Personal Information
Name: Nella
Age: 21
Personal LJ: nellasaur
Email / AIM / MSN: WarpedDreamer

Character Information
Character Name: Temeraire; known as Lung Tien Xiang in China
Fandom: Naomi Novik's Novels of Temeraire
Timeline: Books, since it's the only one, currently.
Source: Character page on the Temeraire wiki; series page on Wikipedia proper.

Character History:
His Majesty's Dragon:
->January 1805: Hatches aboard the HMS Reliant after his egg is captured from a French ship in a battle; born knowing how to speak English directly from the shell
->Harnessed by William Laurence, whom he'd taken an interest in
->Identified by Sir Edward Howe as an Imperial, a Chinese breed
->Shipped off to Loch Laggan for training; there, he befriends Maximus (a Regal Copper) and Lily (an acid-spitting Longwing), both young dragons in the formation he's assigned to
->November 1805: Fights in the Battle of Dover against Napoleon's incoming army; his discovery of the Divine Wind turns the tide of the action and repels the attempted invasion
->Identified conclusively as a Celestial, one of the rarest and most prized breeds of Chinese dragon

Throne of Jade:
->Taken out of the Aerial Corps and separated from Laurence at the behest of an embassy from China, who've heard about his role in the battle and object to his use as a creature of war
->Sent off to China with Laurence, his crew, and the Chinese entourage. In the course of the journey, he sinks an attacking French ship using the Divine Wind, catches a cold from the Greyling courier Volatilus and subsequently recovers, kills a massive sea serpent, and interrogates Laurence on the nature of freedom and dragon's rights in Britain
->Learns about Chinese culture and the way they treat dragons (which is significantly more fairly than the British do)
->Meets his mother, Lung Tien Qian, and twin brother Lung Tien Chuan, and trysts with the Imperial dragon Lung Qin Mei
->Fights with the white Celestial Lung Tien Lien, whose companion Yongxing lhad tried repeatedly to have Laurence assassinated, so that Temeraire might chose a more "proper" companion and create contention for the Emperor's throne; kills Yongxing in the process
->Is officially given leave to take Laurence as his companion, after the Englishman is adopted by the Emperor as a Prince of China
->Agrees to return to Britain, though he prefers the society of China, because he knows Laurence would be unhappy while there is still a war to fight, and also because he wants to improve the lot of his friends and the other British dragons

Black Powder War:
->Sets off overland for Britain, because of new orders received and because the transport that brought him to China is brought low by a fire; travels with Laurence, what's left of his crew, a guide named Tharkay, and two Chinese cooks to prepare food for him in the way he's grown to like
->Makes 'friends' of a pack of feral dragons in the mountains of Turkestan by gifting them with some livestock (not entirely willingly); is accompanied by the lot into the Ottoman Empire
->Arrives in disgrace in stanbul after the ferals attack and make off with a herd of domestic cattle
->Helps his crew steal the three dragon eggs purchased from the Ottomans by the British Government after receiving confirmation that the payment for them had been received (though the Turks tried to deny it); loses one of the eggs and an ensign, Digby
->Escapes the Ottoman Empire and heads for Austria, presuming passage through the British ally back to home
->Drafted by the Prussians in lieu of 20 promised British dragons who never appeared; must fight with the Prussian air force while attempting to protect the eggs
->Discovers that, after leaving China after Yongxing's death, Lien has allied herself with Bonaparte and is assisting the French by vastly improving the efficacy of their air force
->After a particularly decisive defeat at French hands, runs with his crew and the eggs for the stronghold of the city of Danzig; along the way, the more valuable of the two hatches Iskierka, a fire-breathing Kazilik, who is harnessed by Temeraire's first lieutenant Granby and immediately proves herself a contrary and bloodthirsty creature
->Joined in Danzig by Tharkay and the lot of ferals, whom he'd recruited to the fight
->Under the cover of night and with the assistance of some drugged Fleur-de-Nuits, helps the ferals sneak the majority of the Prussian forces out of the city and to the waiting naval ships, making use of the Chinese style of carrying harnesses in the process
->Makes for England, with Iskierka and the ferals in tow

