Entry tags:
aungier house app
OOC Information
Name: Ireny
Age: 21+
Characters already in game?: n/a
Contact:
simplyirenic or PM
IC Information
Name: Temeraire
Canon: Temeraire
Canon Medium: Book series
Age: 3. Dragons grow quickly; Temeraire has reached sexual maturity and is mentally closer to an equivalent human in his late teens/early twenties, which is how he’ll appear in-game. His AU self will think he’s 20. PB is Danson Tang.
Gender/ Sex: Male
Canon History: Summary of His Majesty’s Dragon through Victory of Eagles here, Tongues of Serpents here, Crucible of Gold here.
Canon Point: Post-Crucible of Gold, upon resolving to go to China with Laurence and Gong Su.
Powers:
being a dragon
Aside from serrated teeth and razor-sharp claws, Temeraire at his full size is over a hundred and twenty feet long and close to thirty tons in weight. His scales are more comparable to very tough hide than armor—strong enough to resist a blade at least somewhat, but bullets are capable of penetrating it. He is used to aerial combat and works well in a team, though he can get overeager in the middle of a fight.
flight
Like all dragons, Temeraire is capable of flight. He’s faster and more nimble than most dragons of his weight class and possesses the ability to hover in midair. Temeraire’s top speed is around 40 mph, with a steady traveling speed of 25-30 mph.
the divine wind
Temeraire is a Celestial, an extremely rare breed usually only found alongside the Chinese imperial family, and the divine wind is an ability unique to him and his kind. It’s a massive wave of sound that can completely level trees and buildings; Temeraire in particular has been known to sink a frigate with a single roar. Animals—even dragons—caught directly in the blast are usually killed instantly, or, if they survive, experience massive internal injuries and bleed profusely from the ears and nose. In addition, the ability can be stacked, one wave on top of another, to produce massive waves of water or sheer sound that can destroy entire fleets or dragon-formations.
intelligence
Temeraire has a near-perfect memory and the Celestial’s natural aptitude for languages. He can begin speaking simple phrases and understanding basic concepts in the language within days, and one month of constant exposure to a language is generally all he needs to be fluent. At the time of his arrival, Temeraire is fluent in Chinese (definitely Mandarin and likely Cantonese as well, considering his cook hails from southern China), French, English, Durzagh (a feral dragon language), Turkish, German, Xhosa, and a little Sotho.
For the purposes of the RP, Temeraire’s AU self will remember Mandarin, Cantonese, French, English, and German—all languages a talented student might be expected to know at university—but his ability to learn languages instantly will be scaled down and the other languages he knows will remain dormant for now.
Personality:
Temeraire is intensely curious and eager to learn about the world around him. He does his level best to be polite and is naturally friendly, but he’s inexperienced when it comes to human social etiquette and doesn’t always know what questions are taboo or why. He is astonishingly open-minded, particularly for someone raised in the early nineteenth century. Part of this can probably be ascribed to his naivétë, but on the whole, he is generally accepting of everything from the aviators’ comparatively liberated sexual mores to the existence of ghosts. His modus operandi is generally to accept most of what he hears at face value, and then to ask embarrassing questions about it. Loudly. In public.
Being a Celestial—a breed that is traditionally more suited to scholarly pursuits than to active combat—he is an avid scholar, fond of reading and poetry, and immensely intelligent. Still, Temeraire’s intelligence is the sort more specifically referred to as “book smarts”—he is inclined to be naïve about how the world works, and he tends to see things in black and white. He refers to political maneuvering as “what Lien would do,” viewing it as cowardly; Temeraire would much rather air out any grievances in the open and fight over them properly, then call it a day. Not that he is incapable of being patient—he accepts, after a while, that sometimes he has to set his own desires aside, especially when Britain is at war—but his initial instinct is still to rush headlong into things and plan later. He strongly dislikes stagnation of any kind, and routines like patrolling and formation work quickly grow old for him, even when he understands the importance of both. Temeraire’s sense of patriotism is shaky at best; he puts little stock in tradition or authority and isn’t afraid to question orders, especially when those orders are delivered with little explanation or the explanation doesn’t satisfy him. He will fight ferociously to protect his friends and to keep what’s his, but the idea that he owes allegiance to any specific king or country rubs him the wrong way.
