Pallor Mortis

**Pallor Mortis** is an albino *Vodros/Tecatl* hybridized Volcanic dragon from a distant chain of active volcanic islands and took the time to fly towards the distant continent, the homeland of his father. The static and vapid lifestyle most of his kind lived there disinterested him, and so he left at an early age in order to seek out more out of this world. Through his ventures, he grew fonder of battle, but loathed extinguishing life. In some cases, it was necessary, but many times he had went overboard in his fury.

The blood that which courses through his veins feels a panging hunger for all things constantly. It urges him to fight, to break things. Looking upon fellow dragons may even strike a pang of hunger, but all of these feelings are well-managed in the presence of others, especially his dear friends.

## Description

Large and robust, he carries himself in a regal, if haughty, manner in the presence of others, though he will let himself slack and relax when with friends and his mate. His body is dense with a barrel-shaped belly guarded by folds of scales and tough hide. His wings are massive in order to support his heavy frame, ripped and torn at the very edges of his membranes. When idle, these wings rest squarely on his shoulders with the phalanges resting on the ground, giving the imitation that he's wearing them as a cloak.

Up close, one can more easily see his more defining features, including his bristling quills and suit of armor consisting of metal-suffused osteoderms. His head is blocky, yet triangular, wide at the back and narrowing into a pointed beak in the front. His eyes are a pale blue or pink- nearly grey- indicating his photosensitivity. His lower jaw is guarded with pointed quills and aggressive scales, which leads down into his rugged throat, his spine guarded by three pairs of horn-like spikes between plates that run the length of his spine. To support his heavy frame, his limbs are thick and bear-like with claws that flatten out at the tips like a shovel.

Balancing out his heavy body is his lengthy tail, which slowly tapers off into a whip-like point, a powerful weapon and a tool for maintaining equilibrium while flying and walking.

* Additional Info: When speaking, his voice carries like a crack of thunder. It is a worn, gravelly baritone that resonates great distances. Can force air throughout his nostrils to create a sharp, incredibly loud 'shriek' like a banshee. He prefers to use this method of call rather than roaring, especially because the spooked look from unprepared dragons is quite entertaining.
* With his life settled down in Sanctuary, he has become bulkier, but keeps his scales down enough so that he can still fly and patrol. Despite this, it's still heavy enough for him to prefer walking, since it drains far less stamina for him.

### Scales

Coated head to toe in bone-white scales, he stands out in nearly any environment. The scales themselves are sturdy and infused with bone, protecting him more efficiently. Being a Volcanic dragon, his body slowly excretes a chemical that attracts metals, strengthening the scales further- though these metals are vulnerable to being melted by the heat the dragons' lava-rich environment. Considering these metals act as conductors for electricity, having a decent balance ensures fair protection.

While most of him is bone-white, his throat, paws, belly and underneath his wings have a very faint pink or orange hue due to the richness of carotene. Sometimes, the colors here change as metals become attracted, and the color can instead be rusty and dark. Most of his stripes are visible despite his albinism due to carotenoid pigments in the scales.

### Abilities

*[Thermite Blaze]* - A strong, one-time ability. From his collection of minerals, he can produce an intense smoldering flame that burns very hot. This chemical reaction is highly explosive and fierce however it lasts only for ten seconds, but it's enough to completely burn through solid rock and metal. Once the chemical compound is expelled, he will need to re-gather the minerals to create the flame again.

* Perhaps the ability he will use the least. A last resort, since it will need to be replenished. Due to the amount of heat it expels, it will cause the accumulated metals and minerals in his scales to become slag and melt along his body, giving him an added boost of defense for a short time until they slough off or harden. The amount of heat that surrounds him will likely be a deterrent enough to scare off attackers, but heat-resistant dragons can weather it. Should the slag harden in areas along joints, it will impair his movement until he breaks it off, which can be an important opening for others.
* If he is cut deep enough to bleed during or shortly after this ability, his blood will sear and boil in exposure to the open air, releasing a caustic stench. Harmless, but can burn others if it gets on them. The heat also allows for the wound to try and close quickly, essentially cauterizing the much more heat-receptive vessels and flesh.

