Kjaarduna

Kjaarduna - known as Kjaar to most - was one of six hatchlings reared by a pair of famous and decorated knight-gryphons; as a whelp, she idealized her parents' strength and glory, and decided early on that she would follow in their footsteps. She began training the moment she was strong enough to fly, and was a terror to her nestmates, whom she bullied relentlessly in an attempt to show off her own strength and superiority. Mother was eager to get her out of the house, and Kjaar was shipped off be trained properly (and far away) in the shield and talon as soon as she was old enough.

Professional military training cooled her head somewhat, but only enough to enable her into knighthood. Aggressive, wild and headstrong, she has a rather poor reputation among the knights of her city, who see her as a potential danger due to her tendency to go off-plan when she believes she's thought up something better. However, none would question her strength and her fearlessness. Kjaar's eagerness for battle borders on bloodthirstiness - but rather than a love of killing, she simply enjoys the thrill. She yearns to become a warrior more legendary than her parents and to earn the respect of any who hear her name. While she has a sense of honor and reverence towards the knight order, she dislikes rules and regulations.

 Only one rider managed to match her ferocity; rather than trying to tame her, he tried to best her, and sparked a flame that continues to rage between them. There is little more taboo than a relationship between a human and a gryphon. Gryphons, after all, cannot take on human form - they don't have that sort of magical ability. But they can touch, and be near, in the shadows and in secret.

general information about gryphons

Sharing a common ancestor with dragons, gryphons are similar in body layout and intellect to their scalier cousins, having six limbs with one pair modified for flight and human-level intelligence; unlike dragons, however, they lack any particular magical talent, and are thus constrained by their physical bodies in terms of their capabilities. Gryphons are specialized flying creatures with light bones and large, powerful flight muscles. While they are capable of running on the ground in short bursts, they're generally clumsy on land compared to in the air, only using that energy to get enough speed to hurl their large heavy bodies into flight. Though common parlance paints them as some kind of hybrid between a lion and an eagle, they are, in truth, related to neither animal, despite superficial resemblances as a result of convergent evolution. Unlike dragons, there is only one extant specie of gryphon. They do, however, have a small handful of races, with differences in feather and scale color, as well as beak shape. Gryphons are notable for their ability to speak due to their syrinx-like vocal organ, which dragons lack; their speech sounds remarkably similar to the mimicry of a raven, and some humans find it unnerving. Also unlike dragons, their lifespan is much shorter and more comparable to a human's; rarely do they live past 150 or so.

 Gryphons are social pack hunters that generally live in groups of 4-10. They're native to mountains and cliffside areas, typically close to water; their territory may border that of a red or black dragon, but the two rarely occupy the same space to avoid dangerous competition. Humans and gryphons, on the other hand, often share a mutualistic relationship in modern times - in the past, there were wars and conflicts between the two species over land, but in recent centuries, they have come to work together, sharing food and protection with one another in many areas where their territories overlap. Many human cities in mountainous regions have long, historic partnerships with nearby gryphon aeries, and it's not uncommon for buildings and roads to be designed to accomodate their larger quadruped citizens. As gryphon hands lack the dexterity of a human's, they are unable to use tools or build cities with the degree of detail that humans can; on the other hand, humans cannot fly. Typically, gryphons work as messengers or suppliers in these common spaces; it's also common for them to work in tandem with human butchers or tanners, assisting in the hunting and collection of prey animals. Most famously, many gryphons are proud knights, working in pairs with a human rider carried upon their back and wielding a bow or a lance. Gryphons and riders are a formidable foe, as their air maneuverability and propensity for an attack from two sides (both from the gryphon and the human) makes them extremely difficult to take down - there are no domesticated flying animals, and no other flying creatures that partner with humans willingly in this manner, making the combination near-peerless in a military situation.