Gryphons
Introduction to all things gryphon
Since not everyone even knows what a gryphon is - and many folks who do have wildly differing ideas about them - this page will serve as the reference point for a large number of details about SpheresMUX's gryphons.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask one of the wizzes. Stormdancer and Hersy are the Sphere Wizzes for Shrilk, and best equipped to answer your questions, but any one will do their best.
The Short Form
Basically, gryphons are 1/2 lion, 1/2 raptor. From the mid-section foreward, they have the body of a hawk, eagle, or falcon, while the back half is that of a lion. This means no crows, pigeons, vultures, etc. It also means no pumas, tigers, or panthers. (see coloration rules, below)
Wing shape & function
Broadwings - the Windhaven and Grylra tend to be 'Broadwings' - better suited for soaring, strong lifting, and long flights.
Longwings - the Shkrill tend to be 'Longwings' - more agile and acrobatic.
The illustration compares the wing shape and size of the three main clans of Shrilk.
Innermost - Shkrill
Middle - Grylra
Outermost - Windhaven
There are no feathers on the tail!
Size
| Shkrill | Grylra | Windhaven | |
| height (at the shoulder) | 2' 8" - 3' 4" | 3' - 3' 8" | 3' 4" - 4' |
| weight (in pounds) | 500 - 600 | 550 - 650 | 600 - 700 |
| wingspan (tip to tip) | 15' - 18' | 17' - 19' | 18' - 21' |
| length (beak to rump) | 5' - 6' | 5' 6" - 6' 6" | 6' - 7' |
Note that generally speaking, females tend to be about 5% larger than males. Tails are approximately 75% as long as the body (so a 6' gryphon would have an additional 4 1/2 feet of tail).
Coloration
Although gryphons are restricted in their physical appearance, their coloration is not nearly so limited. However, you are encouraged to use something at least approaching what a bird might have, in the forebody, and avoid really strong patterning on the lion's half. Black, brown, tan and white fur is quite acceptable, as are a number of other colors... so if you just hate it that you can't be a panther... just take black fur, and deal with it. *grin*.
A note on albinism. For some reason, a lot of people want to be an albino. This is acceptable, if you also accept the limitations thereof. An albino's eyesight is much worse, they tend to be weaker, and smaller than normal. They are also prone to brittle bones, terrible sunburns, and skin cancer. So before you feel the need to be 'unique' in this way... think about the concequences.
Seasonal changes
Moulting - every few months, regardless of the time of year, gryphons loose some of their old feathers, and grow new ones. As they get older, they tend to loose more feathers at once. Moulting is often quite itchy, and can make a gryphon very irritable!
Shedding - unlike moulting, this is a strictly seasonal event. Every spring, the thicker winter fur is shed. And every winter, a new, thicker coat grows in.
Diet
There is no such thing as a vegetarian gryphon. Their digestive systems just can't handle it. The primary diet is meat - both from prey like deer, boar, and elk, and fish. The Windhaven often prepare their food in various ways - both by cooking, and by adding spices and sauces. The Grylra occasionally do so, generally for special occasions. Most prefer their meat warm off the bone. The Shkrill almost never prepare their meals in any way.
Reproduction
Males become sexually mature at about 3 years. Females at about 3 1/2 years. Males tend to be sterile during the summer months, when it's hot. After a fertile mating (about 10% chance per time), the female gives birth to eggs about 120-150 days later. The eggs hatch another 90 days after that.
The social aspects of reproduction are a bit more complicated. Gryphons are generally sexually polygomous, but strongly monogomous when it comes to caring for their family. Males are very strongly pressured to stay with the female and young, until they are able to predictably hunt for themselves.
Among the Shkrill, the mated pair tends to go off away from the rest of the aerie until the young are able to defend themselves (usually 18-24 months), before rejoining. Otherwise there is a chance, especially among those low on in favor with the aerie's leader, that the young will be injured or killed.
In Grylra, there is a great deal of 'communal care' that goes on. Frequently two or three families will join together to raise the young. There are also communal facilities for raising the young, where the parents (of both sexes) spend time tending the 'flock', while the other parents get a chance to hunt, get some peace and quiet, and generally enjoy themselves.
Windhaven takes this idea of 'child care' a bit further, having a permanently staffed 'nursery' available for use.
Dealing with the young
The young are hatched with their eyes closed, and they open about 10-12 days later.
The young can typically walk at 15-20 days after birth.
Start talking within 6 months.
Are fully fledged within 9 months.
Take their first flight at 12 months.
First hunt at 18 months.
Physically able to mate at 14-16 months.
Socially acceptable to mate at 18-19 months.
Able to reproduce at roughly 3 years.
Feeding
When very young, gryphlets are fed with small scraps of meat and organ. As they mature, more and more bits of hide and bone are given, to help with bone formation, and such. At about 2 months, they're often given whole mice and rats... at first pre-killed, then badly wounded. After about 6-8 months, the young are usually killing their own small, ground-based prey.
