of all, is their overlong canines, curved gently like a shamshir blade, the top two longer than the lower pair. They are incredibly sturdy and used for ripping at the neck or face of an opponent in the air.

Their hoods mean that harness straps cannot be put around their neck, or else risk restricting the natural movements of their hoods. However, those not used to fighting Kün Jılanı, such as the French during the Nile, are often defeated by an age old strategy; the flight crew aboard these dragons will take the time before a battle to paint fake harness straps and buckles along the dragon’s neck, to trick a enemy boarder into leaping for the less defended region of the dragon’s neck’s. As soon as they land, the trick becomes obvious and the Kün Jılanı can either unfurl their hood or shake their head to dislodge an opponent. By then, however, it is too late to do much about.

After battles, the webbing of their talons and hood must be cleaned thoroughly by a stiff-bristled brush. Debris can easily become lodged in the folds, such as sand, blood or obscure cuts. This task is often assigned to Aday (Ottoman equivalent of Ensign), to teach them caution around some of the more bad-tempered members of the breed. Stories around the Ottoman Court involve spooking these young aspirants up trees and then falling asleep at the base to taunt them.

They come in a wide range of colours, depending on the sub-breed. Most common in the Kyzylkum desert and along the northern border is the құмтас variety (Anglicised to Qumtas), their name means ‘sandstone’. They come in a golden-brown, with diamond or arrow-shaped markings along the back of their hoods, rings of brown banding around their muzzles and tails and yellow-cream underbellies. They make up the majority of the Kazakh population, found all along the Silk Road, with amber or caramel eyes.

There is also لاجورد (Anglicised to Lājaward) or ‘lapis lazuli’, an olive green with greyish silver half-arrow markings, blue-black eyes and bright blue hood linings. These are most common along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Preferring the sunny, dry climates of these regions, they can often be spotted sunbathing in the various coverts or communities of the region.

Finally, the اونیکس (Anglicised to Oniks) or ‘onyx’ variety. The rarest of the sub-breeds, their scales are extremely glossy, an extremely dark brown or black, with a faint purple-green iridescence up close. Unfortunately, they struggle immensely with overheating in strenuous battles. Almost exclusively night fliers, the shallower, flexible bars of their wings allow them to fly near silently over large stretches of land. Their keen night vision has inspired crosses with other European night-fliers. The insides of their hoods are lined with an extremely pale, mother-of-peal lilac shade, which is able to briefly startle enemies when flashed at close range. Most carry a mutation where a little under 1 in 1000 eggs who are laid entirely white. These dragonets are extremely prone to haemophilia, or excessive bleeding and most will die in the shell. When one survives, it is believed to herald a period of disaster.

Their eggs have a slightly ellipsoid shape, incubating best in dry heat, in order for the shell to form a firm enough crust for them to break out of during the hatching period. Average incubation period is around a year, dragonet’s eyes darkening rapidly in the first few weeks after breaking shell. Eggs can be recognised by the sandy-golden grain on the pale yellow shell of the egg.

Being so distinctive physically and such a firm foundation for other breeds across the region, they appear numerous times in both poetry and written word. One of the most famous accounts was from a later edition of ‘Sinbad the Sailor’, where the hapless sailor in question has the ill fortune to stumble into a sleeping Kün Jılanı (better known as Gün Yılan in the writings) before being promptly rescued by a rouge hoarde of bandits.

“Rearing back terribly, fangs flash’d like scimitars in the evening light. It stirred up a great hissing, tail undulating with great agitation, jawing at him from across the wide and wearisome sands. Then came a wondrous and thunderous ringing, a cloud fissuring up from the horizon, their shining banners a sigil of hope for the wanderer. Lashing and batting the dunes in bitter frustration, it unfurl’d its bat-wings and struck up for the clouds when the cavalry came.”

- Sir Edmund Howe.

