Dragon owls

Dragon owls


Names
Common Name:	Dragon owls
Scientific Name:	N/A
Appearance
Long, shaggy blue feathers all over their bodies, color ranging from turquoise to cobalt; when feathers are plucked, they somewhat resemble mixes between different species of owls Image of Empress Dowager from the Japanese cover of The River of Wind
Behavior
Generally lazy, spoiled, and content living in luxury, they are cared for by their Blue Owl servants

Dragon Owls, belonging to the species of Blue Owls, are residents of the Panqua Palace in the Middle Kingdom. Dragon Owls were hagsfiends in their past lives, but they have been rendered harmless by servants who shower them in excessive luxury. They cannot fly due to their excess of brilliant blue feathers that weigh them down, as they do not molt.

Basic Information[]

Dragon Owls were once hagsfiends, but were fooled by Theo who created the Panqua Palace and the mock courts of the Middle Kingdoms. They were tricked into having the illusion of power and slowly became the Dragon Owls, with blue feathers and pale yellow eyes. Dragon Owls are very spoiled, pampered, and believe they are royalty, simply because it's all they've ever known. Some Dragon Owls managed to escape the vanities of the Middle Kingdoms, one such owl being the Striga, also known as Orlando.

Dragon Owls cannot fly, as stated earlier, but instead glide through the air with the help of servants or qui (kites), as seen in The River of Wind. The reason for their excessively long feathers is that they have abnormally large preen glands, speeding up their feather growth but gravely slowing down their molting. The eggs they lay are immediately destroyed, but if they are able to come to maturity they will become hagsfiends. There was once an incident where a Dragon Owl had hidden away an egg with the intention to raise it, which revealed that while their eggs are white at first, as the eggs get older they turn black before hatching, just like a normal hagsfiend egg.

History[]

Before the Books[]

As mentioned in The River of Wind, the peaceful blacksmith Theo led the hagsfiends into the Middle Kingdom

The River of Wind[]

In this book the dragon owls are first introduced within the series. Their leader, Empress Dowager, and her court is shown to be in turmoil over the defection of the Striga, known to them as Orlando. They are theorized by Digger to be hagsfiends, which is later confirmed.

Exile[]

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The War of the Ember[]

Nyra and the Striga recruit two dozen defected Dragon Owls to be broodies for their hagsfiend eggs. The Striga forms what he names "The Striga Force", in which he recruits some of the Dragon Owls to fly into battle with him. Among these Dragon Owls is the clever and sapphire-blue Olong.

Known Dragon Owls[]

Trivia[]

It is implied that the Dragon Owls are the same hagsfiends as the ones in the time of the legends, and simply do not remember their time being hagsfiends, as it is a distant memory. The Striga is shown to vaguely remember being a hagsfiend in his dreams. Their eggs are also destroyed, making it impossible for them to be descendant of hagsfiends, but simply the original ones. This, however, is made questionable by a line stated by Tengshu in The River of Wind, in which he states that Dragons Owls are not known to live as long as normal Blue Owls, some of which are said to be over 400 years old.
It is unclear why the Dragon Owls became blue. The owls of the Middle Kingdoms have always been blue since before Theo brought the hagsfiends there to trap them and turn them into Dragon Owls. It can be inferred that there was no crossbreeding that could have resulted in the hagsfiend's offspring becoming blue, as crossbreeding between owls and hagsfiends was proven nearly impossible in To Be a King, since, according to Ygryk, only a small few of the rare unions between owls and hagsfiends like that of her and Pleek's ever successfully produced young. It is possible that feathers turning blue may just be a property of living in the Middle Kingdoms after a while and consuming the same food.