Creature Creation Challenge #11

[Malkuthe Highwind]

Creature Creation Challenge​

This challenge explores one facet of worldbuilding: creature creation, as the title says. Whether or not you're a worldbuilder, at one point or another, you're bound to create different kinds of flora and fauna for your world. This challenge brings two new things to the table: first, all the submissions for this challenge will be put into a "bestiary" of sorts in the Worldbuilder's Guild which will be a resource for yourself and anyone who needs creatures for their worlds; second, every week, there will be a different difficulty for the challenge. ​

The Difficulty Levels

Difficulty 1

- build a creature around a specific theme

Difficulty 2

- build a creature with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 3

- build a creature to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 4

- build a creature based upon an animal on earth to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme

Difficulty 5

- build a creature that will survive in a specific environment based upon an animal on earth and fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme.

This Week's Difficulty:

- build a creature based upon an animal on earth to fit a specific role in an ecosystem with a specific body part around a specific theme.

This Week's Criteria:
Theme: Myth
Body Part: Claws
Role: Sentient Carnivore
Animal Basis: Swallow

Feel free to use this following template for your creatures. You can add on to it or remove things from it as you wish or not use it at all.

Creature Template

Name:
Appearance:
Role: Predator/prey/producer
Habitat:
Life-span:
Sentient: Yes/No
Sapient: Yes/No
Means of Sustenance:
Favourite Food Source:
Major Competition:
Mating Rituals: Courtship rituals, mating grounds, mating season, et cetera
Reproduction: you can include period of gestation
Organization: does this creature travel in packs or herds, or is it a solitary creature that only meets with members of its species for the mating season?
Other:

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The Bestiary​

 

[The Wandering Magus]

Name: Swiftclaw
Appearance: Small yet powerful bird of prey with deadly sharp claws, about the size of a house-cat and extremely intelligent. Fully developed beak and larynx capable of speech, strong wings that allow it to fly extremely fast.
Role: Predator
Habitat: Tall forests, cliff hollows with overhanging arches. They build homes out of adobe, round and remarkably complex, with individual rooms and an insulation of straw. Their nests are matted dry grass woven into soft mattresses, though they prefer to use sunlight and not fire for lighting.
Life-span: 60-70 years
Sentient: Yes
Sapient: Yes
Means of Sustenance: Most non-sentient creatures such as deer, cattle, boars, lizards, and wolves. They are capable of hunting dragons.
Favourite Food Source: They love to hunt fast-moving and dangerous creatures such as dragons, and enjoy the thrill of taking down animals many times larger than themselves. They make a point of using every part of the kill, whether for decoration and tools or for food.
Major Competition: Griffons compete with them for smaller game.
Mating Rituals: The swiftclaws have elaborate courtship rituals involving the building of intricate nests and homes and the crafting of beautiful jewelry from simple items. Creativity and wit is greatly admired, as is a good singing voice. Females choose their mates for their ability to improvise and weave together multiple skills into a story, and mate for life.
Reproduction: The swiftclaws mate for life, with the female staying within the adobe hut from conception to the hatching of the eggs. The male hunts for food and feeds the female and the chicks. Both parents teach the chicks until they come of age.
Organization: The swiftclaws hunt in packs but allow couples to have their privacy and rule their own lives. There is no particular "alpha", though elders are respected by chicks. During hunts, they generally make decisions based on an informal vote, and then share the spoils evenly out of an unspoken code of conduct and etiquette. Their songs are intricate stories, each note having significance, and their writing is the same, though they appear to be little more than scratches in stone to other creatures.
Other: The swiftclaw is extremely intelligent, and it is wise to show proper respect. They are also extremely jealous with their mates; it would be wise not to insult or make jests about their rituals. A swiftclaw while hunting is very dangerous, though they appear and sound very cheerful and talkative. Their song-language is developed around intricate meanings that can be very obtuse for outsiders, and it is important to note that cheerfulness does not mean calmness or lack of danger. Swiftclaws are cheerful even in the most dangerous of circumstances. If you see a chick outside the nest, do not make any threatening moves. Inform a nearby swiftclaw, and the matter will be taken care of.

 

[Thomas McTavish]

Name: Violet-tailed Mirkod

Appearance: Roughly the size of a hawk; violet colored tail; strong, shiny blue wings; white breast; red crown; razor-sharp talons,

Role: Predator

Habitat: Large, heavily wooded area such as forests with dese foliage, they make their homes by weaving branches together with vines, usually floored with a mat of tall grasses and large leaves, small windows to allow sunlight into the complex network of treetop tunnels

Life Span: 110-120 years

Sentient: yes

Means of Sustenance: Small game such as squirrels, chipmunks, other birds, fish, badger young, snakes, drakelings

Favorite Food Source: Drakelings, badger young, and other animals that will put up a fight. They enjoy the thrill of battle, and often have adrenaline coursing through their veins

Major Competition: Northonwind Condors compete with them for flying game such as birds and drakelings

Mating Rituals: During mating season, Violet-tailed Mirkod males spread their shining blue wings and flex them so the sun glints off of them, reflecting the light and attracting the attention of females. The female chooses between the males competing for her attention by spending the day with each. If she likes the company of the suitor, she will mate with him. If she does not, she will move on to the next competing male. If none of the suitors fit her fancy, she will either not mate, or choose the best of the group competing for her. Violet-tailed Mirkod mate for life, or until one of the pair dies, or a better suitor challenges the females' current mate for her. They dogfight, using their razor talons to tear each other apart wile zipping around the forest in an attempt to out-fly or outwit the opponent, often trying to trick their opponent into running headfirst into a tree, or getting tangled in the undergrowth. The winner of the fight gets the female.

Reproduction: Females usually form a small room by weaving branches together with vines and making a soft, bedded floor from grass and large leaves. There she lays her eggs, usually in groups of three, and remains in the soft room from the laying of the eggs, until they hatch. The male hunts for the female during this period, and when the chicks are hatched, the female hunts for the chicks alongside her partner. The chicks stay in the nest for about eight weeks until their wing muscles have developed enough for flight. At this stage, the young are taught to hunt. At two and a half months of age, the young leave the nest to make homes of their own.

Organization: Violet-tailed Mirkod organize themselves into hierarchies, selecting an overall leader, either male or female. In individual households, males are dominant. Violet-tailed Mirkod hunt either alone or with their partner, and spoils are divided amongst the household evenly and fairly.

Other: Violet-tailed Mirkod have not developed speech understandable by humans, but do communicate through a complex series of warbles and chirps, and have developed a system of writing that could be understood by humans, as it is similar to the Cyrillic Alphabet. Males often fashion armor out of the bones of their prey, making helmets out of skulls and chest plates out of ribcages. Occasionally, they use their beaks to sharpen the bones of prey and fashion them into swords, competing against one another in a way much like Fencing, dueling each other for sport. They are capable of understanding human speech, when coupled with facial expression and body language, as well as tone of voice. Be careful how you speak to a Violet-tailed Mirkod, as they are easily offended, and will attack when provoked.