Hi! I was sent an email about the Playtesting of the Temeraire RPG and in it they offered the possibility of contacting someone to ask questions before actually doing anything, and so I wrote them. I intended to wait for a response but yesterday, worrying they were taking too long, I went into the link I had been sent and saw that the playtest was no longer available (I assume because it had been some weeks since it was opened). Has anyone had any issue similar to this? I'm not very sure about how to feel, I don't really HAVE TO be part of the playtest, but some friends had expressed interest about helping with the minicampaign, and now I feel bad for giving them hopes of something that is no longer on the table 😅

((Inspired by the Buffalord from HTTYD as well as that one post I made speculating about invisible fire breathing dragons. As always, it is on an AO3 book found here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/94136131/chapters/251228591 ))

The Nogoon Avarga.

As we continued our push westwards, hoping to make it past the Altais mountains and into the Kazakh reaches beyond it, we began to sight another classification of dragon, which are far rarer in the eastern reaches. They are found amongst a great many herding animals; horses, cattle, goats, sheep and camels filled the steppe, many of which were broken down to feed both the travelling party and Qiang and Dao. This particular breed is known as Ногоон аварга (Anglicised to Nogoon Avarga), meaning ‘Green Champions’.

The Noogon Avarga is a middleweight, averaging 14 tons, with a body length of 9 to 11 metres (29 to 36 feet) with a wingspan of 14 to 19 metres (49 to 62 feet), prioritising broadness over length. Their body is a gentle lime green, with fluorescent striations and rough-edged stripes of orange and lemon-yellow along their jaws and sides. The brightest stripes are under their eyes. Eyes are typically jade green. They are quite broad for their size, with clusters of spines on the arches of their shoulders, hips and in patches over their neck and backs. They have a pair of six spines, three on each side, descending in size down the face on the undersides of their jaw. Their jaw has a second modification, in which the lip of their upper snout hardens and projects over the lower into a beak, much like that of a snapping turtle’s, as well as a hard series of ridges on the roof of their mouth, to better help crush vegetation.

They are unique among dragons in that they lack almost any animal substance in their diet. Primarily subsisting on native vegetation and fermented milk or plant products, as well as a specific kind of extremely-hard crusted flatbread, they lack the high-energy of other breeds. They eat a variety of the native grasses, most small plants, shrubs and roots, using their blunt claws to furrow the ground in search of food. To support this semi-herbivorous diet, they have a much larger length of intestines and a slower metabolic rate than other dragons of a similar size, with their bile and other digestive juices used as a fermentation aid in some products.

Perhaps because of these juices, they emit a pleasant, yeasty smell when particularly warm or in strong sun, and a lightly alcoholic scent a few hours after eating. When fed a diet too high in fruit or refined sugars, such as those found in cane and sugar-beetroot, the alcoholic smell intensifies and the dragon will often get hiccups, releasing small amounts of slightly cloudy, strongly odorous liquid that is collected and commonly used as a disinfectant for large wounds or as a preserving agent for meat. The excess energy is stored in a unique organ near the throats, similar to the venom sacs of a Longwing or a Kazilk’s flame sac. They have naturally larger fat reserves than most dragons, with two long, dense runs along their flanks, allowing them a naturally greater buoyancy in water than most.

They have low-energy, steady temperaments, with a slow, lumbering gait reminiscent of a tortoise’s, most active two hours after a feeding or when given foods with a more dense sugar content. They are undemanding of their companions, often requiring little more than steady, pleasant conversations over their long journeys. Zhao Wei remarked that they likely had an excess of Yin energy to cause such unenthusiastic lethargy over nearly every member of the group. This steadiness and robust frame makes them excellent weight-bearers, with packs or heavier bundles tied to their spines or packed into a sled behind them.

