Profile

Appearance: He is glossy black, with bluish markings on his wingtips, and blue eyes with slitted pupils like a cat's. He has four legs with five talons each and a pair of wings with six spines each. He has a ruff around his face and tendrils that hang from his lower jaw. He is also enormous. Probably around 100ft, though he is far longer than wide and tends to coil his tail around himself when sitting.

History: Celestial Dragons are always companions to members of the Imperial family of China and the next egg was meant for the crown prince. However, Temeraire's mother had two eggs. This caused a complicated political situation--giving an egg to a more distant member of the family might create a rival for the prince, but giving him to someone unworthy of the Imperial seat would cause a loss of face. The Chinese dealt with this by sending Temeraire, then called Lung Tien Xiang, off to Napoleon--Emperor of France, but still a barbarian who could never possibly rule China. Temeraire's life would have been quite different had he actually made it to France, but various disasters befell his transport ship, and it was eventually captured by a British ship under command of Captain William Laurence.

The ship's surgeon realized the egg was about to hatch, and according to British theories of dragon husbandry, had to be harnessed as soon as it was out of the shell in order to be tamed. Usually those who harnessed dragons were trained for that life since childhood, but there were no aviators on board, they were far from land, and a dragon was too valuable a military asset to be allowed to go unharnessed. Laurence had his officers draw lots to see who would get the dragon--not considered a good thing, since aviators had difficult lives and were somewhat looked down on.

The hatchling dragon had other ideas. He ignored the man who had actually drawn the short straw and went right to Laurence, who despite his consternation and the fact that this meant losing command of his ship named him Temeraire after a ship he liked, put him in a makeshift harness, and fed him. The little dragon quickly became not so little, and slowly the two grew in affection for each other, with Laurence often reading to Temeraire at night.

When they reached Britain, attempts were made to get Temeraire to accept a trained aviator as a Captain, but he would have no one but Laurence. The two underwent training at the Loch Laggan covert, and Temeraire became part of a formation Led by a Longwind named Lily and including a Regal Copper named Maximus, both of whom became his friends. He was assigned a crew including John Granby, as first lieutenant, and little Emily Roland as one of his runners.

Temeraire and his formation fought the French several times, as he began to come into his full size and development. When the French attempted to invade Britain Temeraire discovered he had an ability called the Divine Wind, which allowed him to break open the troop transports that the enemy dragons were carrying. This demonstrated that he is a Celestial and not an Imperial, as the British originally thought. The Chinese caught wind of this, realized their precious egg was now a dragon in the hands of an ordinary British captain, and an international incident ensued.

Eventually, everyone realized Temeraire was perfectly happy to go to China as long as Laurence and his crew could come along. The journey to China included several incidents including Temeraire rescuing everyone from a sea serpent, and an attempt on Laurence's life. Once they reached China, Temeraire got to know his mother Xian, his creepy albino cousin Lien, and had a fling with an Imperial named Mei. It eventually came out that Temeraire was brought to China as part of a complicated political plot meant to make Lien's companion the regent for a young prince that he was trying to make into Temeraire's companion. The conspirator was killed, Lien went berserk an ran off to France, and when Laurence was discovered to be related to the British king it was decided that he would be adopted by the emperor, officially made Temeraire's companion, and everyone could go home happy except the French and Lien.

Temeraire was given the option to remain in China, but knew Laurence wouldn't be happy there and that he wouldn't be allowed to fight battles. He also saw how well dragons were treated in China and wanted to go home to make sure his dragon friends in Britain could get the same rights. Temeraire and his crew ended up going home by an overland route, led by a guide named Tharkay, so that they could get some eggs the Turks were supposed to give the British.

They made it out with two of the eggs, but were detained in Prussia, where they fought several disastrous battles against Napoleon and Lien, who had decided to fight with the French just because she hated Temeraire that much. One of the eggs hatched and was given to Granby, much to Temeraire's dismay. Much to everyone's dismay the hatchling was a very willful fire-breather with chronic discipline problems who named herself Iskierka.

Eventually they reached home only to find that all the dragons were sick, but for some reason Temeraire was immune. They realized he'd had the disease but was cured by something he ate while in Africa on the way to China. He went with the rest of his formation to Africa and discovered that a particular, very smelly mushroom was the cure. Laurence and some other aviators were captured by the Tswana Kingdom and were rescued by the dragons, including Temeraire. Meanwhile the Twana kicked out all the European colonists and slave traders from the entire continent.

The cure was successfully brought back, but the British decided to use germ warfare and infect the French dragons. Laurence and Temeraire were horrified, and Temeraire decided they must give the French the cure, before all the other dragons of the world became infected and died. Laurence wents along even though he knew it meant treason. Rather than staying in France as heroes, they returned to Britain to face the consequences, mainly because this is what Laurence insisted upon.

