The spotlights go on, the crowd chanting his name while 'Fight to Survive' plays in the background as Ulysses walks in facing his first anniversary fight in 2024.
..and of course he couldn't help but get the most revealing outfit of his career yet to tease his audience from the first moment on. It is a special fight after all. ;]

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Granted, back in 2004 I already knew what the furry fandom was for the most part.
I already lurked around in some IRC Chats in the year before, browsed the messy image library of VCL and searched for photos and videos about Conventions from the US and also from Europe in disbelieve how good those fursuits were. (How perspectives change over the years X])
There was even a dragon character already called Ulysses I created some years before, named after another dragon character from a German fantasy book I read as a young teenager. I kept that name though, because it totally fits 'the story of my life': It simply is to this day a messy but wonderful odyssey.
But it was in 2004, as I started to go to Furmeets as well as Conventions and got more active in chats and forums, that Ulysses slowly turned into the anthropomorphic Dragon, you know today. Including his heterochromatic eyes and always too messy black and red hair.
He even got a second nickname: Draco, because Ulysses seemed to be too difficult for some to remember back then and especially for Germans also difficult to pronounce. (Believe me, it is hilarious what people did with his name over the years: Uliiiseees, Ully, Ulüüüsööss...)
The first pictures ever made of him were done by myself, but I locked them away safe and secure for no one to see (maybe you might find just one lurking around on the internet somewhere to this day.)
The first artwork done by a real artist was done in 2006 by my good old friend Alpha_Ki and she perfectly outlined the punky gothic dragon rascal he and also I was back then. No clue how to fight at that time but always eager to start a battle!
From there, Ulysses evolved, first getting into Muay Thai as martial arts have been always a thing and this fighting style was the most fascinating for me back then. Soon, thanks to the UFC, MMA got involved, later pro wrestling, you know all the fighty rest.
But in all these changes he stayed always the same thing for me: A mirror of myself, my dreams I want to strive for or even the ones I would never be able to reach by myself and yes, even some hints to my kinky side here and there. But most importantly he has been always this to me:
A constant reminder, that no matter how hard life is knocking me down, I always get up again to continue to reach for my dreams, achieve my goals and work on myself to become a better person.

Thank you to everyone, who was with me on this ongoing journey for the past 20 Years, online as well as 'in real life'.
This fandom helped me to find the best people this planet has to offer, and I am so proud to call some of them my friends to this day.
I love you all!
No worries, this dragon won't leave this fandom anytime soon - at least I don't plan to. You will still see me at conventions and parties, I will not stop kicking some of you out of the ring
and what I hope the most: No matter how hard times get, we will all still find some moments to have an awesome good time together in the future.
So keep your eyes peeled as more fighting dragon stuff will hit this space soon!

This awesome anniversary piece of art was done by  LoonyEllie who also got the idea to give the dragon a way more sexy outfit for this fight and come on... would you be even able to resist that?
The dragon is mine and some day he will challenge you! ;]

Song to this artwork is from one of the movies that started all this (I admit, I always skipped the 'story' parts and moved right to the fighting scenes XP):
FIGHT TO SURVIVE by Stan Bush