Moorhen

"Burn has promised us immunity from attack for the next hundred years if we help her win. If we don't — she'll destroy us. She is a powerful enemy, little SandWing. A lot more powerful than you, and she's an enemy I don't intend to make."

— Moorhen to Sunny about Burn, The Brightest Night

Moorhen is an adult female MudWing who was introduced in The Brightest Night. She is the current queen of the MudWings and currently resides in the MudWing palace located in the Mud Kingdom.

Description

Moorhen is huge, as big as Morrowseer and taller than her siblings. She has russet-brown scales and has embedded gemstones on her ankles and head.

Personality

Moorhen is a protective queen, both of her tribe and her siblings; she seeks for the option that most ensures the safety of her tribe, as seen when she joined Burn's side of the war when she threatened to attack the MudWing tribe if Moorhen refused to fight with her. According to Sora, Moorhen is a good queen and is greatly respected by her MudWing subjects. In The Brightest Night, she fretted over how many dragons are dying and how it was her fault she did not protect them well enough.

Moorhen also appears to be skeptical, stating that Sunny's plan to stop the war with no more dragons dying sounded like "a tale from one of the SeaWing queen's silly romantic scrolls" and Sunny was very small to be in charge of saving the world.

Coral states that Moorhen has "such interesting ideas." She is logical, and would not want to put her tribe through more war.

Biography

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Dragonet Prophecy
While in the Mud Kingdom, Clay met his sibs, who were soldiers in Moorhen's army.

The Lost Heir
Moorhen's army helped the SkyWings with the dragonflame cactus attack on the Summer Palace, carrying burning logs and dropping them into the palace. Her spy in the Talons of Peace, Crocodile, was the reason they were able to find the Summer Palace.

The Hidden Kingdom

When the dragonets of destiny and Webs were walking through the Rainforest Kingdom, Tsunami noticed some MudWings heading their way but noted that they could not possibly see the dragonets in the fog. Starflight suggested that they should hide because they were only a day's flight from Queen Moorhen's palace and that they would not want to get caught and be imprisoned. Glory also sarcastically said that Moorhen probably would not give them tea and send them on their way if they met her.

The Dark Secret
In the prologue, Pheasant asked why she and her siblings have to fight in the War of SandWing Succession, and Reed replied that Queen Moorhen must have a good reason to ally with Burn and the SkyWings.

The Brightest Night

Moorhen gathered her army to prepare for an invasion of the Ice Kingdom along with her SkyWing allies, in which they planned to wipe out the whole of the IceWing forces. Sunny visited Moorhen during one of her nightmares using a dreamvisitor to warn her about the battle. Sunny managed to convince her not to go through with the invasion because it would kill too many dragons on both sides, then told her to arrive at Burn's stronghold a few days later for the peace summit. Although Moorhen did agree to try, she was still unsure it would solve anything but was present at the stronghold at the end of the book for the crowning of Thorn. Also, while this was unbeknownst to all but the IceWings, the Great Ice Cliff would have slaughtered the entirety of Burn's attack if Moorhen had not believed Sunny.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising
Umber mentions to the rest of his Winglet that his siblings Reed and Pheasant are working for Moorhen in her palace. Later, Anemone mentions she had not eaten since she left Queen Moorhen's palace.

Escaping Peril

At the beginning of the book, Scarlet arrives at Jade Mountain to throw the decapitated head of Queen Glory at Queen Ruby, her SkyWing guards, and the dragonets of destiny before fleeing. With the help of Turtle, the group discovers that the head is actually a MudWing head enchanted to look like Glory, and Ruby decides to contact Queen Moorhen and let her know that Scarlet has killed one of her subjects and therefore must be around her swamps to get to a MudWing.

Talons of Power
Anemone told Turtle that what if Coral had died, and all the SeaWings went to the Mud Kingdom to be bossed around by Moorhen. Turtle later wondered if Moorhen, along with the other queens, would listen to him.

Darkness of Dragons
Queen Thorn mentions Moorhen, saying that she should send a dragon with an earring enchanted to protect her from Darkstalker. However, the book misspells her name, spelling Mudhen instead of Moorhen. In the epilogue, Coral mentions in her letter to Turtle that she is rebuilding the Summer Palace and hopes it will be a center of trade and diplomacy, especially with Queen Moorhen and Queen Glory.

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The Lost Continent Prophecy

The Dangerous Gift
Snowfall mentions that Moorhen is her favorite out of all other queens because she is calm. During the queens' meeting, Moorhen says that there is not enough room in the Mud Kingdom for the refugee dragons and later sends Bullfrog as the MudWing representative to go to Pantala.

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Winglets

Assassin
While never appearing, one of her generals, Swamp, and at least two of her guards met with Tempest, Blister, and the SeaWings at the time of Tempest's murder. One of the guards reported the news of what happened and subsequently, she broke off her alliance with Blister. Due to these events, Burn was able to threaten her into allying with her.

Family Tree

More

Coypu

Several Generations

Three Dragons

Moorhen

Unnamed

Quotes

"Here? Now? […] Can't you see I'm in the middle of a campaign? And everyone's dying and it's all my fault and I can't save them? […] No. No, I command you not to die."

― to Sunny, in a dream

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"But then the war will be over, and perhaps that'll be worth it. Burn has promised us immunity from attack for the next hundred years if we help her win. If we don't — she'll destroy us. She is a powerful enemy, little SandWing. A lot more powerful than you, and she's an enemy I don't intend to make."

― to Sunny about the war

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"Good luck. You're very small to be in charge of saving the world."

― to Sunny

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"You want us to send our soldiers all the way to the other side of the ocean. To fight in a war that — I'm so sorry, but — it has nothing to do with us. Our dragons are safe here. That thing over there doesn't even know about us. If we go rile it up, it might come back to attack us and we could lose this continent, too. At least right now, this is a safe place — for us and for you."

― to Hazel and Qibli about the othermind

Trivia

• Tui accidentally makes Queen Thorn refer to her as Mudhen. This was corrected in the e-book and later printings.
• Chameleon once said "A kingdom without any heirs is in perpetual danger...I think all the queens learned from what happened to the MudWings a couple of centuries ago." This implies the Queen Moorhen may not be a descendent from Queen Crane's family line.

Gallery

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  Reference by BLaCkBlEaCh2021
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  Moorhen in The Brightest Night (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes

• Art by Mike Holmes, from the Wings of Fire Graphic Novels
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References

de:Königin Moorhen fr:Esterre pl:Pardwa ru:Ибис