Basilic

[Dark Dragon NM found in Dynamis-Buburimu]

Historical Background
More commonly spelled Basilisk, it was a creature commonly appearing in bestiaries of Greek and medieval European cultures. The Basilisk was a legendary reptile which had the power to kill by a single glance. Pliny the Elder, who also wrote of the Catoblepas, said it was small, but so poisonous, it left a trail of venom. The Basilisk is reported to be hatched by a cockerel from a serpent's egg. Only in medieval Europe did the accounts become embellished and it came to be depicted as less of a lizard and more of a lizard-bird combination. It later got more abilities, such as the ability to breathe fire and to kill even by a single touch. It had 2 natural predators, which were immune to its glance and its venom: the weasel and the rooster. Its name is Greek for "little king" (the Latin word meaning "little king" is Regulus, the name of a star). This derives from the accounts that it had a mitre-shaped or crown-shaped crest on its head. The Basilisk is linked in historical accounts with the Cockatrice, which had an inverted version of the Basilisk's story (being hatched from a hen's egg in a serpent's nest).