history of the griffins
what happened to their families, why theyre where they are, ect
long ago, griffins prospered. these majestic creatures lived upon the clouds in a paradise-- but they couldn't simply exist there. they ate what was on the ground, flora and fauna, and had to descend to avoid starvation.
as the rise of mankind threatened their existence, they started to dwindle. men would scare the griffins into the clouds until they starved, or hunt them when they snuck down to feast. they believed the griffins were human-eaters.
griffins were not opposed to eating human meat, but preferred animals. humans were bitter. they tasted empty.
soon, what used to be a griffin empire was left to ashes and dust. the humans had hunted down every last griffin in the world-- except for five.
this group, who only survived because they themselves or their parents sent them off before the storm, found each other during their long and lonely days. they searched for years for each other.
marley(8) and cedar(22) came from the same city, so they were immediately together. then they found bombur(17) years later. sebby(10) came next, and root(5) last.
after many years, and at the time of the story with babylon and the animals, they are these ages: marley: 30 cedar: 44 bombur: 39 sebby: 32 root: 27 griffins are well known for exceeding one hundred years of life, often times going into two hundreds. they are young.
they survived by banding together as vagabonds. they had nobody but each other. they survived by killing and stealing.
eventually, the group wanders into the castle of queen babylon, looking to kill or steal. she takes pity on the poor travelers, demanding they be fed and given jobs. they were quickly turned into knights. now they are the protectors of babylon's people.