By Lady Emily

To the Monsters and Creatures Treatises

This old Jeddan poem teaches us something about how the gryphon is viewed. That there are few documented cases of a gryphon taking livestock seems to matter little, for last year when a gryphon was sighted off the docks of Aranor, panic spread rapidly throughout the streets.

Here is a quote from an old hunting guide I found –

Beware the griffon. Those vorpal talons will rend human flesh as easily as the skin of prey animals. Voracious, ferocious, and cunning, the gryphon will come out of the sky with the sun at its back, and take one of your party before you even know it’s upon you. Take heed, then, in the open places.

Where the gryphon acquired such an undeserved reputation is still a mystery. One explanation may be that the very thought of the gryphon’s appearance- its sharp, feathered outline and its keenly intelligent eyes- was enough to bring chills of fear to the huntsmen of old.

The sages can tell you little. In fact, most of the information on gryphons is quite fabricated, all for the fact that the creatures keep away from humans, and even life-long woodsmen seldom claim to have laid their eyes upon one.

To learn something of the true nature of these magnificent animals is quite a task, and only two unpublished sources provided any reliable information.

The first is the private journal of one Lord Tiradelle, a relation to King Alais back in the Anabelle times of that reign. Lord Tiradelle was a man who loved the forests as much as he loved the courts, and when he came upon an abandoned baby gryphon one day near Ennalae, he fell in love with its large, bright eyes and became determined that he would tame the creature and have it as his own.

It became an obsession for him, even as the gryphon grew to its full four-arm stature. From his writings we surmise that the gryphon was a Grey Gryphon, the most common in Masalla.

Much of what I write in this treatise will come from Lord Tiradelle’s observations.

My other source was Eldrus, an actual Sereg man who lives in the city of Aranor and works for the guard. He was formerly a Sereg huntsman, and he claimed to have spent days observing gryphons in their natural habitat. I went through the trouble of having him divined, and feel that his stories exhibit nothing but truth.

Here, then, is what I discovered –

The number of gryphonkin is not yet known. Although many statements will hold true for all gryphons, there are seven well-known varieties, as well as local variants that remain unclassified.

All gryphons share a feathered head and forebody, a furred hindquarters with legs that resemble those of a large cat, and forelegs which appear much like those of a hawk or owl. They are powerful for their size, though very light, and all possess an uncanny agility that makes them unmatched in the air.

This skeleton of a Grey Gryphon tells us the secret behind their flight. Note the thick bones of the wings and wide tendon attachments which allow the Gryphon to manipulate their wings in a manner unavailable to birds. These bones, combined with the massive musculature that connects to the breastbone, allows the gryphon to brake and angle even at high speeds – the bones and tendons are built to absorb the tremendous impact of wind-blasts created by diving or cutting sharply in the air. The flexible torso also allows the gryphon to ‘tuck and roll’, a maneuver in which the creature folds its wings, rolls in the air, and then sharply extends its wings once again to quickly shift direction.

The flying muscles are designed for rapid, powerful movements – with them the gryphon can accelerate exceedingly quickly – their only downfall is that they tire easily. This, of course, explains the creatures’ hunting tactics – they fly very high, watching open fields or mountainsides for prey as they soar, using updrafts to allow their muscles to rest. When prey is spotted, the gryphon dives, building up tremendous speed. If it captures its prey, it will alight on the ground or in a nearby tree to eat, but if it misses, it will use its powerful wingbeats to rise swiftly back into the skies, where it will once again catch an updraft and rest. Thus the gryphon is seldom seen flying low, where it needs to expend large amounts of energy. Such flights are always short-lived.

Gryphons dwell far from civilized places, most often in the high mountains, though at least one variety is known to live in the woodlands, and one on the plains of Shavay. They seem to be solitary creatures, though some gather at least once a year in large groupings called "torries", where they can be seen perched together on outcroppings or performing spectacular acrobatics in the air. The reason for such groupings, however, is still a mystery. One suggestion is that the gryphons select a mate during this time, and indeed, it is after a torrie gathers that gryphons can be seen in couples, selecting mating territories and building large nests.

Eggs are laid in all the known varieties except for the Great Crested Gryphon, which, numerous authorities assert, bears live young. Hatched or born, baby grypons (called griffits) appear near the Cricket Moon and swiftly gain their feathers under the care of both parents. During this time they are fed small prey such as rabbits, or, in the case of some of the tinier bodied gryphons, beetles or caterpillars. They eat from the first day by rending their prey or crushing it in their beaks, just as they will as adults.

