Wyvern
Wyverns are a non-sentient species of bipedal dragonoids. They are most commonly found in temperate to tropical regions of Hakoa, Teroa, Nioa, Iroa, and Auloa, though some variants can be found in cooler climes. Unlike their cousins, the true dragons, wyverns possess only a bestial level of intelligence. In some cultures, particularly those with draconic heritage, wyverns are revered as sacred animals and used as aerial mounts.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A wyvern has two scaly legs, leathery wings, and a sinewy tail. It's tail is tipped with a signature weapon, a venomous stinger. Wyvern venom is exceptionally potent, able to kill a sheep in seconds and an adult human in only a few minutes. The venom is unique in the animal kingdom as even stopping the venom from reaching the heart is often not enough to prevent permanent damage. This is because wyvern venom actually disintegrates blood cells as it travels, meaning that a victim may die of blood loss even if they are only grazed by the stinger.
Genetics and Reproduction
Wyverns lay clutches of six to seven eggs. Mother wyverns build two kinds of nests depending on their environment: a hole nest or a mound nest. A hole nest is usually excavated in sand and a mound nest is usually constructed out of rotting vegetation which helps regulate the eggs's temperature.
Eggs must be incubated for 8-10 months, during which time a female wyvern will not leave their side even for food. At the time of hatching, the young start calling within the eggs. They have an egg-tooth at the tip of their snouts, which is developed from the skin, and that helps them pierce out of the shell. Hearing the calls, the female usually excavates the nest and sometimes takes the unhatched eggs in her mouth, slowly rolling the eggs to help the process. Like dragons, birds, and crocodilians, wyverns are fiercely protective of their offspring, even after they hatch.
Growth Rate & Stages
Like dragons, birds, and crocodilians, wyverns are fiercely protective of their offspring, even after they hatch. Both male and female wyverns watch over their young for a period of 1-2 years during which they teach their offspring how to hunt, construct nests and avoid predators. However, this period of parental nurturing ends as soon as the young wyvernlings are able to fly. After this time, parents and the other siblings of a young wyvernling will compete with them for territory. Because wyvernlings can't fly, they have a high mortality rate for the first few years of their life.
Ecology and Habitats
Wyverns live in a large variety of habitats from swamps, to deserts, to jungles, to badlands, to open grasslands. They are quasi-ectothermic, requiring a large amount of heat and sunlight to maintain their energy levels. Areas with open basking locations as well as room for maneuverability in flight are prize among wyverns.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Wyverns are obligate carnivores, requiring a large amount of meat in order to maintain their energy and body weight. In the wild, wyverns usually prey on medium-to-large herbivores such as boar, wild sheep, antelope, camels and the calves of wild cattle, horses, and even elephants. They can take down a large variety of prey thanks to their mobility and their stinger, making them a contender for the position of apex predator in any area they inhabit.
Wyverns never hunt on the ground if they can help it, preferring to ambush their prey from the air. If forced into a confrontation on the ground, a wyvern crouches low, keeping its stinger poised above its head as it hisses and growls. A wyvern intent on its prey backs down only if it sustains serious injury, or if its prey eludes it long enough for another easier potential meal to wander along. If it corners a fleeing creature in an enclosure too small to enter, a wyvern guards where the quarry hides, lashing with its stinger whenever opportunity allows.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Wyvern subspecies vary dramatically in terms of their socialization. Even though they do not form social groups, many species congregate in certain areas of plentiful prey, tolerating each other at times of feeding and basking. The degree of socialization they exhibit appears to be largely dictated by their environment, with Bone Wyverns that inhabit the Marrow Desert being exceptionally territorial and Niru Wyverns who live in the lush Niru River Valley gathering together.
There is a certain form of hierarchy in wyverns: the largest and heaviest females are at the top, having access to the best basking site and priority during a group feeding of a big kill or carcass.
Domestication
Wyverns have domesticated in certain places and are an important part of many cultures. In Qartagonia, wyverns are considered sacred creatures, semi-divine and related to Kōs, the god of the desert. Qartagonia was also the first place that wyverniering, the practice of riding a domesticated wyvern either as transport or into battle.