While duty and honor are concepts that Temeraire finds difficult to grasp, he has an incredibly strong sense of justice, particularly where the plight of European dragons is concerned. Temeraire’s trip to China was an eye-opening experience for him, and since then he has made it his personal goal to achieve equality for all dragons everywhere. Laurence, Temeraire’s captain, calls him a Jacobin several times, usually out of exasperated fondness, but he’s not far off the mark. Subtlety is something Temeraire still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of yet, and more than once he has nearly whipped the dragons around him into all-out rebellion with his talk of salaries and suffrage. He is quick to protest whenever he feels something is unfair, and he doesn’t see much point in sitting around and letting it happen; it’s a cause that’s especially near and dear to his heart. It isn’t empty talk, either—when the chips are down, Temeraire will grow quiet, intent, and inexorably determined, and will sacrifice even the support of his captain to see justice done.
Temeraire has something of a magpie nature and, like all dragons, is intensely possessive of his own property and friends, but Laurence has proved to be something of a moderating influence in his life in this regard, and he has come to understand that humans don’t appreciate their things being taken and that he ought to oblige them even if they have been left out for anyone to steal. Still, Temeraire has a tendency to be jealous of others, especially if they have more shiny things than he does. He’s also inclined to be vain, having been told from birth that he is a special dragon with unique abilities. Temeraire is fastidious in his habits, fond of luxury, rather picky about his food, and usually thinks very highly of himself and of his crew. He values his personal appearance highly, dislikes being thought of as ignorant, and has a tendency to sulk childishly when he is unquestionably proved wrong. Despite his commitment to justice and equality, he has something of a blind spot when it comes to himself, and should it turn out that he happens to have a little more than everyone else, he’ll be sure to reason it away.
The core facts of Temeraire’s personality—his impulsiveness, curiosity, eagerness, and vanity—will remain in his AU self, but as a human, his penetrating inquisitiveness about all things human will translate instead into inquisitiveness about all things English, and his dedication to dragons’ rights will translate into enthusiastic espousal of whatever radical cause happens to catch his eye (workers’ rights! suffrage! communism! exclamation point!).
AU Role: Student under the master of the house.
AU History:
Note: All Chinese names will be written in Wade-Giles in a pathetically obvious attempt to attain some semblance of historical accuracy.
Temeraire was born Lung T’ien-hsiang in Peking in 1868. The illegitimate son of a courtesan and a close relation to the Tung-chih Emperor, he was removed from his parents at an early age and discreetly packed off to the countryside, where he was raised by a distant relative of his mother. T’ien-hsiang himself barely remembers his parents at all, and is patently unaware of his heritage: not that it would matter much if he knew, given his tendency toward radicalism.
Rising tensions between the Chinese and the English in the wake of the Third Opium War had only compounded the Qing Empire’s urgency to see that it learned from the rest of the world, if only to surpass it. T’ien-hsiang himself was too busy studying to take much note of the outside world at this time: he displayed a remarkable aptitude for academics from the start, rising quickly to the head of his small provincial academy and excelling in particular in the natural sciences, which had been implemented in the school’s otherwise classicist curriculum as a direct reaction to the Western world’s newest industrial revolution. At the age of sixteen, he entered the T’ung-wen Kuan, the government-established school for Western learning, where he once again distinguished himself—and picked up several new languages in the process.
It was the T’ung-wen Kuan, with its foreign faculty, which finally opened T’ien-hsiang’s eyes to the outside world. He read everything from Marx to the newly-published Wilde, and studied everything from astronomy to art (where, as a result of a circumstances he can never quite remember, he obtained his nickname), but it was the creations of the third industrial revolution which caught and held his attention. He began to assist his professors in aeroplane design, a subject for which he seemed to possess an instinctive talent. His work soon attracted the attention of several prominent English professors, and he was invited to continue his studies in Yorkshire, England. He accepted, of course, at once, which brings us to—now.
And if now and then, after his arrival at Aungier House, he dreams of flying without an aeroplane, of a pair of great black wings stretching away behind him—
Well. They’re only dreams, in the end.
