Swan

Description

Swans are a species of large waterfowl (their smaller cousins including geese and ducks, native to the Blessed Isle and the River Province (where they favour lakes and slow, shallow waterways as habitat).

They are white in coloration, reaching weights of up to 50lbs, with long necks possessed of a distinctive curve. Their bills range in colour, typically black at the base, those native to the River Province remaining black throughout while those on the Blessed Isle take on an orange colour towards the tip. A triangle of skin between eyes and bill remains bare of feathers. Legs and feet are generally grey-black in colour. Young swans are known as cygnets, and unlike their parents have tufted and blotchy grey feathers.

Behaviour

Swans are primarily herbivorous, feeding on aquatic and shore plants, though they will also consume insects and small fish. They form deep pair bonds, mating for life (unless they fail to conceive offspring), the male and female sharing responsibility for building the nest and incubating the eggs. Swans are aggressively territorial, and will attack without fear to defend their nests or young, using bony spurs in their wings and their impressive strength to be a danger even to larger animals such as crag cats or humans, who are known to have suffered injuries from broken limbs to death by battering or drowning. Swans will not hesitate to kill smaller birds and would-be-predators, and have even been seen to attack small boats in an attempt to drive them off. When they meet a creature of equivalent aggression, such as a Golden Eagle, the battle will be intensely ferocious and at least one of the combatants will not survive the encounter.

The swans of the Blessed Isle are known to be relatively quiet birds, while those in the River Province are more vocal.

Cultural Significance

Swans are popular symbols amongst the Dynasts of the Blessed Isle, representing the duty of Dragonblooded life: great and beautiful birds, bonded together to build a home and raise offspring, unflinchingly facing down threats both great and small in order to defend it, tied to each other but easily separating if children are not produced by their union. Ponds containing paired swans are popular features in Dynastic gardens and hunting estates.

The swan is used to represent the rank of Under-Secretary in the mandarin squares of the Thousand Scales.

The transformation of young swans, tufted and grey, to majestic adults, is a common poetic metaphor for something beautiful emerging from something plain.

Swans are also eaten, the large fowl serving as honoured centerpieces in lavish feasts. Amongst the petty kingdoms of the River Province, many rulers claim monopoly on swan preparation for their own kitchens, such dishes conveying their power and status, while on the Isle no amount of symbolic meaning seems to prevent hungry Dynasts and wealthy patricians from indulging in the bird.