Lion (Bronze)

__NOEDITSECTION__Owned by BronzeRattle. Not to be confused with Lion owned by Pearl336 or Lion by Yum of the BookHuggerWings
Lion, nicknamed Watchtower, is an 11 year-old IceWing spirit first mentioned in Ice on the Horizon and formally introduced in In Death, Sunshine. Previously a Fourth Circle caretaker, she was well known for her spear mastery and being the principle guard of Mooseblight until her death following the events of the Mooseblight Massacre. She reformed as a spirit and is currently assisting an unknown figure in returning to the Surface.
== Description==
"You're very distinct in color. That's a good thing. I'm like that myself."
:—Ecru, In Death, Sunshine
Lion is a bizarre, medium-sized IceWing. She isn't even the slightest bit white or blue: She's light yellow (something that often gets her called a SandWing hybrid) and boldly intricately striped all over in coffee brown. Lion has short ears and horns, with gold earrings in both ears. The spines behind her head and on her tail are rounded, boldly marked, and some are chipped. Her eyes and talons are deep brown, while her wing membrane is roughly the same color as her pale scales.
Her spirit form is nearly identical, save for being slightly transparent and having a slight turquoise aura. She has a large jagged claw mark at her throat slightly staining nearby scales blue. She's been described to have a silent, strangely vicious air when she stays still, unlike the warm vibe her living form has.
== History ==
=== Backstory ===
Lion was born in 5,060 AS. At three years old, she got a job in caring for senior dragons. By the time she was six years old, she was in the Fourth Circle.
=== In Death, Sunshine ===
Lion was reassigned to taking care of prisoners as part of the queen's reassignment process. After a brief learning session with Whiskers, she was reluctantly brought along with Ecru to inspect some cargo that had been shipped. That "cargo" turned out to be a young hybrid dragonet named Mooseblight, who was tricked into being imprisoned much to Lion's dismay.
After Mooseblight's failed escape attempt that killed two locksmiths, Lion was called in to defend the dragonet from being executed the next morning. She agreed to guard and care for him to prevent further attempts. When she fed him his first meal she solemnly decided to secretly help him to suffer less. Sooner or later, she was the only IceWing to feel this way, even after multiple escapes and the introduction of Fir. Fir let her know that she was called Watchtower among the guards, which at first confused her.
That didn't stop her from protesting his conditions. When he was four years old, she was moved out to general prison duty while Mooseblight's part of the prison was being renovated. After never receiving a reply from anyone about him and a suggestion from Fir that they probably killed him, she was relieved to find out she had be put back to her original job of guarding him. The prison now had better conditions, including her long requested need for natural light.
=== Ice on the Horizon ===
Lion and Fir were briefly described as feeders by Mooseblight. They were said to have stated that Queen Cumulus's enchanted crown was previously broken by another queen but had been repaired and expanded because it "looked too small for her massive ego". Lion was later mentioned as a possible candidate for who Cornmeal's laugh matched.
=== Mooseblight Massacre ===
(Covered in In Death, Sunshine)
Lion had to go to the blacksmiths one morning to get Siberia fixed. She arrived at the barracks to hear that Mooseblight had escaped and was killing everyone in the palace. Peer pressure made her go into the palace to find and kill the hybrid. Lion found him waiting for her on a high part of the palace. After some back and forth arguing about existence, she discovered that he didn't know what was right and his ambitions to find his mother. Lion reiterated that he was not worthless, that she would not let him die, and that she would cover his escape with a lie for his freedom. Mooseblight exclaimed that he didn't want to go alone because the world was so vast. Lion stated that they would meet again.
A sudden wing of guards halted the conversation and incited Mooseblight to leap out of the window. Lion, keeping up with her promise, dove after him to prevent him from taking his life. In reality, Mooseblight had only leapt to the story below and was fine, but that left Lion falling. She regained her balance just as Mooseblight landed on her in an attempt to save her, sending her plummeting to the courtyard below where she fatally crashed.
Some time after dying, Lion reformed as a Spirit and was captured by an unknown figure who forced to tell her story about Mooseblight. After covering this, he told her he was still alive decided that he himself needed to see Mooseblight again. She asked why he was so important to the hybrid, to which the figure declared himself Mooseblight's father.
== Personality ==
Lion is kind and believes the best in everyone, even the worst dragons no one wants. She exhibits great care for the neglected, believing in justice. Although normally calm and reasonable, she becomes unusually desperate when something bad happens to the dragons she cares about. She is aware of deadlines and greatly disliked the idea of fighting other dragons during her dragonethood, and even as an adult always hated killing. Lion is able to be intensely focused at tasks on hand but notably has trouble when her emotions run high. She is content.
She dislikes being called Watchtower as she sees it as a sort of deity or worshipping name for a dragon who doesn't deserve it. Lion has relatively low self-confidence with herself and although willing to try things, easily gives up. However, when she sticks with something she gets really good at it. She is very non-confrontational, preferring to be a sort of background dragon, and easily submits to pressure, something that was used to convince her to go after Mooseblight during the massacre.