Laurence was sentenced to hang, but the punishment was delayed to ensure Temeraire's good behavior. Temerarie was sent to the Welsh breeding grounds where he was lonely and bored, but managed to make a few friends. Temeraire heared (incorrectly) that Laurence had died, meanwhile Napoleon's troops invaded Britain. Temeraire roused himself from his depression and decided to lead the unharnessed dragons of the breeding grounds in a fight against the French.

Because the British were desperate for dragons, they sent Laurence off to get Temeraire. He found the breeding grounds deserted but eventually ran across a new and highly successful militia group containing both men and dragons. It turned out to be the one under Temeraire's command, and Temeraire was overjoyed to have Laurence back.

Laurence received orders to lead both harnessed and unharnessed dragons in guerilla raids against the invaders. He didn't like it but agreed due to his guilt over having committed treason. Temeraire was extremely distressed about their tactics and about the fact that Laurence was clearly not okay. Laurence eventually came out of his funk after talking to Tharkay, and they decided not to do the raids anymore--not that it really mattered because there was a huge battle and the French troops were expelled from Britain.

Laurence's sentence was changed to transportation and labor, and he and Temeraire were put on a prison ship bound for Australia. This was mainly due to the fact that the powers that be wanted Temeraire's political organizing out of Britain before he caused a civil war. There was new covert being formed in New South Wales and the commander of the Aerial Corps managed to sneak a few members of Laurence's crew in among the other dragons' crews.

Personality: Temeraire is, like all dragons, possessive and protective of what he considers his. He loves shiny jewelry, even if he knows it's not worth very much. And while he understands the concept of property, he wouldn't fee too bad about snatching an unattended cow. After all, if the owner didn't want his cows taken, he should have kept a better eye on them and not let them run around for anyone to grab. In general, dragons cannot be trusted to transport gold and other valuables, because after a while they will begin thinking of the cargo as theirs and refuse to give it up. And it's not exactly easy to argue with a dragon. Still, Temeraire is capable of being generous, if a bit grudgingly, and more so than one would expect from a dragon. He shares his cows with the little courier dragon Volly, who is sweet but none too bright, and has a pavilion built for the use of his sick friends, out of money Laurence was going to use for a pavilion of Temeraire's own.

Very similar instincts come into play with Temeraire's captain and crew. Laurence is the most important thing in the world to him. Most "tame" dragons have a captain, or companion, who they will obey, and it is the main way they are controlled. Occasionally dragons reject their captains, and even the other way around, and there are some cases of captains being abusive to their dragons, but in most case the bond is a respectful and affectionate one. Such is very much the case with Laurence and Temeraire. Sure, Temeraire has proven himself capable of functioning on his own when rescuing Laurence or during the period when he thought Laurence was dead, but he would not give up Laurence for all the gold in all the world and he will certainly never let anyone take him away. His feelings for his other crew members are much less intense, but of a similar nature.

Temeraire actually means "bold" or perhaps "rash" in French, and it's a fitting name. He enjoys fighting, though he does wish he could sometimes do other things as well. He's very curious about everything, perhaps even a bit nosy.He's never afraid to face an opponent or say exactly what he thinks. Sometimes, though, he acts without really thinking of the consequences. He's ridiculously intelligent, but he lacks life experience, and being a multi-lingual mathematical prodigy can't help one with all of life's problems. And he's just a bit vain about being a Celestial, the most rare and intelligent of all dragon breeds.

One of Temeraire's strongest personal characteristics, and one not shared by the average dragon, is his revolutionary zeal. Laurence has read to him books on philosophy, politics, and history and Temeraire has very decided opinions on these. Laurence knows better than to try to read Temeraire the bible at this point, as he finds much of it ridiculous and asks questions verging on the blasphemous. His main cause is dragon rights, starting with being paid for their services fighting for the British Empire. He also wants them to have the right to choose to do another kind of work if they want, be able to go near cities, for cities to be built to accommodate dragons, and for dragons to be represented in government. He is also a staunch abolitionist, which is a stance shared by Laurence and Laurence's father. Basically, Temeraire thinks for himself and refuses to accept the status quo if he has an idea about how things could be better.

Powers: The Divine Wind, a sort of sonic roar capable of knocking over stands of trees, bursting apart ships, and causing avalanches. Also he's a very strong, very enormous, flying dragon with sharp talons and teeth. In Rowan, the power of the Divine Wind is reduced to half, and he is also experiencing slower flying speeds.

P.S. I am always on the lookout for a Laurence.