Nezrik

Physical Appearance
Nezrik is a Sparkwing that looks near identical to a Longwing. At first glance, he's indistinguishable. He has the average black scales with the usual identification marking and body markings - the body resembling a jagged edge of flame or stone and his identification a three-spoked backwards "wave". His wings are the average size of a Longwing's and he is capable of flight. His eyes are a leaf green. He has two scars on his snout - he was born with nose horns like a Sparkwing, a genetic trait associated with firebreathing. When he decided to become a spy, he had the nose horns removed to fit in better. The scars may arouse suspicion, though, so he wears a bandage around them most of the time within the Empire.

Nezrik also has the capability to breathe fire, as his nosehorn trait suggests. Due to his near perfect appearance of a Longwing, this weapon is highly effective against enemies who do not know him as the element of surprise is nearly always on his side. His build is rather average, not too muscular but verging on the thin side - he's rather agile, especially in the air, and is an expert in aerial maneuvers.

Biography
Nezrik was born into the Red Claw a long while before the events of Breakthrough. He was the product of a long line of Longwing x Sparkwing breeding, his ancestors slowly looking more and more like the original Longwings but still retaining obvious traits of the other race. Nezrik and his brother Draekor were the first to be born with very few traits like a Sparkclaw, although Draekor has odd fins instead of a frill that set him apart. The two have the same coloration and similar markings and are somewhat difficult to tell apart at first glance. They were, like most dragons, inseparable.

Both Nezrik and his brother have a large interest in the Red Claw's military. Draekor entered earlier than Nezrik, who has less of a warrior build. The Board of War Director at the time, however, saw potential in Nezrik as a spy. He put Nezrik under curious watch to see how he would develop in the military. Nezrik managed to climb multiple ranks and claim bold titles in his years - he went from just another Dragon in the initial militia drills at three years of age to commanding small chunks of the army at age fifty.

One day during a regular training drill, a senior officer approached Nezrik and offered him a different position, a very important one that he fit extremely well for - an infiltrator. While skeptical at first, Nezrik quickly warmed up to the role, finding that he had a knack for deception and impersonation. Already harboring undying loyalty for his nation, Nezrik gladly put himself through the pain of having his distinctive nose horns removed in the sake of better concealment. He feels the removal of his nose horns was more of an initiation than a necessity - that the Red Claw was testing to see if his loyalty extended into suffering through great amounts of pain for the sake of fitting in. Having proved his loyalty, he was sent away from his brother and parents to slip into one of the outskirt cities of the Dragon Empire.

He had issues at first, as he wasn't used to the different way of life in the Dragon Empire despite his training. The biggest obstacle he had to face was faking hatred towards Sparkclaws. Raised in a raceblind society, Nezrik wasn't one to harbor unreasonable hatred towards someone just for existing as they are. It took him a few months to get over this obstacle and finally act as if bossing Sparkclaws around was natural. Questions were asked, of course, but he shook them off with relative ease. After a few years, he proved his 'loyalty' to the Dragon Empire and became a normal guard.

The hard, deceptive, trust-no-one life of being a spy took its toll on Nezrik, however. He lost a lot of the warm and brotherly feel he emitted back in his army days in the Red Claw. He became a drake of few words, preferring to state things sharp and short rather than elaborate. His heart and mind was steeled to the point where he became uncaring of others' emotions and found it harder and harder to understand other Dragons. He personally worries he will go insane if he stays in such a state of isolation much longer, seeing the change in himself.

Personality
Nezrik is a strong-willed and sharp-minded Dragon who is very to the point with how he speaks and acts. He prefers to use as few words as possible, getting his point across clearly and concisely. Long years of being a spy has weathered him greatly, his heart and mind steeled against possible backstabbers and those he cannot trust. When around others he knows he really can trust, though, such as old friends from the Red Claw, he seems to untense and act a bit more like the Dragon he was before turning to the hard life of a spy - caring, and a bit of a jokester. However, he never stops being on edge; he's always prepared to dodge a jump or strike back against an assassin.

Comic Appearances
Nezrik first appears in Breakthrough as a guard preventing the escape of Iyress, Tygressa, and Ruskaer following the events of the meeting at the Royal Balcony. Iyress, as a fellow member of the Red Claw, recognises him as the other guard (Azyr) counts down. He then proceeds to aid in the trio's escape by blasting the other dragon with his flame, killing him (as revealed later).

He appears later to alert King Kaenan that the "escapee" killed Azyr and is now leading the two following her into the cave-in before departing with orders to check if Irkien's claims of calling the guard on the escapees is true.

He appears once again to save Tygressa and Ruskaer from a hostile Forest Wyvern west of the Dragon Empire's territory. He was alerted to their position from the smoke of their fire and came down from the skies to dispatch the Wyvern before it could do any damage to the two young Dragons. Shortly after, it is revealed that Nezrik didn't come alone; he brought a search part of Sparkwings and a Night Wyvern along with him from the Red Claw to find the two young dragons and, hopefully, persuade them to join their cause.