The Beithir (Brontoviperus scotica; Ogham: ᚛ᚁᚓᚆᚔᚏ᚜; bheithir; SG IPA: [/veˈhiɾʲ/], English IPA: [/ˌveɪˈhɪ(-r)/]) is the Elder Dragon introduced in Worldcraft: Moon's Desire and Weather Dragons: Beyond the Despaired. Beithir is the third minor antagonist and turns into the tritagonist for Merida of Dunbroch and her other friends for defense against Clarissa and Yosef's enemies, the Comieos aliens.

Etymology

The Scottish Gaelic word beithir has been defined variously as "serpent", "lightning", and "thunderbolt". It is also referred to as beithir-nimh ("venomous serpent") and nathair ("serpent" and "adder"). The word may also mean "wild beast" and may be derived from the Norse for "bear" according to Celtic mythology scholar James MacKillop.

Physical Appearance

Beithir is a drake species with electric blue scales and jagged gray to blackish gray spikes on the shoulders, elbows, waist, chest, and even the horns. This species was slender and sinuous, with metallic blue-gray belly scales and blue eyes. To reproduce, they immobilize a species and inject their offspring, which are known as draggies. Draggies develop inside their victim until it dies or they are powerful enough to escape.

Abilities

Unlike most Elder Dragons, the Beithir can float, walk, or crawl while manipulating electric and electromagnetic powers using unique organs. Beithir has paralytic fangs on their upper teeth, reminiscent of the venomous snakes. Beithir's electrical attacks are significantly faster and more powerful than those of regular electrical creatures, and they also cover a greater distance. It can crawl on the ceiling, unlike the other drakes.

Weather Phenomenon

Thunderstorm

Ecology

Beithir are primarily cave or wetland predators that ambush food in lochs and other surrounding water formations. However, the dragon will leave the caverns or wetland systems in quest of prey. If their selected victims are small, Beithir will overcome and swallow them whole before paralyzing them; if their prey is larger, the Elder Dragon will use their electrical talents to paralyze them. Beithir's visage resembles that of a wolf-like dragon without wings, and its forelimbs are highly muscular, similar to those of large cats. Its lengthy body allows it to move with astonishing quickness for such a huge animal.

Its snake-like form, combined with its limbs and tail, which feature large spikes and webbed feet, help it to swim fast through the water. It has sharp claws coupled to powerful muscular forelimbs that are utilized to deliver a lethal blow to both prey and survivors. It gains the ability to overcharge itself if left to cling to a wall surface or ceiling for an extended period of time. Its entire body will gleam silvery in this form, and its electric element power becomes exceedingly powerful, albeit its movement speed is somewhat slowed as a result.

The enormous dorsal spines on its back are employed to discharge electric attacks, and there may be an electrosac below each spike leading to the mouth. This horn is used to draw lightning from the sky, even when there isn't a storm cloud in sight, and strike any adversaries who threaten it, mimicking the effects of thyroid glands with unique electric sacs. Even if the horn is shattered, Beithir may easily call lightning bolts. When it does this, some of the electricity interacts with the mucus in its mouth, allowing it to spit lightning darts or beams.

Beithir, like Qilin, is a one-of-a-kind drake who can run at such high speeds that he appears to teleport, leaving behind a path of blue lightning. They eat local herbivores, small carnivores, fish, and, on rare occasions, larger animals like deer, hares, goats, sheep, horses, wolves, dogs, kangaroos, colugos, salmon, carp, gobies, sharks, and more. Because of their size and strength, the majority of predators would avoid them. Dreadplasma, Yarokitesha, Mizutsune, and Plesioth, among other creatures imported by humans for colonization in Reinachos, Berbania, and Sawintir, would rather retreat than fight back against an assaulting beithir. Prior to the commission's journey to the Sawintir, Beithir's diet was unknown. It was discovered to feed on flora in these 15 regions of each country in Sawintir.

Behavior

Beithir is an optimistic and overprotective animal, daring to describe what this creature is. Many people noticed that this dragon gave a person a need for justice, which is now forbidden. Beithir is considered very aggressive towards everything.

Distribution and Habitat

Beithir was located in Scotland as an endemic species. It dwells in mountainous caves and corries (valleys) and is equipped with a venomous sting on its elbows or fangs. If a person is stung by the beithir, then they must head for the nearest body of water, such as a river or loch.

Movement Pattern: Nomadic
Individual Type: Solo
Population Trend: Stable
Population: 1300
Locomotion: Aquatic
Habitat: Taiga; Montane Grasslands and Shrublands; Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands, Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Graveyard Vale; Mountain; Warm River; Cold River; Lukewarm River; Subterranean River; Warm Pond; Cold Pond; Warm Lake; Cold Lake; Karst Cave; Karst Spring; Lava Field; Lava Tube; Volcano; Lava Trench; Basalt Delta; Warm Ghost Town; Cold Ghost Town; Ruined Skyscraper.
Earth:
- Extant (Resident): United Kingdom (Scotland)
- Extant & Vagrant (Resident): Albania; Australia; Austria; Belarus; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Colombia; Croatia; Czechia; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Italy; North Korea; South Korea; Latvia; Lithuania; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Netherlands; North Macedonia; Norway; Poland; Romania; Russian Federation; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Sweden; Switzerland

Tamed

Some of these eggs of their own can only be found in Beithir's Dens in the Grampian Mountains or Beinn a' Bheithir on Planet Earth, or elsewhere in Tiqojarha of Berbania, Nueva Prydain of Sawintir, and the Horatian Cordillera Range of Reinachos, with Beithir's eggs being native to different regions. These dens have a diamond-like opening appearance, making them stand out from the other types of monster dens.

Lightning can also strike a lightning rod hit by lightning to easily fasten hatching for Beithir, due to being different from drakes. Once hatched, Beithir babies need to be fed milk, which can be obtained by various animals, including wyverns.

Lore

This dragon was apparently a terror to the surrounding district. From the lip of the corrie, she overlooked the path around the foot of the mountain, and if the unsuspecting traveler attempted to pass by her, she would leap down and tear him to pieces. The mountain at which tourists to Glencoe are landed was first called Beinn Ghuilbin but is now known as Beinn Bheithir. By tradition, it got this name from a dragon that, long ago, took shelter in Corrie Liath, a great hollow in the face of the mountain and almost right above Ballachulish Pier.

John Francis Campbell recounted a traditional story in 1890 about a wicked stepmother who was the wife of an Irish king, and she gave the king's son a magic shirt that was a beithir in disguise. As long as the "great snake" remained coiled about his neck, the prince was under his stepmother's enchantment, but he was eventually freed from the beithir with the help of a wise woman.

In the 1930s, beithirs were reported on the ground near Loch a’ Mhuillidh in Glen Strathfarrar and Sgùrr na Lapaich. A group of fishermen saw a creature about 9–10 feet (2.7–3.0 m) long coiled in a gorge near Kilmorack in 1975. It became agitated upon sighting the fishermen and swam away towards Beaufort Castle.

It is said that if a normal snake is killed, then the head must be separated a proper distance from its body and destroyed. Otherwise, both parts will come together, and the snake will return to life as a beithir. Donald Alexander Mackenzie in Scottish Folklore and Folk Life (1935) drew a possible connection between the beithir and the mythological hag known as the Cailleach Bheur. In a story from Argyll, the Cailleach was slain by a hunter who hacked her to pieces, but she returned to life when all her body parts came together again. Mackenzie suggested that the serpent-dragon of the Loch may be one of her forms.