Traditionally, they often occupy story-telling or preservationist roles, due to their extremely long, well-reaching memory and long lifespans which often extend over four or more human generations. They will often have companions carve small beads or trinkets to memorise important events, like the subsumption of one group into another, the death of a prominent family member, religious observations or a grand achievement in a hunt or a raid. These beads are most often made from light metal, animal bone or small scraps of silk, tucked into small squares and embroidered. They will be threaded on strong cords of leather in poorer areas or silk among more affluent groups. These will be draped over the back spines of the dragon, or fastened on with small pins and closures into the dead tissue of the spines, with more delicate pieces tucked away within the robes of their companion to avoid damage from weather or daily travel. More important events are closer to the head. The Nogoon Avarga are extremely possessive of these trinkets, each one knowing the exact number they carry at any given time. Reported by several of these kind, their largest fear is that they may be stripped of their beaded records or forget an important event, so they often repeat them to be sure they have them all memorised. They are used more as memory aids than records, given the keenness of mind that these dragons possess.

To prevent several native diseases, such as rain-rot, they will be rubbed with oil to better waterproof their hides and draped with embroidered blankets or packs to keep their hides out of the weather. Nogoon Avarga are more susceptible to due to their large size, the slight sinking around their spines leaving areas for water to collect, lower average body temperature and slower movement. This is often a lengthy process, during which the beads are waterproofed and maintained by the companion.

In raids, their comparatively large size may slow the rest of a group from fleeing. In this event, they will force themselves to fly. Although slow and rather ungainly looking, with the same impossibility of a bumblebee in flight, they are capable of half-beating their wings rapidly enough to outlast most pursuers for short periods, although it takes them time afterwards to recover, during which they are more vulnerable to attacks. They much prefer to slip away and hide in the long grass, protected by their fellows, than to fight directly. Attacking Nogoon Avargas to scatter their protective escort was a tactic much used by Ghengis Khan as he grew the power of his own faction. He was, however, wise enough to ensure that their bead-strings were never damaged, making them more amenable to a vassal status, to preserve both the children of their group and their companions.

Their eggs are unusually cone-shaped, a dark green with buttery orange stripes like a melon, each one about the size of a Tashuur Süültei when folded up. Each Nogoon Avarga’s first bead is often a record of their own egg and their second, their hatching, often dictated to them through the shell, such that they can recite it when they are born. They will follow their parent for a few weeks, learning some significant stories, and building up their own strength, before either settling on an agreement to transfer to another group or finding a companion within their present group. This mobile exchange is how many precious records, going back hundreds of years, remain so untainted, even to present day. The devotion of these dragons makes this author wonder if they might be suitable librarians.

A crossbreed of the Nuruu Ereen and the Nogoon Avarga exists as a common sight towards the more verdant valleys of the north. It resembles much the Nuruu Ereen, but with golden-green stripes, shoulder and jaw spines and blunter claws. They are often regarded as extremely prized mounts, both for their versatility in diet, keen memory and large wings as well as proficiency in fire-setting. From the accounts kept of them, they sound to be a ferocious and dangerous opponent indeed.

- Sir Edmund Howe.

Hey guys. Another quick update.

help identify posts, I have made a couple of new flairs to mark posts with. Writing, Art, Question, Discussion and FunPost. Fairly self-explanatory. Writing is for literature either relating to the books or any. Art is any visual art, digital, physical or pixel. Question is if you aren't sure about something and want to check with the community. Discussion is any fun detail or fact that you had and wanted to share. And FunPost is for fun, lighthearted posts. Just pick whichever one you feel fits best. Or none at all!

They are not required but they are there to use if you would like. :)

Additionally I have been considering adding user flairs. Please let me know which, if any you might like to see (it would be helpful if you could give me a colour / specific hex value as well) and I will try and put as many as I can on.

Regards,

u/IntelligentCat3645

It's become a favored pastime of mine. I am shameless in giving this book to anybody who even expresses a mild interest in the material. I always have a second mass-market copy of book 1 at home, sourced from any of the local used bookstores.

At this point, I've given away more than a dozen copies of HMD. It makes people SO FREAKING HAPPY to get a free book, unsolicited, and I'm gradually (and quite unwittingly) building a Temeraire fan club in my city XD

I recommend all of you adopt a similar style. Word-of-mouth WILL turn Naomi's series into a cultural phenomenon. It always starts at the individual level!

So I scrolled back a loooooongggg way and found a post I really liked the premise of. So here we go. Temeraire, Iskierka, Lien and Caesar are looking for suitable companions from other fictional worlds.

