Fireworm (Species)

"Their skin burns hotter than the sun."

- Hiccup warning Tuffnut about the Fireworms.

The Fireworm (originally named the Flame Eater) is a Stoker Class dragon. It is like the cockroach of the dragon world, that is, if a cockroach could super-heat its skin to burn everything it touched. It also has traits from bees in that they create gel that's stored in honeycomb-like structures and have a queen.

Official Description
"A Fireworm Queen lays thousands of eggs in her lifetime and builds a massive nest made of a flammable gel known as 'Firecomb' to house her many eggs. The only known Fireworm Queen lives on Fireworm Island, in the base of a dormant volcano. Her firecomb nest extends through multiple catacombs where she tends to her baby Fireworms. Like all mother dragons, the Queen is incredibly protective of her home and babies. While aggressive, the Fireworm Queen is not malicious. If an intruder returns stolen firecomb or backs off quickly, she might just let them leave in one piece. Although her sting is lethal to most humans and dragons, it actually possesses a restorative power for all Stoker Class dragons. One bite from a Fireworm Queen can reignite a Stoker's flailing flames and and bring them back to full firepower."

- Dragonpedia "Each Fireworm colony holds only one female, the Queen! Although rare, when a new female is born, she sets out to establish her own colony. Talk about family drama! When a Fireworm is moved to fight, even other Dragons get out of its way."

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

Egg
The Fireworm egg has an obvious scale pattern and small spikes protruding from its sides. Slightly larger ones jut out from the top. Their eggs are normally orange or red in color.

Average Fireworm
Common Fireworms are about a few inches in length. They have dark gray scales with red skin underneath, or gray skin that turns red when heated; however it seems in Riders of Berk, they have orangish-brown scales. They also have five pairs of legs for a total of ten legs. They have fierce white eyes that glow in the dark. They resemble lizards, with their wide heads and long bodies. When they heat, they glow white-red, and sometimes light their bodies on fire. From what the Rise of Berk game says, it would appear that the average Fireworms are all males.

Fireworm Queen/Princess
Fireworm Queens/Princesses look similar to the average Fireworm, but she has some differences that make her stand out from the rest. For instance, while the common Fireworm can fit in the palm of a hand, the queen is many times bigger, her size is comparable to that of a Boneknapper. She also possesses several horns located at the back of her nape and the front of her snout that resemble a crown. When not heated-up or near her nest, the Fireworm Queen's normal skin color is a pale gold, with tan colored horns, spots, and underbelly. She also doesn't glow in this state. Fireworm Queens are, like the name suggests, always female and if another female Fireworm were to be born in a nest which already has a queen, the newly born Fireworm (the Fireworm Princess) would fly off to start a nest of her own. Fireworm Queens and princesses would appear to be the only female in the species.

Titan Wing
Titan Wing Fireworms are very colorful. They have a green body with distinctive scales. Their head, tail and half their wing bones have hints of cyan while the other half of the wing bone is yellow. The protuberances at the back of their head are yellow too. Their wings are blue in color. A row of thin spines run along their back and they have five pairs of legs.

Hot Flames and Body Temperature
All Fireworms can heat up their skin to a temperature expressed to be hotter than the sun and being high enough that they can burn almost anything. While doing so they also generate a great amount of light, and sometimes, they even set themselves and surfaces they walk on aflame. It is known that the closer two Fireworms are to one another, the brighter they will shine. This ability is used as self defense and also can be used against other dragons. It has been shown to be very powerful especially when there is a pack of dragons using this ability.

The Solar Flare has extremely hot skin. It was described as "Don't Touch! This Fireworm Dragon's scales are as hot as the sun. It's no wonder it only comes out of it's hive on the warmest days of the year. It's too cold any other time!" However, it can only exit its cave during the hot summers and not cooler days. This is probably because reptiles, like dragons, are cold blooded and their body temperature depends on its surroundings. Being in the cold may mean that this dragon may lose too much heat.

As shown in the episode Crash Course it appears that Fireworm Queens can combine their firepower with other Stoker Class Dragons (at least Monstrous Nightmares) to create a very powerful, force field-like blast of fire to defeat her opponents. This ability appears to regenerate both participant's strength and health as the Fireworm Queen was severely wounded when Hookfang picked her up to initiate the ability, and after they finished performing Combined Firepower the Fireworm Queen was completely healed and back on her feet.

