Lanternwings
"Like a picturesque sunset that can bite a child's head clean off."
The Lanternwing is a beast of sky and sin, a creature so beautiful that even the gods, were they still cared for us, might forgive it for what it does. Draped in feathers that shimmer like dying daylight, burnt gold, rust red, and blood-black, it sails above Everwealth’s cliffs and mountains as both omen and executioner. Its eyes burn like coals seen through rain. Its scream carries for miles, echoing through canyons and villages long before the shadow passes. Those who hear it are said to feel a prickle between their shoulders, as though the air itself were watching. It is no ordinary bird, but a living weapon wrought from hunger and perfection. The common folk whisper that the Lanternwing was the phoenix’s curse, the immortal bird, tired of rebirth, shed its light and kept only its appetite; A more, flavorful, answer to the phoenix's disappearance than the likely truth that it was hunted to extinction. Whether that is truth or poetry matters little, the Lanternwing endures, and that is proof enough of its dominion.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A full-grown Lanternwing stands as tall as a warhorse, its wings stretching twenty-two feet from tip to tip. At a distance, it looks like sunset incarnate; Up close, it is all knives and sinew. Its plumage is oil-dark until the light strikes, then blooms into violent color, amber bleeding into crimson, crimson into smoke. The beak, hooked like a scythe and ridged like forged steel, can split armor from neck to navel. Its talons, long as daggers and twice as sharp, have been known to lift a stag from the ground or tear a man in half mid-flight. Despite its monstrous size, the Lanternwing eats rarely. Scholars from the Guild of Beasts suspect a magickal metabolism, a furnace within its flesh that burns thought or memory as much as meat. But when it hungers, the sky itself becomes unsafe.
Genetics and Reproduction
Lanternwings will conduct mating rituals during the summer seasons; Where the male will perform a sort of dance with it's colorful tail feathers making it resemble a dancing lantern flame. If the female is interested after this ritual, the two will mate and in roughly 3 months the female will lay 1-5 eggs, any infertile eggs or runt hatchlings eaten by the parents or stronger fellow infant hatchlings.
Growth Rate & Stages
Lanternwing hatchlings will mature from this stage fresh from their eggs, to a prepubescent stage called a 'wickling' where the lanternwing learns to fly and hunt, then finally to a fully grown lanternwing over the course of 2-3 years.
Ecology and Habitats
Predominantly lanternwings seem to prefer environments with higher altitudes, such as high-up in the cloudrend mountains or deep in the grandgleam forest within branches of taller trees. The Battlement Cliffs surrounding most of Everwealth seem to be their favorite though, nestling in cracks and crevices all along its hundreds of miles of length, hunting fish, cliffside woodland creatures, smaller birds and non-perceptive sailors.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Lanternwings are capable carnivores, apex predators that hunt insects, smaller birds, deer, horses, your neighbors... It is not a picky eater, so-long as it moves; Advice to avoid these creatures in-fact if hunted by one being to stand completely still as their hunting methods are based near-entirely on movement.
Biological Cycle
The lanternwing will grow thicker tufts of feathers around the neck and chest during winter months to survive the season, perculiar as most of their kind would simply migrate to warmer climates, a fortunate evolutionary advantage of theirs for us, one can imagine flocks of large carnivoristic birds overhead with no issue hunting people would be a horrifying yearly occurence.
Behaviour
Stoic and docile creatures, typically roosting quietly among their nests in tall trees or high-up in the mountains as the creatures seem to prefer highter altitudes when nesting. However lanternwings can become quite aggressive with folk who enter what they believe to be their territory, unfortunate for many as they often consider large areas their territory with how quickly they traverse great distances, idly traveling the woods only to unintentionally invoke the ire of a bear-sized winged beast with daggers for feet and a scythe for a face.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Not believed to be intrinsically capable magickally beyond the creature's remarkably efficient metabolism. This does seem to ensure lanternwings are quite resilient, more-than-capable of defending themselves and nigh-impossible to starve. Fortunate for us they are sated for long periods as lanternwings occasionally hunt your fellow folk to sustain themselves, with relative ease.
Scientific Name
Phoenivora lanterna
Origin/Ancestry
Most Scholar's Guild researchers believe the lanternwing to be an offshoot of the legendary Phoenix hunted to extinction long-ago for it's longevity granting properties, it and the lanternwing possessing very similar physiology.
Conservation Status
This species although more difficult, and far more dangerous to tame than common flying mounts, when fully trained lanternwing are largely considered the most effective beast for the job of flying and killing short of a dragon. Lanternwings because of this regularly preserved for their usefulness to many regiments and adventurer's alike despite the risks.
Geographic Distribution
Comments