All of this is original material with inspiration, please don't rip. Posting this up for anyone interested in the depth behind my original character Korofi.

: Korofi : Reference Sheet
: Korofi : Wings Reference

: Korofi : Lying Sphinxlike
: Korofi : Forward Facing
: Korofi : Snicker
: Korofi x Triff : Anticipate
: Korofi : Full Body
: Korofi : Character Sheet : OLD
: Flying Leap
: Twilight
: At Rest
: Abareru
: OpenCanvas Practice
: Rampant
: Leonine
: Anthro
: Colored
: Korofi : Loose Sketch
: Korofi : Roaring Bust Sketch

Scraps:
: Korofi : Flying : Sketch
: Korofi : Bust : Sketch
: Korofi : Reference Sketches
: Korofi : Pouncing Sketch
: sketches
: sketches II

Renditions by other artists:

- Anthro
: Brittany - Original Version and Scarred Version
- Kihari x Korofi Lines, Kihari x Korofi Chibi and Kihari x Korofi Practice

Fanart is welcome and loved.

[UNFINISHED]

Basics

Character Name: Korofi Hamaki
Name Translation: Swahili for "wild" "fury"
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Race: "Crater" Dragon
Tribe: Jua Kali
Tribe Name Translation: "Blazing Sun"
Inspirational Animals: Lion, wolf and Harris's hawk


Development History

Korofi is basically my dragon, nothing more. I've drawn him since 2001 and though his design has evolved greatly since, he's always had the same basis and personality flare.


In-Depth

Race and Tribe

Korofi is from the Jua Kali tribe which roams Tanzania. Those outside the tribe simply call the Jua Kali “Crater Dragons”, simply because they only come into contact with other African Dragons when they frequent the Ngorongoro Crater for its rich supply of water and prey. Most Jua Kali, however, make their homes in the vast plateaus, coming together on common hidden ceremonial grounds only during dry season. The Jua Kali tribe is matriarchal, nomadic and polyamorous. Marriage is reserved for old age, yet ceremonies are held for younger Jua Kali couples that choose to stay together, though these are viewed more as promised pairs than mates for life.

Jua Kali youths come of age when they reach sexual maturity yet will not be treated as adults until they fulfill a dangerous set of rituals, ending in a spar with the tribe’s shaman. Once completed, the shaman applies a secret paste to the scars on the youth’s face that agitate the tissue so as to make them remain visible within the fur. This brand is potent, for Jua Kali value their faces and otherwise cover up facial wounds quickly with medicine. Scars elsewhere are not usually visible given the nature of their thick fur.

Save for the matriarch, shaman and elders, there are no clear-cut ranks for Jua Kali. Individuals are all treated the same—with utmost respect. Any Jua Kali can choose his or her own way of life. The matriarch’s main role is figurehead, Allmother and final judge in unsolvable disputes. The shaman is anonymous, for she wears masks and fur pigments when performing her role.

The only annual ceremony that takes place the same approximate time each year is that of The Stomping Dance in the first days of dry season. Two days are given for travel before the ceremony begins at dusk, carrying on until dawn. This is a wholly social ritual, where dams reunite with their get, shoulder-friends come back together and new lovers spend the darkest hours. When the sun is high the Jua Kali part ways after picking new travel companions, though these bonds are brief, for many part again before the next Stomping Dance.

The arts are valued highly in the Jua Kali tribe and all youths are instructed in them by their dams until weaning. Cleverness and wit are trademarks of Jua Kali speech and storytelling is performed by all members in turn—always in song form complimented by dancers. Dancing is key for socialising and each individual develops his or her own fluid style.

Jua Kali rarely come into contact with other dragons and know little of the land and culture outside of their own.

Name

“Korofi” is the earned name of his coming of age ceremony. Prior to that he was referred to as “Little Hamaki”, after his dam, Hamaki. Korofi only keeps “Hamaki” after his name due to birth right though, being male, it is only a title as he is ineligible to lead.


Appearance

Korofi has a massive, mammalian body. His head has a long, wolflike snout with a scruffy chin, slit nostrils and long forked tongue. His eyes are gold with slit pupils. His ears are like a wolf's only elongated, with a gold cylindrical clip on the cartilage side of each. His neck is long, craned and serpentine like an Eastern dragon, with a full mane that parts with long forelocks on either side of his face, sometimes obscuring his eyes. His body is like a large cat's, with a full barrel and long muscular legs and heavy feline paws. His claws are grey with black quicks and retractable. His joints have long feathering. He has a wolf's tail. His wings are like a Harris's hawk, same markings and make. He always has bags under his eyes. He has three scars on his upper lip on both sides, given to him at his coming of age ceremony.


Personality

Korofi is forward, candid and a free spirit. He comes and goes as he pleases, enjoys dive-bombing prey animals for sport, and, like all Jua Kali, is an artist through and through. Korofi is a tale-weaver and very persuasive in speech with a smoky, full-bodied and raspy voice. He is older in body than in mind and is markedly immature. A loner by nature, Korofi keeps no shoulder-friends yet openly socialises with anyone, quite indiscriminative as compared to his tribe mates. Yet he holds no ties save for that of his dam, the current matriarch of the Jua Kali tribe. Other Jua Kali his age alienated him for his position of the only son of the matriarch, more out of over-practiced respect than spite. Therefore on get-togethers Korofi took to socialising with those dramatically younger or older than him.