The baby gryphon here shows the typical large eyes and ears (which they will grow into), spiky crest feathers which will later blossom into more decorative form, and the heavy hindfeathering. These hindfeathers allow the baby to fly while it is still learning to control the movements of its body. Within the first year most varieties of gryphon will shed all or most of these feathers as they learn to utilize their torsos and wings to achieve less bird-like and more gryphon-like flying abilities.

By the end of the summer the gryphon will be nearly adult-sized, though it may be three years or more before they achieve the summit of their aerial agility and their full brightness of fur and feathers. How long they live is unknown – the only record we have is that of Lord Tiradelle’s Grey Gryphon, which died at the age of thirty-six due to a ‘wheezing cough and tearing eyes’.

Gryphons will take almost anything as prey, with the specific diet depending mostly on the gryphon’s size. Favorites seem to be rabbit, beaver, snakes, and in the case of the larger varieties, deer. They will scavenge as well, scattering gatherings of ravens or vultures in order to gain a meal. Large prey will be cached, usually on a tree-top or outcropping, where it may be picked at for a passage or more.

Of their language we understand little – their calls cover a remarkable range, from piercing, bright screams to the small, bell-like tones they emit when soothing each other. Their typical vocals have been likened to the sounds of ravens, if you can imagine those hoarse sounds made in a clear voice, lacking the ravens’ guttural inflections. The sheer number of calls and soundings suggests that the gryphons may have a complicated language, and old tales say that gryphons certainly can understand us, perhaps through the intuitive link suggested by Lord Tiradelle below.

But there is much more to the gryphon, for these are creatures of fae, and possess a magical nature which gives them a unique place in the natural world. How close their intelligence is to ours is impossible to say, but Lord Tiradelle remarked that he ‘stood amazed at the capacity of mind possessed by the beast’. This ‘capacity of mind’ included an incredible memory – he recalls that a child once laced a red apple (which he was fond of feeding his gryphon, though this is not, to our knowledge, a natural part of their diet) with hot pepper powder. The gryphon became ‘very distressed and agitated’. He rejected any further red apples, and to Lord Tiradelle’s knowledge did not encounter any such apples for the next twenty-three years. It was at that time that Lord Tiradelle remembered the episode one night and decided to see if the gryphon remembered the incident. Surely enough, the red apple was rejected.

Another aspect to gryphon intelligence is the ability to be almost telepathically aware of intent. Lord Tiradelle recalls numerous instances where his gryphon ‘seemed presentiently aware of the mood of my guests’. During these times the gryphon would often adopt behaviors appropriate to the situation. If someone was fearful, the gryphon would linger back and keep its distance. If saddened, it would often become playful or nuzzle up against the afflicted person. And there was more than one account of the gryphon reacting aggressively to guests – guests that the Lord later learned meant him ill favor.

And what of magic? While some stories portray the gryphon as a voracious beast, others tell strange tales of gryphons aiding travelers or weaving enchantments. These tales are probably biased in both extremes, but that the gryphon manipulates magic is quite beyond doubt.

Often I would gape in amazement at the gryphon, for when he rested he would sometimes stare off, as if into naught, and presently small lights, bright and alive, would wink into existence and begin to dance about his head.

Lord Tiradelle wrote that about his pet, and it has been witnessed in the wild, as well.

Another unusual phenomenon surrounding these creatures are ‘gryphonwhirls’, small whirlwinds that appear, at times, beneath flying gryphons. Sometimes the gryphon can be so high as to be nearly a dust mote to the eyes, but a small whirlwind will nevertheless manifest beneath it. This by no means happens at all times beneath a gryphon’s flight, but instead manifests quite irregularly. One theory is that the gryphon possesses the power to shift the winds – a theory which would help to account for their unbelievable agility in the air – and a theory which might explain the disturbance on the ground, as the patterns of the winds are shaped by the gryphon’s will.

Whether or not the gryphon possesses other magics, or has the capacity or desire to use those magics in a willful manner, is a matter of debate. But what is certain is that the gryphon does, indeed, have the power to use magic – probably magic of a ‘glamour’ nature.