Empire of Ivory:
->December 1806: Arrives in England and finds that the Corps has been very hard hit by a plague that promises to kill off the lot of them
->Is found to be immune; it's suspected that the cold he contracted en route to China was the disease, making him the only British dragon to recover
->Packed up with his crew and the rest of his formation and sent down to Capetown to try and determine what cured him, as the Chinese cooks from the embassy had started preparing his meals for him then, and it's assumed something they used composed the cure
->Helps discern that a particularly noxious African mushroom is the cure; sets about helping gather as much of it as possible to cure the dragons of the formation and preserve to bring back to England
->Mounts a rescue attempt with the formation's dragons to rescue Laurence and a number of the other aviators, who were taken prisoner by African tribesmen for trespassing on their lands and harvesting the cure
->Manages to rescue the British aviators, learning in the action that the Africans and their dragons are planning to drive the Europeans one and all out of Africa, and have made numerous preparations to that effect
->Escapes back to Capetown and finds it already under attack; the British dragons can do nothing more than evacuate the Europeans there and flee the destruction
->On returning to England, learn that Government plans to disburse the cure to British forces while infecting the the dragons on the continent in germ warfare; decimating Napoleon's ranks of dragons with the plague will give the British a significant advantage
->Comes to the decision with Laurence that this simply cannot be allowed to happen; the two of them steal some of the mushrooms and fly them over to France in a staggering act of political treason
->Returns with Laurence to Britain, despite being offered sanctuary in France or passage back to China for their gift

Victory of Eagles:
->Sequestered in the Pen y Fan Breeding Grounds following Laurence's arrest for treason
->Befriends Perscitia and some of the other dragons and is able to distract himself some with academia and debate; otherwise finds it terribly dull, and otherwise he is deprived of Laurence and prevented from fighting, which renders him miserable
->Receives word that Laurence has been killed and the Napoleon has invaded England; frustrated and in mourning, he gathers the whole lot of the dragons living at the breeding grounds and strikes off across Britain with them to fight against the Corsican
->Successfully directs his force against a French regiment, scattering or killing the majority of the soldiers and capturing their guns
->Is reunited with Laurence, who was not killed, and has in fact been temporarily recommissioned into the Aerial Corps so that the British might utilize Temeraire against the French forces
->Is commissioned as a Colonel in his own right by Wellesley, who is so hard up for forces that he's willing to make officers of the dragons if it means they'll fight for him without crews
->Helps the army meet Bonaparte's forces outside of London; helps them escape when they are thoroughly trounced
->Is directed to hunt down and eliminate French raiding parties in the north of England; does not comprehend how craven a thing this is considered, only that Laurence is intensely unhappy and he can do nothing to alleviate it
->March 1809: Joins with Wellesley and the rest of the British troops at Shoeburyness on the eastern coast of England, joining Napoleon's forces in battle there; the arrival of Nelson with Britain's Navy wins the British a decisive victory
->In the aftermath, is unable to stop Lien from using the Divine Wind to capsize the majority of the fleet; however, this does not ameliorate Napoleon's defeat, and the French withdraw to the continent once more
->Laurence's sentence is commuted from execution to labor in Australia, on the condition that he takes Temeraire with him, to keep him from stirring up the British Aerial Corps' interest in equal rights for dragons any further; Iskierka, who has determined that she wants an egg from Temeraire, joins them

Character Personality: Intelligent and curious, Temeraire has an insatiable interest in the world around him. He loves to read, and even more to be read to, especially by Laurence; he's a voracious intellectual, with an appetite for pretty much anything from personal accounts of war to scientific and mathematic treatises. (One of his favorites it Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by Newton; he's had Laurence read it to him so many times that he's committed it to memory, and has been seen reciting passages of it to himself for comfort.)

He's young enough, and his upbringing to the Corps exotic enough, that he doesn't take for granted a lot of things that the people and dragons around him do. He's been shown drilling Laurence on abstract concepts like duty and property on several occasions. Because he's smart enough to think things through for himself, it's very difficult to feed him 'party lines', so to speak--Temeraire will make his own decisions and he will act on them, regardless of what the people around him think he "should" do. He's been called Jacobin--and worse--because of it, as many of his ideas seem rather revolutionary to the hide-bound people in the Corps. Temeraire's sense of justice and fairness is, in fact, rather more modern than Laurence's own duty-bound interpretation, and his pragmatic sensibilities shock his captain on a regular basis.

Also because of his youth, he's rash enough to hare off on his own if there's nothing to restrict him, and will argue with superior officers if he thinks they're being particularly thick about things. His sense of duty typically extends about as far as keeping Laurence happy and protecting his crew, although Laurence's influence and desires go far towards keeping Temeraire acting as a good soldier of the King should.

Like most dragons are shown to be, Temeraire is incredibly possessive and protective of his captain/companion, and this extends to his crew as well. Those people are his, and he will fight to protect them, if he has to. He doesn't like to be separated from Laurence particularly for too long, especially not if the separation is by force, and as of the end of Victory of Eagles, I'm fairly certain he hasn't yet forgiven Iskierka for taking his first lieutenant, Granby, away from him. He can be possessive about things, too, but the things he cherishes the most are generally gifts from Laurence, so it's less any kind of hoarding behavior and more an extension of his love for Laurence.

