Mapwright Hickory

Mapwright Khan 	Mapwright Khan
 	
Creator 	FourFlames
Personal Information	Personal Information
Gender 	Female
Pronouns 	she/her
Orientation 	Asexual polyamorous
Tribe 	CentiWing
Age 	41 dyo (born 4972 AS)Fourth molt
Profession 	Cartographer / Khan of CentiWings
Nicknames 	The Khan, Mapwright, "Hickory" among other mapwrights only
Theme Color 	Yellow ochre
Theme Song 	Seiankyou Commoners' Quarter II - Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Okami soundtrack)
Residence 	Khan's PeakFurtive Foothills (birthplace)
Enemies 	Queen Yellowjacket, Queen Wasp, most HiveWings
Quote 	“Information doesn't act, and knowledge will not protect us."
== Description ==
Mapwright towers comfortably over most members of her tribe, and carries herself in a meditated, self-assured posture establishing her discipline and familiarity with power. She is massive and able-bodied, burdened by a heavy armor of scales the color of hickory wood and wet coffee grinds. Alternating sable bands run horizontally across her back, ending at the pincer on her tail. Her underscales are duck-brown with ochre markings, and her brows, antennae, and tail tip are accented with a warm spice color resembling paprika. 
She possesses long, deadly horns in a bright burnt orange. They curve wickedly forwards, giving her the strength to lock the downwards-facing horns of most CentiWings into a stalemate with a simple hook and parry. 
She has black eyes like venom, and her face crinkles warmly when she grins.
== Personality ==
The Mapwright Khan is known for being intense and judicious. Although not the most charismatic of the recent Khans-- being prone to bold assumptions and more earnest than is generally necessary-- she will give the right dragons what they want, when she feels the time is right. Despite her hubristic and stubborn flashes of emotion, she does show considerable sensitivity when it comes to sharing her innermost thoughts, and proceeds under the general presumption that every dragon she's speaking to is worthy of respect until proven otherwise.
She has a bit of an ugly side, being that she's quick to lose her patience when other dragons don't show the respect she commands of them. She also brandishes an attitude of moral superiority over dragons who choose not to "apply themselves".
Mapwright has proven herself sympathetic to the LeafWings and moderately religious, and was seemingly chosen by Hrringa to use her determination to change Pantala.
== History ==
===Dragonethood===
Hickory was born just two years after the Great Fire, a massive blunder on the part of fate. Even as a dragonet, she was filled with Vitality; huge, broad-shouldered, and powerful; her parents often woefully lamented that she'd have made a perfect soldier. As a result, they often put the young Hickory up to tasks that grown dragons would typically do for their dragonets, such as guarding the hatchery or going to the commons to pick up dinner, in hopes of instilling that responsibility in her. But she was imaginative and distractable, with little appreciation for the idolized concept of duty. Having innate spatial reasoning skills, and loving to explore, she passed the time there by mapping the hatchery. She delighted herself in tracing old maps of the ancient Swarms and the battles they fought, not unlike how a scavenger child might love drawing castles and knights. This was not a praiseworthy discovery, apparently; her parents were displeased that Hickory had shirked their trust and threatened that when she was older they'd put her in a Khan's Army training winglet. In a bold move, she made up her mind to sign herself up before she could lose any dignity over it.
By 4977 AS, she was away in Balding Basin, living with the consequences of her defiant act. To make the reality less miserable, she tried to imagine her pretend fantasies-- that she was a young soldier in one of the ancient armies-- but the grueling reality of warfare, hammered into her head by freshly scarred veterans of the HiveWing wars, made this romanticization impossible. She began to lose morale, and a sulking funk soon characterized her attitude towards work.
Eventually an officer brought her out and reprimanded her for her disobedience during training; she was dishonoring her tribe, wasting her potential, and behaving selfishly. All that being in the Khan's Army meant to her, was proving a point and boosting her own ego. Having this spelled out in front of her was the critical moment at which she began to realize there was a delicate balance between choosing her own path and remaining committed to her responsibilities.
From that moment she did her very best to remain an honorable pupil of the officers. To retain the knowledge from her lessons, she often drew maps or recreated the field simulations from days before to practice in her sleeping chamber. Eventually an officer discovered this talent and-- after some reluctant discussions behind closed doors-- brought her to a former military cartographer for mentorship. Switching a huge dragon to a field outside of combat was seen as a loss for them, but they were willing to do so for the sake of keeping the junior winglet productive. This cartographer taught her the trade as was relevant to the history and legacy of the tribe.
At her Third Molt ceremony, there was nothing which made her more proud than declaring her name to be Mapwright, partly to rub it in her parents' face but also because she was proud of learning to change a little too, in order to become the dragon she wanted.
===Adulthood===
For her first few years as Mapwright, she was in charge of merely studying and analyzing wartime maps alongside historians. As time went on, however, she drifted out of its military associations and took up mapmaking for civil purposes alongside community planners. Her first job was in cross-examining political maps with land geography and arability in order to decide which land should be allocated to agriculture. She didn't enjoy this mundane practical application at first, but over time she began to realize just how important her planning was: figuring out how to sustainably feed their tribe while avoiding the HiveWings was a crucial job.