Ancient tales of gryphons serving as steeds to humans or wood elves, old stories of the majestic creatures living in palaces as pets, just as common as dogs are today, and journal accounts of gryphons aiding travelers – all these things still dwell in the realm of mystery. If they did, indeed, exist closer to humans in the times of yore, they have long since left our sides to soar in the endless skies and dance about the peaks of the world’s greatest mountains. But do we, in our modern times, have anything to fear from the gryphon?

"They seem to understand that we two-leggeds are dangerous, or perhaps they remember us from those old times you speak of," Eldrus said to me as I asked him of his own encounters. "They pass down knowledge from parent to child, just as we do, and they remember things of ancient times. Whatever the case, they stay well away from us, except in the instance of someone coming too close to a nest. They’ll defend their griffits and their territories with a ferocity I’ve not seen in any other beast – why, once I saw a small mountain dragon nearly torn from the sky, all because it had dared try to make a meal of a nest of baby gryphons."

I’ll conclude with a bestiary of the seven known varieties of gryphon. There are many others that remain too elusive to catalog, but this gives us, at least, a taste of the family of creatures we call gryphons.

The Grey Gryphon is the most common variety seen in Masalla, and is found more rarely in the Old and New Worlds, as well as Japura, Jedda Felsuin, and Rel Morde. Sharp and keenly intelligent, the Grey Gryphon embodies the classic gryphonic image. Grey-feathered with occasional black markings, they make their home in the airy mountains, above tree line, and utilize the high soaring method of hunting described above. Dead Greys have been weighed at 70 – 130 stone, with a body of medium build, well-balanced between agility and strength.

They usually prey upon rabbit, beaver, woodchuck, and even small deer, and certainly aren’t above scavenging. Grey Gryphons gather in torries in the late winter or spring, and begin nest-building soon after. To see them performing their aerial acrobatics during these torries is a rare and fabulous site, much sought-after by adventurers. Unfortunately, the gryphons are unpredictable in their choice of location for a torrie, and thus the sight eludes most seekers.

These majestic creatures are famed as beautiful, deadly hunters. Decorated in browns, blacks, whites, and sometimes fox-reds, the Great Crested can weigh up to 270 stone and stand five arms tall when seated on its back haunches. The crest is held low and sleek when flying, but when aroused by danger or during courtship dances, the crest can fan out, making the gryphon appear even larger and more intimidating.

Prey as large as bear and forest dragon has been taken by these gryphons, who are rare at best, and found only in the mountains of the Old and New World, as well as Rel Morde, where they are most often seen.

Despite their size, Great Cresteds are remarkably agile, and can attain phenomenal speeds in their dive. They brake so suddenly as they strike their prey that numerous observers have remarked the gryphon ‘surely must have shattered itself upon the ground’. But invariably they once again lift into the air with powerful wingbeats.

These beautiful and mystical gryphons have been sighted in all lands, but reports are very few, for they dwell far from the haunts of humankin. A deep and intense purple color dominates their appearance, and they are often described as ‘quiet, but alert, as if they are aware of all that surrounds them’.

Indeed, most accounts of gryphonwhirls and magically created lights pertain to these creatures, and the old tales that speak of gryphons aiding lost humans tell of ‘a great cat-bird of a most royal color – the deep purple of an iris’. It is thought that this particular reference gave the gryphon its eventual name.

Almost nothing is known about their other habits, for a Royal Gryphon has never been captured, nor has a dead specimen been found. They are of medium build, and though we can only guess at their weight, it is supposed that they would average about 120 stone.

Only a few of our kind have been lucky enough to hear the calls of the Royal, but those who do speak of a clarity of voice that froze them in bewilderment.

With deep blue feathering and lapis eyes surrounded by the silver or white mask which gives this creature its name, the Masked Gryphon is perhaps the most striking of gryphonkin. A mid-sized gryphon, the Masked is somewhere between the Grey and the Great Crested in stature and weight. But none are more resplendent, for the blue feathers shine iridescent in the sun, and black, lustrous fur covers the hindquarters.

This gryphon is found in all lands that hold treeless mountaintops, but the Masked Gryphon differs slightly from others of its kin in that it prefers aquatic prey, and will most usually make its home near the seacoast or at the edge of large, mountain lakes. To see a Masked Gryphon soar low over the water and scoop down with its talons is an incredible sight indeed. People have even reported seeing the Masked Gryphon dive under the water to acquire prey. This seems quite unlikely- the people probably bore witness to a diving ‘pounce’ into shallow water.