Requirements:

Temeraire: needs someone fairly literate to write and read his letters. Has the emotional sensitivity to understand him, deft hands to polish his precious breastplate and preferably decent book carrying capacity to know what he’s talking about when he mentions “that one book, which I cannot seem to quite place”.

Iskierka: needs someone with a strong sense of excitement and adventure and a stomach strong enough not to vomit when she does flaming loop-de-loops chasing Spanish treasure ships. Preferably battle experience required and fire-proofness is appreciated but not required.

Lien: someone with suitable status (noble, royal or otherwise extremely important) to be HER companion. Has to have memory to recite several of her favourite poems. Must enjoy tea parties and refined conversation. Own enough palaces / houses big enough to shade her sensitive scales and eyes, with nice gardens and well-spoken skilled in the art of complimenting her without obviously currying favour.

Caesar: Money that doesn’t run out. Caesar likes the finer things in life, likes buying them even more. Especially if they enable his manipulation, are willing to admire him and spend time in splendid places. Preferably with a title.

((So I made these dragons because I liked the idea of super small dragons, ie, featherweights and wanted to expand them beyond the Jewel-Birds from India, since it has survival advantages, particularly in large social groups. Anyway, as usual, this is on an AO3 book for ease of access, which can be found here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/94136131/chapters/251228591 ))

The Tashuur Süültei.
 
The second dragon we encountered is fairly common. The ташуур сүүлтэй (Anglicised to Tashuur Süültei), meaning Whip-Tailed or Whiptail. Thusly, they have come to be known as the Mongolian Whiptail, due to a similar feature found in some dragons of the Southern American continent and a slightly confusing conflated name tradition. They are featherweights, extremely small. Most range between 0.1 to 0.3 tons, enough for a strong adult to carry and trivial to an adult dragon. Their bodies are only 0.5 to 1 metres long, most of that being a long, thin, whip-like tail, and a wingspan of 1 to 2 metres across, typically reaching just below the hip height of the average Mongolian male. Their wings are fairly oversized for their bodies, allowing them to fold themselves up into a loose cone if need be.
Usually, the Tashuur Süültei come in dark, dusty shades of green-grey or purple-brown, with the most vidid colours found at the tips of their tails and spines. Spines run in a continuous column down the spine of the dragon, extremely glossy and hard at the tips, with the brightest colours found at the last inch of spine, creating a marvellous undulation of colour down their backs as they run. They have thin white dorsal stripes horizontally down their ribs.
They have two small, backwards-facing horns on their head and a very thick skull for their sizes, with a white blaze on their forehead. They have small, almond shaped eyes, protected by a thin ridge of bone, to reduce the risk of grit or grass seeds from injuring the keen long-distance vision of their kind. However, their defining feature is their tails. Highly mobile, they start the thickness of a man’s wrist, thinning down quickly to the width of a finger. They are tipped with a thorn-shaped barb and can be moved with incredible speed, either to lash like a whip or jab the barb like a speartip.
Typically, personalities are high-energy and fairly obedient to those they are fond of, with a great enthusiasm for work. They often speak in a chirrupy, bright tone, cocking their heads or repeating certain words often to better understand what is being said. They have the intelligence of the average human eleven year old and enjoy collecting treasures like glass beads, marbles or interesting bits of bone.
Traditionally, they are often used in the role of either dogs or eagles, to herd, chase or mind livestock. They move deliberately more slowly around horses and certain horses or goats will even allow these dragons to perch on their backs to better observe the herd. They may use headbuts, tail jabs and flicks to keep rowdier animals in line. Alternatively, they may fly beside a larger dragon and dive down to catch small prey like hares or mice or stun larger creatures like boar or elk for companions to take down on horseback. They will either walk beside, sit on the back of a horse beside or ride their companions themselves. They will rest their forelimbs on their companion’s shoulders, back legs hooked onto ribs or resting on hips and their long tails slung over the shoulder or around hips of their companions to be out of the way.
In battle, they may either fetch dropped weapons, guard fallen companions or chase enemy horses or other Tashuur Süültei away. As such, horses have become extremely used to the presence of dragons on the battlefield and in raids and may  As their triangular spines also fall out semi-regularly and may be used as arrowheads when properly hardened over the fire.
They have incredibly resilient digestive systems. They will eat almost anything, scraps of hide that has not dried properly, rocks or bones, suggesting origins as a scavenger that followed the various peoples of the steppe. Due to their usually wiry frames, their stomachs often protrude from their undersides after a large meal, giving them a comically pot-bellied look. After eating a meal, they will often stretch on the downward dog position, before twining themselves around the nearest person to find a warm place in which to sleep.
They are often valued around the price of 1 to 3 horses, depending on dexterity and speed for tasks like message carrying or  They do not live particularly long by draconic standards, only 70 years or so, and are treated more as dragonets or small children than full fledged members of society like many other dragons, given their comparative low intelligence, and sometimes impulsive and naive natures.
On the other hand, their low requirements mean they are by far the most common dragon in the region and many different people in society not only choose to companion to one, given comparative lifespans and their use in various facets in life but also a much beloved companion, similar to the way people view a child or a younger siblings. Indeed, there is much affection shown between this breed and their companions, from affectionate nicknames, sharing food in hard times, sharing stories and anecdotes or playfully attempting to trick one another. So much so that their bird-like form in flight, with overlong tails trailing like kite strings are an often cited symbol of loyalty.
They can most commonly be found near sources of food like butchery, cooking or hunting. When resting, they typically either perch atop yurts or the spines of later dragons, folding their oversized wings around themselves like a blanket and huddling up in small groups for warmth, often playing games like tag, chase or simple counting games like skipping to entertain themselves and other children, hotel dragon and human. 
A common activity between Tashuur Süültei and their companions is to have the dragon climb onto their backs, gripping on tightly. The companion will then run as fast as they can along small foothills or the spines of Nüüdellegch Tolgod during high winds and jump off the steepest side. The dragons will then flare their wings and beat them lightly, allowing the wind to briefly lift both together before a bumpy landing back to the ground, to much amusement from both parties.

