Whispering Death

"The Whispering Death knows only one thing; killing!"

- Bork the Bold, How to Train Your Dragon exclusive short, from the Book of Dragons.

The Whispering Death is a dragon that appears in the film continuity and the exclusive short, Book of Dragons. This dragon is seen when Hiccup reads the Dragon Manual, and they are classified inside the Boulder Class.

Dragon Appearance
The Whispering Death is similar in appearance to a Deadly Nadder, but with bulging eyes, a spiky face and spirals of teeth that line the entirety of its inner mouth. It has a snake-like body and a neck similar to a Zippleback's, but a Whispering Death has no legs, only lower spikes (which might have been used to crawl through their tunnels).

Many consider them to be extremely vicious and often have nightmares after confronting this horror. They have gaping mouths, full of deadly, rotating teeth. They can also rotate their wings, presumably to assist in the drilling process. They look very similar to a Gulper Eel.

It is 25 metres (82 feet) long.

Behavior


Whispering Deaths are extremely deadly, like most other dragons, and able to chew their victims after they are swallowed, using its many rows of rotating teeth. They tend to dwell in underground tunnels that they burrow themselves, resurfacing to attack any oncoming enemy/prey.

The Dragon Manual once stated that they were extremely dangerous and must be killed on sight. However, despite their fearsome reputation, they love to have their teeth brushed. In the 14th episode of Dragons: Riders of Berk - What Flies Beneath, Fishlegs observed that a Whispering Death's eyes are weak to direct sunlight, and so spends most of its time underground. Astrid states that it weighs about 2,500 pounds.

When a Whispering Death finds intruders in its tunnels, it will forcibly eject them out the nearest hole. This was done to Bucket, but later on when it did the same to Hiccup, it also tried to kill him, even pursuing him above ground; this may have been because while Bucket had merely fallen in, Hiccup had been caught running along its tunnel system. Perhaps the dragon considered this a deep intrusion of its 'territory'.

Infant Whispering Deaths known to be more dangerous at their infant stage as opposed to their adolescent or adult forms. They are said to have less control over their rotating teeth and spines, and are described to be "out of control saw blades". Infant Whispering Deaths are also known to be extremely territorial of their birthplace, "claiming it as their own".

Abilities
The Whispering Death has the ability to use its jaw to quickly travel through solid rock, giving it, argubly, the greatest jaw strength in the dragon world. Apart from that, the Whispering Death can breathe powerful rings of fire. It is incredibly strong and is also able to shoot its spines like the Deadly Nadder, which grow on its head and along the entire length of its body. With its long, thin body, its tail often makes a whipcrack noise as it flicks it about.

The six inner rings of teeth rotate in opposite directions of each other. When these teeth move, they make an eerie noise that sounds like many people whispering. Hearing "The Whisper", along with the ground rumbling, are often the only two warning signs that a Whispering Death is approaching from underground, unless it tunnels near the surface, tossing up earth and rock. When dragons are standing on the ground, they are apparently more sensitive to these signs than humans, becoming agitated before humans can even hear it. Toothless was able to detect the presence of one from Hiccup's room, which is on the second floor, even though it was not that close by.

It is apparently immune to the usual effects of dragon nip. When Hiccup attempted to use dragon nip to tame an attacking Whispering Death, sniffing it only made the dragon sneeze. It has also been shown to be unaffected by the sonic roars of the Thunder Drum,but can be pushed by them.

Weaknesses
The Whispering Death hates sunlight, which is why they spend their time underground. Though its teeth can rip apart rock, it can't tear through steel. Apart from this, the Whispering Death has no known weaknesses.

How To Train Your Dragon (film)
The Whispering Death is mentioned when Hiccup reads through the Dragon Manual for information on Night Furies. Apparently, this dragon is one of the most feared dragons, since Hiccup says its name with great fear.

In the Book of Dragons
The Whispering Death has a longer appearance in the short movie- Book of Dragons. It is mentioned and told about it's nature and characteristics. It is also shown when it attacks Bork and his girlfriend where it burns Bork to ashes.

Dragons: Riders of Berk
The Whispering Death made its first appearance in episode 14 What Flies Beneath. This particular dragon held a grudge against Toothless due to some past confrontation that resulted in Toothless leaving a distinctive scar on the Whispering Death's hide. Although Toothless attempted to fight it on his own, his inability to fly put him at a disadvantage. When the Whispering Death nearly killed Toothless by knocking him into a canyon it was only after Toothless accepted Hiccup's help that the Whispering Death was defeated. After it was driven away, the holes it made through it's burrowing were blocked up with boulders.

