#dolusimul

Taxonomy

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Cryptopoda

Order: Draconia

Family: Mist Dragon

Genus: Dolusimul

Species: Socialis

Physiology

The dolusimul is an exceptionally unique monster, for a variety of reasons. These diminutive elder dragons are roughly 351 centimeters from snout to tail tip, with roughly 49% of that being their tail. They stand 99 centimeters at the shoulder and 24 centimeters from shoulder to shoulder. Each wing is 203 centimeters wide, giving them a total wingspan of 467 centimeters. They typically weigh around 47 kilograms. Their scales come in a variety of colors with a faint iridescent sheen, and throughout their life cycle, they go through the whole color spectrum, being red at birth, and gradually shifting through the rainbow until they reach violet after sixty years. The bright colors serve as aposematism. Their body is lined with vibrant fins and frills that aid in gliding, and a pair of small frills at the base of the jaw. Their twin wings are similar to that of a butterfly in appearance, but take on the vibrant colors of the rest of the monster. No two dolusimul will have the same pattern on their wing membranes. Each talon has three claws, however, the front pair have a smaller, fourth claw on the inner side of the talon, almost like a thumb, capable of grasping things. The long tail also ends in an elegant blade.

They possess unique vocal cords capable of emitting chirps and squeaks in a wide vocal range, allowing them to imitate other monsters, and even human speech if trained. The blade at the end of their prehensile tails are capable of injecting weak poison that doubles as a tracking pheromone. Their breath smells of dragonfruit, and they possess a crop. Sharing an ancestor with chameleos, these tiny dragons have both the ability to become completely transparent, which acts as a safeguard in the event that their warning coloration fails, but they can also spray a pale pinkish, dragonfruit scented and flavored mist from their mouths. This short lived, short ranged mist acts as a weak anesthetic and potent euphoriant drug when inhaled, causing sluggish movement, loss of balance, dizziness, lightheadedness, disorientation, and, most importantly, an overall reduction in rational thought. The mist itself is actually solid at room temperature, kept liquid by the dragon’s body heat, and when it hits a solid surface, it crystallizes into a pinkish ‘frost’. This can be remedied through the consumption of a bitterbug. 

The dolusimul is capable of creating small visual and auditory illusions. It is uncertain how exactly this is accomplished, but it is believed that rapid, precise muscle vibrations and pigment manipulations in the wings and head frills can filter light to project these illusions. These become more vivid if one is under the effects of their mist. The mist can be counteracted through the use of a psychoserum, and the illusions themselves are completely imperceivable under the effects of psychoserum, so long as the hunter doesn't inhale any mist. They are swift, and live a primarily arboreal lifestyle, using their tail to swing on branches and glide between trees, and serrated claws to cling to the trunks of trees. These claws can also be used as a surprisingly painful weapon. Finally, they possess surprising strength for their size, capable of lifting something up to two times their body weight while staying aloft, which means that a single one is capable of carrying a human.

Behavior

The dolusimul, like most elder dragons, is docile until provoked. Although rare, they’re usually found alone, perched in high up spots. They are diurnal, and the flock has a communal den, usually within the hollowed trunk of a large tree or a cave high up on a cliff face, too high and too narrow for predators, where they all sleep together in a large pile. Much like monkeys, these intelligent creatures are naturally curious, and will often cause mischief when they come across humans. Typically, they will just steal food, making use of their invisibility to easily steal from hunters, and if there’s no food, they will just take whatever looks the most shiny. They tend to taunt people by holding belongings out of reach, and sometimes may even barter with the stolen items in exchange for food. In the event they can’t get what they want from a deal, they will swallow the stolen item, and keep it in their crop to regurgitate and offer to someone else later. Things that aren’t traded are usually kept in a ‘treasure hoard’ in the communal nest. They remember the faces of those they meet, and if they see someone who attacked them in the past, their mostly harmless tricks become far more impish and dangerous in nature, although, the worst documented result of one of these hostile tricks was a few broken bones. While at first glance they may seem rather weak as far as an elder dragon goes, they exhibit a unique behavior never before seen by other monsters. When threatened, they will let out a series of cries, alerting all other individuals within a two kilometer radius. 

Upon hearing this distress call, they will swarm together to form the vague shape of a far larger dragon, and when in these large groups, usually numbering around thirty-five, they are extraordinarily dangerous. They lack any queen or leader, and organize themselves by age, with the oldest violet being at the very front, and the youngest red being at the very back, making the dragon take on a color scheme akin to a rainbow. They use their advanced vocal cords to communicate and give detailed orders and feedback to one another, resulting in fluid, organized movements of this faux dragon. In addition, they are capable of building upon one another’s illusions, allowing them to create much larger, vivid, and far more complex projections. In addition, they can work together to lift large objects, which, outside of their illusions, is their primary means of offense, using trees and boulders to batter and beat aggressors. If the opportunity arises, they may even pick up their opponent, where the rest of the group can claw and bite at them. 

