Calafath

J'rlen's Brown Calafath
Dragonsfire's 55th PC Clutch - Ista Weyr
Lilyth and Zhoreth’s clutch
Hatching Date: May 30th, 2009
Egg theme: Cultural Celebrations

J'rlen — the kid formerly known as smith,
Welcome to the madness!! We've enjoyed your hardworking character so much so that we wanted to make sure that the smiths never ever got you back. We hope you enjoy your new dragon and become an integral part of Ista Weyr for a long time to come. Remember Calafath is yours to play and adapt as you like, the following inspiration is only a guide. Enjoy him!

-From Ista Weyr Search Co

Egg:
Sharing the Harvest Egg
Vibrant mandarin be-speckled with blues and greens vibrate and sing in a parade of joy and bliss. There is no mistaking the clear identity of such a child-like egg, bright and cheerful as it sits with its own unique code of conduct ready and waiting for The One. Poorly concealed within its depths are the bounties of season: Wine swirls, cream streaks and a hint of spice all shared abundantly and freely for any who choose to pass it by.

Hatch Message:
Sharing the Harvest Egg sheds its shell uncomplicatedly around the dragonet within it — and now without it. My Better Half's Bad Brown Dragonet blinks albumen out from his eyes then finally a refreshed glance serves the eggs and candidates around him. Forthcoming steps are shaky but pliable - he's resolute in making headway.

Hatchling Name:
My Best Half's Bad Brown Dragonet

Dragon Description:
Umber roils across the gaunt subterfuge of night's embrace, bleeding orange-black twilight throughout lean limbs and seeking asylum in the emaciated arch of a trim stomach. Distended nostrils on a narrow snout and prominent temples force severity onto his face. Hazy gold striae hemorrhage from his prominent parapet ridges to coagulate in a collusion of color within the deep valley between a thick neck and expansive wings. Dark spots the color of old blood spatter across an ample wingspan, yet are contained by the looming sorrel battlements of bone that find domination in the solid flex of granite-colored spars.

http://sabin.ro/gallery/album233/326_2649_IMG
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ammut/3202374132/in/set-72157607267263429/

Impression Pose: (what the audience sees):
My Best Half's Bad Brown Dragonet is seriously unimpressed with a few of these white clad beings, the way they just stand there. Frightened and fidgety. With talons digging into the black sands he trudges on further through this unfamiliar field, and then stops dead in front of the one. That's him. He's strong and able, and together they can do -anything-. All work, and some play! A surprisingly smooth warble emits when his whorling eyes look up.

Impression Message: (what you see):
A screech smothered by an irregular hum terminates as your mind binds with a whole new other. Rhythm builds, the whine of a violin stacked against a singular reed pipe's high-pitched insistency. Their sound is a labyrinth of no end and only just now a beginning. There's first bleakness: rocky hills accompanied only by wind and this wild, eclectic music. « J'rlen, I meet you at last. » Fields are soon found among the high shadows of stones: productivity awaits. « Come, I will take you away and we can begin. We can conquer later. » Blood, as a precursor, can already be tasted on your tongue.

Personality:
Your lifelong life-mate is at his core a dual-natured creature: going steadily from salt of the earth laborer to nightly abomination. His roots may go shallow at times, his intentions will wander, he'll be denounced. But always Calafath's faith rests within you, J'rlen, and you are bound by blood, heart, and mind.

Calafath hatched from the egg as a true blank slate more than many of his thirty-nine sisters and brothers. The earliest and most conspicuous trait that influenced his receptive young mind was your work ethic. Jorlen was a proficient smith apprentice who was accomplished in carrying out those related responsibilities. You see what needs to be done and achieve goals with an understated perseverence. This turned your dragon into the beast of competence that he is.

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Like the farmhands that cultivate Romania's fields Calafath is keenly aware of what needs to be done and approaches said tasks wholeheartedly. Because of limitations he may not always reap a successful crop with every try but his heart is in every enterprise. In this regard he is much like the folk hero Făt-Frumos "beautiful son" who featured prominently in Romanian tales.

"Akin to Prince Charming, he possesses such essential attributes as courage, purity, justness, physical and spiritual strength, cleverness, passion, and unshakable love. Făt-Frumos also displays some minimal abilities in performing miracles, as well as total commitment to the word given and to the monarch he serves. In some tales, he is so precocious as to be able to weep before he is born."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C4%83t-Frumos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C4%83t-Frumos_with_the_Golden_Hair

The best of Calafath, what the image the public sees, is cavalier. The sense to try finds no better equal in the brown displaying so much loyalty to his roots, his Weyr. He's a hard worker, we've explored that side of him, but convention need not be absolute. Calafath doesn't only accept opportunities, he makes them. In "Făt-Frumos with the Golden Hair" Frumos knew that a princess was ripe for marriage and undertook the means to secure her even when it included repeatedly destroying the royal garden on his horse.

