Ayessa Kroan
Stay A Little Longer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To expand on an absolutely criminally-underdeveloped creature living on Kiffu that seems to have a fascinating dynamic with both local wildlife and the planet itself.
- Image Credit: X
- Canon: Spark-dragon (As you can see, there is very little information on them despite them seemingly playing a measurable role in Kiffu's ecosystem)
- Links: --
- Name: Spark-dragon
- Designation: Semi-sentient, leaning more towards non-sentient.
- Homeworld: Kiffu
- Language: --
- Average Lifespan: Spark-dragons live to up to 30 GSY, reaching maturity at 5 GSY.
- Estimated Population: Planetary
- Description: Spark-dragons are the absolute last thing you would want to meet exploring Kiffu, and the locals know it too. Physically impressive, electrically-charged and always prepared to snack on an unexpected passerby or Static Tree, their long snake-like bodies let them navigate the crevices and nooks of Kiffu's bluffs and cliffs with ease, with wings permitting for gliding and limited flight. Their intense echolocation substitutes for eyesight as they're very-nearly blind, with sharp tusks meant to tear prey apart. They also collect 'shiny' objects meant to help with their conduction of electricity.
- Breathes: Type I
- Average height of adults: 1.3 meters, ground to head when they're standing on all fours.
- Average length of adults: 5 meters, head to tail.
- Skin color: Spark-dragons are all dark in colouration with light underbellies, ranging from dark reds, blues and greens to mustardy yellows and husky greys. Their underbellies are usually white or a light beige.
- Hair color: Spark-dragons do not have hair.
- Distinctions: Spark-dragons are fond of collecting pieces of metal and affixing them to their bodies; if a Spark-dragon isn't hungry, it might attack a local just to steal shiny metal from them. The metal helps with conducting the electrical current that runs through their bodies. They appear very similar across genders though females end up being smaller, and infant Spark-dragons darken with the onset of adolescence. Spark-dragons are very comparable to Electric Eels in terms of biology, both sporting organs that allow them to produce and store electrical charges at low and high voltages. The only difference is that whilst an Electric Eel can't seriously affect something like a Human with their charge, a Spark-dragon's spark can last for minutes on end and deliver more than enough volts to knock someone out like a taser might.
- Races: --
- Strengths:
Fully-Charged: Spark-dragons are constantly charged with electricity. Making physical contact with them is to court death as they passively shock anyone with static energy, and can amp up the charge to incapacitate living beings to prepare them for slaughter. Their electromagnetic signature, which allows them to be tracked with the use of technology, can also be used to lure certain creatures in, like static trees, for consumption from the comfort of a Spark-dragon's lair. They're also capable of surviving a lightning strike, using them to consume even more charge. Too many repeatedly, though, and they may overload.
- Echolocators: The tendril-like organs that sprout from a Spark-dragon's head are key to their most important feature, besides electricity -- Echolocation. Due to their near-blindness, they rely on emitting high-frequency noises and using the way the sound echoes off of surfaces to map a location. These frequencies are difficult to hear without the use of technology but are reported as being a high-pitched whine, which is a telltale sign of a Spark-dragon in the area.
- Immense Strength: Spark-dragons have been seen able to tear apart durasteel plating with their sharp claws and raw muscle. The likelihood of them being able to get through anything stronger than that material, though, is highly unlikely.
[*]Weaknesses:
- Near-Blind: Spark-dragons are classified as being near-blind and rely on echolocation to see. The only things they are able to see are things that are extremely bright, like shiny metal or the absolute lightest colours, like white or yellow. When travelling by a known den, it's recommended to dress dark for this exact reason.
- Imperfect Flight: Spark-dragons have wings meant to glide, not fly. If they are forced off of a high-enough perch the fall could kill them; they're also unable to use their wings to escape tight situations by flying straight up.
