Mohitani's Wind-Up Bathtub Toy Shark Blue Urmeerdouloth

Celestial Tranquility Egg

Radiant hues cover this egg from top to bottom, each one melding so seamlessly into the other that it's hard to tell where one might start and the other ends. Cascading swirls of a cerulean blue sweep into a singular mass of a radiant royal blue, pooling before spilling over into a formation looking a bit like the moon, Timor. Flecks of a near-silver adorn the shell, concentrated mostly near the top of the egg and trickling mostly down towards the left side, flowing over something looking like a craggy set of spires. This egg is probably one of the smallest of the group, but the accidental regality of the shell is certainly breathtaking.

Hatching Message

Celestial Tranquility Egg gives way to building pressure without ever losing its cool. What was once a seamless landscape is now riddled with a network of cracks that seem to breathe with every relentless wave—out, then in, then out again. The cracks become fissures, the fissures become holes, opening onto a world of cold depths, shadowed and uncertain; something lurks therein. The crumbling facade falls away, resolving into a coiled figure: glistening, dangerous, blue.

Wind-Up Bathtub Toy Shark Blue Dragonet

Shifting tides of light and hue play across the hide of this weathered voyager, pouring life into the dim, cold blue of the depths. Shades of green and turquoise streak his low-slung torso, and flecks of brighter colors: a dappling of gold and silver glitters across his wide back. His wings are lighter in color, crested with a line of white along each bone spar. Long-tailed and long-necked, he stares down from an awkward height for his short legs, and from features crafted for an ancient and less refined time: his face is flat and broad, his eyes set too high in his head for elegance. Still, there is intelligence in them, an ancient wisdom as changeable and changeless as time itself.

Public Impression Pose

Wind-Up Bathtub Toy Shark Blue Dragonet does not pause. Dredos is on the ground, bleeding, but Dredos — Dredos is nothing. A snarl is all the warning there is for Tye and T'ii, and then he is upon them, a wave of violent blue, and that same violence that ripped into Dredos is swirling up around the trio on their way off the sands. No: no. This one cannot leave…

Private Impression Message

Whirling eyes meet yours, and the world falls away. Waves of green and blue rise up to wash away the heat of the sands; you feel them pressing into your mind, into your lungs. You cannot draw breath, pulled down, down, down into the maelstrom of an unfamiliar mind. There, though, at the bottom and through the blackness, a voice whispers softly, and it settles in your head like clean oxygen and a line to a drowning sailor. « Yes… » The trace of a hiss writhes through the word, which tangles like seaweed in the hair. « You are the one, my Mohitani, my moon… Guide me, and I will follow. I am Urmeerdouloth: I am yours. »


We are so glad that you decided to come and play with us, Mohitani! Ever since the first scenes we had with you, SearchCo has been so excited that you chose to come to Harper's Tale, and honored that you picked High Reaches Weyr for your home. We hope that you have been enjoying getting to know us as much as we've enjoyed getting to know you! We are looking forward to playing with you and Urmeerdouloth for a long time to come.


Egg Inspiration

This egg is inspired by a spraypaint painting that I happen to have in my closet. The scene is one of those space ones, with a moon overlooking awesome mountains and a deep pool of water. It's breathtaking, and one of my favorite things to look at.

Theme Inspiration

You asked for a dragon of water, a dragon who would shift and change as often as the ocean does. Although his egg was a deep pool, your dragon is certainly no quiet lake. Urmeerdouloth is the ocean, in many ways: unfathomable, passionate, sometimes violent. He can appear deceptively calm, at times, but you will always feel the currents that shift under his surface. There is a great deal at work down there, and these are not calm waters for fishing in.

Urmeerdouloth is not fickle, however, for all his apparent changeability. He has a core that is absolutely unshakeable, and in that core… is you. His service to you is undeniable and complete, his will suborned to your needs in a way that will sometimes make you uncomfortable, but will never leave you doubting his love for and devotion to you. Urmeerdouloth is the ocean, and you are his moon: his reactions to you may not always be obvious, but every motion he makes is informed by you and the force you exert on him.

Name Inspiration

We wanted to give you a name that captured this depth, the ocean in all its changing moods. You asked for unusual letters, and so we searched and found two letters that did not start any HT dragon-names. One of those was U. With that as a starting point, we looked and found the German Urmeer, or "primordial ocean". We spent a long time searching for something to add to it, to give it more length. We looked for translations of ruler, of lord. Nothing quite seemed to fit, and the meaning seemed flawed. Finally, we saw the problem and reversed the meaning, taking "doulos" from the ancient Greek for "slave". Urmeerdouloth is no ruler of the waters: his power is a subservient one, constrained always by his service to you and to them.

Dragon Inspiration

Oh the ocean said what are you trying to find?
I don't care; I'm not kind
I have bludgeoned your sailors; I've spat out their keepsakes"
— Dar Williams, "The Ocean"

Urmeerdouloth is not a pretty seaside visit or a harbor cruise. He is the ocean at its deepest and most elemental. Physically, he looks a bit like a relic of prehistoric times: his wide-set eyes and flattened face are more fish-like than draconic: a bottom-feeder's face. His body is short and wide, with a head that rises like the figurehead of a ship. There is some of the waves and the wind in him, with froth-capped wings and the sparkle of sun on water on his back, but mostly, he is the constantly moving depths of the sea.

When he walks, he lurches, his gait a sailor's on dry land. He has that rollicking unsteadiness of sea legs: the ground is not quite right for him. His body will sway side to side with every step, and he will be ponderously slow as he grinds his way along. Be prepared for very, very long travel times… at least until you have learned to fly.

