Lung Tien Xian

Character Profile

Name:	Lung Tien(?) Xian
Date of Birth:	Unknown
Breed:	Celestial
Captain:	Unknown,
National Loyalty:	China
Appearance:	Unknown
Special Abilities:	Divine Wind
Status:	Unknown

Biography

In Throne of Jade, Lung Tien Qian said that she and Lung Tien Chu were "hatched of Xian". Her exact quote, addressed to Temeraire, is "Lien is your older cousin. She was sired by Chu, who was hatched of Xian, as was I."

Identity

"Xian" may have been the true name of the ancient Celestial dragon otherwise referred to as "Grandfather", since that was the only name omitted when Qian listed all of the living Celestials. ("There are only myself and Lien now, who are female, and besides Grandfather and Chu, there are only Chuan and Ming and Zhi, and we are all cousins at most.")

Alternately, Xian may have been a female Celestial dragon sired by "Grandfather", but her subsequent disappearance would be difficult to explain. According to Qian's list, she herself and Lung Tien Lien were the only two female Celestials left. Since Celestials did not fight in China, they would presumably live out their natural lifespans into old age, and there is no obvious reason why "Grandfather" would outlive his own daughter.

Yet a third possibility is that Xian was an Imperial dragon (perhaps a female who mated with Grandfather) and thus omitted from the list of Celestials. In the same conversation, Qian mentions that Celestials cannot interbreed among themselves and always have at least one Imperial parent. In this case, the correct name would be Lung Qin Xian.

The family trees in the "Grandfather" article present several possible genealogies, depending on how "Xian" is identified.