Kowari

Kowari is a SandWing Talon of Peace formerly belonging to the Carnelian Winglet. 
Owned by FourFlames.
== Description ==
300px|Art by me|
==== Markings ====
Most of Kowari's scales are a warm eggshell-brown color, with her accent colors resembling golden desert sand under a shadow. She has tawny patches, like red-river soil, where her scales overlap.
Her namesake is the kowari rat-- half of her tail is dark burnt-brown, like the animal. Also, her muzzle features a "whisker spots" pattern and there are a few of these stray specks scattered throughout her body.
==== Body ====
Kowari's weight class is average for a member of her tribe-- well-built and somewhat angular. She is shorter than a majority of other SandWings, and walks in a slightly hunched posture.
While the sails growing down her back are relatively healthy and have not seen warfare, they are a bit frayed at the ends due to a peculiar tic of picking at them when she is stressed.
The cuticles in her foreclaws are misshapen and the claws themselves are very small.
== Abilities ==
Kowari may not be able to move at particularly high speeds, but she makes up for this in her tribal flight endurance. She does not need to drink as often as other species of dragon, though her darker scales are too good at retaining heat, so she suffers exhaustion when outside for too long.
She has sharp and flexible claws which are unusually short, and the average teeth a SandWing would have. Her tail barb is not regularly used-- in fact, she can't recall when she ever has used it. Her tail is usually curled out of her way and she rarely considers it.
Her fire is used regularly for practical purposes such as burning scrap work or lighting the den, and its intensity is low due to her aversion to bright light.
== Personality ==
An autonomous, perfunctory disaster, now tasked with bringing other dragons together, and naively assuming that she understands their needs. What could go wrong?
Kowari is limited, tense, and insensitive. She herself is incredibly touchy, when not approached on purely business matters, and though she is emotionally hardened towards her work, stress can cause her to react as though the source is far more injurious (i.e. crying over something she may be indifferent to). This is not something she has conscious control over, and she tends to flee any humiliating circumstances that would result in such outcomes. 
She's very easily annoyed by open expressions of emotion, particularly anguish or having others vent to her-- she finds this mildly irritating. She avoids this whenever she can by giving them the cursory supplication that everything will be okay and then diverting the topic to something more distracting. In conversation, she often forgets (unfortunately) to return the favor and listen to others unless she is particularly invested in something they have to say. Dragons tend to believe that she is a jerk because she is oblivious to the necessity of mutual participation and respect.
She shrugs away her tactless behavior by denying that she meant anythung by it, but has reluctantly agreed to "work on" improving her social skills for the sake of the Talons' PR.
=== Beliefs ===
* Ingratitude for life is selfish. Some dragons, like Xerosere, were never given the choice whether to live or die. This is the one topic she can be riled up to the point of aggression over, making her difficult to work with on sensitive topics like self-harm, especially since she knows very little about them.
== History (WIP) ==
==== Early Life (5009 AS - 5019 AS) ====
5009 AS
* Kowari was born in 5009 AS. She was the only egg of parents Khali and Diwali of the SandWings, soldiers both loyal to Queen Blaze. The impoverished couple had devoted nearly fifteen years of their lives to her promises of royal treasure, hoping that Blaze's less tyrannical rule might enable money and power to trickle down from the top. Considering themselves too lofty to resort to thievery, their steadfast dedication to moral fiber would have starved them without the chance intervention of Blaze's supporters and their offers of paid participation.
5010 AS
* When Kowari was one DYO, her parents were called upon to stop a northern raid by Burn's army on Agave Vista-- a township which had changed its allegiance to Blaze and refused to give up arms. The conflict pitted SandWings against each other, sowing devastation and burning more resources that might have repaired the war-torn kingdom.
* During the raid Kowari's parents managed to save a refugee dragonet named Xerosere, who they adopted as Kowari's older sister.
* Xerosere passed away in early autumn of 5010, under extreme duress. Kowari was once again left an only child, but after seeing how arbitrary death could be, she was imprinted with a crippling fear of losing others and with the firm belief that life was a gift. More than ever, she felt pressured to fill the spot of the child her parents had willingly taken in.