- Electrical Addicts: A Spark-dragon with, well, no spark, isn't a Spark-dragon at all. Going without electrical current will kill a Spark-dragon almost instantly, which is why weapons that nullify electricity are absolutely deadly to them. They also radiate an enormous electromagnetic signature, allowing tech developed for detecting such fields to be used to locate a nearby Spark-dragon to either hunt or avoid them. A unique byproduct of the Spark-dragon's relation with electricity is that they can be wounded and even killed utilizing the Ionize Force power, and affected to some degree with Electrical Manipulation, though that can go only so far before something like Animal Bond is needed to truly influence their minds. A Spark-dragon that is also 'overloaded' with too much static charge can also be suicidal, as the current could become too much for its electrical organs to contain and stop it's heart.
CULTURE
- Diet: Spark-dragons are omnivorous but aren't fans of consuming traditional nutrients. They instead prefer to collect electricity by scaling to vast heights during Kiffu's electrical storms or eating static trees, fellow electricity-consuming prey local to the area. They may also take apart and consume charges from man-made technology if they're desperate enough. However, that doesn't rule out the fact they have a normal digestive system and will consume anything from Kiffar to Msak Hounds to local fruits and legumes.
- Communication: Due to their semi-sentience classification Spark-dragons are capable of understanding basic communication like body language and short words, if they are exposed to the words long enough.
- Technology level: A Spark-dragon doesn't have enough sentience to adequately use technology, but they are able to detect electrical charges within something like a datapad or a speeder and will tear it apart to get at it. This could obviously prove fatal as ripping at the wrong functions could cause something like an explosion, but it just goes to show how little experience and exposure Spark-dragons have with technology and how desperate they can be for a fix of electricity.
- Religion/Beliefs: --
- General behavior: Spark-dragons live for one thing, and one thing only, and that's obviously electricity. Their entire life cycle and, indeed, desire for living revolve around ensuring they have a near-constant charge present in their bodies. They would die without it, so it's also a survival mechanism. Due to their blindness & subsequent reliance on echolocation, they tend to stick to the canyons, mountains and cliffs of Kiffu and rarely, if ever, leave these for the vastness of Kiffu's sandy expanses. During Kiffu's thunderstorms, they scale to the highest perch they can safely find and socialize, meeting potential mates and battling for social dominance among themselves. Once the dust has figuratively settled, though, they're all there for the same goal -- To collect electricity. Lightning is naturally drawn to them and their bodies are made to withstand a strike or two, which is more than enough to keep them satisfied. Spark-dragons will roost in caves, building nests of whatever they find and using them as hoarding grounds for their metal parts. When a female Spark-dragon lays a clutch of between 1 to 3 eggs, they utilize their charge to keep them alive as even in-utero they require it to survive, which makes a mothering Spark-dragon twice as desperate for electricity. They hatch after a period of 6 months and remain with their mother for 5 full years before reaching maturity and leaving their mother's roost. However, during social gatherings for thunderstorm harvesting, it's been shown that Spark-dragons will remember their parent and seek them out for socialization, and a mother will do the same in search of her babies. It should be noted that it's absolutely impossible to 'tame' a Spark-dragon without the use of the Force. Being unable to make physical contact with them without being injured makes animal husbandry difficult and they are more likely to kill a potential handler than listen to them. Kiffar Force Users, though, have been known to bend a Spark-dragon to their will. It's unclear in historical documentation whether or not these partnerships go on to be life-long or just temporary, but the implication is that one could make an alliance with one using the Force to bend their mind.
Spark-dragons have existed on Kiffu almost as long as Msak Hounds have, creatures that live in the darkness and survive on Kiffu's ecology. Evolutionary scholars theorize they might have once been a normal draconic race living on the planet in the eons before even the Old Republic, but once Kiffu's atmosphere began colliding with that of Kiffex's to produce electrical storms, they simply evolved with their environment to ensure survival and dominance in the wild. This evolution also led to their blindness as they spent plenty of time in the dark among the planet's network of caves and crevices, and from their blindness came their echolocation. The Spark-dragon's proposed chain of evolution adequately explains how their three largest features are connected deeply, showing a steady progress throughout their history to wind up with the genus present on Kiffu today.
