Griffins

Griffins, or Griff, Gryf, Gryphon among other spellings, are another of the eldest of races on Dragondeep. They are truly ancient, though few of them have been counted as immortal they have passed their knowledge through time. They were either created by the Gods, or arrived through a Portal at a time when the Gods still walked the world, but their species was quite young and not necessarily magical or intelligent at the time of the Rebellion, and they have little knowledge of what exactly transpired in that era.

Intensely psionic today, Griffins are live-bearing chimera creatures that mix a winged fore-body with a feline hind parts. There are numerous breeds of Griffin, mixing different types of birds and cats together. However they almost all share the same life cycle.

Since their hind-parts are feline, their young are born live, and are generally born two or three at a time. Some have larger litters, but often those die while young. Griffin kits have bald foreparts and downy hind ends, their eyes are closed at birth, as are their ears being folded down. They have only the beginnings of wings, looking like a freshly hatched chick with only a few nubs of feathers. They do not nurse (thankfully – they have beaks after all) but instead are immediately given regurgitated food from their mother’s and father’s crops. Born like kittens, fed like chicks.

Their eyes and ears open at around one month of age, and by this time they are also able to begin picking at food rather than merely having it stuffed down their open mouths. They grow their feathers more slowly than fur. It takes less than two years for a Griffin kit to mature into a young gryf – half the size of their parents, but with a full compliment of feathers and fur by that time.

When a gryf is ready to learn to fly, they have also been studying languages and people, and have been given their first psionic training. Unlike Dragon kind, Griffins are highly adept at the magic they wield, and only through terrible misunderstandings do they ever die practicing it. They have a more natural feel to their powers, elemental concentrations allow them to select their instructors with ease. A young fledge gryf will know at least one of their elements reasonably well but will not master its use for decades if ever.

Flying for Griffins is easy, though they are never seen as the true masters of the air, that domain is for the Dragons alone. Rather, they are content to live in their craggy caverns and huge treetops, sometimes even merely striding around the ground. A Griffin’s full size is achieved when they are around ten years old, and that size varies by breed but is rarely taller than six feet at the shoulder. Generally they are around the same dimension as their feline end would reach, though around 25 percent bigger all around.

Their lifespans are long but not as long as Dragons, the oldest recorded Griffin was just under one thousand years when she lay down for the last time. Those with stronger psionic propensity or multiple elements in their line, live slightly longer than their weaker or single-elemental counterparts.

They hunt from the skies unless they’re largely arboreal or grounded in both front and hind end. All breeds of Griffin have eyesight that is the keenest on the planet. Though it varies by breed and certainly by individual, a printed page this size could easily be read in detail (and sometimes proofread) (and definitely critiqued) by a Griff standing more than 100 yards away. Their eyes are forward-facing even if the bird-head would be side-facing on a normal bird. They have sensitive but not spectacular hearing, again it would vary by breed and most owl-based Griffs have stronger hearing. Their lack of consistent sense of touch isn’t much of a bother, because their psionic senses make up for this. However they do definitely have keen senses of smell and taste, some ground and arboreal hunters relying upon smell rather than sight. They will eat essentially anything they can get their claws on, have no problem breaking into bones for the marrow, and enjoy all manner of fruits and vegetables. They don’t ‘graze’ and don’t much care for many grains, but seeds are commonly eaten by the smaller Griff breeds. There are Wyldkin farms which do almost nothing but produce ‘Griffin snacks’ consisting of honey, seeds, fruits and sometimes even small dead mice. Each breed has its own favorite foods of course. The Griffins themselves do no farming of their own, preferring to hunt, but they will never, ever pass up the opportunity to have a nice snack with friends.

Griffins can parrot-speak with a more parrot-like throat (rather than the Dragon’s ‘voice box’ nasal passage) and easily learn languages. Many of them are diplomats between cultures with different languages. Their own language is complicated and song-like, often raucous and dissonant but to a Griff that’s music too. It would take an expert Reed person to learn even a small portion of their language, but they have often adequately reproduced it for short songs. Their naming is… extraordinarily complicated. They don’t use titles or run-on lineages to describe themselves, rather they have strung-together syllables that equate to a personalized song. Some breeds shorten this by habit, but others prefer to let loose and sing with all the colors of the… yeah, that.

Though they have no true thumbs, they often are gifted with extremely flexible forelimbs, and therefore have an easy time manipulating things like books or scrolls, and can learn to read whatever they get their claws on. They do not practice spell-magic, any longer – the Last King was the last to have done so, and look what happened to him.

Because they are ‘four footers’ they often get along with other such creatures better than humanoids. There have been cases of crossbreeds, but any of those are sterile and often looked upon by both parents’ kinfolk as freaks.

