Revision as of 19:18, 28 November 2020 by >Susurinaki Kaeru(Original Text: Greatness, calling her cowardy and a terrible. I fixed the grammar. I will assume "cowardy" is supposed to be cowardly)
Battlewinner had black scales that gleamed like polished ebony and seemed to emit white steam.[1] Her eyes were dark with a glint of icy blue in their depths, and two of her teeth were also pale blue, appearing more like icicles than regular teeth.[1] Her throat and black tongue[2] were lined with pale blue frost, in patterns that glinted and swirled and were feathery or sharp.[2] She had heavy shoulders,[2] a thickset neck, a battle-scarred snout,[1] glistening claws, and a thick head.[3] She was massive, as big as Morrowseer,[3] and had a creaky, quiet, rough, and eerie voice, like claws scraping on ice several caves away,[1] as well as a barking laugh.[4] Whenever she emerged from her cauldron, she glowed horribly, with lava dripping between her scales and claws.[3]
Personality
Battlewinner could be considered cunning and manipulative, as she helped create the dragonet prophecy in order to find a new home for the NightWings. She was also shown as cruel when she ordered Vengeance to be thrown into lava for upsetting her. She may have also been slightly insane or impulsive, as she lunged out of her lava cauldron to attack Glory and Starflight, despite knowing that she would die.
Biography
Pre-Series
At one time, possibly after the initial eruption of the NightWing Volcano that destroyed part of the fortress, Battlewinner led expeditions to find a new home for her tribe. During one such venture, she was attacked by an IceWing, possibly due to the two tribes' bitter rivalry. She escaped alive, but the IceWing blasted her in the mouth with frostbreath, which should have frozen Battlewinner from the inside out. The only reason that she didn't die immediately was her ability to breathe fire: her internal fire reservoir counteracted the ice long enough for her to fly back to the island. In desperation, she dove into a lava pool, hoping to die quickly, but instead, it created a balance where the external heat prevented the ice from killing her. However, this left her unable to ever leave the lava without the ice completely encasing her body and becoming an ice statue, and then dying.
To prevent other dragons from learning of her weakness, Battlewinner had a hidden room created behind the NightWings' council chamber and lived in a cauldron filled with lava as big as two Morrowseer's. This way, she could watch her tribe and make her image more mysterious and powerful. When she "speaks," she uses her daughter, Princess Greatness, as a voice.
She had only been mentioned, not by name, when Scarlet spoke to Morrowseer, suggesting that the NightWing queen should come to discuss the matter of Starflight with her. Morrowseer then hissed and told her not to anger the NightWings. Morrowseer and Battlewinner, the authors of the prophecy, had written the prophecy so that the NightWings could join the war. The part saying "Darkness will rise to bring the light" refers to the NightWings winning the war and taking over, which they personally see as the only meaningful line.
Starflight and Fatespeaker crept into Battlewinner's private chamber from behind a map in the NightWing Fortress and found that she lived in a cauldron of lava. After Starflight burst out about the scientific impossibility of surviving these conditions, the queen explained more about her reasons for keeping herself hidden. Starflight said that he could hear the ice breaking as she tried to talk. She was planning to wage war on the RainWings in lava-filled armor designed by Mastermind so she could lead the battle. When she left her lava cauldron to attack Starflight and Glory, the balance between fire and ice in her body tipped. Despite Mastermind's efforts to save her using the special armor, Battlewinner froze to death within a matter of seconds.
Greatness was Battlewinner's only daughter and heir to the NightWing throne. Battlewinner wasn't impressed by Greatness, calling her cowardly and a terrible queen. This was true however as Greatness was one of the first who fled into the tunnel, ahead of the rest of her tribe.
Battlewinner on the German cover of The Dark Secret, by Max Meinzold