Samples
Prose thread here!
Name: Ireny
Age: 21+
Characters already in game?: n/a
Contact:
IC Information
Name: Temeraire
Canon: Temeraire
Canon Medium: Book series
Age: 3. Dragons grow quickly; Temeraire has reached sexual maturity and is mentally closer to an equivalent human in his late teens/early twenties, which is how he’ll appear in-game. His AU self will think he’s 20. PB is Danson Tang.
Gender/ Sex: Male
Canon History: Summary of His Majesty’s Dragon through Victory of Eagles here, Tongues of Serpents here, Crucible of Gold here.
Canon Point: Post-Crucible of Gold, upon resolving to go to China with Laurence and Gong Su.
Powers:
being a dragon
Aside from serrated teeth and razor-sharp claws, Temeraire at his full size is over a hundred and twenty feet long and close to thirty tons in weight. His scales are more comparable to very tough hide than armor—strong enough to resist a blade at least somewhat, but bullets are capable of penetrating it. He is used to aerial combat and works well in a team, though he can get overeager in the middle of a fight.
flight
Like all dragons, Temeraire is capable of flight. He’s faster and more nimble than most dragons of his weight class and possesses the ability to hover in midair. Temeraire’s top speed is around 40 mph, with a steady traveling speed of 25-30 mph.
the divine wind
Temeraire is a Celestial, an extremely rare breed usually only found alongside the Chinese imperial family, and the divine wind is an ability unique to him and his kind. It’s a massive wave of sound that can completely level trees and buildings; Temeraire in particular has been known to sink a frigate with a single roar. Animals—even dragons—caught directly in the blast are usually killed instantly, or, if they survive, experience massive internal injuries and bleed profusely from the ears and nose. In addition, the ability can be stacked, one wave on top of another, to produce massive waves of water or sheer sound that can destroy entire fleets or dragon-formations.
intelligence
Temeraire has a near-perfect memory and the Celestial’s natural aptitude for languages. He can begin speaking simple phrases and understanding basic concepts in the language within days, and one month of constant exposure to a language is generally all he needs to be fluent. At the time of his arrival, Temeraire is fluent in Chinese (definitely Mandarin and likely Cantonese as well, considering his cook hails from southern China), French, English, Durzagh (a feral dragon language), Turkish, German, Xhosa, and a little Sotho.
For the purposes of the RP, Temeraire’s AU self will remember Mandarin, Cantonese, French, English, and German—all languages a talented student might be expected to know at university—but his ability to learn languages instantly will be scaled down and the other languages he knows will remain dormant for now.
Personality:
Temeraire is intensely curious and eager to learn about the world around him. He does his level best to be polite and is naturally friendly, but he’s inexperienced when it comes to human social etiquette and doesn’t always know what questions are taboo or why. He is astonishingly open-minded, particularly for someone raised in the early nineteenth century. Part of this can probably be ascribed to his naivétë, but on the whole, he is generally accepting of everything from the aviators’ comparatively liberated sexual mores to the existence of ghosts. His modus operandi is generally to accept most of what he hears at face value, and then to ask embarrassing questions about it. Loudly. In public.
Being a Celestial—a breed that is traditionally more suited to scholarly pursuits than to active combat—he is an avid scholar, fond of reading and poetry, and immensely intelligent. Still, Temeraire’s intelligence is the sort more specifically referred to as “book smarts”—he is inclined to be naïve about how the world works, and he tends to see things in black and white. He refers to political maneuvering as “what Lien would do,” viewing it as cowardly; Temeraire would much rather air out any grievances in the open and fight over them properly, then call it a day. Not that he is incapable of being patient—he accepts, after a while, that sometimes he has to set his own desires aside, especially when Britain is at war—but his initial instinct is still to rush headlong into things and plan later. He strongly dislikes stagnation of any kind, and routines like patrolling and formation work quickly grow old for him, even when he understands the importance of both. Temeraire’s sense of patriotism is shaky at best; he puts little stock in tradition or authority and isn’t afraid to question orders, especially when those orders are delivered with little explanation or the explanation doesn’t satisfy him. He will fight ferociously to protect his friends and to keep what’s his, but the idea that he owes allegiance to any specific king or country rubs him the wrong way.
