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The friendliest, most bubbliest old woman you will ever meet. Level and down to earth with a good sense of humor and an overwhelming nurturing nature. Having been the mother to many, many babies in her time, she's taken on the aspect of a mother in every sense of the word, and spreads the love all around her, sharing her care freely with anyone who decides to take it (and with several people who are forced to take it). As matriarch to a massive brood of dragons, and well past breeding age herself, she's taken it upon herself to procure other beings to mother over. This has lead to many a cat being taken in, along with dogs, birds, and the occasional lizard. She's outlived them all, and currently on cat number three thousand, two hundred and eighty six, going by the name of Lemons.

She is almost infinitly patient, having raised all of her children past their rebellious years, and can tolerate a great deal from a lot of people. Though she has pride, it's not delicate, and she weathers most insults and attacks against her like a reed in the wind. Bowing back and then straightening up once it's all done and over with. It's better to not fight and cause trouble, and focus more on tending to others than be a pain in the ass. While some of her brood have flown off to go torment mountain sides and eat villagers, she remains a steadfast pacifist and gentle giant, almost never stooping to simplistic violence in order to get her way. It has driven her from a few homes, as humans are not always the most understanding species (and living next to a dragon can be kind of nerve wracking), but she's comfortably settled now and oversees her now slowly aging brood with a gentle claw and the eyes of a hawk.

She can become somewhat overbearing when she's settled on someone to care for, as she is still a dragon and has some of the same kinds of 'better than you' mindsets that most other dragons have. Delicate little things outside of her species need special care after all, they can be hurt so easily and pass on so quickly. She rarely refuses to accept that she's not needed (or wanted) in certain situations, and insists on having her opinion be heard and her care be accepted. She's lived to a ripe old age after all, who has better advice than her? She's a stubborn old broad, and will stick around for as long as she thinks necessary until she is positive that her services are no longer needed. While she is perfectly capable of being reasonable and rational, she still holds herself as the most responsible person in the area, and it would be irresponsible to abandon someone in a time of need (even if they claim they don't need anything).

Not a being easily swept away by emotions, there are still some ways to trigger the old broodmother's anger. While idle threats against her brood (or assumed brood) are usually brushed off without much notice, attacks against them are never tolerated. Those under her protection are defended with little care given to her own personal well being, and she generally does not feel any sort of remorse for taking down real threats to her brood. Another excellent way to anger her is to steal something of hers, or show dishonesty. While it usually doesn't earn one a roaring rampaging revenge dragon, it will earn one angry old woman with a few choice words about ne'er do wells and what she ought to do with them. And endless guilt trips. She can hold grudges for a long, long time if a slight actually harms her, and generally will not relent until an apology is had.

Though she is overwhelmingly friendly and easy to get along with, she can still be quite the tricky old lady. In her old age, she likes to play up her aching hips or trick knee, if only as an excuse to avoid having to go along somewhere, or run after someone. She is also known for laying on the guilt if her way isn't had, citing her age as another excuse as to why she should be listened to or 'humored'. Not often terribly self deprecating, she can slip into it slightly if it means swaying someone to her way of thought, or at least getting them to sit still for long enough to listen to her, wielding guilt like a cudgel. It's worked enough in the past before that she doesn't feel she has to do much else to get her way, and tends to be a bit surprised if it's turned around on her. Or ignored.


HISTORY

Bao Huan was not born with that name. Technically, it is merely a human named adopted when China finally had some people in it, but her draconic name is far too complex for human understanding. Technically, she's been around long enough to clearly remember the dinosaurs, and used to spend a great deal of time in the warm waters of the new earth, and flying above the oceans. She can tolerate temperatures of incredible heights, and is usually the most comfortable around heated areas and volcanoes.

Bao was born the first clutch of her mother's, and raised in a fairly normal family. You know, for an ancient clan of dragons. Her father passed away early on after getting in a territorial fight with another dragon, and her mother never settled down again with another male, preferring to go about picking random males in order to lay more clutches of eggs. Bao was one of the few daughters that remained behind with her mother in order to help attend to the new broods, assisting her mother with all measures of childcare as she grew older. At first it was believed by her family that she might never take a mate herself, but as her mother laid smaller and smaller clutches, her attentions wandered outward. While she never did leave her mother until after she passed on (killed by another broodmother for nesting space), she began to seek out a mate to start her own nest with.