Education
Education is very informal in Shkrill, and only slightly less so in Grylra. The most organized 'classes' are in teaching to read and write. Since New Ones are generally not able to do so, it's very common for the classes to combine young and old alike. As with most things, Windhaven's approach is considerably more organized and comprehensive - there are real 'classes' for everything from hunting and flight to histories and mathematics.
Health, Injuries, Healing.
Gryphons consider any injury that prohibits flight to be debilitating. Being confined to the ground is terrible for them. So even a severe sprain in a wing joint could be quite unpleasant. However, for these purposes, a bone or joint break in the wings is very serious, and due to the strong possibility of the broken bone cutting the major wing artery, great care must be taken when treating such a wound.
The care of such an injury depends on the aerie. The Windhaven have the best healing mages in the sphere, as well as a few skilled 'conventional' doctors. Thus, most injuries can be treated well. The Grylra have several very skilled emergency-medical mages, and possibly better 'trauma' skills than the Windhaven, but the wounds are likely to heal with quite a bit more cosmetic damage. The Shkrill have only basic medical facilities - the use of herbs, basic bandaging and tourniquits, etc.
Not suprisingly, the Shkrill are very tolerant of pain, while the Windhaven are more easily distressed by it. However in the heat of battle, even Windhaven gryphons are generally able to tolerate very painful wounds.
Gryphons have very high metabolisms, so they usually heal pretty quickly. This also means they require quite a lot of food. An average 600 pound Grylra will go through about 50-80 pounds of meat in a week.
A gryphon can go for about 2 days without eating, but hunger makes them very
irritable. After 2 days, they start to become weak and easily tired, and incredibly
vicious. 4 days without food is usually fatal.
They can go for 1 day without drinking with minimal ill effect, but after that
flight becomes harder, and their endurance decreases dramatically, and are more
prone to overheating. 2 days renders them groundbound, and 3 days can be fatal.
Gryphons sleep a lot - most sleep from nightfall to dawn, with frequent naps through the day. They can go without sleep for 2 days without much ill effect, but after 3 days they start to get pretty unpredictable and confused. After 5 days, they're basically incoherent and incapable of anything requiring balance (like walking a straight line, or anything beyond the most basic flight.
Flight
Gryphons require magic for flight, and absolutely cannot fly in non-magical spheres. However, they can use their wings to soften a landing, or lengthen a jump by gliding... just not very far. They also find it quite disorienting to fly in other magic spheres - it just feels strange, and unbalancing. The magic is used to control course, coupled with aerodynamics. This is why a gryphon can turn, for instance, without having a bird's tail or other large surface.
Social habits & behaviors
Beak-touches are often given between two (or more) gryphons as a sign of trust
and affection, regardless of gender.
Rousing is the fluffing-out of feathers. Usually indicates calm.
Coping - honing the edge of the beak.
Preening (self, and others) - This occupies a great deal of a gryphon's
day. It is critically important to keep the feathers in good condition, both
for comfort (they get itchy) and for flight (unkempt feathers make for hard
and clumsy flight). Mutual preening is very common, as a sign of respect,
friendship, or affection.
Cleanliness - Gryphons keep themselves, and their lairs, very clean.
Gryphons have a distinctive odor - a combination of cinnamon, musk, sandlewood, and damp
cardboard. Their lairs usually carry some of this, along with some sharper overtones.
Senses
Sight - Gryphons have exceptionally sharp distance vision, but not very good close vision. Anything closer than the end of their beak is usually quite fuzzy. The eyes are also relatively fixed in the head, and limited in peripheral vision (gryphons can't roll their eyes). So it's usually very easy to tell what a gryphon is looking at - their head is pointed directly at it.
Hearing - Despite the lack of external ears, gryphons have a good sense of hearing.
Smell - Lacking a true sinus cavity, the gryphons basically combine their sense of smell with their sense of taste - having an additional set of sensors along the roof of the beak. You will often see a gryphon gaping it's beak if it wants to get a better sense for how something smells. Overall, despite these adaptions, gryphons have a poor sense of smell, compared with other creatures.
Taste - Somewhat combined with the tense of smell, gryphons have an only fair sense of taste.
Touch - When using the claws, gryphons have a poor sense of touch - enough to pick out the shape of something, and gross textures... but generally can't tell much else. However, gryphons will also use their beak and tongues to manipulate items, and the sense of touch with the tongue is quite good.
"Sixth Sense" - Gryphons have an uncanny ability to tell when they are being observed. If you look at one for more than a few seconds, chances are very good that it will know this... and have a pretty good idea where the viewer is.
Skills
These are the basic skills, as applicable to SpheresMUX.
Mage
Beginners can do stone & wood.
Practiced can do water.
Expert can do fire.
Healer Mage
Beginners understand herbalism, and can stop moderate bleeding.
Practiced can do major wound healing, put someone unconcious, and heal minor broken bones.
Expert can heal major injuries of all kinds, given time.
Healer
Beginners understand basic herbalism, and can bind minor wounds.
