So... I intend to write something like I did on 32167, like a description of species kind of thing, except of course, it will be for a red dragon. But first, the thing that 30-70 people care about, pictures. Or, in my newest presentation style, a video. I'm sorry about quality though, video's colour isn't as adaptible as the photos'.
Music:
Future Consciousness by Therion
Also, at the end of the looooong(ish) text, you will find my MOCmurder! Who is the victim? Read Scroll over the text and see for yourselves!
The red mountain spikeback or Draco ruberis var. slovenica is, obviously, a mountain dragon, probably one of the more stereotypical species. They have highly evolved claws for climbing and are some of the best flyers amongst dragons, since they naturaly fly in relatively thin air.
Their diet consists of sheep, cows and goats, birds, deer, rarely humans and dogs.
They make nests on mountain cliffs out of stone and wood, wich is why they tend to attack villages from time to time, building materials are the easiest to gather there. The nest usually holds from 2 to 4, rarely up to 10 eggs (but the last option results in half of the whelps dying), a baby dragon will stay in the nest for 10 months and then fly for the first time and move to the bottom of their vallyey, usually in the forest. After that they don't fly for another year, wich is why many people mistake the young spikebacks for a different species (they hunt in the woods on on foot and look significantly different than the adult dragon). Another reason is that the mother leaves her children after they leave the nest together and mates again. Not many of the babies survive the year they don't fly though. Partially humans hunting them, partially natural predators (the red mountain spikeback doesn't start breathing fire until it wakes up from its 100-year sleep) kill off whole generations of baby dragons.
After that deprived stage, the whelps fly again and separate (if they have any siblings to separate from), rapidly growing (relatively to the average dragon growth) until they are 30 years old, wich is when they are the most peaceful (except after they wake up from the 100-year sleep) and thus tamable - one of rare species that can be trained to obey humans. After that they reach adolescence and at the age of 40 become sexually mature. They reach adulthood at 50 and do not change much for 40 to 50 more years, after wich they hibernate for exactly 100 years. Multi-year hibernation is common amongst european dragons, but the red mountain spikeback is amongst the longest sleeping species (there is a species that sleeps for 1000 years, but hibernation is not today's lesson). When they awake at the age between 180 and 220, they change drasticaly. They live for 100 to 200 more years after hibernation.
They have a relatively complex mating cycle, basicaly every 10 months, but never in the middle of the winter. Also, their mating time expands over only a week per cycle and if there is fool moon during that time, they do not mate the foo moon's day, the day before and the one after.
There are some significant differences between male and female dragons - for instance, only male dragons have horns (and interesting about the red mountain spikeback is that the male builds the nest), they grow larger and after awakening from the 100-year sleep, they gain a "beard", relatively short tentacles on the chin, the length of wich indicates the intelligence of the dragon, wich plays an importaint part in dragon's after-sleep life stage. Female red mountain spikebacks tend to have longer scales (and spikes on the back) and have differently shaped wings - longer and slightly less wide than a male's.
Fiery breath is hardly used by the red mountain spikeback, but they resort to it at very old age to warm themselves (they become cold-blooded a decade or two before death and can only warm themselves in the winter by breathing fire).
The whelp hatches at the length of (tail tip to nose) 3 studs (1 metre) and leave their nests measuring 5 studs (1.8 metre) , they fly the second time measuring 9-13 studs (3-4 metres). At the beginning of adolescence they are normally 25-35 studs (8-12 metres) and 40-50 studs (13-16 metres) long when they first mate. After hibernation they awake measuring 75-100 studs (25-33 metres) and only grow up to 10 studs (3 metres) more.
Training of this dragon is dangerous, but far less than at most other kinds. It's advised to start as quickly as they fly the second time, but there is no significant problem to start only years before they first mate. The tamed dragon will always leave its master when mating, but it will return if it couldn't mate in a cycle and will stay with its tamer for another year, skipping one mating cycle. Taming this dragon will give you a life-long friend that will return to you many times even when nesting.
The red mountain spikeback is a hibernating dragon, wich means it sleeps for years once in its life. This perion is very predictable at this species and happens in similar age to all of the dragons. They sleep for exactly 100 years and awake very different than they fall asleep. Male dragons grow a tentacle formation similar to a beard and females' eye colour changes. The wing shape changes and so does the head's. Tail:Body ratio changes (in favour of the tail). They still mate when they wake up, just far less - the cycle is still a 10-month one, except they only mate around fool moon and in the peak of winter. It is also importaint where the dragon sleeps - if they sleep where they can hear humans talking, they will learn how to talk themselves. The red mountain spikeback has excellent memory that is fully accessed when it awakens from the 100-year sleep, so it remembers events from its earlier life only after hibernating, dreaming many parts of its life, modified or not, in hibernation (red mountain spikebacks dream while hibernating). Even though they are extremely peaceful and social creatures after their hibernation, if awakened by force, they become savage and destructive. Also, if they are awakened before 100 years go by, they only live for as long as they would have to sleep.
