Cyclone Condor

Cyclone Condors were massive birds the size of a transport ship, sporting black feathers with crimson highlights. They had strong, hooked beaks and two legs ending in curved talons capable of grabbing cattle. Their wingspan could reach 100ft wide in mature adults, though some have been known to reach greater sizes.

Condor eyes were dark, and their eyelids are grey for most of the year until mating season when both sexes sported bright red eyelids signalling that they are ready to bear offspring.

They have two sets of wings: a larger set and a smaller set located at their hips. When they fly in circles to create hurricanes, energy builds up in their flight feathers and manifests as a bright red or silver-violet glow.

Condors lived wherever there are high winds, and choose warm windy locales for their nesting grounds. The western Shattersky regions were popular territories and hunting grounds outside of nesting season, though travelling between the two locations left them open to human hunters.

Cyclone Condors are exclusively carnivorous birds, choosing to hunt either large herbivores such as cattle and megafauna-class deer, or large sky-beasts such as cloud-skimmer sharks and Grimmwhales. They were one of the few predators of Grimmwhales and would often hunt entire pods of them in flocks: a rare instance of group tactics among these birds in which they form hurricanes around their prey, taking turns slashing at them until they perish.

These birds were occasionally reported attacking man-made ships with these tactics, either mistaking them for food or viewing them as threats in their territories. This is likely what motivated the practise of hunting them to extinction.

Cyclone Condors were generally rather aloof and solitary creatures, keeping to themselves and strict territorial boundaries that only they seemed aware of. Outside of hunting, they did not tend to interact with each other or other species.

If a Condor were to encounter another of its kind outside of mating season, they would either fight or play by creating hurricanes and guiding them into each other. It was often unclear whether or not these displays were fights, signs of play, or courtship as these behaviours are seen in all three instances.

When encountering sapiens, Condor behaviour varied between individual. Some were curious and playful, others were aggressive and territorial, and many of them were fickle and jumped between both behaviours in the span of minutes.

Though solitary for most of their lives, Cyclone Condors would gather in large groups every three years for mating and nesting season. In these instances, a truce appeared to form as the birds would relax on the ground and preen each other while watching others fight for or court potential mates. It could be compared to tournaments and social events hosted by sapiens.

Numerous attempts were made to domesticate Cyclone Condors, but their wild and fickle natures made such a task impossible. Even the Talonik Empire's royal family, who are supposedly descended from the Champion Talon the War-Keeper, are not capable of getting these beasts to bend to their wills.

In legend, Talon the War-Keeper was famous for being able to communicate with and tame Cyclone Condors, likely due to the fact that their powers came from the same Eldritch.

Though they're not capable of being domesticated, Cyclone Condors were a crucial part in the ecosystems of several Peaks. Lithzen Peak in particular relied on the seasonal habits of Condors during nesting season, when they would use hurricanes to churn and loosen the earth of the Peak's plateaus. This softened the ground, kept it fertile, and made it into ideal farmland outside of nesting season.

Cyclone Condors were recorded to be very intelligent, able to solve simple puzzles similarly to domesticated crows and ravens. Wildlife enthusiasts reported that they were even capable of storing and preserving food by dragging meat into a cave and sealing the entrance with carefully placed stones.

Cyclone Condors had very sharp eyesight, capable of spotting prey from great distances, and were capable of sensing changes in air pressure and currents, which they used to aid in hunting and forming hurricanes.