Practiced know herbal cures for most bodily discomforts (cramps, diarriah, pain), and can cure or alleviate most disease. Can also set minor breaks and deal with other moderate soft-tissue injuries.
Expert are effectively high level surgeons. They can set major breaks and heal severe wounds.
Scout
Beginners have learned basic endurance flight and evasive maneuvers, how to fly in formation, search patterns, map-reading and air/ground navigation, and following targets.
Practiced are excellent flyers, have great flight endurance, and have a very good chance of finding or tracking targets. Know basic woodcraft.
Expert scouts can tell a great deal about who or what has been through an area by signs and clues. Superb flyers.
Fighter
Beginners know basic attack and defense moves, are not that good in the air.
Practiced are good fighters on ground and air. Understand advanced flight dynamics.
Expert fighters are excellent flyers, capable of very advanced flight and ground moves.
Hunter
Beginners succeed in bringing down small and moderate game about 1 time in 10.
Practiced can bring down small and moderate 1 in 4, large 1 in 8.
Expert bring down small & medium game 5 in 6, large 1 in 2.
Musicmaker
Beginners can carry a tune, and know the most basic songs, and how to perform them on their chosen instrument.
Practiced are good musicians, with a broad range of songs and ballads, and can play 2 instruments very well, or 3 fairly well.
Expert know most of the songs of their race, and are extremely skilled with most instruments.
Flying
Beginners can fly a straight line, land without hurting themselves 80%% of the time.
Practiced know how to find and use thermals, and make fairly sophisticated landings and other maneuvers.
Expert can take off and land in storms, and perform very acrobatic maneuvers.
Swimming
Beginners can swim across a slow stream, or float for 5 minutes in a still lake.
Practiced can swim well, float indefinitely, and can land in the water carefully.
Expert can dive into the water from any height.
Culture
Music Gryphons use rythm in their music quite a bit - tending towards the use of percussive instruments (drums, stones, etc), their voices, and a few plucked string instruments. The 'Thrum' is most common of the stringed instruments, and is usually shaped a bit like a mountain dulcimer.
Crafts Magic is the most common method of crafting artistic and utilitarian devices. Wood and stone are the usual materials.
Alphabet / writing Gryphon writing is complicated and foreign to many cultures. Rather
than the simple linear script of most peoples, gryphons have a 'two tiered' writing.
This is a result of their being quick-moving creatures, often having to absorb critical
information very quickly. While the 'writing' does generally move left to right, it
moves bottom to top. It also is a series of large symbols, conveying the essential
of an idea or object, with smaller ornamentation beneath which conveys the detailed
modifiers of that idea. For instance, you might see the large symbol for "Ball", with
smaller symbols beneath indicating "red", "bouncy", and "not-round".
While very strange to most cultures, this does allow a gryphon to very rapidly
skim a scroll, getting a great deal of information about it's scope, without being
consumed in details, which can be read as desired.
For example (read bottom to top):
PLAINS (Wirtkill, open, summer, dry)
PREY (fast, alert, male, deer)
CAUGHT (grabbed in claws, killed, cleanly)
GRYPHON (small, female, Grylra, unmated, (name Salurnai))
Which would roughly translate to:
Salurnai, a small unmated female of the Grylra aerie caught and killed an fast, alert male deer.
She did this on the open parts of the Wirtkill plains, during the dry part of summer.
Literature At one time the gryphons as a whole were a very literate race. Now, however, only the Windhaven place tremendous value on the written word. The other two clans tend to use stories and oral tradition, though they do keep written records of some events.
Dwellings Gryphons tend to dwell in cave-like structures, both natural and magic-formed. The Windhaven aerie looks quite a bit like a city - the stone has been extensively sculpted and formed, and many of the home-caves are magnificent to look upon. All of the aeries have a 'communal sleeping area', where those who don't have homes or who simply wish to have company for their rest, can sleep.
Spirituality Although gryphons have come to understand the concept of gods, dieties, great powers,
and other such things from other spheres, they themselves do not have any dieties, nor do they
worship. They have a great respect for the winds, however, and use a number of flight-related
metaphors, which may seem similar to spiritualism to others.
They do not believe in an afterlife - when one dies, one dies, and that's all. The Grylra and
Windhaven have considerably different burial practices. The Shkrill do not usually memorialize
their dead in any way.
Trade The Windhaven are fairly active traders, though there are not many trading partners nearby. Most all the trading is currently done with the centaurs in Mythrayel, to the east. Some trade potentials are opening up with the Kefetiun, to the southwest.
Production Byproducts of hunting form the majority of gryphon trade goods. However, it takes a great deal of skill to bring down an animal and not damage it's hide. Other exports include magically shaped stone and wood objects, a few plant products, small amounts of gems and minerals, and the pure silica (sand) that accumulates along the river banks.
Technology level in Shrilk - The technology level in Shrilk is considered primitive. Due to the Core's influence, the most complicated mechanisms are simple gears, cogs, levers and pullies.
Magic level in Shrilk - Potentially, the magic level is fairly high. However, not many gryphons have the patience, nor the resources, to master the arts.
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