Fireworms are not shown able to breathe any fire, but Fireworm Queens, applying their body heat, have extremely powerful, bright, napalm-typed fire breaths that are very unruly gaseous fire that emit small firework-like particles (indicating extreme heat). These flame blasts are surprisingly potent, and visually resemble a Monstrous Nightmare's fire breath.

Fireworm Queens also appear to have a calmer, hotter, more accurate and less destructive version of their fire breath similar in appearance to a Deadly Nadder's magnesium fire breath. It seems they use this fire type while in their nests to avoid accidentally destroying anything and as a tool, to shape the cave systems near the nest to their liking.

Climbing
Fireworms are shown to have ability to be adapted climbers as they can effortlessly climb in the caves and in the nest.

Venom and Healing Properties
A Fireworm's tongue has a venom that has the special ability to reignite the worn out fire of Stoker Class Dragons, but is fatal to all other dragons, animals and Vikings. Fireworms can also produce some kind of gel that gives them their fire and they store in honeycomb-like containers. When Stoker Class dragons consume that, their fire is reignited.

Intelligence
Average Fireworms have not shown much intelligence, but the Fireworm Queen has shown to be clever as she was able to take a short cut to catch up to the escaping Hiccup, Toothless, and Snotlout Jorgenson. Another way of showing off her intelligence is that she quickly understood that a bond between a dragon and their rider was strong enough to risk their lives for each other. The Fireworm Queen is also intelligent enough to know when she is defeated and seek aid from her allies. She also knew whom she could trust to aid her in Crash Course, when her nest was being attacked by a Cavern Crasher.

Senses
Despite not being in the Tracker Class, Fireworm Queens, particularly Snotlout's Fireworm Queen, displayed a keen sense of smell as she was able to track Snotlout, Hookfang, and the Dragon Riders down while not knowing where they were and not having seen them for several years.

Strength and Combat
Fireworms do not have much strength mainly due to their small size, but Fireworm Queens possesses strength apart to that of a Typhoomerang. They also have strong prehensile tails that can pick up large objects over 5,000 lbs or more. The Fireworm Queen managed to pick up Hookfang with her tail. She also effortlessly pushed full grown trees out of her way while searching for the Dragon Riders. She was able to stand her ground against a Cavern Crasher, but was unable to defeat it alone.

Average Fireworm
Fireworms are shown to be relatively fast dragons, being able to outfly Hiccup, Snotlout and Toothless while in the caves of their nest. Due to their small sizes Fireworms are quite agile as well.

Fireworm Queen/Princess
Fireworm Queens are quite fast dragons as one was able to catch up to Toothless, Hiccup and Snotlout while flying in the caves, and then took a short cut and reached the exit before them. While on foot she was able to steadily pursue the flying Dragon Riders's Dragons who where fleeing from her. She also flew fast enough to find the Dragons Riders and lead them back to her nest before the Cavern Crasher even reached the nest's main chamber. Fireworm Queens are shown to have a flexible body because they need it in order to have a prehensile tail and fly in and out of the complex cave systems that surround their nests.

Average Fireworm
Fireworms have shown quite some endurance as they are often tossed around and launched in the air due to their small sizes and inability to cause serious harm, yet they suffer little to no damage. They were shown to have a decent level of stamina when they migrated as shown in Race to the Edge.

Fireworm Queen/Princess
Fireworm Queens have great endurance. One Fireworm Queen was able to take many blasts from the Dragon Rider's dragon and seem to suffer no damage at all. She also stood her ground against the Cavern Crasher and despite having been scratched several times, went looking for help to defend her nest, not seemingly affected by the damage done to her.

Fireworm Queens have a good stamina as well, as Snotlout's Fireworm Queen went through great lengths to defend her nest from the Cavern Crasher. She flew for what was probably days seeking the aid of the Dragon Riders and once she found them, flew straight back to her nest and returned to her duties as mother and ruler of the nest while defending it from the powerful intruder.

Behavior and Personality
The behavior of the average Fireworms is vastly different from the queen.

Average Fireworm
These dragons are often found in large groups. This makes them extremely dangerous. They are even remotely aggressive, occasionally clinging to potential enemies. Fireworms usually wander away from the nest and live normal lives, often in other islands, but regularly return to their nest to replenish their fire and contribute a portion of their gel to the nest stocks. Fireworms tend to set surfaces they walk on and touch on fire, often causing forest wildfires. They might do this to defend themselves from predators.

