Difference between revisions of "Balaur"

• Boosted Notorious Monster
• Upon defeat, each member of the entire party/alliance that defeated this NM has a low-chance possibility of obtaining the following keyitem(s):
  • Atma of Stormbreath

History/Background

In Romanian folklore, the balaur is a creature similar to a dragon. A balaur is quite large, has fins, feet, and is polycephalous (it usually has three, sometimes seven, or even twelve serpent heads). As a traditional character which is found in most Romanian fairy tales, it represents Evil and must be defeated by Făt-Frumos in order to release the Princess. Balaur seems to derive from Proto-Indo-European language words *bel-, "strong", or *bhel-, "to swell". It is considered to be a pre-Roman conquest word from the Romanian substratum.

And, interestingly, despite the identical names, the NM Balaur was not named after the dinosaur raptor genus Balaur. The Balaur raptors were named after the mythological creature and lived on the land that became Romania (thus the logic behind the naming). They were only formally described in scientific literature in August 2010. The NM Balaur precedes Balaur by 2 months, appearing with the June 2010 update.