5011 AS
* 5011 was a tough year for Kowari's family, as well as the entire continent, when the Eye of Onyx passed Sand Kingdom authority to the ringleader of the Outclaws despite Blaze being the last successor standing. Her parents were reluctant to recognize Thorn as their Queen for reasons other than lacking royal blood-- namely the fact that a dragon who worked outside the law might not be the best candidate for making laws. Unfortunately, they had no influence under the new order.
5013 AS
* In 5013 Kowari was finally old enough to be enrolled at Jade Mountain Academy, where she was placed in Carnelian Winglet.
* She found a new outlet in play-combat. This was influenced by a friend in her winglet, a 6-yr-old SkyWing named Caucasus, who dreamed of becoming an arena fighter and enthusiastically narrated the battles he had seen to her with starry eyes. Captivated by his storytelling and adventurous spirit, Kowari soon elevated the wild-spirited SkyWing as her comrade and hero. She suffered many injuries through rough training battles with him, earning ugly clawmarks and bruises all down her forearms and legs. Her disgusted parents quickly dashed her hopes that they would be proud of her for exercising heroism and 'chivalry', and swiftly made it clear that wanton violence would not be taken lightly.
* The guilt for having vented her frustrations was a bit crushing, she began to lie to her parents for her own sake. This laid the blame on Caucasus and complicated their relationship-- soon the play-fighting evolved into outright hostility.. Convinced that she could fix the situation, she tried to please him and patch things up by doing as he asked her. He quickly took advantage of this.
5014 AS
* Kowari allowed Caucasus to use her as his scapegoat, a constant chain of punishments that pushed her to behave irascibly when bothered and avoid interacting with anyone else. Khali trimmed Kowari's claws and cut deep down beyond the cuticle as punishment, assuming that she was instigating.
* Afraid of her parents' discipline and continued injuries, she finally applied to be transferred to another part of the caves-- specifically requesting to room alone.
* Struggling to work through her survivor's guilt and distrustful of the other tribes, Kowari sought distance from intimate relationships and buried herself into professionalism and bookishness, forming stronger bonds with instructors and leaders than with other students. 
5015 AS
* At the encouragement of the organization's recruiter, Riptide, Kowari sheepishly inserted herself into the Talons of Peace youth programs at Jade Mountain Academy. Though she struggled with speaking to other dragons, working for the Talons during school gave her a sense of purpose, enabling her to take diplomatic action without much interpersonal involvement. 
5016 AS
* Community outreach stuff?
*Meets a SeaWing named Brazos who similarly shares her interest in writing
5017 AS
* Caucasus graduated from Jade Mountain and went on to become a soldier for Queen Tourmaline, somewhat resentful of her rule and missing Queen Scarlet.
5018 AS
* More community outreach stuff
5019 AS
* When Kowari finally graduated from her Winglet in 5019, she chose to be inducted into the Talons of Peace organization.
==== Talon of Peace (5020 AS) ====
Duties 	Essayist-- writes speeches for Talon officers
Current Assignments	WIP
== Gallery ==
KowariFullbody2020.PNG|by me
Kowari2020Front.PNG|by me
Kowari2020.PNG|by me
Little Kowari.png|Little Kowari by me
Kowari by Frenchie.png|Kowari by Frenchie! TYSM
023C4507-3D48-4818-B174-54ADF47A6F7C.png|Cool headshot by QueenMosstheLeafwing!
Lalalo.jpg|Awesome picture by la Resa!
Sketchdumpaaaaaa.jpeg|Kowari's the one in the top right corner. Thanks Luster!
== Other Information ==
-A kowari is a marsupial rat native to Australia.
-Kowari's winglet while she was at Jade Mountain, the Carnelian-Bigtail Memorial Winglet (often shortened to the Carnelian Winglet in order to fit the naming scheme of regular Winglets), is the sixth Winglet of Jade Mountain and was named to honor the victims of the history cave bombing in 5012 AS.
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:SandWings
Category:Content (FourFlames)
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