Skarth - The White Guard Drake
Torches down. Knees in the snow. When the collar rattles, you crawl—or you bleed.
Role in Its Society:
Bred as a living alarm and enforcer, Skarth leads Irdryth’s kennel packs through the Hunger Dome’s blue galleries. White guard drakes like him are the tyrant’s ground game—they run tribute routes, test thin ice, and pin trespassers until mephits or ogres arrive. Berserkers call him the First Collar; he decides who eats the warmest meat. To the dragon, Skarth is a perfect tool: tireless, brutal, and loyal to scent and sound—the iron tang of chains, the click of a handler’s whistle, the cold musk of her hoard.
Appearance Description:
A squat, powerfully muscled drake the size of a draft horse, built low and heavy through chest and shoulders. Glacier-white scales shot with pale blue along the joints; serrated dorsal spines glint like icicles. The head is wedge-broad with horned brow plates and a thick, scar-scored muzzle. An iron spike-collar hangs around his neck with ring-links that clatter when he charges. Hoarfrost gathers in the hinge of each claw; breath steams in ragged puffs.
Backstory:
Skarth hatched from a cult vat where dragon blood and alchemical brine are stirred through eggs. An ogre handler tried to “break” him with a hobble and hot brands; Skarth broke the man instead and dragged the chain to Irdryth’s dais, laying it at her feet like a kill. Amused, she spared him, set the spike-collar herself, and taught him three words that mean rule: Down. Hold. Tear. Since then, he has patrolled the Dome, culling the slow, schooling the eager, and killing the loud.