However, even in Qartago, wyvern breeding is a dangerous business with many a would-be-master losing their lives to the wyvern's naturally violent temperament. In cultures where wyverniering is a profession, wyverns are separated from their mother at birth and imprinted upon by their future rider. The duty of wyvern riding is considered a great honor but also a great burden, as the cost of quartering and raising a wyvern is high and they can live for upwards of a century.
However, even in Qartago, wyvern breeding is a dangerous business with many a would-be-master losing their lives to the wyvern's naturally violent temperament. In cultures where wyverniering is a profession, wyverns are separated from their mother at birth and imprinted upon by their future rider. The duty of wyvern riding is considered a great honor but also a great burden, as the cost of quartering and raising a wyvern is high and they can live for upwards of a century.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Beyond their use as mounts, wyverns provide a number of goods to societies that either hunt them in the wild or breed them in captivity. Wyvern hide is exceptionally tough and far easier to obtain than dragonhide. Their wings have been used in the stitching for ship sails and are uniquely tear-resistant. However, their most useful product is their venom. Because of its unique properties, it is highly sought after for alchemical and medical purposes—as well as its lethality for more nefarious designs. Wyvern venom is actually quite adhesive, allowing it to coat metal weapons with ease.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Wyverns are found across Holos in a variety of different habitats. Their range is limited by the temperature of the region, as they are quasi-ectothermic and require a great deal of warmth in order to hunt effectively.
The most famous subspecies of wyvern is the Niru Valley wyvern, or Bone Wyvern, which inhabits the area of the Niru River Valley and the Marrow Desert to the south. The red wyvern is found in the hill-country and arid regions of Auloa's northern coast.
Average Intelligence
Wyverns possess some advanced, albeit bestial, cognitive abilities. They can observe and use patterns of prey behavior, such as when prey come to a source of fresh water to drink at the same time each day. Some subspecies of wyverns whom have shirked their species solitary lifestyle have been seen hunting cooperatively, effectively herding prey into dangerous positions where they can take advantage of their aerial mobility.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Wyverns have exceptional senses thanks to their draconic heritage. They have excellent darkvision up to 60 ft., and are typically nocturnal hunters. Wyverns have vertical-slit shaped pupils, similar to those of cats or crocodiles. One explanation for the evolution of slit pupils is that they exclude light more effectively than a circular pupil, helping to protect the eyes during daylight. On the rear wall of the eye is a tapetum lucidum, which reflects incoming light back onto the retina, thus utilizing the small amount of light available at night to best advantage.
A wyvern's sense of smell is also very well developed, aiding them to detect prey or animal carcasses that are either on land or in the air, from up to half-a-mile away. It is possible that wyverns use olfaction in the egg prior to hatching to sense the presence of their mother.
Civilization and Culture
History
For much of the history of Holos, wyverns were yet another lethal predator that called the wild places of the world home. The bone wyverns of Nioa have long been a source of fear and awe among the mortals that dwell within their territory. Unlike many other monstrous beasts, they do not appear to have been tamed or domesticated by the Temekanian Empire that ruled during the The Mithril Era. Nor did the Marrowmen of the Marrow Desert turn them into beasts of burden as they did with the first sunblessed scarabs or dromedary camel.
