Contest: Aldua the Icebreaker

Long before there were manmade ships that smashed through the ice of the Arctic, an ancient culture of immense reptiles shattered the icecaps to ruled the world's coldest waters. Each almost two thousand feet long and covered in scaly armor, these aquatic titans were unmatched in their strength and longevity. They were named 'snow destroyers' by the old Inuit people for their ability to breach through the frozen sea surface. Today, with the recent discovery of their last surviving member, this title has changed to 'icebreakers.'

Icebreakers, ironically named after the modern ships that they far outmatch in purpose and outdate in age, are the living equivalent to battering rams. Evolved from the prehistoric parallel to the crocodile, the once stout limbs of icebreakers have developed into webbed frills and their bodies have separated into armored segments. Their surface is literally nothing but hard shell and scale. They were made to clobber through ice. Although they have partial gills, able to draw some oxygen from the ocean, they must still surface to breathe every few days of so. Their long, heavy snouts are crested by thick, dense triangular spikes that are used to impact against hard pact sea ice.

As huge and powerful as these ocean beasts were, they had one critical weakness- heat. While other reptiles are slowed or even slayed by the cold, icebreakers adapted especially to the chill of the Arctic Ocean. They can warm their bodies to a sufficient operating temperature from a mere few rays of sun. Unfortunately, this has left them vulnerable to an excess of warmth. Too much heat in the sea fries their bodies from the inside, slowly killing them. The hunters of ancient days once drove them away with fire. Modern techniques have proven far more deadly. When men placed boats on the ocean, they heated its volume by the tiniest fraction. With the building volume of these surface vehicles, the icebreakers eventually all died off.

All but one.

Named 'Aldua,' after an obscure Inuit protection spirit, this relic is the last and greatest of her kind. A few boatlengths over two-thousand-and-ten feet, she is the largest icebreaker to ever live. While the rest of her kind boiled, she survived because of a flaw in her birth. She never had the high tolerance to cold that allowed other icebreakers to dwell in their Arctic home. She nearly froze in her first hour of life. She was forced to migrate south, alone, to survive. Although she is still incredibly cold-bodied for a reptile, she has never been able to return to her home under the Earth's magnetic north pole.

In the end, this birth defect turned out to be a blessing. The seas heated, the icebreakers writhed into oblivion, but Aldua lived on. Allowed a greater range of motion by her internal imperfection, she patrols the world's waters, only unable to enter the north- and southmost seas. The tropics around the equator are accessible to her, but only for brief periods, only enough time to cross the the cooler water on the other side. Aldua is a mysterious, little seen creature, but seems to be a kind one. She is most well known for wrecking whaling ships. It was at first thought that the boat engines simply disturbed her or she was protection a food source, but both theories have been disproven. She rarely even approaches other ships, and she was found to be a filter feeding, not a predator, pushing waters from her half-gills as she devoured whole swarms of plankton and krill. She has also been known to appears when large ships are in distress, using her vast body to create a protective wake or break up dangerous waves. Pods of whales take safe passage under her broad belly and whole generations of fish have lived and died undisturbed in her craggy hide. Whatever the reason- an unfilled role in motherhood, the loss of her species- it appears that Aldua has remained on this Earth, despite great personal misfortune, to help others.

As is typical with the sometimes thankless human race, some of our number have tried to toss this kindness back into her face. Big game hunters and extreme sports fishermen have tried to hunt and kill this throwback. She may have a greater survivable temperature range than the rest of her dead kind, but direct flame of heated currents still harm her. The cruel and greedy of this world try to use this weakness against her. Aldua has shown surprising intellect in dealing with these misfits though, loosing or sinking their ships without casualty. The one instance where a life was lost by her hand, the sea monster was documented to have returned the ship to land and linger around the shore were she landed it, blowing water from her high set nostrils and slapping the waves with her massive tail. It was almost as if she was mourning.

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My entry to 's "Breaking the Mold" contest. The purpose was to design and flesh out a phytosaur-based monster. I have decided to go the 'armored-tube sea monsters' route. Hope he likes. And, yes, she will eventually appear in New World, most likely in the sequel 'verse. Methinks she would be a good companion for Tannyus!

I'm sure you all got the 'can't take the heat' weakness, but as for actual powers, she doesn't have many. Her body is basically her power. Who needs an eye-launched death ray when you can just bust a skull with your face?

Aldua's topside is a very, very dark blue-green, like deep ocean water, and her very underside is dull slate gray. Stretching between the two tones is the occasional streak/stripe of silver.