*[Scale Overgrowth]* - An ability limited by his energy. A strange result from his hybridization, the regrowth aspects of the Quetzalcoatl found itself within his scales and quills. Whenever threatened or at risk of severe injury, he can cause his scales to become overgrown and pointed, acting as a pointed shield. However, this comes at the heavy cost of increasing his metabolism, requiring him to replace the lost energy immediately. Cannot fly during this ability.

* This ability takes mere moments to start. Immense energy and proteins go into each scale and make it grow gnarled and rock-like. His wing membranes become too thick to support flight, and he is left to the earth. They can be used as a shield to protect his vitals, or as an additional pair of weapons. While the threat of hunger isn't immediately imminent, as soon as the effects cool off or wear down, he will feel the starvation creeping on him, and he will need to rush to eat something.

*[Might]* - His primary ability. His heavy weight and rock-damaging weaponry work just as well against dragons and other enemies. Due to body mass, he attacks more slowly compared to other dragons.

* His claws can shear through solid rock, leaving deep scrapes with one blow. His jaws are designed to crush and macerate rocks into more manageable sizes before they enter his gullet. Due to the strength and blow-absorptive structures in his limbs, he can slam his paws into the earth and cause it to crumble beneath him. His tail is also a deadly point, muscular at the base and narrowing out into a sinewy whip which can crack against others far faster than he can swipe. If a dragon were to be in the position of being injured, they would suffer immensely. Beware.

### Wings

Set firmly on a pair of muscular limbs, his wings are broad with a very thick membrane to better support his stout body. They're covered in thin, dull scales that attract darker metals, causing the coloration on his wings to fluctuate from sallow to a light rusty. Can be utilized in battle when he folds them, essentially using the knuckles as a support and additional set of limbs. Being "punched" by these wings would likely not feel good.

## Personality

After some time within his new home, he has grown warm and fatherly. He's revealed a more addictive personality type, so it's best to keep alcohol away from him. To his allies, he is playful and somewhat excitable, like an enthusiastic puppy. The energy and feelings of others sort of melts into his own emotions, and he reflects it- if they are energetic, so will he. He loves to spar and test his friend's mettle, knowing it keeps them both strong together. Though he loves the company of others, he tends to have a shorter social battery due to his long life of being a solitary traveler, and will often prefer to stick to himself or by his mate.

He will not pass up the opportunity to help others if he can, but his moral compass is still questionable. He can, and will, eat other dragons if he kills them or if they are already deceased- but outright loathes the cannibalistic Hunters. In his mind, the fact they hunt others for their own callous desires is damning, but it is not inherently evil to eat a dragon that had attacked them or was dead. In that sense, he can very easily be hypocritical. He is also very bad with handling technology, so he prefers to meander about with his own 'primitive' ways of life. Despite this, he adores learning about how these things work and how to utilize more advanced forms of hunting or otherwise.

Though he is loving and sweet to his friends in his own ways, he is cold and ruthless to most strangers. After the events of Vicros hunting his clanmates and their allies, he has less patience and is far more skeptical of newcomers and will not hesitate to hunt them down if he must. Can be extremely temperamental if they are snappy with his commands and orders and will reveal his impatience and rather short fuse.

## Kin

None. They yet still live but are no longer important to his life.

## Relationships

Good allies with those of Sanctuary and Gilded. Hephaestus and Renenutet are notably good friends to him.

Mates with Cuivre, who lives within Gilded.

## History

Born into a large clutch of other Volcanic dragons, he immediately had to learn to fight for his self and be self-sufficient, squabbling for food for a while, waiting for his scales and beak to harden. The harshness of the volcano is reflected intimately into the lives of these dragons, who raise their young cruelly in order to ensure they can survive. This culminated in Pallor eventually consuming each of his clutch-mates and proving his self to his mother for the next step in his life- the steps she had taken herself when she was a hatchling. As each of his clutch-mates were consumed, he became stronger, and increasing his survival. The blood he spilled never occurred to him, as he simply was doing what he felt in his instincts. At this stage of life, there was little individual thought in his mind besides what his mother was teaching him.