Her first mate was a massive drake from the west, as her father had been, and she had five broods with him, far more than her original mother had ever had with her father. She cared for each and every brood deeply, protecting them through many trials and tribulations. As dragon eggs, before humanity arrived, were a prized dish for their protein and size, protecting both the eggs and her young brood was the most important thing she could ever think to do. She put her entire being into protecting each clutch of eggs, raising each drake until they were old enough to either choose to remain with their broodmother as a clan, or set out to start their own families.

After only a few thousand years though, she lost her first mate to, what else, a territorial squabble with another male. When said male attempted to claim Bao Haun as the prize for the fight along with the territory, she summerily dominated him. She was a large female, larger than most other local dragons, and while the fight was hard and she came out battered and scarred, she still sent the attempted suitor away with burns and gouges. Rather than remain in the territory and weather more fights from incoming males and females though, she chose to pack up her newest brood and move for more calmer areas. It was around this time that the dinosaurs began to show up on earths forested and green surface, and Bao... cared little for the new arrivals to her area. Though larger than most dinosaurs that would pass through her territory, there was the ever growing threat of losing eggs and hatchlings to opportunistic hunters. She had to find a new mate to help in protecting her hatchlings, and she eventually settled on a more local, eastern dragon.

This relationship lasted only a few thousand years longer than the last before he was injured in a battle with a dinosaur, and died due to infection not too long afterwards. There was little mourning to be had by Bao, who had merely taken him as a mate as an insurance policy. Again, she moved her brood and her clan to a new area and settled down again, intent on making this one last a little longer. This time, she had chosen a cooler location, far up in the mountains, where there would be little chance of large predators bothering either her or her eggs. By this point, she had a nicely sized clan to assist her with protecting her young, and thought very little of getting a new mate, focusing on raising her brood without interference. Indeed, she had planned for the latest clutch to be the last, until she met Bai Hui.

Again, this was long before humans were ever even a thought on this planet, and Bai went by a very different name when they first met. He was another eastern dragon, traveling through the mountains to reach the sea to mate with another female. He was unfortunately caught up in a storm in the mountains though, and forced to land right outside Bao's chosen cave. At first, she attempted to drive him away, fearing for her brood, but as he pleaded to be kept safe and swore to leave after the storm abated, she relented, allowing him entrance into her cave.
He bonded quickly with her brood and her clan, and soon, with Bao herself, the two of them becoming very close despite the fact that she was a few thousand years his elder. As the storm passed and the way cleared, he lingered at the cave, and the two of them soon became inseperable mates quickly afterwards. Bai and Bao were long standing mates, and Bai sired several broods with Bao. He was a far more peaceful dragon than her previous mates, and remained safe up in the mountains with her, rather than wander and get into trouble with other dragons, or fight for more territory.

Bao remembers the asteroid that hit the earth well, and she took her brood and her mate with her into the sea to escape the wrath of the severe shifts in temperature and climate. Under the waves, she lived with a more welcoming clan of sea dragons near hot sea vents. It was there she developed a taste for sea food, mostly shark as they were one of the few that were massive enough to support her diet and keep her well fed.

Her and Bai would only emerge from the ocean again when the skies had once again cleared, and the climate had started to return to normal. Once more they sought out their mountain home, but continental drift and earthquakes had long ago destroyed it, forcing them to seek out other homes for them and their peaceful clan. They would find it in a valley, interested to find that the dinosaurs that would have once called this place home were no longer present. Instead, strange new animals came to greet them, with hair and fur. Much smaller than the dinosaurs ever were, and while they were still a threat to eggs and young dragons, there wasn't so much of a danger in fighting them off anymore. For a long, long expanse of time, there was general peace in the valley, hidden well enough that no other dragons came to challenge either of them for space, and only the occasional mammal would show up to try and steal eggs.

Soon, they started to become aware of a new addition to their furred neighbors. Hairless ones, with weapons and tools and thatched houses. The first humans arrived in their valley, here to hunt the plentiful game and claim the valley for their own. Fascinated by their newest neighbors, it was Bao that would first approach them. And scare the loincloths right off them. Her massive size was too much for them to handle, and the few of them that didn't scatter from her like she was about to devour them, decided to treat her as some sort of diety. Her and her mate, as it turns out, were subject to this treatment of either fleeing or worship. Amused by the reaction, they left the hairless pink creatures alone and watched from a distance, watching them as they came and left and returned again to the valley, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Until their little thatched houses began to be made out of stone, and the barest scraps of covering over their bodies changed to full attire, sometimes fine, sometimes poor.

