Gryphon

Height:  3 feet at the shoulder

Length:

Weight:

Lifespan:

Habitat:  Deep forests of Harkania

Diet:  Carnivorous

Nearest Relation:  Aelven Woodbeast

Gryphons are ferocious forest predators.

The remnants of Aelven breeding projects, they were manipulated out of both avian and feline stock, leading to a great difficulty in determining their taxonomy. Naturalists have come to the conclusion that they are more similar to mammals than birds and should be classified thusly. Recent investigations show that all the so-called Aelven Warbeasts have strange physiognomies, feline and aquiline certainly, but with some structures more reminiscent of bears, wolves, even some kinds of ungulates.

Gryphons, like their cousins, owlbears and hippogryphs are built from predator stock with lean, sinewy muscles and viscious claws. They are quadrapeds, lightly built, standing three feet high at the shoulder. Their legs end in a three-toed paw tipped with curved claws more reminiscent of talons and nails. They have short, sleek coats, usually darker in color, to better match the forest environs. Their heads taper to a wicked, hairless beak, usually a dark black, which is capable of snapping bones in two. It was known that some gryphons under the strict breeding program of the aelves, sported large wings and were capable of flight. Such gryphons were covered in dark feathers as well as fur. Today's gryphons, however, are wingless and only occasionally are some discovered with coarse black or dark mossy green feathers, usually tufting around their necks like the manes of lions.

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