Reanimation of this dragon is very reliable, because their bones don't decompose. There are a few good ways of getting bones/corpses for reanimation:
-killing a walking baby dragon
-taming and killing a dragon when it reaches adulthood (the dragon's agression is transfered to the zombie)
-awakening a dragon just before it would sleep for 100 years - this way you will be able to controll a skeletal/zombie elder dragon (a life stage unique to european and some north-african dragons)
Red mountain spikeback whelp corpses are very easy to obtain and are good minions, but they will never be able to fly. Because red mountain spikeback is a european dragon, it makes a better bone dragon than a dragon zombie, so the corpse must be buried in an anthill for the optimal reanimating potential.
That concludes our lesson on the red dragon spikeback, wich is the slovene breed of the mountain spikeback (wich is generally a dark blue or green to black dragon) and is one of the rare kinds of dragons that can be tamed. Thank you for not skipping this text, Callan.
So, now when we have intelligent things out of the way, wich is the only part you guys don't care about, I give you...
A side-MOC!
MMT - You are all SHEEP!
(If you want, you can try to find 3 cats on the first of the 2 pictures here.)
My victim is the honorable Ru corder!
But I also have a few other MOCcers for my red mountain spikeback to eat.
Thank you so much for all the advice. You are the first person who has really delved deeply into the dragons' designs and either praised them, or (just as good if not better) found areas I can improve upon. I am attempting to make my own style. One thing I try to do is make my mocs to where they could be lego sets (so I refrain from certain techniques). Maybe this will become a noticeable area in my stuff. Thanks again.
excellent dragon! the scenery is really cool. I love the way the dragon is perched on the ledge. Your detail and design on the dragon's head is great! I am afraid to ask you (knowing your reputation), but I have made some dragons recently. I would really appreciate some advice if you have the time. I am pretty new, so be merciful!
AA (Noname)
January 22, 2012
Hi Deus! I'm (officially) leaving MOCpages, and I just wanted to say goodbye. Goodbye!
The music doesn't fit too well for a peaceful background, even though your feeding Ru's head to the dragon. You should listen to the beat for the moc. Grass and flowers, something slow, yet still heavy. Broken buildings and wasteland? MAYBE fast and hard hitting
Nicely done man! The cottage by the hill is wonderful! And the dragon itself is a work of art! Lovely work ;) I also love what you've done with the landscape :) A brilliant diorama and a great story!
Wow, I totally missed this! The dragon (and not to mention his head) is wonderfully made. Having him stand on the cliffside staring down at his next meal gives me the shivers ;), it also makes a good presentation.
Nice parts usage, and once again your hidden cats baffle me. I mean, I found 1, but you hide them seriously well. The posing of the dragon is just perfect.
I read the text, but didn't really look at the pictures too closely...Question: When they become old and cold blooded, why don't they just go south for the winter? Excellent build and story, Chief!
Well, People besides me DID read it! Well, this dragon sure has a complicated life style, while these odd species of sheep are born and then killed in an attempt to train this dragon. Ouch. Great work on everything, Deus, an excellent piece of work!
I didn't have time to read it all, but is that Ru's head it's being fed to the dragon? Or is that supposed to scare him off? BTW, a very nice idea sticking your MMT inside a larger MOC. It would save time for those who have a busy schedule :)
I didn't have time to read it all, but is that Ru's head it's being fed to the dragon? Or is that supposed to scare him off? BTW, a very nice idea sticking your MMT inside a larger MOC. It would save time for those who have a busy schedule :)
Thanks for the Dragon lesson, dude! Reading all the text, that's really interesting(You're right, most of people don't read our presentation!), and makes me think you might be a totally heroic fantasy fan... Am I wrong?
By the way, the diorama is fantastic! I like how the pour MOCer are gathered like some cattle! I love the idea!
Very good! I hope you are pleased with me reading the whole 5 page paper. Anyways all the details on this are amazing! The crane is my favorite detail (excluding the minifig sheep). The dragon is also very well designed. Poor Ru...such a saaaaad death....
Quoting Ape Fight
A lovely MOC, thoroughly well built and inventive too. The music in the video made me want to cut my own heart out with a spoon though. Anyway, music aside, 5 stars
Well, there's nothing wrong with cutting your heart out with a spoon as long as you intend to offer it to our dark master Satan...
A lovely MOC, thoroughly well built and inventive too. The music in the video made me want to cut my own heart out with a spoon though. Anyway, music aside, 5 stars
Wow what a wonderfully detailed moc and description. I love the Dragon - excellent part usage all around. I also really like the house. It looks like your cat needs to be tamed too ;)
This comment is very irrelephant =3 onto teh creation... nothing i can say... well besides what i'm saying right now that is... great creation no way i can try to help improve :D great SNOT work on teh cliff(?) where the dragon is on :D
Hahaha, that's the way to go! I shall get to work on killing my victim soon, MUHAHAHAHA!! As to the MOC, brilliant! I love how the house is built into the cliff, and those crazy rock formations are too cool! The dragon is wonderful as well. Great work Deus!
Easily one of your best MOCs. The whole scene is expertly rendered, and every detail accounted for. The vines hanging from the rock looks great, and the rocks themselves are excellent. The dragon is impressive, and you used minifig arms brilliantly. The house is one of my favourite parts, and I really like how it's embedded in the cliff. The popularization of studs in medieval builds by Luke Watkins and others really helps make this recognizable as a medieval house, as does the superb colouration. The pond looks excellent, and the bird is terrific. Also, I really enjoyed your write-up, it lends reality to the MOC. Now you need to build a 100 stud dragon! Anyway, fantastic work!
