#the egg-eater

The Black Mirror A jet-black mirror, the size of a guardian or even larger, the Black Mirror haunts the depths of the Abiding Boneyard. Despite his size, he walks silently, a noiseless, immense shadow between the bones, towering over all but the largest of dragon-kind. His hide is particularly sleek and smooth, even for a mirror, and is slightly oily. Most encounters with him take place at a distance, a mere glimpse of his vast shape and burning red-orange eyes at twilight.

The Black Mirror embodies Plague’s ideals toward survival in two ways. He is an inveterate fighter, incredibly skilled, and yet his sleek hide is scarless. Besides that, however, he seeks to have as many children by as many mothers as possible: a hedge against all possible futures. His children number in the hundreds, and some of them have founded clans of their own.

Also known, rarely, as the Giant, the Shadow, and Oil-hide, among many others. The Black Mirror is the oldest of the Boneyard Legends, except perhaps the Half-Emperor, and has been haunting the Abiding Boneyard since before the founding of modern dragon society three cycles ago.

(pictured here with some startled and dismayed wildclaws for scale)

The Speckled Bear A strange, bestial dragon, some suspect the Speckled Bear is not even a dragon at all. Most agree she is a tundra, and female, but perhaps somehow integrating the essences of bears, death seekers, wolves, mirrors, or various other creatures. No one can agree whether she is armored in bronze and bones, or whether the metal and shards of bone are part of her—some even argue over whether the fur covering her is her own, or skinned from one of her victims.

The Speckled Bear prowls the fringes of the Boneyard, and issues a snarling, wordless challenge to all who approach her. If the challenge is answered, or a fight begun in any other fashion, she becomes at once a whirl of war-teeth, blunted claws and bear-like strength. No one, no matter how large or mighty, is known to have survived a fight against her, and she has built a shrine of heads now picked down to bone. She is frequently followed by death seekers and omen seekers.

Recently, the Speckled Bear has disappeared. Some believe the Black Mirror has killed her.

As the youngest of the Boneyard Legends, the Speckled Bear has no other titles so far.

The Wyrmwound Ghost A strange skydancer with tattered wings, the Wyrmwound Ghost is more commonly seen around Rotrock Rim than the Boneyard proper. She drifts as though weightless, and can glide for hours without flapping, even in the dead air of the Boneyard. Her feathers are patchy and ragged, her horns long, her eyes pale. She feeds primarily on the insects that dwell in the ghostly-white fungi she lives near.

One of the more mysterious Legends, all regard the Wyrmwound Ghost as an ill omen. She is said to steal hatchlings, perhaps to throw into the Wyrmwound herself, perhaps to eat, and it is said that a peculiar fungal sickness flourishes in her wake.

Also known as the Dead Skydancer, the White Vulture, and the White-Witch.

The Half-Emperor A tattered, rotting imperial neither fully alive nor fully dead nor fully undead, the Half-Emperor patrols the Abiding Boneyard on aimless, unpredictable paths. He is covered in open wounds and badly-healed scars, and studded with bones and shards of antler and scales that seem to be pulled from other imperials—dead or alive—that he passes. Some even claim to have seen the plates of guardians or the horns of wildclaws sticking to his hide.

Despite his undead nature, the Half-Emperor is a fairly average-sized imperial. Rumors about his precise size and proportions vary, to the point where some believe he may shift his shape over time. His coloration appears to be a dull, sickly green, but he is generally so covered in reddish dust and gore that it is difficult to tell.

An unpredictable creature, the Half-Emperor is sometimes shy of conflict, and sometimes attacks without provocation. No one is certain whether he is in the Boneyard in an attempt to stay away from most clans, or as part of an attempt to gather as much material to himself as possible.

Also known as Rotface, Bone-Armor, and the Wreck.

The Egg-Eater (Formerly; Deceased) The Egg-Eater was a huge snapper with a massively thick hide. As part of his method of becoming stronger, he had not shed fully in cycles, gluing his own scales and other materials onto himself with mud and eggwhite. His scales were the dull reddish-brown of the transition between the Boneyard and the Contagion. He had a soft, strangled voice perhaps hinting at an old injury buried deep beneath his craggy hide, and his eyes were a sickly greenish color from some plague caught deep in the Boneyard, obscuring his original element.

Despite his bulk, the Egg-Eater was known to vanish and reappear regularly, haunting a series of underground tunnels. Some of these contained pools of water where, in lean times, he would take dead dragons and other animals to ferment—a process he called “turning flesh to fish”, and which rendered them fit to eat for a snapper. Despite his name, he did not subsist primarily off eggs, but he did seem to view them as a delicacy.

Also known as the Bone-snapper, the Crusher, or the Walking Mire.

The Egg-Eater was killed by the Speckled Bear several seasons ago. As he was dying, he promised he would return, but the Speckled Bear’s sacrifice of him to Plaguebringer assures that this will only happen at the goddess’s cruel whim.