Behind the Scenes: The Creation of Oolong

When I created Oolong for Oblivion's Gate, I went through a much different creation process than when I created Rokai and company for the Kingdom Chronicles. After all, they are very different creatures. Whereas Rokai and co. are based on the European myths, Oolong is built into a whole ecosystem and taxonomy of animals and mythical creatures.

One of the dragons from The Nine Dragons handscroll, Chen Rong, 1244 CE. USA public domain. Wikipedia.

To help you understand the scope of the project, here's a contracted list of the animals and creatures I studied and researched while creating Oolong:

Mythical creatures:
- Oriental dragons (As many as I could find, including, the long, imoogi, naga, and more)
- European dragons (wyrms, drakes, wyverns, etc)
- American dragons (like Quetzalcoatl)
- Other feathered serpents
- The Leviathan
- Other sea monsters

Real animals:
- Lizards
- Boas
- Pythons
- Cobras
- Vipers
- Sea-snakes
- Legless lizards
- Crocodilians (Crocs and alligators)
- Geckos
- Eagles
- Fish
- a healthy bit of endothermic (warm-blooded) vs ectothermic (cold-blooded) animal behaviors
- and much more.

It took a lot of work to get him worked out just right, but I'm very pleased with Oolong. Are you? For you writers out there, how far have you gone to create animals and creatures for your stories?