Griffin mating is hardly as complex as Dragons. By breed, however, they may be completely monogamous, or switch partners year after year. They can interbreed with each other, easily, but tend not to do so since it seemingly dilutes their magical prowess and makes markings hard to understand. A female will become ready to mate around once every five years. If there is more than one male around to catch her eye, they generally have civilized discussions about who would make a better partner. In the case of fully monogamous pairs, this is a lengthy process of courting and living near one another. Otherwise, it’s whoever catches her eye the most, whether it be by reciting poetry or doing a fancy bit of aerial flight while manipulating fire.

A female will gestate her young for around half a year, and then they are born live. At the end of the Gods reign, however, they had been egg-layers, their nests were known to Dragons as such, and everyone kind of takes their word for it, since the Griffins themselves don’t recall it. It seems a sensible thing, however, because as the Griffins have evolved their life cycle has slowed down immensely. Having an egg, they could be gestating only a couple months, and then tending eggs. With live-bearing, their young are far more prepared to live in this world, and apparently it is a world far more prepared to have them in it.

Griffins go through a molt around once every three or four years depending on their size, the climate, and their breed. During this month-long period, they often sequester themselves with other molting individuals, and commiserate. They really are rather hideous to behold in these private moments, so it’s best to leave them to it. Their claws and beaks are just as sharp then, and they’re far more inclined to use them to chase off anyone that pisses them off.

Griffin breeds range from lion-eagle through sparrow-cat, with owls and cougars and parrots and cheetahs in between. The Griffins tend to remain in the climate that is most comfortable for their cat-side, even though they often complain about it with their bird-head. Interestingly, those who have extremely strong psionics, or those who are adept at more than two types of elemental powers, may have different colors in their plumage and fur than normal for that kind of bird/cat. One highly educated mage of eagle-owl/snow-leopard configuration was actually hardly white at all, being pink, yellow, blue and purple. Perhaps this is to advertise to potential mates that they are of higher quality. Males and females are dimorphic in the ways that their avian portions are. Most males are more colorful than females. And because many feline species differ in this regard as well, their overall size is bigger on the male side as well.

Griffins are somewhat of an anomaly among the civilized people of Dragondeep. They have a strong cultural sense, but leave hardly any evidence of it. They love collecting other people’s stuff – packrats all of them – and particularly enjoy the Clockworks toys. Unlike the Dragons, they do not necessarily form strong bonds with the Humanoids in their areas, and tend to keep to themselves quite a bit. There are Griffins that defy this, of course, and small pockets of them live almost everywhere. But they tend to enjoy their mountains enough that they remain there and people who want to see them just have to make the trek up the side of it to visit.

Griffin bureaucracy includes, or included, a strata of nobility down to peasantry, but for the most part once their last leader destroyed himself and his island filled with followers… They don’t really care to let one individual or family make everyone’s decisions for them any longer. They respect others cultural norms, and certainly continue to have a noble class that is a touch more territorial than the rest. But by and large, Griffins are a family and flock oriented people, rather than a well-structured one.

The Griffins enjoy the Jewel Witches more than the more local Summoners, but always prefer Wyldkin for conversation above any furless people. Since Wyldkin can be born more or less Humanoid, but also come in different configurations including four-footers, they welcome those kinfolk who would be lacking in their own villages. Though it seems a bit contradictory, the humanoids who are most like them in abilities, the Elven folk are among the least favored of the Griffin kind. Perhaps it is because they do rival the Griffins in ability, or maybe because they have thumbs. No one is sure, but it’s rare to see Griffins and Elves getting on in the same area. While they don’t outright hate the Elves, Griffins aren’t likely to sit down and be polite to them unless it is their duty as a diplomat. And as always of course – there are plenty of exceptions to the rule.

As evidenced in the Elf description below, there is some amount of Griffin participation with the Stone elves on a regular basis. For the Griffs part, this may be to keep a closer eye on the ones who could potentially do them the most harm.

Griffins do, however, love to travel when they’re young. As they meet other cultures, they may establish their own families or flocks, where there is good hunting and little strife to raise their young. They are often found as curriers between nearby villages or towns. If there is a good high cliff, or even a strong huge tree nearby, one big enough to house a nest anyway, it’s likely that Griffins will roost there. They don’t necessarily stay more than a couple generations, their population, with the exception of their main group, inhabits whatever location they’ve nested in and then moves on if needed or desired. Though they don’t leave much in the way of their own history behind, it’s easy to tell when a Griff family has been around: they have a huge nest, discarded or molted feathers, and a smattering of Clockwork doodads and goodies that is forgotten behind them.

Popular Griffins of the Current Era

(none yet)

Features of Griffins

• Live-bearing and warm-blooded but do not nurse, with bird-like front ends and feline hind ends of a variety of bird and cat types
• Tend to be naturally colored for their breeds except when they are very strongly psionic, where their markings tend to be brighter and unnaturally colored
• Communicate easily and with any species as long as the language has been taught, act as diplomats frequently
• Collect shiny things
• Elemental psionic specialists and are very naturally at ease with its use, and now forbid the use of spell-magic (or perhaps refuse the use of it)
• Can live into the hundreds of years
• Have a moderate to low population spread entirely around the world