#mordvogel

[tsyllaes]

MORDVOGEL.

I've now drawn all the creatures I've already stuck into Llayad, so now I'm up to the kind of fleshing them out part, creating more critters to throw into the narative when I need. One of those is another bird, because I've only got the flamingo and hummingbird so far. So I was thinking of a bird of prey, except I've already got the griffin filling that role, and why am I going to stick an eagle in the sky when I can soar a griffin through there? So next I was thinking maybe a flightless bird. Some sort of ostrich, moa, emu, cassowary type thing… and because I already had birds of prey on the mind… cassowaries are already evil murder birds… why not make it a proper, truly legit murder bird and make a flightless bird of prey? I google translated murder bird into German, because Llayad is the Barossa but make it Africa, and it spat out mordvogel and I was sold.

The mordvogel is, obviously, a terrifying creature. It has an eagle's beak, a velociraptor's hooked toe because why the shit not, all fused onto an emu's body that can run at 60kph and is one of the fastest creatures in Tsyllaes. They're territorial birds, solitary until the breeding season, when they pair up and raise their chicks as a pair. Both parents equally share the roles of sitting on the eggs/chicks and hunting as well as teaching the chicks to hunt. Once the chicks are grown enough to go out on their own, the parents separate with the female keeping the same territory while the male goes to find a new mate.

They hunt by sitting down in the grass of the savanna and scanning through the grass for a likely victim. They'll then launch off the ground and sprint after their quarry. When they catch up, they jump up on the prey's back and dig in with those massive claws and beak, ultimately aiming to claw the throat open and tear it to shreds like an eagle. Both extremely agile and with huge stamina reserves, the mordvogel can run at top speed for way longer than any of its potential prey animals. If it gets its sights set on you, you are stuffed. Just show it your neck and hope it gets it over with quickly.

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