Dragon Cows
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| Flag of Dragon Cows | |
| Motto: Don't Let Mad Cow Disease Dragon | |
| none available yet | |
| Region | The Sword Coast |
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| Capital | Kasshyrmestaklavitz, in the Dyvnshyr province |
| Official Language(s) | English, Japanese, Draconian |
| Leader | Prince Nagomaki Hiroken |
| Population | < 100 million |
| Currency | The Bovine |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Contents
History
Hundreds of years ago, dragons roamed the earth. In about the 16th century, by the Gregorian Calendar, dragons began to die out. This was largely due to the fact that humans percieved them as a threat, and became very efficient in eliminating them. By the mid-17th century, dragons were all but gone, clinging to life in remote, uninhabited pockets of the world. During these times of isolation, interbreeding with the local wildlife became a fairly common practise. Naturally, many versions of half-breeds were created - dragon eagles, dragon mice, dragon squirrels, etc. Only one of these half-breed species truly flourished - dragon cows with both red and gold dragon lineage. They were one of the few half-breed species to mate amongst themselves and could count on birthing a youngling with the same traits as the parents. Most of the other half-breeds would have children that would either revert back to the physical appearance and traits of the half-breed parent's non-dragon species, or would be born as some hideous mutation.
At first, the dragon cows were nothing more than your average bovine, but with red and gold wings, above average (even for a human) intelligance, and the ability to breathe a large and potent cone of fire. As they evolved (which was incredibly quickly) they took on more of a humanoid stance, their wings decreased in size, and their breath of fire was also reduced in size, but not in potency. Also, as a result of this evolution, the dragon cows became much more hardy than either of their ancestral species, allowing them to live almost anywhere.
Afther this sudden evolutionary change, the dragon cows began to fit in with humanoid society better. They learned the culture of the human groups most closely surrounding them. Due to their scattered dragon ancestry, The dragon cows were too scattered across the globe. After their evolutionary shift(which ended about 1850), they began moving into little clusters. These clusters developed mainly in Japan, South Africa, and Northern Canada. The dragon cows fit, however uncomfortably, into the society that had already built up in these areas, learning the people's traditions and beliefs. No matter how hard they tried, they nefer felt comfortable in their roles in society. They felt isolated and out cast. When mass communication and transportation rolled around in the latter half of the 20th century, the seperate pools of dragon cows became aware of each other. It was shortly after this that the dragon cows decided to move to the Sword Coast in Antarctica, and start their own country.
Society
The Dragon Cow society is a mixed bag of Japanese, South African, and Canadian ideals. Their government naturally arose out of this and the Dragon Cows natural instincts.
Government
The Government consists of a Prince or Princess who is elected every three years. After the Prince is elected, he chooses 50 people from whom 10 will form the senate. Each seate cantidate chooses a representative from each of the ten provinces. The people then choose their favourite 10 senators. The representatives that each elected senator chose becomes the house of representatives. The house of representatives has the only veto power over passing bills in the government. The seats are arranged so that the Prince sits at one end of the room, the speaker (an arbitrary position, to control the house)sits at the opposite end. The rest of the seats are arranged in a circle around the outside of the room. In the ring closest to the centre sit the Senators. In the next few rows sit the House of Representatives, positioned so that no two representatives from the same province sit next to, in front of, or behind each other. A recorder is positioned in the middle of the room.
Passing a bill
A bill can be proposed by any Dragon Cow citizen, which than goes to vote. The first stage is the first reading. The Prince, the Senate, and the House of Representatives are all present for the first reading. No voting is done on the first reading. On the Second Reading, only the House of Representativres is present. This is when they can make their veto. If six or more representatives of any one provincevote for a veto, than the bill is scrapped. If the bill is not vetoed, than it is put to a general vote for the House of Representatives. The bill must pass by 50% to move on. The next step is the third reading, which is done only for the Senators. They then vote on it. Again it must pass by 50% to continue. At this point, it is technically Law. It is then the Prince's duty to sign the bill, and announce the new law to the public. The other duty of the Prince is as a tiebreaker for either the Senate or the House of Representatives. If either group should be split right down the middle, the Prince has the deciding vote. He is also present at all of the readings of the bill.
Holidays
The Dragon Cow people take few holidays, however the schools do have a month off every five months. Elections week is always a joyous time, although it only comes around every three years. Although this is the extent of the major holidays, there are several smaller holidays throughout the year, depending on each Province's personal choice. Each one of these holidays typically means a day off for everyone in the province. Three-day weekends are standard thoughout the country, but the people work harder than most humans during the four days a week they are at work.
Personalities, etc.
Most Dragon Cows are friendly enough, although territrial. This can lead to some problems, but it generally stays fairly low-level, and most perpetrators get off with only a warning. Surprisingly, there is no division between dragon cows from South Africa, from Canada, and from Japan; instead, they intermix quite well and often Dragon Cows get along better with people from nationalities other than their own. Dragon Cows tend to be slow to take up arms against other countries, but quick to take up arms to defend their own. Dragon Cows are quite creative people. The country sprots some beautiful cities thanks to their plentiful architects and city planners. Local musicians are featured in most of the cities almost every night. Dragon Cow paintings are renowned throughout the world as some of the best artwork done by a species with no thumbs.
Physical characteristics of the draconis bovinous
The term Dragon Cow is used generally to describe any humanoid creature evolved from dragon and bovie background, both male and female (in other words, there are no Dragon Bulls). Adult Dragon Cows generally stand between 5 1/2 feet to 6 1/2 feet tall. They look like a very muscular human with thick fur; arms, legs, and head of a cow; and the wings of a dragon. Just by looking them in the eyes, you can tell that they are not the big, dumb animals that stand in a field and eat grass all day. In fact, on average, they are more ingelligent than humans. Their fur is generally white with black splotches; although brown splotches, and even all-brown fur is not uncommon. Their wings are mostly gold with some red along the edges and through the veins. They are mostly for show, as they are much too small for sustained flight. However, if a Dragon Cow flaps his wing while jumping, he can increase the height and distance of his jump by up to double, althoug this is very tiring. They still have a breath weapon, however the range has decrease signfigantly, so is only useful within about 5 feet. It is more used for lighting fireplaces, rather than self defence nowadays.
