#flaming serpent

[draconesmundi]

Dragons in South America and Mesoamerica

My creative project Dracones Mundi is a field guide to dragons of the world - I need to add more dragons to South America and Mesoamerica I think? This is a post to show what I have so far, in honour of Smaugust!

The first dragon I will discuss is the coatl. Coameh have two subspecies: the dry forest coatl and the rainforest coatl (excuse to base appearances closer to Aztec or Maya depictions of coameh, Maya = rainforest, Aztec = dryforest), depicted here is a dry forest coatl; the rainforest one is larger with a smaller frill. These are found in Mexico.

Closely related to the coatl is the flaming serpent, with several more subspecies (tlilcoatl, cherruve, tsamtás, mboitatá, plus a few others I will describe when I do North American dragon post) - it is an iridescent dragon, sometimes black with gold shining iridescence, but usually flame-coloured. When swimming through the air, catching sunlight, it looks like a living fire. These are found throughout Mexico and South America (and, as I mentioned, some in North America too!)

Then we have a dragon from Patagonia, the nguruvilu or fox serpent (I may make longer and add the distinctive tail with a claw on the end of it, this was a rushed doodle just getting the gist of half-fox-half-serpent while still fitting with the Dracones Mundi crocodile-dragon vibe) (the fox colours are based on the grey fox found in South America)

And lastly we have a 100% made up based loosely on pop culture 'fae dragon' or 'butterfly dragon', part of the winged serpent family in Dracones Mundi (dragons with 4 wings and very small arms and a distinctive tail fluke). As I had a group of 4-winged dragons, I thought a butterfly dragon might be fun! I'm plopping these into the Amazon rainforest.

Also, cockatrices have a worldwide distribution so they are found in Mesoamerica and South America too!

[devilrosola]

Magi Week 2022 a little bit of Day 2: Household & Day 5: What if...AU

Behold another preview of Flaming Serpent!

A scene I’ve had written out forever (and one of the first scenes inspiring this au) in a Universe where “What if Ja’far’s parents in the Sham Lash were sent to Kou to help Al Thamen assassinate Emperor Hakutoku...and failed?” or simply another scenario for a Kou’far AU

This scene is where Ja’far assimilates with his household: Astor Sei

(spoiler reasons as to what caused the assimilation, but short answer is a challenging foe which he beat, but also his new powers caused him to petrify his family on accident)

With Astoroth being a Gorgon, Ja’far’s new form is similar, moreso than Seishuu’s is. He finds himself with scales on his hands, a giant tail instead of legs, and locks of hair in the form of snakes. When making eye contact with anyone else, he feels a surge from his eyes before they turn to stone. He covers his eyes and finds his way to slither back to bed while muttering to himself, “Can’t look at anybody. Can’t look at anybody.”

{Keep Reading for Scene--including spoilers}

Kouen finds him and Ja’far curls up, eyes clenched, facing away from him. “Go away! I’m hideous! A monster!”

“You’ve never looked more fantastic.” He laced fingers through Ja’far’s.

“Kouen, don’t look! I don’t want to turn you to stone too.”

“I’m looking at you, and I’m still flesh.”

“Just looking at my sister and she was instantly petrified. Her cronies...my family. What if I can’t keep my eyes shut?”

Ja’far felt Kouen slip off of him, his presence moved away, leaving Ja’far feeling alone and lost. There was nowhere he could turn for solace, but that was what he deserved.

What he didn’t see was Kouen stayed right next to him and had only stood back up so as to untie the belt around his waist. He took the black tie and bent over to wrap it over Ja’far’s eyes, weaving it through the white snake hair. The younger inhaled deeply as he realized that Kouen hadn’t abandoned him after all.

“There, now you can relax. Astaroth chose you, let me see you in your full glory!”

[draconesmundi]

Happy Dracones Monday! Today's dragon is the flaming serpent!

These dragons have long bladelike scales which are naturally brown or black but flash with brillian red-orange fire colours in many lighting conditions. They are both aerial and aquatic predators, flying by magically powered flight, and as they move their black-fire colouration makes them look like a flickering flame. Their closest relatives are the coameh, or feathered serpents, which have green-blue iridescence, and they are in the feathered serpent genus. The flaming serpent species Pennaserpens ignis is found throughout North, South and Mesoamerica, with a few distinctive subspecies:

Boitatá (P. ignis mboitata) - found in Brazil, the most common subspecies of flaming serpent.

Gaasyendietha (P. ignis onteriois) - based on Seneca mythology, largest subspecies.

Tlilcoatl or acoatl (P. ignis coatlis) - based on Mexican folklore, made distinct from the other subspecies by it's forked tail

Cherruve (P. ignis volcanis) - based on Chilean folklore

Tsamtás serpents (P. ignis tsamtas) - based on Nivaklé mythology

Follow Dracones Mundi for a new dragon every monday @draconesmundi

[draconesmundi]

Smaugust Day 27: Fire

Introducing a ‘new’ dragon, the ‘flaming serpent’. This was inspired by comments on my last boitatá artwork by James-Silvercat (see here) talking about the version of the boitatá legend wherein the serpent is literally on fire.

There are lots of serpents on fire in the Americas, there is the great Gaasyendietha from Seneca mythology up in Lake Ontario in the USA, the boitatá in Brazil, and the Cherruve from Chile (A Book of Creatures covered it here), so I thought having a ‘flaming serpent’ species with many subspecies would be the best way to handle this.

The flaming serpent is a species of ‘feathered’ serpent, similar to the coatl. The ‘feathers’ are actually long thin scales called ‘psuedopennae’, and while the coatl has a green/blue iridescence, the flaming serpent has an black-gold-red iridescence, similar to some hummingbirds: 

(Gif of a Rufous Hummingbird - Selasphorus rufus - by stiekemekat)

The dragon can appear a dull brown or black until the light catches it in a certain way, and as it wiggles flashes like golden fire run down it’s body. They undulate as they swim or fly, like a living flame.

The shape of the scales can produce a whistling sound when the dragon is in flight, similar to the Mapuche legends of the peuchen, a blood-sucking flying serpent (and possibly yet another flaming serpent subspecies). This dragon will still have the spooky reflective eyes, but probably won’t have the bio-luminescent tail.

I am using this Smaugust prompt: https://draconesmundi.tumblr.com/post/625107202033778688

[draconesmundi]

Have you heard of the perelesnyk? I think it would fit in well with your other "flaming" serpents

I don't have a species dedicated to perelesnyk but they are mentioned in the Glowtail chapter rather than the Flaming Serpent one - irl any serpent which is on fire is classed as a flaming serpent, usually associated with comets and meteorites with their burning tails in the sky. However in my own worldbuilding I have divided dragons-on-fire into different species.

In Dracones Mundi I have a dragon called a Glowtail which is found in it's native range in Southeast Asia, then in feral ranges throughout Europe and Asia. It is a close relative of the cockatrice and has a bioluminescent tail and wings. In Europe glowtails go by many names, such as aitvaras, gluehschwanz, pukis, etc. Any 'dragon with a burning tail' or 'small house dragon' is a glowtail, whereas the flaming serpents in North, South and Mesoamerica are a different animal entirely, with iridescent gold and orange scales and a serpentine body.

I've arbitrarily divided some flaming serpents from others because I'm having fun designing dragons, not for any folklore or mythology reasons :)