Blood Crown
Blood Crowns are an extremely rare species of Dragon. They can be found in every part of the world except Antarctica. Despite having such a large range, they are very difficult to find. They are characterized by the large set of spikes and horns on their heads, similar to a crown, and the dark red splotchy patterns going down their backs. Many people find their patterns strangely beautiful. Their apperance is largely what inspired their name.
Blood Crowns are pack dragons and are feircely loyal to their packmates. The pack nature of the dragons makes them one of the few cooperative hunter species. Most packs are nuclear families, similar to wolves having a mated pair and their offspring, however some larger packs can have multiple mated pairs. Blood Crown packs are not to be trifled with.
Humans have found that the strange beauty and feirce pack loyalty of the dragon are extremely useful in a dangerous world. At first humans paid them little attention as there was not enough meat to warrent the catch and they had little reason to tame them. However, it was soon discovered that releasing one from a trap will result in it treating its rescuer like a pack member. Seeing how fiercely loyal Blood Crowns are, humans began setting traps in hopes to trick the dragons into believing they had recued them. Unfortunatly, this resulted in many dragons dying from the wounds before they came back to the human that "recued" them. This resulted in a drop of Blood Crown sightings. The decline in Blood Crown sightings are the result of overtraping by humans. Their new rarity made them even more special. Their almost uniqueness made them almost reserved for those in power. Their crown of horns also remided humans of royalty and the strength and power that comes with it, ultimatly sparking the association of Blood Crowns and royalty and power.
Description
Blood Crowns hold the typical dragon stature, 4 legs and a pair of wings. They are medium-sized stocky dragons, standing 7 - 8 1/2 ft at the shoulders. They are large and strong enough to be ridden with the proper equipment.
Blood Crowns have large plated scales with sharp points along the edges. On either side of their neck they have a set of gills from the time they lay dormant underwater. The gills are still visible, however they have been sealed closed with the scales that protected them. Their signiture crown has 2 large horns that curve upwards with 2 smaller horns underneath each. On their forequarters they have 3 talons with a dewclaw in the inside. On the hindquarters they only have 4 talons, and no dewclaws.
Blood Crowns are typicaly shades of warm gray with red patterns and splotches running along their backs. Some have described the patterns as being strangely similar to the patterns on King Cheetahs. Their red patterns do not go to their underbelly and mostly stay on their backs. Their heads and faces also have the same red, and make sort of a mask around their eyes before completly covering the crown. Blood Crowns have crecent shaped fire-colored eyes. Most Blood Crowns have solid black claws.
Human Relations
History
Blood Crowns were first spotted and named around the same time as every other dragon during the apocalypse. It is believed that, like all dragons, they remained in the deepest parts of the ocean completely dormant untill the great awakening and the subsequent apocalypse.
Directly following the apocalypse, Blood Crowns could be found almost anywhere, and a large population was found in the American Wilderness. Unfortunatly, the eruption of Yellowstone at the hands of some Burning dragons destroyed most of this population. As humans began hunting and trapping dragons, Blood Crowns were justone of the many targets, destroying even more of their population. Once humans realized Blood Crowns had nothing to warrent the effort of their catch, they were hard to butcher, their scales where too large and made specificaly for that dragon, their meat was too tough and they were all scales, and the one good thing they gave, bones, could be gotten from something else. Since they had nothing humans wanted most just left them alone, and they were hardly seen anyway.
On some rare occasions, a Blood Crown would get caught in a trap and most people would just let them go. But then something strange started happening. The Blood Crowns would come back to the human that freed them. They would act like a guard dog of sorts, protecting the human at all costs. The Blood Crowns treated their rescuer like one from their own pack.
At first this was considered silly or somewhat of a joke. Untill one day, a hunter was going about his day in the North European wilderness. He was looking for a lost caribou herd when he was atacked by a starving brown bear. The bear could have killed him if it weren't for the Blood Crown that saved him. He had rescued the Blood Crown a couple years prior, though he never knew it had followed him after. After this incident, the hunter spread word of the Blood Crown's noble deed.
As the story was passed around by word of mouth, features began to exagerate. The hunter changed to a noble leader searching for his people's lost caribou. He was painted to be an almost kingly figure. When he was attacked by the bear he fought it off best he could, untill the glorious Blood Crown saved him. The story told that the Blood Crown only saved him because of his noble mission. When this new story reached what was left of England, locals started whispers that their King would rescue them from the horrible reign of Dragons on the back of a Blood Crown. From here is where the connection between the Blood Crowns and power grew.
The Symbol of Power
Now that the Blood Crown was associated with the Kinghood, the Blood Crown also represented absolute power. Leaders of any kind sought to get one to solidify their power, and perhaps grow it. Those who did manage to get one put its signiture crown on every banner, as a symbol of their strength, power, and nobility. Others began copying this trend, putting the crown on their own banners. This further lead to the Blood Crowns association with power.
The Blood Crown's new found fame led to its over trapping, with some freed Blood Crowns not being able to recover from the injuries the trap gave it. Some traps would even accidentally kill adolescent Blood Crowns.
Blood Crowns iteligence is often over looked, but they have began showing signs that they can understand human intentions. They have began to figure out that some hunters trapped and freed them on purpose, and would go on to do the same to other memeber of it pack. Blood Crowns have been found to avoid these hunters, even if they have "rescued" them in the past. The Blood Crowns now seem to only follow the noble instead, making more of the legend just a little bit true.
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