Strangely enough, average Fireworms are afraid of fire. As shown in "Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man", when Toothless blasted at them, they started to back off. The Queen, however, is not. In the episode "Race to Fireworm Island", when Stormfly blasted the Queen, she stood firm and kept fighting.

As shown in the episode "Reign of Fireworms", massive Fireworm colonies migrate from island like birds and other animals do in the real world. They usually send Fireworm scouts to make sure the route is safe for passage. It is unknown why the Fireworms have to migrate or why Fireworm Queens have not been seen migrating. It is almost certain the Queen joined the migration during previous occasions as Smidvarg and the Gang where able to form a Fireworm Queen when attempting to redirect the migration. The reason why Fireworms migrate might be the same reason why birds migrate, to escape the cold winter months of Berk.

Fireworm Queen/Princess
Usually Fireworms make their homes in dark caverns with series of complex tunnels. Fireworm Queens are very protective of their firecombs of gel and eggs will chase down anything that tries to take it, or fight to the death to defend them against intruders. As she is a mother, the Queen has a devoted, discreet nature even on rage to take back her firecombs, and being highly intelligent as being capable of conjecturing the intruders' motives and objectives. She is also intelligent enough to know when she is unable to defend her nest from intruders, and seek help from her friends as shown in Crash Course.

Despite their aggressive nature (to protect their nests), they seem to know if another dragon's fire is worn out, and are kind and sympathetic enough to reignite other dragons' firepower with their venom (only species of Stoker class receive benefits). This may well be a natural instinct for the species.

It would appear that the Fireworm Queen does most of the work in the nest. She produces most of the Firecomb, which she then molds to form the strucutre and cells of the nest. She also produces a grand part of the liquid Firecomb Gel which she stores in the cells. She also lays all eggs, and cares for the hatchlings. The Fireworm Queen constantly cleans and repairs the nest and cave entrance, and guards and protects it at all costs.

Average Fireworm
The Fireworm's main weakness is the fact that they are afraid of fire, even though it coats their bodies. They also don't breathe any fire, are small, and aren't very strong.

Fireworm Queen/Princess
Since Fireworm Queens do most of the work around the nest and are singly in charge of the defense, they cannot stray far from it, since doing so would risk the welfare of the nest. The Queens are also the only dragons in the nest capable of defending, thus taking over a Fireworm nest is not too difficult for strong or pack dragons such as Cavern Crashers or Changewings.

Training
Fireworm Queens are very aggressive and territorial which makes them rather hard to train, but are very gentle and benevolent when you get to know them. To train one show it you are gentle and kind and help it do her tasks around the nest, especially tending to her young. Once you appear as no threat, the Queen will accept and respect you, and even approach you for help.

Though average Fireworms have not been seen trained specifically, they have been utilized as a light source in some episodes such as "Last Auction Heroes". They are placed in a glass lantern and carried around.

Dragon: Riders of Berk
In "Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man", the gang was searching for the fabled Hamish Treasure, Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and their dragons found themselves trapped in a cave. While searching for a way out, they found a large, dark opening. Entering, they realized that the "floor" was moving. Toothless lit the room, and they found thousands of little Fireworms bustling about in a shallow pit. They found multiple pedestals in the heart of the nest, and the dragons frightened/fought the smaller reptiles off until the kids can found a way out.

In "Gem of a Different Color", they also make a small reappearance when Tuffnut tried to jump into a pit full of Fireworms while holding a Changewing egg which he still thought was a "Stone of Good Fortune," thinking the stone wouldn't let Fireworms burn him, only to be saved by Stormfly.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
In "Race to Fireworm Island", Fireworms are explored more thoroughly in Race to Fireworm Island, where it was revealed that they have their very own island and nest, which is overseen by their mother, the Fireworm Queen. The reason behind their constant and extreme heat is also explained to be that they feed off firecombs, filled with the very same gel that gives the Monstrous Nightmare its flaming ability. This is why they were given the name 'Flame-Eaters' by Bork the Bold.

Season 1
In "Reign of Fireworms", Three years after the end of First Berserker War, thousands of fireworms migrated towards Dragon's Edge. They had to be stopped or they would burn the whole island to the ground. Several attempts were made to stop them, which resulted in failure. However, they were led away by Hiccup, Toothless, and Smidvarg's pack of Night Terrors forming a Fireworm Queen to a barren island near The Edge saving the island from destruction.

