lizards

VITRIOLIC SPIT Longwing Breed, Adult The modified salivary glands, known as vitriol or acid glands, within the lower jaw release concentrated aqua regia - a combination of aqua fortis and spirit of salt - into forward facing channels in the spurs. The acid is created through similar means as stomach acid.

Vitriol Spitters cannot direct the flow of acid and must expel from above to prevent damage to themselves or others

FIRE BREATH Kazilik Breed, Adult The modified salivary glands, known also as naptha glands, within the lower jaw contain a liquid accelerant which, when combined with carbureted hydrogen water from the lower throat, are lit by the spark teeth to produce flame. The spark teeth are not true teeth and are instead mineralized protrusions of the skull.

The combination of naptha and gasses allow fire-breathers to direct expulsions in any direction. Excess water is often expelled as steam across the dragon's body.

OH BOY THIS ONE WAS A LONG ONE! I think way too hard about dragon biology, and had a lot of fun trying to write this as an 17th century naturalist.

Translations: (thanks to my spouse for their obscure alchemist knowledge)

Aqua regia: a solution of nitrohydrochloric acid

Aqua fortis: nitric acids

Spirit of salt: hydrocholric acid

Naptha: volatile, highly flammable hydrocarbon liquids of many types. (known today as "mineral spirits" or "lighter fluids")

Carbureted hydrogen water: methane dissolved in water

To expound, I don't think Mr. Howe would have totally figured out fire breath. The universe establishes that 1) dragons can direct their fire, 2) dragons can still breath while flaming and don't need to stop for air, and 3) a byproduct of the process is steam. To square all that, I think the dragon must have some sort of starter in the jaw, here as naptha (though my spouse says it could be nitric acid) that it can ignite at will, then feed with methane produced by food/bacteria and dissolved in water lower in the body. When the methane burns, the water evaporates as steam. The liquid nature of the methane water means the dragon can probably close its throat to avoid being burned.

The acid spitters are easier: I believe they were based on spitting cobras, though the spurs gave me a little trouble. Those have pressurized canals in their fangs and keep extra venom in glands. In both dragons it made sense to have modified salivary glands for this, as the muscle control and chemical production would have a headstart for evolution of the traits.

A sequel to my other post, (that's been in my drafts for ages) I wanted to illustrate the relative sizes of British Isle dragon breeds! I used what seem to be the most representative models as seen in the books and the Regal Copper because I think it's the largest.

The stick person shown is approximately 6ft tall. I know the lightweights are supposed to be bigger than a horse and smaller than an elephant so I've made my best guess on the Winchester, erring on the small side.

As a lifelong birder, I couldn't stop thinking about a comment from an earlier post about the possibility of dragon-spotters in England. So I (naturally) mocked up a page based on my bird field guides to show differences in size, weight and wing shape between the common british dragons. These are all the undersides of wings as they would be seen from the ground. The book title/author is stolen directly from His Majesty's Dragon.

I'm still basing the shape/silhouette/function off of birds, listed below if you were curious:

Jade: Common Swift Greyling: Albatross Winchester: Sparrow Grey Copper: Pheasant Anglewing: Plover Reapers: Duck Parnassian: Crow Regal Copper: Goose Celestial: Fish Hawk Chequered Nettle: Hawk Longwing: Crane

I imagine the ferals are a very mixed bunch of color and style. I had a bunch of fun messing with dragon designs for these three, specifically Wringe's red-tipped wings and Gherni's blue porcelain look. They should probably have more scars. The ferals don't get a lot of art, and that's a shame because i think they are genuinely fun characters.

While I know Temeraire and Ning are described as black, but I always imagine them as off-black. The former is a blue tone, while the latter is a red tone, after her mother. I also gave Ning the same prong horns as her dad, but curling inwards to mimic Iskierka's.

For a quick sketch, this turned out really well! I don't see a lot of art of Ning (she's only in part of one book, after all). Experimenting with iridescence was fun.