It was not until the Late The Palladian Era, when much of the Nioan continent had been subjugated by the Palladian Empire, that the first wyverns found themselves in the care of mortal masters. Accounts tell of large expeditions sent into the Niru River Valley to capture living wyverns. Those captured were then brought to cities across the Empire's reach where they were pitted against other dangerous creatures in massive arena fights. To keep the beasts from terrorizing the public, these wyverns had their wings sheared. About a century after this tradition began, the cosmic realignment known as the Sundering Arcana occurred. Soon after, massive slave uprisings broke out in the river city of Qartago, with many dragonborn slaves seizing upon their renewed draconic bloodlines to harness the now-released arcana. Over the course of several years, these liberated slaves who called themselves the true Qartagonians, conquered nearly the entirety of the Palladian Empire. During this time, a contingent of these dragonborn managed to tame large numbers of bone wyverns. These creatures were then used to great effect, decimating the airship corps of the Palladians and allowing for the deployment of troops behind enemy lines. By the end of the Great Liberation, the Qartagonians had become feared and respected as the riders of dragons. However, though the Qartagonians had learned how to bond with and tame bone wyverns to serve as mounts, they had not yet managed to breed tamed wyverns in captivity. For the next three centuries, Qartagonian warriors would travel into the dangerous Marrow Desert in order to find a female wyvern. They would then steal eggs from the female wyvern and bring them back to special rookeries, where the wyverns could hatch and bond with a rider. This proved a dangerous profession, with many of these egg hunters ending up killed or horrible maimed. Moreover, the continued theft of wyvern eggs ended up decimating the wild population. For several centuries following the Sundering Arcana, only the most elite or the most wealthy were able to become wyverniers. Despite this, wyvernier raids continued throughout The Sundered Era, with weyrs, or squadrons, of wyverniers striking military and civilian installations throughout the Mashiq and Kanesh. It also further encouraged those few remaining Palladian outposts, such as the city of Iskendra, to develop further research into airships and arcana-based flying machines. After several centuries of sustained egg poaching, a group of Qartagonian zoologists were able to finally breed a pair of captive wyverns. Such an act was unprecedented and all but ended wild wyvern egg poaching. Today, a substaintial number of wyverniers makes up the weyr corps of the United Qartagonian Army as couriers and elite redeploy forces.
It was not until the Late The Palladian Era, when much of the Nioan continent had been subjugated by the Palladian Empire, that the first wyverns found themselves in the care of mortal masters. Accounts tell of large expeditions sent into the Niru River Valley to capture living wyverns. Those captured were then brought to cities across the Empire's reach where they were pitted against other dangerous creatures in massive arena fights. To keep the beasts from terrorizing the public, these wyverns had their wings sheared. About a century after this tradition began, the cosmic realignment known as the Sundering Arcana occurred. Soon after, massive slave uprisings broke out in the river city of Qartago, with many dragonborn slaves seizing upon their renewed draconic bloodlines to harness the now-released arcana. Over the course of several years, these liberated slaves who called themselves the true Qartagonians, conquered nearly the entirety of the Palladian Empire. During this time, a contingent of these dragonborn managed to tame large numbers of bone wyverns. These creatures were then used to great effect, decimating the airship corps of the Palladians and allowing for the deployment of troops behind enemy lines. By the end of the Great Liberation, the Qartagonians had become feared and respected as the riders of dragons. However, though the Qartagonians had learned how to bond with and tame bone wyverns to serve as mounts, they had not yet managed to breed tamed wyverns in captivity. For the next three centuries, Qartagonian warriors would travel into the dangerous Marrow Desert in order to find a female wyvern. They would then steal eggs from the female wyvern and bring them back to special rookeries, where the wyverns could hatch and bond with a rider. This proved a dangerous profession, with many of these egg hunters ending up killed or horrible maimed. Moreover, the continued theft of wyvern eggs ended up decimating the wild population. For several centuries following the Sundering Arcana, only the most elite or the most wealthy were able to become wyverniers. Despite this, wyvernier raids continued throughout The Sundered Era, with weyrs, or squadrons, of wyverniers striking military and civilian installations throughout the Mashiq and Kanesh. It also further encouraged those few remaining Palladian outposts, such as the city of Iskendra, to develop further research into airships and arcana-based flying machines. After several centuries of sustained egg poaching, a group of Qartagonian zoologists were able to finally breed a pair of captive wyverns. Such an act was unprecedented and all but ended wild wyvern egg poaching. Today, a substaintial number of wyverniers makes up the weyr corps of the United Qartagonian Army as couriers and elite redeploy forces.
by Rudy Siswanto
Genetic Descendants
Origin/Ancestry
Draconic
Lifespan
30-80 years
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
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