6 levels:

- Basic
- Greater
- Soldier
- Imperial
- Majestic
- Chaos

Definitions:

Crown: present only on the reigning head(s). A crest-like ridge of bone around the eyes. Horns come out of the crown and are the same colour as the crown.

Jewels: stones present in the crown of a hydra. Determines sex and age.

Herd: collection of hydra under a ruling family. Mostly Basic and Greater Hydra. Hydra herds are not amazingly friendly with each other, often fight among themselves, kill each other. They are held together only by the Monarch and the ruling family. Soldier Hydras are the ones who try to keep the peace between the Basic and Greater Hydra. A big herd will have more problems because of a the size of the ruling family. Without the ruling family the herd would fall apart and hydras would live alone, killing each other and anyone else in their way. Every hydra in the herd has a job given to it by the Monarch. If that job is not done, penalty is death. If the job�s only partly done, penalty is death. If the Monarch�s in a bad mood, penalty is death. A lot of fighting occurs in your average herd.

Monarch: a Chaos or Majestic Hydra who is strongest and leader of the herd.

Hopeful: people who have passed the parent hydra�s test and wish to try to join with a hydra. Stand near eggs and pray that they�re not eaten.

Join: the act of a hydra accepting you as a partner. Each type of hydra takes this differently. You will be able to communicate feelings to and from your hydra. Although hydra are extremely intelligent they do not speak. They are empathic though and transmit general ideas and feeling their joined and other hydra. To join any hydra, you have to impress it. Show no fear, be strong. Only the best join.

Reigning Head: head which dominates over the other heads, main personality, control, strongest, different for different types.

Ruling Family: collection of Chaos and Majestic Hydra (with their Imperials). They are the strongest therefore they command the Greater, Basic and Soldier hydra to do what they want. They often fight among each other for ranks. All of the ruling family are ranked from Monarch down to the lowest Imperial. The ruling family kill each other to determine this ranking. A hydra must have been in 2nd rank for a year before challenging Monarch. All hydras will follow their superiors orders to the letter or fear the wrath of that hydra.

Basic Hydra: (3 heads, 1 reigning head with a crown the same colour as they are, 1 tail, usually green or brown or a mixture of these two colours.) Lowest stage of hydra, usually make up most of the herd. They are the tamest meaning they are the least likely to eat you as an observer, friend or partner. Least aggressive. Develop a friend-like relationship, with little respect for their partner. Hard to train, will always act wild around strangers, that is, anyone who is not you.

Greater Hydra: (6-12 heads, 1 reigning head with a silver crown, 1 tail, slightly darker colouring as Basic) A stage higher than Basic. A lot like your Basic Hydra only they will develop closer relationships with their partners. Not likely to eat their partner but will eat guest, be it friend or foe, if you�re not careful.

Soldier: (14-18 heads, 1 reigning head with a gold crown, 1 tail, same colouring as Greater but with black along belly) Next stage in Hydra. There are 5 Soldier Hydra for every Imperial Hydra in a herd. Although not part of the ruling family, they are, collectively, the most dangerous part of the herd. While Basic and Greater Hydra are in charge of looking after young, getting food etc. the Soldier�s are concerned with guarding the entire herd. They will fight viciously to protect any member of the herd. Also known as peace keepers as they break up fights between Basic and Greater Hydra. Are very loyal, as hydra go. Not likely to eat their partner, but will not always join. If you join one it will listen to your every command, and follow it. If you are not around it will act as you would expect it to act.

Imperial: (21-25 heads, 1 reigning head with silver crown, 2 tails, coloured a deep red or blue) Lowest stage in Ruling family. Normally there are 2-4 Imperials for every Majestic. Their main job is guarding their Majestic. They are likely to join, but are known to eat hopefuls. A fighter or warrior hopeful will usually join an Imperial or Soldier. They develop a very close relationship with their partner. Their first loyalty is always to their Majestic first though. They will leave their partner if the Majestic has need of them, but they will always come back.

Majestic: (26-29 heads, 3 reigning heads, 1st head (top of the reigning heads) has a gold crown and the other two have silver. 3 tails, coloured deep red or blue with black belly.) In most hydra herds this is the highest rank, since chaos are so rare. Part of the ruling family. Usually between 2-5 in a herd. Strongest will normally be Monarch, unless there is a Chaos in the herd, then the Chaos would always be Monarch. Rarely join, but rarely eat hopefuls. Command other hydras. Develop a working relationship with joined, verging on friendship. Only Chaos and Majestic hydras mate, therefore they have the Imperials to protect them. Without the Majestic�s their wouldn�t be a herd. They lay up to 10 eggs at a time. You must be accepted by the parent Hydra, or hydra whose eggs you want to join, to stand. Eggs hatch at a pre-determined date, if there are not enough candidates then some hydra won�t join. Hydra�s don�t need humans to join to, they are fine on their own.