In the air is a very different story. With his long tail to serve as a rudder, Urmeerdouloth will cut through the air like a fish, his wings flickering to let him spin and roll with a complete disregard for gravity. He will not be the fastest of dragons, and he will not have the most stamina, but watching him fly is like watching poetry. That is where his beauty will show. He will be among the first of his fellows to master the tricky take-offs and landings, and while they can leave him behind in the races, he will always be able to perform to high standards in the precision maneuvers of wing formations.

"No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe."
— Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Urmeerdouloth is primal in all of his impulses, acting without the careful deliberations that act as a check on most people. He has no real sense of morality, and when he has an idea, will rush towards it in passionate abandon. He does not understand why it is wrong to manipulate people, to use power to squash your adversaries, to fight as dirty as you need to do to win. He does not understand right and wrong, except in as much as you are right and your enemies are wrong.

He can be forceful, but prefers to act with a slow, inexorable subtlety. He has an uncomfortable habit of speaking to people directly, placing thoughts in their head without attribution in an attempt to manipulate them. This will occasionally be horrifying and occasionally embarrassing, and the ethics of it are questionable at best.

In your mind, you hear a soft voice say, « Mohitani is so beautiful… why have I never noticed before? »

In your mind, you hear a soft voice say, « How could I have tried to take this position from Mohitani? She is so much better qualified… »

You are his moon, and just as the moon pulls on the ocean, creating tides, it is you that will exert a pull on Urmeerdouloth. In the absence of an internal moral compass, you will serve as his guide to good and evil, knowing that the end does not always justify the means. It will be up to you to stop him when he begins to run wild, and it will not be easy, because Urmeerdouloth has incredible momentum once he starts in a given direction:

« They try to keep us from our due. They deserve what comes to them… »

"As the moon's fair image quaketh
In the raging waves of ocean,
Whilst she, in the vault of heaven,
Moves with silent peaceful motion."
— Heinrich Heine

Your bond will be closer than most from the very start: Urmeerdouloth will be loath to let you out of his sight. Whenever you have to leave, even for just a moment or two, he will be in your mind, whispering always like the constant sound of the waves by the seaside. The buzz will sometimes be reassuring and sometimes frustrating, but you will eventually need to grow used to it.

Urmeerdouloth has no sense of you and him, just of ‘us': your needs and desires are his needs and desires, and his goals are your goals. His lack of temperance, however, shows in this, and you will need to be careful: a passing thought about how pleasant it would be to take a day down at Seacliffs will set him on course to arrange it, negotiating (or strongarming) a substitute for any duties you have that day, choosing the location, planning the event.

"La mer ne pardonne pas"
— James Keelaghan, "Captain Torres"

Urmeerdouloth is not cruel, he just does not care for mercy. When a fellow makes a mistake, he will relentlessly exploit it to his own ends. An error made by Slogan and Tosiekoth is an opportunity for you and he to move ahead of them in standings, and he will ruthlessly rip the unfortunate dragon/rider pair to shreds for their mistakes. He does not forgive mortal failings, and will whisper reminders of them over and over again, keeping them alive in everyone's mind.

« Armaderoth, of course, is a fool: he took weeks to master a simple V-formation. » "That was months ago, Urmeerdouloth, and /one/ formation! He's done better since!" « It is who he is. He will show it again. Remind the Weyrlingmaster, and she will name us wingleader over him. »

You, of course, are the exception to this: he will not attack or criticize you. Your own perfection is an absolute for him, unassailable. You will need to work to keep his constant flow of adoration from turning your head and making you forget your own shortcomings.

In your mind, he will feel cool and dark, a constantly flowing presence. His voice, a lilting baritone, carries in it the eternal sigh of the tide rushing to shore, the refreshing tang of sea foam, and cool breezes that navigate the coast. When he is angry, his voice will crash like waves on the rock, searing your nostrils and setting your hair on end with lightning's blinding strike: when he is persuasive, he laps at you like undertow on a sandy beach, wearing away your resistance, while he mesmerizes with the luster of pearl. When he seethes, when he plots, all senses fail and his words fade away beneath a murky roil of emotion, deadly devious. Though he may try at such times, he can never really hide anything from you.

He will not often stir himself for flights: when the moons are full, however, he will begin to feel edgy, and proddy greens will start to exert a draw on him. He will watch, wait, and hunt them, scoping out the likely prospects in advance and pressing his suit before they are ready to rise. He will chase like he does everything else, with all of his being, and you will rarely be able to resist the pull. Even when he does not catch, you will often be swept away, finding yourself desperate for companionship after a failed flight. The next day, however, he will be himself again, the disappointment rolling off of him quietly. After all, he will still, and always, have you.

Urmeerdouloth is as deep, as passionate, as violent, as merciless as the ocean. He is brutal and smooth in turns, and intense in his commitment to you. Remember, though, that he is your dragon: feel free to tweak him as you like to make him mesh perfectly with you. We are looking forward to seeing what you do with him.

Credits

Name: Chey, Shazi
Egg Desc: Nulerak
Dragonet Desc: Chey; Shazi tweak
Messages: Chey; Shazi tweak
Puppeteer: Shazi
Inspiration: Chey, Shazi

Clutchmates:
K'ano (Kiano) and Cock-Action Six-Shooter Cap Gun Bronze Armaderoth
S'lo (Slogan) and Energizer-Operated Transforming Toy Robot Blue Tosiekoth
Onlie (Onberlie) and Eagle of the Revolution Kite Brown Najmaldith
Nu'ra (Nulerak) and Valorous Veneer for a Child's Venture Bronze Ckiezeluth
Mohitani and Wind-Up Bathtub Toy Shark Blue Urmeerdouloth
S'ton (Winston) and Armor-Plated Remote-Control Tank Bronze Kyzhanth

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License