The illusions they use can range from a wide variety of things, from floating balls of light, to forest fires and large monsters, to other hunters. While these illusions are harmless, they can cause the hunter to trip up or hesitate, providing a chance for the swarm to attack. Solitary dragons can create projections of itself, or small, floating balls of light to distract and annoy. When fighting large monsters, they will often deceive the monster into harming itself, or putting itself in a position where it is vulnerable. For example, they may project a phantom nergigante when facing another elder dragon, or a rajang when facing a kirin. Their illusions are situational, depending on what they’re facing. 

They raise young as a community, meaning that there are no specific parents/guardians for newborns, and they don’t keep track of who’s eggs belong to who, just having one group nest. To avoid accidental incestual breeding, they perform a mist test. One of them sprays their mist onto a spot on the ground, and then another sprays in the same spot. If the crystals left by the first grow, the composition of their mist is similar, meaning they are too closely related to breed. If the second  breath simply covers the patch in more frost, they’re unrelated enough to breed safely. Only green dolusimul are able to breed. Typically, the hatchlings will cling to an older dolusimul, with a preference for green, and will learn and be fed by the individual they choose to stick with. They never choose the same guardian two days in a row. When the flock needs to swarm, any red dolusimul too young to fight will retreat to the communal den.

Ecology

Dolusimul are primarily found in the Ancient Forest, as well as the Primal Forest, Flooded Forest, and Jungle of the Old World, offering a multitude of places to nest, rest, and perch, as well as plenty of food. Dolusimul are omnivores, eating fruits, nuts, berries, as well as fish, insects, and red meat. They will happily eat cooked food offered to them by humans, and suffer no ill effects from consuming prepared meals. They have three favored foods in the wild, however, cacao beans, mangoes, and salmon. Due to their camouflage and warning colors, they rarely experience competition, and due to their size, many elder dragons that might provide competition simply ignore them. They flee from monsters like deviljho, who aren’t worth the risk of fighting. In fact, the only monsters that may compete with them for food would be pukei-pukei. Of course, they don’t stand any chance against a swarm, meaning that the dolusimul can generally flourish, which is for the better, as these dragons are currently endangered.

Human Interactions

Until recently, they were simply believed to be little more than fairy tales due to their invisibility, and in fact, were often called fairy dragons in these stories. Stories of children vanishing for a day, only reappearing at sundown claiming to have played with little dragons are easily dismissed as a kid’s vivid imagination. Unfortunately, humans are, in fact, the reason this species is endangered. Their main means of defense is their numbers, so if an individual is captured with its mouth bound, it will be unable to call for help. This was found out shortly after their discovery, and initially was used purely for the capture of specimens for research purposes. However, once the wealthy became aware of these beautiful creatures, they came into high demand as pets. Poachers, wanting to capitalize on this, began capturing dolusimul in large numbers, oftentimes injuring the creatures in the process. The Guild took notice and began hunting down the poaching groups responsible. Unfortunately, the damage to the population had already been done, and they became a rare sight. As of late, however, they’ve made a resurgence, bouncing back from the brink of extinction. They are still endangered, though, but the Guild gives them a similar treatment to other monsters, now, meaning that it is legal to slay them, if one is on a quest to fight a swarm. 

As mentioned earlier, they will play tricks on humans, and other creatures in the region. Much like the fairytales, they do actually very much enjoy the company of human children, likely due to their own tendency for childish, playful behavior. They will steal things, too, primarily food, and if there’s no food to steal, they will take something shiny instead. Due to their natural camouflage, it’s difficult to notice one stealing from you until it’s too late. They will trade stolen objects, either ones stolen from the one trading, or other hunters, in exchange for food. They’ll actually do quite a bit in exchange for food. In fact, they’ll even offer to let a hunter ride them! The only downside to this is that they’re nowhere near as dull as the tailraides used for raider ride. They’re fast, and they can fly, but they’re very disobedient. They’ll loosely track down the monster you’re hunting, but they’ll often get distracted, or just go off and take their rider for a joyride. However, this is the only LEGAL way to tame a dolusimul, as repetition of this gradually builds a bond. It’s a lengthy, and very frustrating process, but all other methods of taming would require capturing and training them against their will. Eventually the dragon will choose to stay with humans instead of its flock, if it likes the person who’s been training it, that is. The Guild refers to these individuals as Palisimul, which can serve as a fourth member of a solo hunter’s party, alongside the palico and palamute. 