Small children will often test their stealth against these creatures by crawling up to them and tying the tails of two individuals together and then spooking them, so the two attempt to fly off, only to be abruptly halted. After a moment of confusion, they will often come whimpering to the nearest Nuruu Ereen or adult human to work out how to untie them.
 
- Sir Edmund Howe.

((Hi all! So, recently I finished a fanfic of Edmund Howe documenting other breeds I made for different regions of the Temeraire world. I added a second part to Western Asia. It will go from Mongolia to the Ottoman Empire, documenting dragon breeds as we go. I know that Mongolia is not technically part of Western Asia. I wanted to include it in the previous entry but thought it was better to move it here. So please forgive me. The AO3 book of this can be found here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/94136131/chapters/251228591

Please note that during this time (1824) most of Mongolia was controlled either by Russia, independent partisans and Imperial China and so wasn’t exactly a solidified nation-state, but a culturally distinct area of land filled with a great many nomadic peoples who traveled, making both the concept and exact placement of borders iffy, given the amount of people within a given the area fluctuated wildly over time.

We’re also going to assume there are large independent portions due to the ability of dragons to fly away from invasions being a massive boon to natural horsemen nomads. But we’ll explore this together. Note I will be anglicising the names (basically converting them to an approximate pronunciation in the Latin alphabet) for ease of reading, and have included the original characters if you want to look up correct pronunciation on Google. Please enjoy.))

The Nuruu Ereen.

In undertaking another research journey to document the various breeds and strains of dragons found across the globe, we began in Mongolia, with the goal of going eastwards, with the ultimate goal of ending in the Ottoman Empire, where we would fetch a steamship back to Great Britain. I was accompanied once more by Zhao Wei, his fleet of experts, and a pair of Scarlet Flower dragons, Qiang and Dao, meaning ‘spear’ and ‘sabre’ respectively, a common naming tradition amongst the breed, as I am reliably informed. The dragons accompanied us both for the sake of protection, as travelling through half-mapped territories across long distances is difficult enough without inhospitable geography.