Most things are different in Shavay, and that’s the case with Gryphons, too. Although Shavay has populations of Masked and Royal Gryphons, its most common variety is the Sand Gryphon, which possesses numerous unique characteristics.

The Sand Gryphon is a stalker in the plains, using its coloration and low stance to get as near to prey as possible. Then, in a swift burst, it will leap forward and fly/pounce toward its prey, often using both the ground and the air in the same pursuit as it skims over the tops of the grasses.

Sand Gryphons never fly high, but are intensely agile in low flight, as well as upon the ground. These are small, light gryphons – if seated on its haunches, even the largest would barely crest a man’s waist, and most weigh anywhere from 25 to 40 stone.

Purely diurnal, these gryphons love the sun, and if not hunting, they can be seen basking in the open plains or, if particularly hot out, looking out from the light shade of a tree-perch. At night they retreat to burrows dug in the sandy ground – excavation of these dens have shown that they are very simple and often consist of nothing more than a deep ‘bed’ of sand that the gryphon has nestled into. Through some oddity of breathing, this gryphon seems unperturbed even if buried in sand – it is not unusual for a burrow to collapse during the night, and the gryphon to emerge, shaking itself off, in the morn.

By far the largest and heaviest-bodied of known gryphon varieties, Fire’s Northern Gryphon can weigh 450 stone and stand as tall as a large man.

These powerful creatures are hunters of the high air, and rarely fly down to the lowlands. They take mountain sheep, cougar, and numerous smaller furred creatures that live in the highlands, caching their meals for later eating. Grey and brown with tawny fur, they will sometimes sport a bright red-bronze crest, presumably during mating season. It is not clear whether the male or female (or both sexes) gain this coloration, but it lasts only a few passages and then disappears.

This is not, incidentally, why there is Fire in its name – rather, this comes from the man who first classified this breed as a separate variety – the man’s first name, believe it or not, was Fire.

Little else is known of these large predators, for they live in such high places that often the air is barely fit for humans to breathe.

This gryphon is probably more common than we think. Throughout the woodlands of all temperate provinces, the Wood Gryphon is perhaps the smallest of gryphons – even the most massive one would barely come up to a man’s waist if seated on its haunches. They are quiet, nocturnal stalkers whose color blends well with the shadows and leaves of the deep forests – they stalk in search of their prey, which can be anything from large insects to rabbits, squirrel, weasel, and sometimes fish, which they pull from streams.

Although almost never seen live in the wild, dead Wood Gryphons are occasionally found, and there are nests discovered nearly every year. These are large roundish balls of interwoven sticks and leaves, much like huge squirrels’ nests. Inside, shed feather-down makes a cozy lining for the griffits, which arrive near Wavelong in the middle of summer and are flying by winter-time.

Wood Gryphons are low fliers, seldom venturing above the tree-tops. Their wings are most often used for long pounces from trees, where they will wait silently near a game-trail before gliding down to drop upon their prey. Still, they are very capable of agile flight, and use their wings to escape if danger is near. During swift retreat, they have been observed utilizing a unique method of traversing the woodlands called ‘skeeting’ – the gryphon will fly through thick trees and use the trunks to push off with their feet, swiftly changing direction. It is a remarkable sight that has been described as seeming like the gryphon was ‘bouncing between trees’. This method of combining the use of legs and wings is seen, to a less remarkable extent, in Shavay’s Sand Gryphon as well, and it explains why Wood Gryphons are almost never taken by hunters – they are simply too quick and erratic as they skeet from tree to tree.

Interestingly, the Wood Gryphon is the single exception to our assertion that gryphons are not dangerous – when huntsfolk venture too near the high nests during griffit season, Wood Gryphons are extremely defensive. They will warn the intruder off with a piercing scream, and then skeet toward the danger in a mock-charge, issuing forth a chittering cry all the while. If this warning charge doesn’t send the intruder retreating, the gryphon will attack with astounding ferocity, and won’t relinquish the attack until the intruder flees or is rendered immobile.

Although this treatise covers a great deal of information, there is still so much more to learn regarding these elusive beasts. If you are ever exploring the lonely places, watch carefully for the sight of one of these remarkable creatures – if you see one, you will be among the few humans who can claim such a vision. And the next time you hear someone expounding upon the horrible nature of these beasts, be sure to educate them concerning the true temperament of the gryphon.

All images on this treatise are copyright Renee LeCompte, 2003. All rights reserved.

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