Now, dragons are capable of great feats of magic. Bao's life never really demanded that she preform much magic before, but as more humans began to appear in the valley, she began to long to spend more time with them. They fascinated her as a species, appearing quite intelligent despite being so young, and very clever. So her and her mate crafted disguises to meet these newcomers. As a couple, two young humans arriving in the valley to get a closer look at these new people without spooking them or driving them away. At this point, both Bai and Bao were legends among the people, seen as benevolent spirits that protected the valley, as neither of the dragons ever attacked the humans or encroached in on their land. They were able to walk among them now, learning their language and speaking with them. More and more time was spent with these fascinating new beings, and soon other members of their clan adopted human guises and walked among them.

So it was for years and years, and both Bai and Bao witnessed the attacks by the Huns, and the building of the massive wall to keep them out. They moved their brood from the cave into the valley, living on the outskirts of town in a large manor-like house. While money was never an issue for them (as treasure was such a thing that Bao hoarded), Bai took on a job as a farmer, and he and his kin integrated with the town. Some of the clan split and moved off with humans themselves, though Bao never really saw the reasoning behind such a move. Humans were a short lived species, and falling in love with one was tantamount to trying to keep an insect as a pet. Death would come far too soon to develop much of a feeling beyond a mere crush. While she never once admonished her children for these relationships, she never really approved of them either, and while she still welcomed humans into her home and treated them well, she never progressed past the point of seeing them as just some sort of new, intelligent animal.

Finally, Bai and Bao would be split when Europeans came to China. It was not the fault of humans, but of another dragon that had assumed a human shape and had traveled along with a trading group on the Silk Road. He met Bao first, and attempted to steal her away from Bai. While Bao was, at this point, a very old and very powerful broodmother, she was caught unawares by the intruders advances, and was unable to use her more powerful attacks against him for fear of revealing herself to the townsfolk and losing the home she had built for her and her family. Bai, however, was much less worried about it.

When he came home to find Bao caught up with the European dragon, he reverted to his dragon form immediately. The townsfolk ran scared for the center of town as the trader shifted his shape as well, and their battle took to the skies, fire and lightning streaking across the sky as Bai called upon his magical prowess as an Eastern dragon. Storms blew in, trying to strike the drake with lightning, deafen him with thunder, and sweep him from the sky with wind, as the drake in turn responded with flame and molten lava wretched up from his gut.

Bai would soon be joined by Bao, as her mate began to flag in the battle, and brought with her the rest of her brood, rallying them to fight against this powerful new opponent. The sky was full of dragons, colorful scales, powerful flames and smoke filling the air above in a breathtaking display of power. For Bai, however, this fight would be his last. The Eastern dragon took a heavy blow to his side, and fell from the sky, crashing to the ground below. For Bao however, it would be the only fight where she would actually kill her opponent. Set upon at all sides by angry draklings and young dragons, the European dragon never stood a chance against the matriarch broodmother. She would tear him from the sky and crush him under her immense body, incinerating him with flame and tearing into him with poisoned fangs and rending claws.

Bloodied and bereaved, she returned to her mates side, the damage too much for her to fix. Bai died as Bao looked on, and his remains were taken to the mountain side near the valley, buried under stones and boulders. Once more, she would move her family, her secret revealed unto the humans there and worried about the attention and the problems that may arise from people knowing a dragon lived so close to them.

She retreated for a mountinous village, continuing the farm there, and raising the rest of her brood with no intention of ever again choosing a mate.
And now it's been several thousand years since she last had a mate to call her own, and the last of her brood is past the age of needing care. While she is never alone in her new home, in a now modern China, she still misses her last mate dearly, as it hasn't been nearly enough time to allow that wound to heal. She took on the duty of collecting strays to take care of now, whether they be stray humans or stray animals, as she has now decided she is too old to have any more children. Appropriately she has aged her human appearance, the old matriarch no longer seeking attention from anyone anymore.

She lives a quiet, peaceful life in her home now, with her cat and the occasional drifter and the rest of her clan. The house is still never empty of children even now, and she maintains her position of high matriarch and broodmother.