Another thing he has in common with most dragons--or, more specifically, young male dragons--is a peculiar sort of bloodlust. Temeraire loves to fight, and it is near impossible to keep him on the ground when there are other dragons rising to battle around him. He will fight exuberantly to defend himself and what he considers his, particularly Laurence and his crew and friends, and this extends to a desire to protect all of England when he comes to consider the country as his own territory. However, his is not mindlessly violent or vicious; when he had to kill a sea serpent who was attacking the dragon transport Allegiance, he was downcast for some time afterwards, unable to understand why he had to fight her and couldn't just try to reason with her to leave.

Temeraire is a proud creature, and sometimes very vain, although that may be more a function of how young he is than any enduring personality trait. Regardless, Temeraire is very susceptible to flattery and admiration, and has little compunction against puffing himself up if the opportunity presents itself. He's far from a braggart, though, and though he can be prone to overconfidence in his own abilities, he's not foolish about it.

Powers: Temeraire is a GIANT DRAGON, WOOHOO, so he's got some hefty physical strength and stamina behind him, at least when compared to humans. Obviously, he won't seem as strong in comparison when matched against a Cybertronian of any appreciable size; regardless, for an organic, he's pretty impressive. Even against the heavyweights of his own world, such as Regal Coppers like his friend Maximus, he's sometimes a little overmatched for brute strength, primarily because he's very slender, and very flexible. This at least gives him the advantage of speed, as can fly faster than a lot of the other heavyweights; he can also pack himself into tiny little spaces (relatively speaking) by coiling up his tail and body. He's also possessed of the unique (at least among European dragons) capability of hovering, which he manages by beating his wings a certain way.

As a Celestial, Temeraire is incredibly intelligent, enough so that I would consider it a power in its own right. Specifically, he's been shown to be remarkably proficient at math, at the highest levels and beyond of his time period, and has been shown, in canon, learning to speak new languages with some fluency in a matter of months. It's likely that anything he's determined to put his mind to he'll be able to do, so long as he has good instruction for the foundations of the skill, be it in the form of books or hands-on guidance.

He's also possessed of the Divine Wind, a powerful sonic attack that's been used in canon to sink ships, knock enemy dragons from the sky, and destroy cliff faces. He's still learning how best to utilize the Divine Wind, however, so he doesn't have the control over the roar displayed by more experienced Celestials (such as Lien, who used it to cause a tsunami). Regardless, it's still a devastating attack, particularly in close quarters.

Samples
First person:
I wonder if someone who is a bit more familiar with this place than I might be able to assist me? You see, I...ah, well, I am afraid I am feeling rather unpleasant lately, and as I do not have my crew to scrub me, and there is no reason reason of time or privation otherwise preventing me...

That is, I would rather like a chance to have a bath, but the only lake I saw of suitable size had the strangest jets shooting out the center, and when I tried to climb in and have a proper swim, one of those automatons came out and shouted at me. I suppose it was his property, and so he should have the right of it, but it was still very unpleasant not to be allowed to complete my bath.

Might any of you know what I can find a lake where I will not be shouted at? I do not even need Roland and the others, though it would be very nice, I suppose I shall manage quite famously if I could only find an appropriate body of water.

Third Person:
It was hard not to be fascinated with this place. It was so alien, so unlike anything he'd ever seen before; beyond, in fact, anything he'd even though to imagine. There was nothing like this sleek, gleaming city in any parts of the world he'd been through, nothing like it even in the tales Laurence sometimes read to him out of books (though they did not often have such fantastic literature, so he supposed that perhaps there were descriptions of worlds like this, only he and Laurence had never read them).

Not only was it fascinating, nearly everything was big enough to admit him. He had once thought the cities of China accommodating, with their wide streets and open courtyards, but it was still a place built primarily for humans. A dragon of his size was yet restricted in his movements. Here, he could coil himself inside the shops and wind his way into the museums, and if most of the automatons were smaller than him, they weren't that much smaller, and he was flexible besides.

Oh, and the automatons. Temeraire had seen minuscule little figures that twitched and moved on their own in the markets of China, but they were nothing more than trinkets, and ones that the most careless flick of a talon could demolish. These...these were fascinating. He couldn't help staring, wherever he went, watching the way they moved, they way changed like that, with unabashed fascination.

It was something Laurence would have scolded him for, he supposed, though he wasn't allowing himself to think of that. In fact, he was trying very, very hard no to think of Laurence at all, because his captain was not here, nor was Temeraire able to get back to him with any ease. In same ways, it was even worse than when he had through Laurence dead, and removed from him forever; at least then, he had been able to begin accustoming himself to the idea. Here, there was only a queer sort of waiting, the knowledge that Laurence was still alive, and they were only separated.

As if it were that simple. 'Only separated', yet Laurence was as far removed from him as if he were dead once again, or so he had been told.

It didn't matter, Temeraire privately held, (particularly in those low moments when he most wanted to share with Laurence all he was seeing and all he was doing) how fascinating the automatons were, or how famous it was that he could fit easily into nearly all of the buildings.

It suffered greatly for its lack of Laurence.