Loyalty runs thick through his blood. That allegiance is unwavering even when it's abused by the other party. Făt-Frumos, when slighted by his father-in-law (a king), still rallied to the king's aid during several battles. He also still helped his brothers-in-law when they were equally unkind to him. Calafath's devotion spreads wide: to all clutchmates, Wing, Weyr, but you most of all.

You are Calafath's sun, moon, and every forthcoming star. When you speak, he listens. When you think, he reflects. You'll find no better champion in your dragon even when you're identifiably wrong. Those individuals who come between you will have their torment in the form of a gangly brown dragon.

Random rider: "C'briam is Redcloud's Wingleader."
J'rlen: "No, that's T'mau…"
Random rider: "It's C'briam! I know, I'm in Redcloud."
Calafath: « T'mau could be the new Wingleader as of just now. That rider doesn't know the top side of his dragon's tail. »

During the day Calafath, who can endure such pet names as "Fath" and "Cal", is industrious but introverted. A delicate build doesn't stack much against those muscle-heavy browns and hulking bronzes. He hasn't their conditioning so an airborne Calafath explores his supremacy of speed and flexibility in subtle ways of comparison.

"The mind is the result of the torments the flesh undergoes or inflicts upon itself."

-Emil Cioran

Your dragon is a sensitive one, self-conscious of what he sees as faults. He is not all he could be in matters of strength and size and shoulders this burden as he would any other: quietly. Calafath resists extended contact with other dragons most especially those larger than he. This forced shyness tramples an exciting, natural personality that he won't allow to exist under most circumstances (see below).

"Chaos is rejecting all you have learned, Chaos is being yourself."

-Emil Cioran

When twilight builds on the horizon Calafath becomes a different dragon entirely. Night, a time when most are asleep, offers him the express freedom to have little inhibitions. Few can mock his body. He doesn't have to share the Weyr — or sky — with the population of dragons and people swarming during the day. Moonlight melts his insecurities and Calafath becomes a creature of Darkness. With a capital D. At night Calafath loses the hero image to become its nefarious counterpart for he represents Romania's best and part of its worse: Vlad Dracul.

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"Vlad Ţepeş", "Kazıklı Bey", "Impaler", "Dracula," multiple adjectives describe only one man. Calafath doesn't so much resemble the medieval leader so much as he does the romantic image of vampires that Dracul's cultivated over the centuries. Your dragon's bloodlust becomes part of all new characteristics. When Rukbat sets Calafath commences the hunt. Any hunt. Food, females, trouble… the debauchery has no limits. He can and will enter inhabited weyrs just to mess with its occupants, steal a gold's prey from under her nose and use his quickness to go unscathed, hurl insults at Sephiroth, chase foreign dragons from the Weyr, harass fishing boats moored at night, and the list continues.

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Unpredictable, unafraid, immodest. Calafath goes crude and gritty and insolent — all the things he won't allow himself to express during the day. Your best ally may become your best partner in crime and if crime isn't your game he'll be sure to commit enough for the both of you.

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There's also a measure of the gypsy in him in honor of some of Romania's less rooted individuals — a better travel companion you will not find. He'll suffer if not allowed to experience new sights and often roost on ledges that aren't his own. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll need to leave the island, only scout interesting areas like salt marshes, caves, cotholds, etc.

Physical:

"He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cruel and terrible appearance, a long straight nose, distended nostrils, a thin and reddish face in which the large wide-open green eyes were enframed by bushy black eyebrows, which made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck supported the head, from which black curly locks were falling to his wide-shouldered person."

-Nicholas of Modrussa on Vlad Ţepeş

Calafath was described after the real Vlad Dracul and serves as a throwback to his grandsire Rhyolith who was a compact brown that didn't have a whole lot of mass to him. Your life-mate is a little shorter in the leg but his musculature is a similar, only sinewy kind of strong. Like the peasant class who worked Romania's fields Calafath has a capable amount of muscle and fair amount of stamina for his average-sized composite.

But the true genetic build Calafath could sustain heavily relies on diet. As carnivores growing dragonets need a lot of nutrition to fully develop their skeletal structure. He is a very picky eater, preferring the soft tissues and blood of those animals dragons are expected to eat. As a consequence whatever size he could be will always be in question.

He will pull through daily tasks like drills and sweeps reliably but more physically demanding feats like Threadfall and gold flights will be taxing. If he can last a full Fall it'll be surprising and catching a queen dragon will be unreasonable. Speed and limberness, not endurance, is where his better attributes lie.