Chaos: (30+ head, 5 reigning heads, 1st head has gold crown, 2nd heads have silver and 3rd heads have a black crown, 5+ tails, coloured completely black.) Rarest and highest ranking hydra. Some herds do not have a Chaos in them, but if there is one, it is most definitely a Monarch. Cruelest, meanest type. They get their name for their lack of willingness to fit into a space in hydra society. Just as likely to live alone as in a herd. More likely to eat hopefuls then join. You must really earn a Chaos�s respect to join and that is hard, since they are the cruelest creature by far on Tris�hath, scaring even the other hydra. They are the best fighters. If you do by some chance join with a Chaos you will have an amazing relationship, just look at Toth and Krent or Vienna and Enma.

*General note:* Hydras are mean, therefore they will join to someone like them. This is your chance to create a really evil candidate and get rewarded for it. Candidates can be of any humanoid race (ex. humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) but not creatures like dragons, unicorns or griffons. Be forewarned!!! some candidates may get eaten at the hatching. (Once again proving the meanness of hydra). The tougher your character the less likely they are to be eaten. The hydra hatching will happen 2 weeks after the clutch is laid. Hydras do not need a partner therefore if there are more hydra than hopefuls some will just be wild. You will not know exactly what kind of hydra you joined until later though as the hatchlings are all identical. That means that the hydra type is greatly effected not only by your original page but by the resulting pages for hatchlings, and other stages.

The stages are: hatchling (all have 1 head and are brown), baby (define some splotches of other colours), child (gets more heads, colour more defined), teen (gets total or near total heads, colour perfect), adult (crown defined and coloured, tail splits, reigning head(s) decided for sure.)

Breath weapons: Breath weapons are few and often unimportant for a hydra. When you've got that much bulk, you don't really care for long range weaponry. The central head possess fire, like any normal dragon. The other ruling heads (depending on the hydra's rank) either have acidic attacks or nothing at all. The lesser heads have no weapon and simply use their teeth. Yet with all the bacteria and diesease that builds up in there, it's often deadly enough (think Komodo dragon).

Jewels:
Different jewels in a hydra�s crown mean different things. Below is a list.
- diamond: strength
- sapphire: intelligence
- ruby: temper
- amethyst: communication/joining ability
- emerald: loyalty
- black diamond: tendency towards chaotic behavior

There can be any number of any kind of jewels on the hydra's crown. For example a hydra with two diamonds, four rubies, and a sapphire, would be a strong, bad-tempered hydra, with little use for their partner. An opal stone centered in the middle of the 1st reining head�s crown determines sex. If the opal tends towards white it is a male, if it tends towards black it is a female.

MY RULES
- don�t put other creatures on the same page as your hopeful or hydra, the hydra will eat them
- don't make a wimpy character, the hydra will eat them
- must have a web-page with a pre-made candidate
- link back to Sistarrist Drakan (http://www.geocities.com/hydra_realm)
- I must be able to find your page easily, if I have to look, I won�t bother
- to prove that you are paying attention, tell me the name of the parent hydra of the clutch you are applying to
- you can re-submit candidate if not chosen (or eaten)
- if you are strongly against being eaten tell me, after all, this is for fun
- don�t think that because you�re on the hopeful list, you�ll join, you may not
- I will join you with the hydra best suited to you. Don�t argue.
- if you don�t take good care of your hydra it will eat you, even after it�s joined
- never claim to have made the hydra. They are the products of Magika�s messed up imagination and Mystic�s ability to draw. They are copyrighted to me and Mystic as of now (2000)
- if there are no spots open I will ignore your application
- I know I talk a lot but, voila, the form. Copy the questions, then hit the e-mail button below. Paste the questions into the new window and answer them.

Name/Online ID:
E-mail:
Hopeful's Name:
Gender:
URL:
Comments:
Are you strongly against being harmed/mauled/eaten/etc. ?:
What kind of hydra you honestly think you deserve (I do take this into consideration):

Send to: [email protected]
or
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