Hunting Them Ingame

Here’s the stuff everyone wants to know. “How do I kill it?” While this is a good question, with this being in Monster Hunter, but the better question is WHY kill it? On occasion, a flock may hold resentment towards humans in general, due to the history of poaching. These flocks will make themselves a nuisance, and even a danger, attacking humans who stumble into anywhere they settle down. When these areas overlap with trade routes, entire caravans often end up vanishing into the jungle, usually found crashed on the side of the road, covered in claw marks, with no bodies to be found, and any food missing. Reports from survivors make the culprit easy to determine, usually detailing vivid, bizarre events that make little to no sense. Now, as for how these quests work…

In order to complete a quest for a dolusimul, the swarm must be repelled or slain. It’s only possible to slay an entire swarm if they are extremely stubborn, or if the hunter is very efficient. As the fight progresses, more and more dolusimuls will fall to the ground and die. The weakest color will begin dying first, and the next color will only begin to die once there are no more of the previous color. There are ten reds, eight oranges, five yellows, four greens, three blues, three indigos, and two violets. Once they reach under five, they will attempt to flee. In a cooperative party of four, hunters should have little difficulty splitting up to take down these last few, or a resourceful solo hunter could make use of flash bombs to pick them off. In the event that they fail to slay these final four, the quest will still be considered completed, because the objective is to slay or repel the swarm. Each color has its own carve as well, which are detailed below.

They actually have some entertaining interactions that they have with items and gestures. If a flash pod is thrown into the swarm, they will throw it back, stunning the hunters instead, however, if it is thrown at the ground in front of them, or it goes off in the air in front of them, the entire swarm will fall to the ground. Similarly to flash pods, they will throw dung pods back at the one who threw it, inflicting soiled. They present similar behavior with most thrown objects. In addition, using the clutch claw will have two possible effects, depending on your aim. If you hit a dolusimul with the clutch claw, it’ll get yanked out of the swarm and fall down right in front of you. If you miss the clutch claw, multiple dolusimul will grab onto the claw and pull you into the swarm, pinning you. Due to this, and the lack of breakable parts, use of the clutch claw is ill advised. Using the kick gesture on a lone, non-agro dolusimul will send it flying. It will whip around midair to hiss at the hunter, and then call the swarm, which is enraged upon formation. 

Now, here’s where attacks come in. When in a swarm, they will grab fallen trees, and swing them around with violent force. When the mock dragon swings a talon down or its tail around, individuals within the limb will lash out with their talons or tails respectively. Due to their serrated talons, they can inflict bleeding with enough consecutive hits. Their tails inflict poison for one second, as well as a new debuff, Marked, which can be cured with a cleanser. All that Marked means is that the swarm will focus on them until the effect wears off. This can actually be exploited, much like how one can draw the attention of safi’jiiva and behemoth so the rest of the party can deal damage. While these attacks may seem simple enough to avoid, the illusions they cause can be confusing, and cause hunter’s to trip up.

They can make a projection of any large monster currently in the locale, which will try to attack hunters. These illusions are trackable via the target cam, if you haven’t found it yet on the quest, the fake monster will give the notification that it’s been discovered, but it does no damage whatsoever. If the projected monster had its own battle theme, this theme will begin playing, as well. In addition, due to their illusions, when swarmed together, they project this large dolusimul over the whole swarm, giving the impression that, rather than just being a bunch of dragons working together, it’s one large, rainbow dolusimul that just formed from a bunch of them fusing together. Of course, these illusions are vaguely translucent, meaning they can be slightly seen through, offering a big tell as to whether or not something is real. They can also project fake versions of a teammate, and can project fire on the ground.

Their breath attack is executed by the large dragon leaning forward, and the individuals near the head simultaneously shoot their mist. When hit by their mist, a hunter is inflicted with another new status effect, Hazed. This causes the animations of most actions to draw out, muffles sounds, and slightly blurs visuals. However, the illusions will appear completely opaque, meaning they’re indistinguishable from what’s real. Again, this can be remedied with a psychoserum, returning illusions back to their normal appearance. Drinking a psychoserum when not Hazed will cause the illusions to be completely unperceivable. They have no part breaks. They are immune to all status effects and mounts, due to having a shared health pool and there being so many, with the exception of elderseal, which disables their illusions, and stun when a flash bomb is used. They have a resistance to fire and water, a one star weakness to dragon, a two star weakness to thunder, and a three star weakness to ice.