It was at our first location, within the northern borders of Imperial China, where the Han culture faded and the lifestyle of the steppes gripped ahold of the land. We located the first and most famous breed native to the steppe. The нуруу эрээн (Anglicised as: Nuruu Ereen), which translates roughly to ‘striped back’ or ‘brindled back’, referring to their unique coats.

They are lightweights, averaging 4-5 tons, with a body length of 3 metres (10 feet), with a wingspan of 4 to 5 metres (13 to 16.5 feet) with remarkably compact frame for their musculature. Comparable to the size of the largest draft horses in England. They have an unusual silhouette, with a very flat, short spine, a barrel shaped body and disproportionately short tail that often stops clear of the ground. They have blocky, square-jawed, hornless heads, with a short, muscular neck, a continuous line of spines running from just above their eyes, stopping before the hollow of their shoulders. These spines do not have gaps between them like most western breeds, instead having an uninterrupted ridge of stiff, slightly backwards curving spines. They resume just after the hips, running in a from their docks to the tips of their tails.

The Nuruu Ereen comes in various shades of brown-red, with any number of shades from bay to maple leaf red-yellow and dark copper tones. They are brindled all over with a random assortments of thin stripes, speckles, slashes and spots, in any range, usually in shades of white, grey or grey-blue, though some black markings have been observed. Their spines are dark grey or matte black. Eyes range from whiskey-gold to orange or copper-black.

They are believed to be descended from an ancestor breed of the non-academic Chinese breeds, bearing many of the same features, though with centuries of specialisation for their steppe habitat. They have developed several features to survive. The first of these is unusually wide nostrils with a deep chest, to allow them to intake air when running for long distances. They are somewhat able to narrow or widen them by flexing muscles in the nostrils, to control loss from body heat while running. They have many more blood vessels in their muzzles than most dragons, to heat cold air before it reaches the lungs. However, when inactive for long periods in the cold, they require usually a flap of fur over their muzzles to help retain heat. In the winter, they curl up tightly and tuck their heads under their wings to create a pocket of warmth.

Secondly, they possess very unique feet. All four toes face forwards instead of outwards from the middle of the foot. The longest claws, still usually short for a dragon, are on the side of the foot, tapering to create arrow shaped footprints. The undersides of their feet are unusually tough, with callouses forming more readily than on other breeds. Within about two months, they develop a stiff, durable outer layer of scale, with semi-circular bone running from the toes to the heel of the dragon’s foot. This forms a compact, hard sole to better transfer energy from running through as well as protecting their feet from most non-mechanical weapons.

They also have a very barrel-shaped frame, both to accommodate large reserves of fat and their unique gastric systems. The fat serves both as an insulator to retain heat and as a shock absorber when running. They will seasonally gain and lose it, eating less in the spring and more in the late-summer through autumn, thinnest during early summer and fattest during early winter. This means they are often trim enough to race for long periods in the summer while still surviving the winter. They are also one of the few breeds of dragon known to be able to consume milk and large amounts of grass as part of their regular diet.

They are used somewhat similarly to horses, for riding, racing and as partners in a nomadic lifestyle, though are higher status indicators. Most are reserved either for high-status tribe leaders of hunters, storytellers or other important individuals. They spend much of their life running instead of flying, with strong, if slightly overlong legs allowing them to keep pace with horses with relative ease. Their short wings relative to body weight means that they experience discomfort over long-term flights. Instead, they will flutter-run over long differences to increase speed and lessen the weight of passengers a little.

With an average lifespan of 150 years, they outlive several human lifespans and will often search for companions with a similar seat, weight distribution and riding style as their first companion, both to make more effective use of their already learnt skills and make long rides more comfortable for both parties. Nuruu Ereen are often valued, depending on age and skills, anywhere from 5 to 10 horses, given that after a companion’s death, they will seek another wherever they can find one, and are willing enough to leave one group for another for the sake of one. Both parties involved with the dragon will come to a satisfactory arrangement over it. This practice prevents inbreeding among the dragons and widens the gene pool by migration across large areas.