His next step into becoming an adolescent was to break off his first volcanic meal. From this early age, the beaks in these hatchlings aren't fully developed from their egg tooth, making it harder for them to break off rocks, leading them to take their first meal closer to the lava pools where the rocks were softer, yet molten hot. This is to better develop their heat-resistance, and many hatchlings die during this step because of malformations or fluctuations in their internal heat resistances, and in this sense, helps create a more resistant population. Pallor, thankfully, survived, and became attuned to the sheer melting heat of the surrounding lava pools and a much more adapted lifestyle to eating molten rock. This was also the stage where his mother began to teach him more verbal lessons of their kind's life, speaking of their deities and the earth. She mentioned many, but one stuck out in his mind: Diabolos. Though this would be stashed away in the recesses of his memory, it would be remembered in time.

As a juvenile, he was finally encouraged by his mother to venture into the pools. If he was able to weather the molten rock he ate, he was able to weather dwelling within the pools of lava strewn about the islands. Though a terrifying step due to the unknown depths of many of the pools, he was successful, clinging to the sides of the pool and using his wings for support. This was the final stage for him to endure alongside his mother, and with his ability to find quick sanctuary from predators now available, he was free to leave his mother. Though, he would be chased out soon enough if he would not leave- so he did.

Flight was learned once he was a juvenile, but he had not known life on his own truly until now. For a period, he began to learn to hunt for his self, exploring the string of volcanic islands to seek territory- but was often driven out, since he was hardly even a subadult. At least he could easily out speed older dragons. Hunting was difficult with his pale scales, and there was no way to fully conceal his self as he dived into the warm seawater to seek fish in the distant reefs. The paleness of his scales also made it difficult for him to scope out territories since he stuck out from the blackened lava rocks that formed the islands. For a period of time, he was nearly brought to starvation, and he resorted to scavenging and thieving from large carcasses brought by the adult Volcanics, a dangerous endeavor but it ensured he survived.

Life was stagnant. It was hide, hunt, eat, sleep, survive. He loathed it. His mind dwelled on what lied beyond the nigh endless horizon of sea. He learned little, except how to survive. He hungered for knowledge nearly as much for meat and rocks, and so he sought out the territory of a Flowkeeper, a large, experienced adult Volcanic that guard's young dragons. A deadly journey, as it would require him to enter territories of other adult dragons at the risk of being caught and eaten. Through great effort and nearly perishing in the process, he did find one, and the Flowkeeper taught him how to hunt more efficiently by covering his self in lava, letting it dry on his back, and swimming (or rather, walking) to the reef and waiting for fish to mistake his rocky disguise as a place to hide. Essentially, he would become a turtle. This had a high risk- if he were too deep in the waters and waited too long, he could drown. So, he began breath training, increasing his lung capacity. Through the help from them, he avoided starvation and learned this new skill.

This Flowkeeper also allowed him to experience trading with other foreign dragons that which came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, amazing the young Pallor. Through trading various rare minerals and gems that he collected in his digging and gathering sprees, he acquired scrolls and other tomes. It took time to transcribe and translate with the help of the travelling drakes, but he learned to read them, gathering information about various dragon races and other lands. After knowing more of the distant islands and continents, he flew out in the direction of where he believed his father came from, stopping on other islands and lands and taking time to peruse nature on his own. Time and time again, his aggressive, stand-offish nature became more difficult for him to interact with otherwise friendly dragons, which frustrated him so greatly that he simply decided to live alone until he became an adult- quite a long time to ponder and reflect on his thoughts and to refine his behaviors.

And so, he eventually made it here. Due to his many travels, he hadn't gained nearly as much rock-weight and was able to explore over longer distances of sea, occasionally stopping near shallower portions to rest in the warm waters or on rocky outcrops. Despite his scathing nature still, he tries to maintain a respectful aura, but this can still fall flat. He consistently fails at being friendly, which has dampened his self-esteem over time, making him prefer to just stay quiet sometimes.

## Trivia

* Despite having a Tecatl father, he does not display many features of the Tecatl distinctly, but still took aspects of regeneration. Perhaps a more defining Tecatl feature is that he's a bit lither and has a slightly longer, more narrow tail compared to his brethren.
* He's not aware of who his father is or what they're called really, his mother seldom spoke of him.