Calafath is hardy for the most part but goes limited by the frailties of the undernourished. Exhaustion will come to him quicker than the more robust of his kind and mild sickness may come on rare occurances. But one thing your dragon does have is impressive turn of speed and physical dexterity. His energy might be rather short-lived though he can certainly put on a decent show. He can match nearly any blue for a time using a set of large, wide wings also received from Rhyolith. In flight Calafath's inclined to keep those vast wings half-tucked in some way or another to lessen drag and better each turn ratio.

Mind Voice:
Not always dark but pleasantly and mildly sonorous around a baritone F3 or F4 range. Calafath's mental voice, as with all dragons, is a composite of your own but his syllables often rub and clarity isn't prominent — be ready to ask for him to repeat pretty often. Words aren't used superfluously — he says, not speaks. Because of this infrequency and system of thought Calafath can be thought of as arrogant. Chances are this is really true at night.

Sounds frequent his mind with or without the company of words. Sometimes he'll answer with them alone: a misplaced brass horn, the borrowed scratching of tunnelsnakes, even the voice of another dragon or human. Calafath is a sort of mental mockingbird making it hard to distinguish mental sounds from those physical ones.

His associated scents are primal and not glamour-bound:

http://blackphoenixchemlab.com/diabolus.html
BLOODLUST - A fiery Martial blend that embodies primal rage, lust for conquest, and all-encompassing desire. Dragon's blood essence, heavy red musk, Indonesian patchouli and swarthy vetiver with a drop of cinnamon.

Physical Voice:
Calafath's audible method of communication parallels his mind voice. He's more prone to exercise bestial sounds over linguistic communication, unnerved to try out his vocal range regardless of location, time of day, or density of those around him. Coos, skraws, growls, gurgles, fractured hisses… a wide variety of sounds your dragon will explore and attempt to emulate just like the diversity and range found in Romani fanfares.

Growth:
He won't be able to keep up with the spurts and rates his brothers will produce nor, of course, Isyth's clear advantage in size. Calafath's bizarre eating preferences will leave him competing with most of the blues but grow he will. A pretty solid growth ratio will be standard though his wings will always have prevalence in some form or another. Itchy spots will crop up in arbitrary fashion, random and rash-like until they're treated. Otherwise his adolescence will be smoothly unremarkable if you can get him to eat enough.

Movement:
Romania renders gymnasts as one of its most prestigious exports. As a brown — and as a dragon altogether — Calafath has suberb lines of movement even better than Isyth. Being lower to the ground and having a medium-sized physique provides the brown with a lower center of gravity. Casual motion also doesn't take a lot of energy so Calafath won't ever really be taxed when it comes to the general fluency of walking or flying.

He'll be nearly peerless when it comes to inborn flexibility and sense of balance. No hatchling expects to be perfect but practicing these abilities as he grows will develop quickly and ahead of the clutch. These talents are to be invaluable during Threadfall when a matter of inches are all that stand in the way of severe injury.

Eating:

« I don't want to /eat/ it! »
But you need the nourishment!
« Blood is nourishing! »
Not enough! You need bulk! You're skinny! It gets us in trouble.
« Fine. I will eat, but I want flesh to be tender, so I'll take that calf. »

The hallmark of a predator — before they even stretch their claws and certainly before any killing blow — is their ability to observe. Days before his hunger becomes important Calafath spends time, perhaps too much, simply reading the herds. This comes close to being a passtime where those animals sometimes tolerate his presense because of how still he can remain over a long period of time.

There are few repeating traits to his choices: the bovine with a patch of brown inside a patch of white, a scrappy wherry, a misaligned horn. This persistent peculiarity is a precursor for Calafath's predisposition to want blood and little to no meat. Hearts, livers, these bloody organs suffice to sedate the brown's appetite. His condition will suffer for this preference, barring weight from accumulating on an already lean dragon.

Calafath desires to impale animals, living or dead, on the most (un)convenient instruments: fence posts, trees, Hold flag posts… This is after he's worked them over and the sight will be ghastly.

You will need to be very aware of how much (or little) he's consuming. With an appetite that's not often very intense you must be the more dependable of the two to make sure he's getting enough to not only fill the brown's energy requirements but, when he's young, growth demands too. When grey starts coming out of his hide you'll know it's time to act.

Flights:

Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc,
Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea.
Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso,
Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

(Hello, greetings, it's me, an outlaw,
I ask you, my love, to accept happiness.
Hello, hello, it's me, Picasso,
I sent you a beep, and I'm brave,
But you should know that I'm not asking for anything from you.)