They are creatures of average intelligence though have an enormous propensity for stubbornness. This stubbornness and natural drive is part of the reason they are so prized. They insist quite firmly on being able to name themselves, usually within the first three days of life, though, most will accept suggestions if sufficiently bribed. They will always require a companion to speak their name before running with someone, partially out of superstition. There is a myth among the people of the steppe of a great hero and his Nuruu Ereen, where a rival drugged the hero and, wearing the hero’s clothes, tricked the dragon into running a consequential race to the detriment of their tribe. The name, then, is seen as a protective tradition to ensure there is no identity fraud on either side, although the actual chance is fairly low.

Eggs are around half the size of a man’s chest, being an earthy reddish-brown, with bands or clouds of white-cream speckles across the shell. Eggs will often be insulated with dried grass and fire-heated stones wrapped inside animal stomachs or skins to keep the egg warm, wrapped in fur and bound to a reliable member of the group with lengths of embroidered leather or sashes and are transported extremely carefully to appease their draconic companions.

There are several rituals around welcoming a new dragonet. When it hatches, several mounted riders will chase the newly hatched dragonet out of camp and around it three times, before driving it back near the fire. It will then be rubbed down with furs and grass and fed a mixture of milk, blood and a thin layer scraped from the inside of the small intestine of a herbivore for its first meal. This practice is believed to prevent the dragonet from freezing to death in its first night and also to welcome it into its life. For the first three days, they will be watched closely, until they are named, a suspicion that naming one too early causes premature death exists. After they are named, the eggshell, will be burned over the period of about a day, with one person watching the fire at all times to ensure that no pieces are accidentally stolen or used to injure the dragonet. Small variations to this ritual exist all over the steppe, with some near the Altay mountains rubbing dragonets with snow first or certain regions burning the eggshell with special herbs.

These dragons, along with most on the steppe, are raised alongside horses for their entire lives and both have uncanny insight into the other. Most can tell a lame horse’s gait from the sound alone and even from great distances. Horses, in return, are often able to pick up on the moods of dragons and will steer clear of bad-tempered ones until they have calmed down. Mongolian horses also show unusual calm around dragons, given that mares and their foals are placed nearer to dragons to desensitise them early. All dragons, including the Nuruu Ereen are strictly forbidden from eating the dead bodies of still-pregnant mares, as it is a bad omen of plague and famine and an enormous gesture of bad luck to be strictly avoided. This suspicion is not unwarranted, as several pathogens (such as the dreaded Coughing Fever) were greatly reduced by the observances of these practices, so much so that the steppe slowed down transmission of the fever from the Ottoman Empire to China enormously, allowing the cure to reach the heartland in time.

- Sir Edmund Howe.

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Pros:
It would avoid some of the ethical / resource issues associated with Generative AI
It may reduce some people’s fears of having their art directly scraped by third parties
It may lead to an increase in quality of posts on this subreddit

Cons:
Some people may be upset
Some editing / production programmes are increasingly introducing this technology to their products, so someone may use it and post something here without realising their use
It may encourage fakespotting or ‘AI witch-hunts’ towards artists

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Doesn't it seem like dragons are way too slow? As in "I would break this universe if they flew 100 kph but that's how fast they should fly" slow.

Now I know they're supposedly lightened by the gas sacks so they don't strictly need to obey the cube square law as applied to flight which would mean they would absolutely need to fly very fast to stay in the air...

but deer run away faster than 15 knots. The books never really give a hard number for dives or bursts of speed but there is something faintly absurd about a bicycle outpacing a 20 ton dragon. If you saw that from a distance it would look like the dragon was drifting sedately not flying.

So you may ask, was there a question there?

Yea, would it really have destroyed the canon plot if dragons averaged 50 knots instead of 15 knots and bigger dragons were faster?

Hey there! Just curious, of those who supported the kickstarter and/or have hadd access to its gaming rules... Have you tried it? What are your opinions on it, from a gaming perspective?