In episode 20- We Are Family Part II, another Whispering Death makes a appearance (it's not confirmed whether it is the same dragon which appeared in episode 14). The dragon has been seen caged up in Outcast Island throughout the episode. Alvin had attempted to get Hiccup to train it along with two other dragons, but Hiccup had escaped on a Deadly Nadder leaving Alvin frustrated. In the end of the episode, Alvin finally learns to train a dragon, as he is seen training a Whispering Death. Thus, Alvin achieved his goal. It is very likely that this Whispering Death will make more appearances, since he is now Alvin's dragon.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
At the end of Live and Let Fly, the Outcasts place a large amount of Whispering Death eggs under the tunnels of Berk, and soon, one of the eggs hatched.

In The Iron Gronckle, Savage and some Outcasts re-visited the tunnels where a lot of baby Whispering Death had hatched and were flying around. Later after this, they found a Screaming Death egg.

Dragons: Wild Skies
It also appears in the show's companion game, Wild Skies.



Appearances

 * How to Train Your Dragon (film) (Mentioned)
 * Book of Dragons (Meantioned)
 * What Flies Beneath (First Appearance in person)
 * We Are A Family Part II
 * Live and Let Fly (Newly Hatched)
 * The Iron Gronckle (Newly Hatched)
 * Tunnel Vision (Young Ones)

Games

 * Wild Skies (First Game Appearance)
 * School Of Dragons (Second Game Appearance)

Notable Whispering Deaths

 * Two Whispering Death Bork met (see Book of Dragons)
 * The Whispering Death that appeared on Berk
 * Wild Skies Whispering Death
 * Alvin's Whispering Death
 * Baby Whispering Death in the end of Live and Let Fly
 * Three Whispering Death in Tunnel Vision

Notable Victims

 * Bork the Bold
 * Toothless (see What Flies Beneath)
 * Hiccup
 * Mildew

Trivia

 * In Wild Skies you can gain 2 badges from the Whispering Death. 'Make sure to Floss' for training it, and 'Furious Digger' for gaining 3 stars in 3 challenges with it.
 * According to Gobber the Whispering Death knows only one thing: Killing. This is actually sort of true. The Whispering Death that appeared in "What Flies Beneath" proved to be untrainable, and the one that appeared in the finale was extremely aggressive towards Hiccup and Mildew. If this personality is true, it helps in explaining why Alvin and the Whispering Death are willing to bond. Like most dragons and riders, they share personality traits.
 * The Whispering Death is one of the larger dragons, like the Boneknapper, the Scauldron, the Timberjack, the Snaptrapper, the Typhoomerang and the Screaming Death.
 * The Whispering Death's diet consists of livestock, like sheep and yaks. It also appears to eat humans, or at least those who invade its territory.
 * Tuffnut wants a Whispering Death and thinks it's name is "...so much better than Zippleback!"
 * The Whispering Death is the 5th additional dragon to appear in Dragons: Riders of Berk. The first was the Typhoomerang, the second was the Thunderdrum, the third was the Fireworm, and the fourth was the Scauldron.
 * According to it's stats, the Whispering Death is the third most statistically powerful dragon, the first being Night Fury  and the second being the Screaming Death
 * The Whispering Death is one of the more feared dragons, like the Night Fury and the Boneknapper and the Red Death.
 * The Whispering Death is the second dragon to have "death" in its name, the first one being the Red Death.
 * The Whispering Death is the first dragon to be immune to another dragons attack. The Thunderdrum was unable to harm the Whispering Death.
 * According to it's website stats, the Whispering Death has the greatest attack in the dragon world, with a score of 16.
 * They could be based off snakes as they resemble them in appearance, tunnel like them, and slither like snakes in their tunnels.
 * The Whispering Death has attributes of sharp class dragons as well due to it having sharp spines and being able to launch them like Deadly Nadders who are sharp class dragons. Another possible attribute is having hundreds of rotating sharp teeth. However, since these help them dig through dirt and rock, it makes them a boulder class dragon.
 * In, Defenders of Berk, the Whispering Death seems will make more appearances.
 * The Whispering Death seems to affect other dragons, because its whisper was able to make Stormfly, Meatlug, Barf and Belch and Hookfang go out of control. This may be because noise distracts dragons.
 * According to it's stats, the Whispering Death's shot limit is 2. But in What Flies Beneath, the Whispering Death has shot fire for 8 times without stopping. So it's shot limit of 2 may be based on the Spine shot.
 * The Whipering Death's weakness is sunlight.
 * Young Whispering Deaths are known to be more violent than adults.
 * In Tunnel Vision, the Vikings were only able to defeat the Whispering Deaths because they weren't fully grown.
 * Baby Whispering Deaths can shoot fiery embers that can neutralize their prey/enemy