Background Story From My Old Comics: Swan is the Great Elemental Spirit of Water. He appears usually in the form of a giant serpent/dragon/bird hybrid. His minions are the Waterlily Dragons. Unfortunately for him, Swan got the short end of the stick when the elemental spirits took over the towers years ago because his tower, the Water Tower, is dilapidated, badly damaged, and on the verge of sinking into the sea. Since Swan was not able to harness much energy from the tower, he was defeated by Zara's beast army, and his Waterlily Dragons were nearly wiped out. He pooled as much concentrated magical energy as he possibly could into a crystal ball that is now in the possession of Jack Sheen, and then retreated to a state of hibernation inside the tower.

Late in the series, Jack had gone to see Swan for help in defeating the fire demon, Karma, but upon getting too close to the Water Lord, he started suffering the same kind of seizures that Nucleo did when he was too close to Darkona. Somehow, Jack's loyalty to his friends and willingness to sacrifice himself for them convinced Swan to join their cause. After his travels with Chance's group, he admitted that he was impressed with the comraderie amongst creatures that were essentially born to hate each other and decided that perhaps forcing them to fight one another for a dominant species was a cause not worth fighting for. Swan, the once cold and vicious viper, finally understood the true power of the human spirit.

Character Design Notes: The idea for Swan's design is a little complicated. I always thought it was funny how swans look like such graceful birds, but if you anger them, they'll attack you. So I got the idea for this creature that looks deceptively like a beautiful swan on top, but when it leaps out of the water, a serpentine body is revealed underneath. My earliest drawings of Swan literally had a swan for the upper part of his body and a snake tail for the lower part. But when I decided to give him fangs, I realized that wouldn't work with a duckbill, so I changed his face to look more like a viper, too.

Swan in the RAU Gallery: Instead of taking over the Fire Tower upon Karma's defeat, Swan destroyed it and used the remainder of his life energy to restore the wartorn landscape of Phainein. Therefore, he is deceased and an appearance in the RAU Gallery series is unlikely.

Elemental Chart. Swan is the Water Spirit. He has possession of the dilapidated Water Tower in the middle of the ocean. He created the Waterlily Dragons. Waterlily dragons are humans that can turn into feathery, bird-like dragons. They are so named because they have a tendency to live near water, and because their feathers resemble the petals on a waterlily. Because of Swan's diminishing power, Waterlily dragons were hunted to near-extinction by other rival species. (Examples of Waterlily dragons: Jack Sheen.)

My original drawings of the Water Elemental, Swan, literally had a swan for the top part of his body. But then his bill/mouth (whatever) would open and he'd suddenly look like the vicious viper he really is.