Black Marrow Dragon

Black Marrow Dragon
Hover Over for Description
Release Date	October 31, 2010
Elemental Affinity	Death
Morphology	Western Dragons
Base Rarity	Rare (Holiday)
BSA	None
Habitat	No Habitat
Color	Black, maroon, white
Nicknames	Marrow
Spriters	Dovealove, Seiss

Black Marrows, or Halloween 2010 Dragons, were the Holiday species given out during Halloween of 2010. Unlike dragons of other holidays, Halloween dragons can be either male or female and do not have a scroll limit set for them. They are only capable of producing more Black Marrow eggs during a certain period when Halloween is celebrated in October. They can still be bred to all year round, producing their partner's breed of egg.

The lack of a scroll limit for Halloween dragons was explained during one year's event by TJ09: "In the words of the pumpkin dragon's creator, Christmas and Valentine's Day are about giving, but Halloween is about grabbing as much candy for yourself as you can".

Due to the large amount of traffic generated by this release, "The Lagmonster" struck DC. Many users stated during the release that, because of the lag, they didn't even stand a chance to catch an egg. Because of this and the lag, TJ09 for the first time added a second row of eggs on the site during the release. There was also a glitch which affected this species in which at least six adult dragons had no gender- this was fixed by replacing all the affected Marrows with gender-specific adults.

Under the old Breed sort, these dragons sorted as "Halloween 2010 Dragon" on a user's scroll. As of August 14, 2016, they now sort using their Encyclopedia name.

Official Dragon Descriptions

Egg

"This egg is covered in a dark crust."

Hatchling

"This hatchling could hardly be considered cute."

Mature Hatchling

"This hatchling could hardly be considered cute.
Look it has grown wings! At least it isn't quite as naked-looking anymore."

Adult

"Black Marrows are named for their dark colored hides which are encased in a distinct exoskeleton. Their skull and the top edges of their spine push out from under the skin as they age. As such, their young need excessive amounts of calcium for this armor to develop. The older a Black Marrow dragon is, the more skeletal their appearance. They often use their skeletal looks to lure in foolish scavengers or terrify predators. These vicious dragons love nothing more than to crack open bones with their stony beaks and eat the marrow inside. Voracious scavengers, Black Marrows will swarm and devour corpses both old and fresh, sometimes even dragging larger finds to the water to allow them to "ripen". Despite their dreadful demeanour and often horrid stench, Black Marrows are devoted mates and parents."

Sprite Artist(s)

• Dovealove (All)
• Seiss (All)

Sprites

Series	Egg	Hatchling	Mature Hatchling	Adult
Female
Male

Sprites No Longer In-Use

Show/Hide Table

Series	Egg	Hatchling	Mature Hatchling	Adult
Temporary Holiday Sprites
Christmas'11 Female	-	-	-
Christmas'11 Male
Old Sprites
Old Female	-	-	-	File:Old Black Marrow female.gif

Egg Sequence

Stage 0	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5	Dead

Encyclopedia Entry

Show/Hide Entry

Appearance/Basic Anatomy

• Covered in distinct exoskeleton that is black in appearance.
• Youngest hatchlings are mostly red in color. Older Marrows are mostly black with red on the underside of their wings.
• Stony beak meant for cracking open bones.
• Typical build for their body plan.
• Skeletal matter pokes through their skull and spine, all the way down their tail.
• Male’s horns curve backwards while female’s horns are shorter and poke straight up.
• Distinctive foul odor that is hard to get used to or ignore.
• Young hatchlings look almost skinless at a first glance.

Hatchling Behavior

• Youngest hatchlings mostly sit about screeching and wailing at each other.
• Become more active and rambunctious as they age.
• Exoskeleton pushing through skin is painful; hatchlings often rub up against trees, rocks, and each other to help the passing of bone through skin.
• Play is group-oriented either with other hatchlings or adults.
• Young hatchlings are brought food by parents or other adults of the clan.
• Older hatchlings begin scavenging themselves but only target carcasses, not dying animals.
• Hoarders of anything that catches their eye.
• Group play helps hatchlings practice keeping a scavenged find.

Adult Behavior

• Live in clans or packs of at least a dozen adults.
• Respect earned through finding the largest and ripest carcasses.
• Usually mate for life.
• May take a new mate if their first mate dies.
• Hatchling care is primarily the duty of the hatchling’s parents, but a group would never let a hatchling go forgotten.
• Harden their beaks by putting them through rigorous use.
• Sharpen their beaks on smoother rocks.
• Have been known to play dead for the express purpose of drawing in other scavengers just to frighten them.

Habitat

• Hardy dragons that can live in most any environment.
• Do not do well in environmental extremes.
• Prefer to hide eggs and hatchlings within caves.
• Adults do not typically inhabit caves.

Diet

• Scavengers, they will eat carcasses of nearly any animal they find.
• Favorite treat is bone marrow.
• Scavenge for the dead and nearly dead but will not swarm until a creature is dead.
• Hatchlings get bits of larger carcasses or are given smaller carcasses of their own.
• Young hatchlings cannot dig out bone marrow, so do not taste it until they are more mature.