Cassio Guards

Don't be an idiot. You mess with the altar of the All Father and you're going to have to tangle with the Cassio Guards. They give serial killers nightmares.

— Light Finger Falamar to a professional acquaintance from out of town

A Common Problem

Religious impulses capture the heart of a people and manifest in temples of worship that are typically lavishly decorated to honor the deity who whom the temple is dedicated. Unfortunately, such a conspicuous and generous gathering of wealth inevitably attracts those who are profane and would steal these gifts meant to honor the god. This is clearly unacceptable, and it requires a concerted effort to maintain the decor of a temple premises, ideally guards who are corruptable.

A Unique Solution

In this, the Temple of the All Father in Steelsong Mountain is no different from every other temple in the world, but the first High Priest Sleogr had been chased by a wild Cassio the day before work on the new Temple of the All Father at Steelsong Mountain began. He had the idea to form an elite squad of the birds with handlers to act as guards to the Temple wealth on display for worshippers to see. The birds were viscious, they were beautiful, and almost certainly unbribeable. He outlined his idea to his stable master who privately thought it was crazy, having run into the violent, almost human sized native birds before. He took the idea back and assigned the job of capturing and training the birds to his least favorite stablehand Drasill Andlit.

by Terry Cassis using Shutterstock AI

Drasil was no fool. He knew he would have a hard time training a full grown bird as he had already run into the feathered demons, so he decided to steal an egg and attempt to raise a chick from hatching. After watching the birds nest and the female lay her eggs, Drasil discovered that the female did not stay with the male, but left him to brood the nest and tend the eggs and chicks. This was fortunate as he was able to steal an egg from each of several nests when the male needed to leave the nest briefly during brooding to hunt and eat. It was dangerous work, but Drasil found a younger brother he was willing to risk to a potentially aggressive enraged parent bird in order to retrieve a few eggs. He put these into a nest near a kitchen firepit to keep them warm, then gathered food - fruit and small animals to feed the chicks when they hatched.
When they hatched, Drasil began training the Cassios. He spent countless hours trying to get the birds to behave aggressively when someone tried to touch the Temple furnishings, but leave them alone when they were well behaved. The effort was less than successful, until he arrived at the technique of smearing the juice of summer peaches and berries onto the precious items. Shortly afterwards, the birds began to see the temple furnishings as "theirs" and to aggressively fend off other beings who attempted to abscond with them. Since the chicks seemed to attach emotionally to the person who fed and cared for them, and were otherwise independent and unfriendly to strangers, the whole scheme appeared to be working out to plan.
Drasil persuaded his little brother to steal another couple dozen eggs over the next few years, and he bformed a paramilitary organization whose sole purpose was to guard the temples of the All Father and Yulasta who had become a central figure in Steelsong religious observances. He named his troops the "Cassio Guards" and they were extremely effective at protecting the temple and it's valuable contents.

by Terry Cassis using Imagine AI

Today

Today, no temple among the Steelsongs is without the guardianship of these beautiful but viscious birds. Units of Cassio guards are assigned to each urban community with a religious center of worship. Their handlers are chosen with the same care as the cassios themselves. They must be patient and firm, but must understand the behavioral psychology of the animals in order to craft the behavior of their charges into an appropriate guard. Trainers and handlers are not interchangable. The animals accept only one handler, and typically, if a handler dies or is permanently incapacitated, their birds will have to be put down as re-training to a new handler is rarely successful.

You can't bribe the monks - they have no control of them either. The best the monks can do is get them into their pens, feed them and groom them each day. That's why they picked the d#&% birds - there's no bribing or controlling them.

— Light Finger Falamar

Cassios are selectively bred for beauty, intelligence, native weaponry and visciousness. Their brain cavities are 30% larger than their wild cousins, and they are used in applications beyond temple security, though civilians are warned that these animals do not make good pets. Rather, unwanted or ill-bred animals are euthanized or released into the wild depending on the issues with the specific animal. A cassio is equipped with a razor sharp beak over six inches in length, strong legs with well developed muscular calves and hips which provide enough power to push a full grown man backwards between eight and ten feet, and a single central toe spur integrated into the center of each foot which extendeds almost five inches past the front of the next longest toe.

You lay a hand on any gold in the temple and they'll rip your hand off with that knife sharp beak while they're tearing your gut open with the thorn on the end of those long legs. And if you think you can run away, think again. They're three times faster than any man, and once they run you down, they'll peck your eyes out and eat your intestines before the monks call them off.

— Light Finger Falamar