-Haiducii "Dragostea Din Tei"

Calafath absolutely loves the thrill of the chase when it comes to the possibility of catching one of those lovely greens or gleaming golds. Do not forget that his stamina might be less than others because of his eating habits. But he's still one sly and slippery guy. It's not the peasant that flies after the ladies, but the slick and smooth casanova dark side of him that revels in this part of draconic nature — especially when the flight's at night. Oh the glorious gore! He'll try every flying trick in the book to catch up or veer off at /the/ right moment and isn't above cheating, fighting, and cheap shots if he thinks he can get away with it. « Oh, was that my wing in your face? So sorry! »

He'll fawn over her and find anything and everything to compliment her on, from wing sails to that 'special glow'. « Darrrrrrling, those wings are just… mmm. Irresistable. »

He doesn't ramble, but he /does/ pour it on thicker than tree sap. Another Rhyolith trait? He also has the rather unusual habit of nipping his catches on the neck once they're twined together and falling through the sky. Some will remember, and some won't. These love bites, depending on their severity, may need healing attention and be something you'll have to explain and address. Calafath with feign innocence, wondering just where the little puncture mark on her lovely hide has come from. And shouldn't someone take care of that right away?

It probably won't be him that helps with the doctoring though, since he'll be long gone by dawn, most likely having dragged you with him. He needs to get back to his home, his safe space, his fortress, before daylight and you're the only one he can trust with that — not some dalliance as fun as it may have been. He'll make an exception, reluctantly, if it happens that he catches a green or a queen whose rider you happen to be enamored with.

Threadfall:
Calafath unites his desire to preserve the Weyr and land with an indomitable spirit. Even if he cannot last the four-hour Falls mentally his mind will be up in the sky until the strands have stopped falling. This makes him a poor patient if ever you or he were injured and unable to fly. It'll be up to you unfortunately to monitor his level of fatigue and "watch the clock" so to speak. Your life-mate won't be the one to voluntarily remove himself from the sky when his strength is beginning to fail.

Count on him to maintain position in the ranks but count on him also to sometimes make that brisk dive or catch that wayward clump. Thankfully Thread doesn't fall at night or his "dark" side would bring out a whole new wildness. He could easily serve a Wingleader and maybe even lead himself someday if you remain as proficient as you are and excel accordingly!

Weyr Relationships:
Calafath is anyone's friend until he's not. His enhanced loyalty is something popularly in common with Shaarth. When paired they're a force to reckon with as with Sazanamith during Calafath's… nightly transformations. Ah the mayhem! In daylight when he's in Working mode your dragon disapproves of slackers and quitters. But rather than criticize he'll help either physically or through ample encouragement. Outside of his home Weyr, as a territorial dragon, Calafath shows much less concern. A diplomat he is not.

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Inspirations

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Egg Inspiration:
Described by: Gwynne
Vaisakhi is the day on which the Khalsa (The Pure Ones) was born and Sikhs were given a clear identity and a code of conduct to live by; celebrated by parades and community celebrations.

Dragon Name Inspiration:
Calafath was easily derived from the Romanian city of Calafat located on the Danube river and on the border with Bulgaria. Calafat itself was in turn called after calfats, men who worked in shipyards. The name had a good essense to it, one that several of us on Search Co liked and we hope you do as well!

Inspirational Info:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisakhi

Picture:

* http://www.globallanguage.com.au/images/vaisakhi_01_LRG.jpg

Dragon Inspiration:
Calafath is rooted in Romania, catching elements of its past and present that is both glorious and cruel. He is part folk hero, something the common people could relate with, emulate, enrich their mythologies. He's simplicity and basic goodness as many laborers are at heart, a bit of every man who goes unsung. Then you have Romania's mythic dark side of vampires and night-walkers, those creatures that gave mankind back its vulnerability and opposed its dreams via nightmares.

But your dragon isn't distilled from only legend nor Romania's glory. Vlad Ţepeş represents what can go wrong in a culture, a repulsive leader and vicious man who has to be acknowledged to be properly condemned. But he's dated by the time period he lived in and must be judged through such.

Romanian National Anthem
Rock version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqicikxFVys
Traditional: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTNmvgISN84

Romanian Gypsy music (Roma):

Latcho Drom - Taraf de Haidouks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQn6Qb-9mD8

Fanfare Ciocarlia - Manea Cu Voca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MsWl7eCs_E

Fanfare Ciocarlia - So te Kerau
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poU_VKlnCtI

Fieraru Family
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqUnzxLAHI

Fanfare Bachtalie - Romanian Gypsy Brass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqTds3b6L4

Mahala Rai Banda - Mahalageasca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE2hGmFXIH8

Credits:
Apollyon gave birth to Calafath after good brainstorming from Q'luin (who wrote most of the description and provided links), S'tao, & Tia (who wrote about flights). He's a dragon after Pol's own heart: multi-faceted, down-to-earth, and of course partially wicked — that's obligatory.

Clutchmates:
Zerra and Brown Minalth
Lila and Green Elinth
E'siac and Brown Shaarth
I'deni and Bronze Paquith
M'foy and Green Sazanamith
Wyn and Gold Isyth
J'rlen and Brown Calafath

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