Bookwyrm

Bookmark-like tail

Bulging eyes

Cognitive degradation of hosts

Hypnotism

Stealth

Scouting

Retrieving Objects

Camouflage

Literacy

*"Bookwyrms can extend a stinger from the gap in their forked tails. Doing so allows them to access their supernatural ability. They can latch onto the backs of intelligent creatures and can drain the actual knowledge from that creature's brain. This makes the Bookwyrm smarter and the host more dull, to put it nicely. Coming with high intelligence, naturally, these peculiar dragons are very smart creatures as they stick their noses in a lot of books. Bookwyrms are very timid creatures, but if you can get them to trust you, they'll protect you till the end. Bookwyrms can summon floating purple symbols, letters, and numbers from their wings; these can hypnotize people. Because of their unique appearance, Bookwyrms are often mistaken for actual books, if you pick up a Bookwyrm with the intent to read it, be advised the Bookwyrm will almost definitely claw at your face and that is not fun. Because of their intelligent nature, Bookwyrms can be used much like a falconer’s falcon, that is, they can be sent out to find items or see an area. Based on how many times the Bookwyrms nips at you after previewing the area, that can tell you how many creatures it saw or how many minutes it will tolerate you further."*

-The Bestiary describing the behavior and abilities of a Bookwyrm

## Physical Appearance

The Bookwyrm is a small Oddball-Class dragon said to be a close relative to the Dreamwyrm. It was the second dragon described in The Bestiary. It sports a gecko-like body with wyvern-like wings, however, unlike most wyverns, its wings are split into multiple "pages". Each page, aside from the ones directly attached to the arms is white with several purple runic symbols on each. The Bookwyrm has a generally round head with a stubby snout that sports a fang-like ridge. It has two incredibly large, somewhat cylindrical eyes as well as having a red lower jaw. The Bookwyrm has four legs with the front pair being plantigrade, the hind pair is digitigrade, both however, sport two-toed, clawless, red paws. But most notably, the Bookwyrm has a long tail tipped with a cloven, forked, red tip like a bookmark which is explicitly described as being velvety in texture. The Bookwyrm's scales are somewhat square-shaped, brown, thin and look like leather.

## Behavior and Personality

Unlike their mental-related cousins, Bookwyrms are stated to be defensive of themselves, unlike Dreamwyrms who will just cower away regardless. When not needing to defend themselves, however, they're stated to be meek and mild. Aside from this, however, they're stated to be very intelligent. Just as their implies, they're bookworms, as they'll rampantly read through any book they can get their claws on. As The Bestiary states *"Coming with high intelligence, naturally, these peculiar dragons are very smart creatures as they stick their noses in a lot of books"*. While explicitly stated, it's heavily implied that Bookwyrms naturally seek out areas with books in them so they can blend in well.

## Abilities

### Consuming Knowledge

Bookwyrms are capable of extending a stinger from the gap in their tail tip and similarly to Dreamwyrms, they can affect the mental state of their host. However, Bookwyrms are capable of siphoning the very knowledge and intelligence of their host by stinging them.

### Intelligence Stacking

When a Bookwyrm stings a host and steals the knowledge and intelligence of a host, that knowledge get's added to the Bookwyrms. With more hosts, the Bookwyrm gets smarter and smarter.

### Cognitive Degradation of hosts

Unfortunately, with the Bookwyrm's ability to steal a host's intelligence, the host's intelligence degrades. The hosts will become dumber and dumber, but the Bookwyrm will become smarter and smarter.

### Hypnotism

Bookwyrms are capable of projecting the brightly colored, runic symbols on their wings and when viewed, the symbols hypnotize who they're projected at.

### Stealth

Because of being both Oddball-Class dragons and relatives to Dreamwyrms, Bookwyrms are adept at hiding and sneaking so they don't get seen and therefore, they can easily sting foes.

### Scouting

Much like a falcon and its falconer, Tamed Bookwyrms can be told to scout out an area and report their findings, like a psuedo-drone of sorts.

### Retrieving Objects

In addition to being able to scout out areas, Tamed Bookwyrms are also capable and privy of retrieving objects that are within sizable proportion to their bodies.

### Camouflage

Because of their eccentric appearance, Bookwyrms can easily disguise as actual books. However, as The Bestiary would like you to remember, Bookwyrms don't take kindly to being held out of mistaking them for books. The Bestiary states, "*Because of their unique appearance, Bookwyrms are often mistaken for actual books, if you pick up a Bookwyrm with the intent to read it, be advised the Bookwyrm will almost definitely claw at your face and that is not fun".*

### Literacy

As mentioned throughout their entry in The Bestiary, Bookwyrms are highly intelligent and thus capable of reading. In fact, they're actual bookworms, and are known to seek out more and more books to read.

## Weaknesses

### Small Stature

Just like their Dreamwyrm brothers and sisters, Bookwyrms are weak to their small size, however, with their hypnotism and high intelligence, Bookwyrms are a lot less weak than Dreamwyrms.

## Eggs

Bookwyrm eggs are conical, brown, and have two white plates at the front of their shell. When hatching, these plates flip open like a book.

## Predawing Variant

The Predawing variant of the Bookwyrm retains leathery scales, albeit with a lavendar color. It has a dark purple lower jaw, tail tip, and paws. Its wings retain their segmented, page-like look, but the "covers" are dark purple, has a golden frame of sorts around it, and a half-sphere crystalline shape on both, one on each that looks like onyx, in fact. The pages of its wings are a more aged yellow than bright white, like an arcane spellbook. However, aside from its appearance, the Predawing Bookwyrm sports four unique abilities.

### Frame claws

If need be, the Predawing Bookwyrm can seperate the links on the golden frames of its "covers" into prehensile claws.

### Knowledge projection

The Predawing Bookwyrm can use its high amounts of knowledge defensively. As The Bestiary cites, it can cause splitting headaches for its foes by projecting its knowledge into the minds of its foes. The Bestiary says "*Predawing Bookwyrms can also use this on the offensive to project tons of knowledge into the minds of their foes at once to cause massive headaches for them".*

### High knowledge retention

The Predawing Bookwyrm is much better at retaining and using previously learned knowledge to its advantage than the average Bookwyrm.

### Passive intelligence increasement

As The Bestiary cites, being around a Predawing Bookwyrm can actually make sentient beings smarter.