Lion accepts her death as something that happened and sees no need to return back to life. She had no issues explaining to the mysterious figure how she died.
==Abilities==
Lion has all the usual IceWing skills along with a couple others.
=== Siberia ===
Lion's signature weapon is a talon-crafted spear named Siberia, originally forged to serve as both a weapon and the only key to Mooseblight's cell. She is very skilled and deadly with Siberia, so much so that she is considered to be the most skilled IceWing in spear fighting just behind Whiskers, her trainer, himself.
== Relations ==
Note: Any relations with Lion from other user's OCs are not canon in the Bronze AU to avoid complications.
=== Parents ===
Lion has a neutral or positive relationship with her aristocrat parents. She thinks of them as wiser than she is.
=== Cornmeal ===
Cornmeal was one of her many patients back in her caretaking days. Cornmeal objected to the idea of her guarding Mooseblight for her safety, indicating that he viewed her on the positive side.
=== Cumulus ===
Lion dislikes Queen Cumulus wanting to execute and torture Mooseblight in indirect ways to make his time awful. She doesn't trust Cumulus on her decisions.
=== Ecru ===
They didn't interact much with each other. Lion seems to have a somewhat sour relationship with her based on her disapproving Ecru's show of force on Mooseblight in his first escape attempt.
=== Fir ===
Lion initially found Fir to be too talkative and annoying, but grew to like her input on conversations since they kept her busy. She secretly used her gossip as a way to educate Mooseblight from behind bars.
=== Hybrid Hunters ===
She called the Hybrid Hunters terrible dragons for their manipulation to capture Mooseblight.
=== Mooseblight ===
"You are not nothing, and I won't let you die. Look. I was assigned to stop you. To kill you even. But the truth is, I don't want to do that. I know what they did to you is wrong. And this...two wrongs don't make a right. But, I think I know how to make this right, if you're willing to listen."
:—To Mooseblight during the Mooseblight Massacre, In Death, Sunshine
Since his capture, Lion always felt bad for him, calling him innocent even after his escapes. She became his guard on purpose so that he wouldn't be executed. To her, his treatment was not fair and he was likened to a major criminal early on. She strove to make his living conditions better and provide him with gossip. The thought of him being killed by guards made her speechless and uncharacteristically furious.
During the Mooseblight Massacre, she offered to lie for his freedom. Her commitment to him ultimately caused her to jump to her death. She doesn't blame him for the incident at all.
=== Whiskers ===
Lion respects Whiskers as he was her mentor. He taught her all she knows with Siberia. They knew each other well enough to the point where Whiskers was actually concerned over the possibility of losing her during the Mooseblight Massacre.
== Quotes ==
General quotes that highlight Lion's character.
They had tricked her. She wasn't babysitting, she was helping kidnappers. Kidnapprs who were willing to search far and wide for cute deformations to shroud in bars and darkness for the rest of their lives. Cute innocent dragons...like Mooseblight.
:—Finding out the Hybrid Hunters' purpose, In Death, Sunshine
----
Alright, she couldn't outright free him. Siberia was a key for a single brace, not the 28 different sets chains (yes, she had asked) keeping him at the center of the room. Everyone would know it was her anyway and she'd take his place in the horrid room. But maybe, just maybe, she could make his time a little less bad.
:—Thoughts about helping Mooseblight, In Death, Sunshine
----
"I don't want to kill. It's not right."
:—To Whiskers when he complimented her spear-handling, In Death, Sunshine
----
"What I'm thinking is that you can take this time to get out of here. Escape south. I will tell them you died to me or in some tragic way from how awful all this was to you. They won't be looking for you."
:—To Mooseblight during the Mooseblight Massacre, In Death, Sunshine
==Gallery==
If you'd like to make art of Lion, you absolutely do not need to be specific with all the stripes. Please don't break your back over them.
LionTransparent.png|Lion's IceWing reference (alive)
LionSpiritHeadshot.png|Spirit headshot
LionColoredHeadshot.png|Colored headshot
LionPaletteLabeled.png|Lion's colors
LionHeadshot-Bronze.jpg|First concept
LionRegalunxta.png|Lion's Regalunxta reference. Lion was meant to turn into this later as a thing with the Regalenki, but I scrapped this after abandoning the Lost Sea concept.
LionRegalunxtaHeadshot.png|Regalunxta headshot
==Trivia ==
* Lion is named after lionfish, not the feline, due to her color. The reason why she isn't named Lionfish is because the name is used by a canon character.
* In brainstorming for this character, Lion was originally 6 years old. She was additionally planned to be Cornmeal's daughter, but I scrapped it as there is a really large age difference between the two and that was awkward.
* Siberia was previously named Siberieye.
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Deceased
Category:IceWings
Category:Occupation (Caretaker)
Category:Occupation (Soldier)
Category:Content (BronzeRattle)