While borrowing an old map from the Rugged Ridge private collection, Mapwright stumbled across a letter that had been folded into it by mistake, dating back to two years before the assassination of the Vaultkeeper Khan. It appeared to be encrypted, as the words were unintelligible; she quickly took the lost message to an expert for study. Further examination revealed that it had been written by a LeafWing, and the reason it had been sent in cipher was to prevent the HiveWings from finding out what the LeafWings were up to; the message revealed that an anonymous group sensed unrest between the Hives and the Poison Jungle, and had discovered a secret tunnel system between it and the Highlands, though some excavation would be necessary for the paths to fully reach. Included was the void request to meet at a designated location, and a plea beseeching that the CentiWings begin a similar project from their side of the continent.
These new findings were a subject of intense debate by officials, but because it was unclear whether the secret tunnel had ever come to fruition (doubtful), there was little incentive to pour much time and effort into following through. Mapwright, however, thought this was a crucial opportunity for Pantala to stand against Wasp, and was somewhat frustrated that the more practical-minded leaders couldn't take risks. She organized a group of dragons to form the LeafWing Reconciliation Chapter of Pragma Regnet and began advocating for expeditions to the Poison Jungle, which was... controversial to say the least.
====The Tourney====
In 4986, the Watcher Khan passed from stress, and after some heated debate among the tribe's upper echelon, a Tourney was organized. Mapwright announced her participation, which was met with a skeptical reception. Her peers felt that it was perhaps more realistic for her to become a Nest Chief; that a job such as Khan was too far beyond her own faculties. Some even considered her heathen, because how could a humble mapwright win their way to power with might alone and succeed the legacy of a beloved Khan like Watcher? After all, Mapwright hadn't done anything notable with her life yet. There were far worthier dragons who'd nearly died for the CentiWings, who'd come from nothing, who were thoroughly educated in tribe law. But she didn't want to be talked down; she was passionate about her ideals and what she stood for.
:::Trials
*[+1 pt] Mapwright was easily the hugest dragon on the field for the Trial of Delegation, and she made it to the finals for the horn rut due to her horns' unique curvature, though in the four other endurance-based challenges she was dominated by experienced competitors with more military training.
*[+0] On the Trial of Flexibility, she was in the middle of leaping between rock faces when she slid down one and got stuck in a hole.
*[+0] The Trial of Forethought proved to be very difficult for her, and she was in the lower percentile of dragons who completed it.
*[+3] By the time of the Trial of Generosity, she was getting nervous, because she didn't have many friends or much to her name. But her Nestmates and swarm chapter, when it came down to it, were there to cheer her on, and coming from Crawlspace, that's a lot of dragons.
*[+3] She breezed through the Trial of Patience like it was nothing. Her tenacity and commitment under pressure were impressive considering her history.
*[+0] She managed to persevere through the Trial of Humility, but it took her longer than some, and she was very winded afterwards.
*[+3] The final trial, Persuasion, was the hardest for her. The remaining competitors had incredible willpower; she didn't know how she could convince them. She knew she had more points than most of them, but pointing it out wasn't going to make them any more sympathetic to her cause. In an appeal to their hope for the Lost Continent's future, she presented a rousing speech that rallied the other competitors behind her.
===As Khan===
At the age of 16 DY, Mapwright Hickory became leader of her tribe. The adjustment came with its own set of growing pains; her Nest Chiefs mostly exceeded herself in age and experience, and had a "for the good of the tribe" mentality that was in sharp contrast to her own "for the good of Pantala" ideas. Over time she learned how to compromise between the two ideologies, but she found herself struggling with her advisors' and Chiefs' suggestions in the beginning.
She has so far used her position to further reconnect with the LeafWing tribe: the tunnel project to the Poison Jungle was finally completed in 5006 AS, under her rule. She accompanied the diplomats personally, so that there would be no delay in negotiations. 
This tunnel led out to the village of the SapWings, whose recently pacifistic attitude was a hamper on the diplomatic mission, as Queen Sequoia refused to accept the CentiWings' military ensemble into their camp for fear of the activity attracting HiveWings.Fortunately, Mapwright was able to gather from this that the PoisonWings would be more receptive to their aid. Rather than ceasing any serious activity, Mapwright simply split off a branch of the tunnel to open in closer vicinity to the PoisonWing village. Belladonna approved of cooperation with the PoisonWings and was enthusiastic to allow CentiWings to voluntarily participate in their resistance.
After Wasp's defeat, Mapwright quickly went to work dissolving restrictions on exchange and travel, so that the CentiWings are now allies of the LeafSilk Kingdom.
== Relationships==
The inevitable burden of dealing with other dragons like assets has unfortunately made her intimacy difficult to earn. However she is in a few nonphysical and healthy relationships with some of her advisors.
== Gallery ==
Mapwright.png|Mapwright- MS Paint base
Little Archkhan.png|Little Mapwright by me
Category:Characters
Category:CentiWings
Category:Females
Category:Content (FourFlames)
__NOTOC__
Category:Occupation (Government)
Category:LGBT+