Musings on a possible Temeraire AU for Flight of the Heron

[luzula]

I don't know whether this is something I am actually going to write, but I thought it would be fun to jot down some notes on a possible Temeraire AU of Flight of the Heron.

It's been years since I read Temeraire canon, but I don't remember that it has anything about the '45. There's a covert at Loch Laggan in Scotland, but is there anything about Scotland's dragons in particular? I'd have to reread to see. My idea is that the Highland dragons are probably divided along clan lines: from the human POV it's a great idea to have dragon protection for your clan, and of course dragons always want groups of humans to call their own, and want access to cattle besides. Probably the dragons are as intensely political as the clan leadership, and occasionally want different things: maybe the dragons of the MacLeods are incensed that their clan chief is joining the Hanoverian side, while the dragons of the main Grant branch vainly try to keep back the Glenmoriston Grants from joining the Jacobites. These dragons might possibly not have captains, but have allegiance to the clan instead.

I would have liked to picture some of the dragons as being embroiled in long-term legal feuds as much as the human gentry, but Temeraire canon seems to contradict this since dragons have no legal rights in Britain (but maybe Scotland is different, and dragon rights were changed in the 1707 union, and the dragons are still bitter about it?). In general the dragon's long lives are probably relevant to their political opinions, since of course they remember earlier reigns. Which could go both ways: maybe their loyalties stand firm, or they go "uh, James II? I actually remember him, this romanticised image you have of him is not correct..." In the half century after the defeat at Culloden, the clan dragons are integrated into the British aerial forces, some by force and some by other means.

I picture Keith as having one of those small courier dragons, and he's sent to accompany the recruits along the Great Glen. Then his dragon is wounded and brought down by Loch Oich (but doesn't die!), and he meets Ewen as per canon. Ewen has no dragon of his own, but the old Clan Cameron dragon down at Achnacarry has maybe taken a shine to him.

Operationally, dragons would obviously change the course of the war, but the human armies still have to march. Dragons would make communications faster and spying on enemy movements easier. It would make it easier for France to come to the Jacobites' aid with money and equipment (supposing they got through the aerial cordon). It would make armies vulnerable to aerial attack, but there would also be aerial defense. I suppose in a battle, an important role for the dragons would be to take out the enemy ground artillery as well as defend against enemy dragons and themselves attack enemy troops.

...but I already plotted out and wrote a whole alternate course of that war for another story, and I don't think I have the stamina to do so again! Maybe I will at some point just write a piece of it. Or maybe this bit of worldbuilding fun is all I will do. : )

Comments

[luzula]

I imagine dragon rights in Scotland were not the same as human rights, but a complicated set of laws and customs where sometimes they had courts of their own, and were sometimes subject to human courts, and employed an army of lawyers against each other, all with the ultimate social purpose of channeling their feuds into the courts instead of into actual violence.

Well, the elite wore plenty of bling with their tartan, I'm sure Temeraire would approve of something like this. *g* Although of course, Temeraire himself wasn't born yet.