Blood and souls! Blood and souls for my Lord Arioch!— Old Valyrian, now Mōriblēnun, war cry.
Preface
First off, there’s nothing to say that a dragon can’t live to 300+ years old. For a real-life comparison Greenland Sharks can make it to 500 years old and don’t sexually mature until they’re 150 years old. So, like, if a shark can do it, I’m sure a dragon can. Balerion’s death is not necessarily strictly from old age. He returns from Valyria heavily wounded and given how horrific Aerea’s death was it wouldn’t be shocking that Balerion was also somehow negatively impacted by either the toxic post-Doom atmosphere, or something about his wounds, or the creature who made them. He’s then kept locked up in the Dragon Pit for 40 years. None of this is helping his health and Vhagar is then killed in combat, so we don’t have a 100% totally confirmed died of old age with no room for debate dragon to look at to get a sense of their normal life span. So, Arioch is old as shit send tweet.About
Arioch is named after an Old Valyrian God of chaos. He’s never been as large as Balerion or Vhagar, even now that he’s over 300 he’s not as big as they were at the end of their lives. At his biggest he’s probably about the same size as Sheepstealer. Arioch, however, is slender and elegant, maintaining a build closer to an adolescent dragon’s even into deep adulthood. He’s a handsome and sleek beast built for speed and tricky movement. His body is a mix of white and gray scales that gives a sense of him being almost crystalline in the right light and his wings are a deep jade green, as are places like like flesh of his mouth and his underbelly. His teeth and claws are pitch black. His flames have a kaleidoscope effect that are a mix of white, teal, jade, and pink — like mother of pearl. Overall, he can give off the air of looking like a startlingly lifelike statue of a beautiful young dragon made of a strange stone.
He’s also known for being a deceitful, vicious bastard. He will appear to sweet and kind and lure you into thinking he’s mild mannered and not dangerous— then immediately turn around and kill you or scare you for his own amusement. He’s capricious and untrustworthy and was loathed by the dragon tamers on Dragonstone when he still resided there. He’s dangerously intelligent and extremely hard to control. Sometimes Arioch will come up with his own plans and act on them when he wants to. He cannot be kept somewhere he does not want to be. He has a whole range of ruses and acts he uses to trick and manipulate humans and other dragons and get them where he wants them. He’s a NIGHTMARE to deal with. What he lacks in the raw physical strength dragons like Balerion and Vhagar have (or even Vermithor or Cannibal) he makes up for by being agile, unpredictable and having extremely good aim. He’s all the worst qualities of a cat mixed with an evil chaos god’s vibe and put into the body of a living nuclear missile. He has Jurassic Park raptor energy.
Additional Information
Basically, He’s a Twink dragon. The most white-haired anime boy of all dragons. He’s the most androgynous a hermaphroditic species can be.
While Elrys Doom-Bound was not his first rider, he was the only one able to truly keep Arioch subdued, something that has carried on to his later incarnations.
Balerion and Arioch did NOT get along and Vhagar was also not so fond of Arioch (or Elrys).
Arioch doesn’t bother going after the other dragon in a fight like most would, especially when up against a bigger/more powerful dragon he’ll instead go after the rider. He’ll use his nimbleness and trickery to get an opening and just snap them up in his jaws or flick them off/shatter their body with his tail.
Fun Fact for my Elric Heads: we’re basing his looks of The Jade Man statute from Sailor on the Seas of Fate.
