User blog:DreamingOfDragons72x2/The Exterminator's Helven Cousin

I just read How To Twist A Dragon's Tale yesterday. Right before bed. Without checking to see what kind of a story it even was. Oh, it didn't scare me into not falling asleep last night, but it did give me the weirdest dreams I have had in a long time. Anyway. A lot of dragons were introduced there, but most of them fell into the category of Not Enough Information. Both the Fire and Water dragons had enough raw info for me to work with (barely), but they also were too easy: I can imagine purebred dragons with those talents. Besides, they weren't there for very long. As for the rider dragons...NEI - with the possible exception of the Windwalker, but somehow I sense that a later book will go into that thing with enough detail for me to actually work with. The dragon that sparked my imagination? The killing machine itself.

Step one: where you find it. Well, the eggs hatch in volcanoes, so that makes the Helven version a Vulkan dragon. From there, well...it's described as being nearly transparent, so - okay, that exact detail might be a random mutation, but at the same time the original incarnations of these powers had the Hooding and Hackling as contributing greatly to the thickness and durability of a dragon's hide. So. It would seem kind of weird if a dragon with no skin could spread a hood or raise hackles, so the Helven Exterminator has abysmally low stats in those areas. The new incarnation also puts smashing and strangulation on the same par as those two displays, so the Helven Exterminator doesn't try to kill its prey with its coils or with a smack. Instead it uses one of its other two weapons - and boy, does it have a lot of shots with them. Six or seven shots with its spitting venom, six or seven shots with its tail spikes, and with very long and poisonous blades (and given just how many blades the average dragon has: these Helven dragons all have fifty teeth, fifty spikes attached to vertebrae from nape of the neck to a neck's length down the tail, an extra fifty prickles in two rows on the rest of the tail, and twelve claws/spurs on every single one of its eight limbs) it's plenty dangerous at close range.

Now the elementals. Up there in the previous paragraph, the Helven Exterminator was listed with a 95/5/5 strength/weakness balance in the arsenal stats; this means that the elemental stats are 95/95/5. And that is no problem. This thing is all about the fire (and, slightly as a secondary, about the slashing with the blades), so that makes the Helven Exterminator cap out in Fire and Light. Sharp and serrated claws, teeth, etc., and its breath shots are more fire than venom. Now, for the sake of its appearance (two wings and two legs) it has to have equal amounts of Earth and Air. Granted, the Helven version of the two-for-two thing is a mutation (the Wyvern Syndrome) that is really unlikely to happen with this Exterminator because of its stat balance, but whatever. With equal amounts of Earth and Air, its wings and legs are equally powerful. Neither is very strong, though (with a 95/95/5, the remaining three stats are all 35), which means that if the weakness was Water, those claws would splinter at the least impact. And this kill-for-pleasure wouldn't want that for one of its better weapons, now, would it? Splintered claws are easily ripped out. So. The Helven Exterminator's weakness is Shadow. This makes it a Tidal (ironically, since Water is only a 35, but it can't be in the Fear class with such low Shadow and everything else cancels each other out for classification) and also makes it the biggest dragon of whatever size category it is in (no dragon is ever 100% of the weight listed for its category, but this one is 95%). Having such a slant would put a dent in the hypnotic properties of its eyes, but would also give it that hateful glare.

Definitely. Not. Friendly. The little hero would be lucky to survive an encounter in the Helven Chronicles - but of course, Hiccup was lucky in his first encounter. ...That, by the way, was the other thing that sparked my imagination from this book. Alvin the Treacherous, the villain, obviously existed before Hiccup did (much older, after all), but by that interesting twist of fate he is also the creator of his own nemesis (if you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about, if you haven't, go read it - but not before bed, unless you don't get riled up by tension). Good and Evil, every action produces an equal and opposite reaction; and since Good, almost by nature, spends most of its time quietly making the world a better place, the Hero only appears because of something disastrous done by True Evil. I'd been experimenting with that idea already in the Helven Chronicles, but it hadn't occurred to me to do something like what The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendus Haddock III had done - and really, it would almost make even more sense: the way I'd have to do it, the First Hero of the Helven Chronicles (who dies before the series starts, unfortunately) knew exactly what was going on, while the Second Hero finds out as he is shaped into exactly the Hero he needs to be. Betcha now you're looking forward to the release of the Helven Chronicles, huh? ^_^



Speaking of equal and opposite, the Helven Exterminator has one such. It might even be called a nemesis, if it was hostile enough to fight. It is the smallest dragon in its size category (5%) because of how great the slant is towards Shadow and against Light and Fire, but it still would theoretically be a match for the Helven Exterminator because it has a far greater grasp of magic: its aura takes up all the remaining 95% of its size category (this tells you the size of the HE's aura, doesn't it?). It has a very large hood and very long hackles for its small size, and it lives as far away from volcanic activity as it can get (favors dense forests, which is okay because although it does have a few venom shots it can't breathe fire, and even though it has the normal high number of blades they are all dull).