Season 3
Following the migration, the Fireworm Queen's nest came under attack by the Cavern Crasher during the events of "Crash Course". Thus, the queen flew to Dragon's Edge to ask Hookfang, Snotlout, and the other Riders for help to defend her nest against the Cavern Crasher. Snotlout and Hookfang were able to help the Queen defend the hatchlings long enough for Hiccup and the Dragon Riders to reach the nest and together ward off the Cavern Crasher.

In "Last Auction Heroes", the Fireworms made a short appearance, held captive in lamps. These lamps were promptly knocked over during the escape, and the Fireworms scuttled out.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Along with Solar Flare, the Queen, Flashfright and Royal Fireworm, Fireworm Princess was made available in this game. However, no average Fireworms were available for the practicality of game mechanics.

School of Dragons
Only the Queen was made available in this game as a rideable dragon in 2014.

Trivia

 * It is possible that the Fireworm's skin is not really as hot as the sun. This is because when Tuffnut was burned by a Fireworm, it would have burned his hand off if it was hotter than the sun, which is approximately 5,505 ºC at the surface. It is most likely an exaggeration because Vikings at the time would not have known the temperature of the sun itself.
 * It could be possible that the Fireworms received their name from Fireworm (book), a female Monstrous Nightmare belonging to Snotlout.
 * Fireworms are the only dragon with noticeable gender differences.
 * They are extremely powerful in packs, as it is shown that all of the kids and the dragons together struggle to hold off a swarm of Fireworms.
 * It is possible that they are based off the Red-Hot Itchyworms, as they look similar and have very similar attributes.
 * In the episode, it is stated that the Fireworm's skin burns hotter than the sun. The Deadly Nadder's flame is supposed to burn with the heat of the sun, so logically touching a Fireworm should be hotter than being hit by a Deadly Nadder's flame, although it is likely they use a less intense heat normally.
 * Despite the Terrible Terrors being considered the smallest of all dragons, Fireworms, at least the males, are actually much smaller, and can be held in the palm of your hand.
 * Bork the Bold originally called the Fireworms "Flame-eaters", but the name and the reason behind it faded from common knowledge.
 * It could be possible that the idea of Fireworms came from fireflies (their ability to fly and their glow), fire-ants (their biting exchanged with heating their skin) or bees (since they live in packs and have a queen and produce honeycombs replaced with firecombs).
 * The reasons why normal Fireworms are afraid of fire are currently unknown.
 * The closer that Fireworms are to one another, the brighter they glow.
 * Overall, the Fireworm Queen slightly resembles the Yinglong like the Grapple Grounder, but the Fireworm Queen's features are more suiting to the Yinlong than those of the Grapple Grounder; it is golden colored, has unnaturally powerful (and hot) fire, and is generous and intelligent.
 * The Fireworm is the first dragon species that has more than two pairs of legs, with the others being the Hackatoo and the Thunderpede.
 * Given that most dragons have six limbs and others such as the Nadder and the Nightmare have only four, it is possible that dragons inherently have multiple sets of limbs, unlike other vertebrates, but some species have reduced the number of limbs to six, four, or even only two.
 * In Rise of Berk's Book of Dragons, it is stated that the size of the queen is 500 times bigger than that of the normal Fireworm.
 * Strangely, in "School Of Dragons", the player can choose a gender for the Fireworm Queen, rather male or female, despite it being the only female of the species.
 * The Fireworm species have a slight similarity to the Flightmare. For example, they both have a hostile attitude when it come to their food (for the Fireworm it's the honeycombs; for the Flightmare it's the glowing algae). They both also have a certain source of food that gives them their glow.
 * Fireworms are very similar to Fire Salamanders in the Spiderwick Chronicles books.
 * Both are very small.
 * Both can catch on fire and are extremely hot.
 * Both are worm-like creatures.
 * Both have multiple legs.
 * Fireworm babies look exactly like adults, except they are noticeably smaller.
 * It is possible that Stoker Class dragons instinctively know what a Queen looks like as Fireworm Queen venom can cure loss of flame in Stoker Class dragons. This may be how the Night Terrors knew what a Queen looks like despite having never seen one when luring Fireworms away from Dragon's Edge in "Reign of Fireworms".