Nitidus
Character Profile
| Name: | Nitidus |
| Date of Birth: | Older and more experienced than Temeraire |
| Breed: | Pascal's Blue |
| Captain: | Warren |
| National Loyalty: | Britain |
| Appearance: | Light combat-weight; silver-grey spotted with blue and black |
| Special Abilities: | |
| Status: | Active |
Biography
Nitidus (Latin for 'more radiant') was a more experienced dragon who was assigned to Lily's formation along with Messoria, Dulcia and Immortalis to balance out the inexperienced Lily, Temeraire and Maximus.
His egg was purchased from the French, before the two nations became enemies; thus, he spoke both French and English.
He is described as a nervous creature. For example, Warren felt he had to stay with Nitidus while Laurence and Chenery went to dine with the admiral aboard the HMS Agincourt, which the naval officers took as a slight.
Despite his nerves, Nitidus was a brave fighter who did not hesitate to attack larger dragons when necessary. When Temeraire, badly wounded, was about to be attacked by a Fleur-de-Nuit just after sinking the Valerie, he was saved by the arrival of Nitidus and Dulcia. Lily's formation had seen the fireworks sent up by the HMS Allegiance while on patrol and were coming to help. The two lightweight dragons were the first to arrive on the scene. Fleurs-de-nuit are heavyweights, but Nitidus did not hesitate to attack the larger dragon's head while Dulcia nipped at her flanks.
Like many of the British dragons, Nitidus contracted the Dragon Plague in 1806. Along with the rest of Lily's formation, he was sent to Cape Town aboard the HMS Allegiance to find a cure. Laurence, spending the evenings reading to Temeraire from his books, was surprised to find that all the dragons quickly comprehended geometric theory. At one point, Nitidus and Dulcia disagreed with Euclid's postulate on parallel lines. Nitidus was particularly nervous when assured by Temeraire that the design of the Allegiance depended on this postulate - as far as Nitidus was concerned, this suggested that the ship was quite unsafe.
After experiments in Cape Town by Keynes and Dorset revealed that a certain mushroom was effective for curing the plague, Nitidus was the third dragon to receive a dose. Supplies of the mushroom were limited at this point, and it was considered that Nitidus, being a relatively small dragon, would be the one most helped by the amount available. He recovered even more quickly than Dulcia.