While duty and honor are concepts that Temeraire finds difficult to grasp, he has an incredibly strong sense of justice, particularly where the plight of European dragons is concerned. Temeraire’s trip to China was an eye-opening experience for him, and since then he has made it his personal goal to achieve equality for all dragons everywhere. Laurence, Temeraire’s captain, calls him a Jacobin several times, usually out of exasperated fondness, but he’s not far off the mark. Subtlety is something Temeraire still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of yet, and more than once he has nearly whipped the dragons around him into all-out rebellion with his talk of salaries and suffrage. He is quick to protest whenever he feels something is unfair, and he doesn’t see much point in sitting around and letting it happen; it’s a cause that’s especially near and dear to his heart. It isn’t empty talk, either—when the chips are down, Temeraire will grow quiet, intent, and inexorably determined, and will sacrifice even the support of his captain to see justice done.
Temeraire has something of a magpie nature and, like all dragons, is intensely possessive of his own property and friends, but Laurence has proved to be something of a moderating influence in his life in this regard, and he has come to understand that humans don’t appreciate their things being taken and that he ought to oblige them even if they have been left out for anyone to steal. Still, Temeraire has a tendency to be jealous of others, especially if they have more shiny things than he does. He’s also inclined to be vain, having been told from birth that he is a special dragon with unique abilities. Temeraire is fastidious in his habits, fond of luxury, rather picky about his food, and usually thinks very highly of himself and of his crew. He values his personal appearance highly, dislikes being thought of as ignorant, and has a tendency to sulk childishly when he is unquestionably proved wrong. Despite his commitment to justice and equality, he has something of a blind spot when it comes to himself, and should it turn out that he happens to have a little more than everyone else, he’ll be sure to reason it away.
The core facts of Temeraire’s personality—his impulsiveness, curiosity, eagerness, and vanity—will remain in his AU self, but as a human, his penetrating inquisitiveness about all things human will translate instead into inquisitiveness about all things English, and his dedication to dragons’ rights will translate into enthusiastic espousal of whatever radical cause happens to catch his eye (workers’ rights! suffrage! communism! exclamation point!).
AU Role: Student under the master of the house.
AU History:
Note: All Chinese names will be written in Wade-Giles in a pathetically obvious attempt to attain some semblance of historical accuracy.
Temeraire was born Lung T’ien-hsiang in Peking in 1868. The illegitimate son of a courtesan and a close relation to the Tung-chih Emperor, he was removed from his parents at an early age and discreetly packed off to the countryside, where he was raised by a distant relative of his mother. T’ien-hsiang himself barely remembers his parents at all, and is patently unaware of his heritage: not that it would matter much if he knew, given his tendency toward radicalism.
Rising tensions between the Chinese and the English in the wake of the Third Opium War had only compounded the Qing Empire’s urgency to see that it learned from the rest of the world, if only to surpass it. T’ien-hsiang himself was too busy studying to take much note of the outside world at this time: he displayed a remarkable aptitude for academics from the start, rising quickly to the head of his small provincial academy and excelling in particular in the natural sciences, which had been implemented in the school’s otherwise classicist curriculum as a direct reaction to the Western world’s newest industrial revolution. At the age of sixteen, he entered the T’ung-wen Kuan, the government-established school for Western learning, where he once again distinguished himself—and picked up several new languages in the process.
It was the T’ung-wen Kuan, with its foreign faculty, which finally opened T’ien-hsiang’s eyes to the outside world. He read everything from Marx to the newly-published Wilde, and studied everything from astronomy to art (where, as a result of a circumstances he can never quite remember, he obtained his nickname), but it was the creations of the third industrial revolution which caught and held his attention. He began to assist his professors in aeroplane design, a subject for which he seemed to possess an instinctive talent. His work soon attracted the attention of several prominent English professors, and he was invited to continue his studies in Yorkshire, England. He accepted, of course, at once, which brings us to—now.
And if now and then, after his arrival at Aungier House, he dreams of flying without an aeroplane, of a pair of great black wings stretching away behind him—
Well. They’re only dreams, in the end.
Samples
Prose thread here!