Passive Ingame Interactions

While they’re primarily found within their own quests, they can spawn in regular quests and expeditions as well, given there is room. A single group of them will take up one large monster slot, and, unlike other elder dragons, two other monsters may be on the map at the same time as a dolusimul flock, and they can spawn regardless of rank or progression, albeit rarely. They will leave tracks behind, however these are primarily for the purpose of increasing the research level, because due to their numbers, the scoutflies can’t properly track them, and get confused. Tracks include Pink Crystals, Footprints, Gashes, Ravaged Carcass, Fruit Pulp, and Fish Bones. They all have a low chance to give a dolusimul scale, scale+, or pearlshard, depending on rank. 

In the field, they can be found watching hunters from the branches overhead, and will occasionally attempt to steal an item, by turning invisible and appearing behind the hunter. Surprisingly, if attacked while attempting to steal, they will flee and go back to watching, rather than call the flock. Sometimes, they may offer items, in exchange for specific consumables, usually food. It’s random which item it wants, but it will never request something the hunter isn’t carrying on them. The items offered are usually potions, but can also include armor/power charms/talons, ores, bones, and parts from jagras, pukei-pukei, and the scales of large monsters in the area. Rarely, they will offer unappraised decorations.

When hunting a large monster while they’re on the map, they will gather in the branches overhead and watch. Not just one or two, either. The whole flock. Randomly, they will jump into the fight, either toppling the monster with vines, or knocking it to the ground with a boulder or large branch, before returning to observing. This does actually count as a turf war, and will add research points towards dolusimul.  

Palisimul

In exchange for a specific food item, a red one may also allow the hunter to climb onto its back like what can be done with most herbivores. However, it will act more akin to a hyperactive, winged raider ride. While being ridden, they will run, glide, and jump around at breakneck speed, only very loosely tracking the monster set as your target. It gets distracted easily, inspecting random objects in the environment, or stopping to follow another monster. However, it does eventually focus and actively seek out the large monster after around two minutes. Initiating this interaction will cause the same dolusimul to spawn in a random place the next time you hunt in that map, given there is room, without its flock. This is all explained through a tutorial prompt given upon mounting the dolusimul, which also triggers a line from the Handler about how “That might not be the best idea, pard...”

The scoutflies will actually be able to track it down, now, but ravaged carcasses cannot spawn, unlike other tracks. Finding the dolusimul will allow another opportunity to feed it in exchange for a ride, however it will request the same thing it did the first time. The dolusimul will now focus after a minute and thirty seconds of being ridden, and, once again, spawn when you return to the locale. This continues eight more times, totalling to ten feedings, with the dolusimul taking less and less time to focus. By the tenth time, the dolusimul will focus immediately, and will be recruited as a tailraider for the duration of the quest or expedition, and the Handler will make some comment about it seeming to be fond of you. After this, returning to Astera will cause a cutscene to trigger, of the dolusimul stealing food from the Canteen, much to the Meowscular Chef’s displeasure. Going to the Canteen will force you into dialogue, and you’ll be sent to your room after being scolded for the misbehavior of your ‘pet,’ and trigger a new tutorial. Here, you’re given the prompt to name the new palisimul, who can then be managed at the palico equipment box. The color is specifically tied to the palisimul’s level, changing every ten levels. Leveling a palisimul is identical to leveling a palico, and you are allowed to change its appearance if you prefer any of its previous colors. D Equipment is the palisimul equivalent to palico equipment, and the same materials of equipment are available for them as well, with the exception of dolusimul, because that’s just wrong. 

On quests, it can be ridden like a raider ride, but it’s slow, and takes time to track the monster down. It gets faster as it levels, eventually reaching around three times faster than other tailraiders, but its only half that when ridden anywhere except the Ancient Forest. They cannot be ridden in the Hoarfrost Reach. It will attack large monsters much in the same way the palico does, but cannot heal you or use any kinds of gadgets, and it will not attack if you’re riding it. The largest benefit is obviously its aerial capabilities, working as both a flying raider ride, and a helper that can easily attack airborne monsters.

Trivia

Dolusimul was originally created by the passing idea of “What if there was an elder dragon that was a small monster?”

The monster is inspired by many things, most notably Faerie Dragons from Dungeons and Dragons, the Night Terrors from Dreamworks Dragons, Macaque Monkeys, various species of birds in the order Psittaciformes (Parrots), and Ravens.

They were intended to be exclusive to the Old World, but this was changed due to the number of people who are unaware of the locales in the older Monster Hunter games.

There is a real world adaptation of the dolusimul I have created, to act as a standalone creature independent of the Monster Hunter Franchise.

The name Dolusimul is derived from two latin words. Dolus, meaning deceit or trick, and Simul, which means together or at the same time. This means their name effectively means “Trick Together.”

You may use this species to make a character, but you must credit me. If you are to use them, you may not alter their design, anatomy, behavior, or ecology in any way. This doesn’t mean they can’t possess scars, permanent injuries, deformities, or unique personalities. You just aren’t allowed to change how the species itself looks.