Ofidogriff

This is a translation of a post originally published in 2012. More posts in English here.

I had the idea for this creature not long ago reading X1 - Isle of Dread. I wondered what was a colony of griffins doing on a jungle covered island and how could I replace them. And with the help of Wachinayn from Other-selves I got this.


Clasification: dragon.

Like this, but with eagle
parts instead of chicken.

The ofidogriff, besides its name, has only one thing in common with creatures like the griffin or the hippogriff: some of its body parts are those of an eagle or bird of prey. The rest, however, corresponds to a huge constrictor snake.

They can fly kilometers away from their nests looking for prey. When they find some from the heights with their fine eyesight, they dive and take them dowm with their beaks and claws, making sure that they are helpless.

They grab them with their tails and constrict them to suffocate them midflight. Once in the nest, they swallow them whole and, if necessary, gegurgitate some for their chicks.

This behavior is due to the fact that their nests are far from any place settled by big creatures besides them. These semiintelligent creatures dwell in ashen planes where old dragons used to come to die long ago. Each one of their clans sleeps hanging from the ribs of the same dragon skelleton than their forefathers. And it is in the same skull that they were hatched and fed. The fiefdom of a ofidogriff clan is sacred for others and only in rare cases will they attack each other. It is way more common that they will support extrnal invaders.

There is a certain feudal relationship between all these clans, based on the fact that ofidogriffs from clans that occuoy bigger dragons, are also bigger and stronger themselves and can thus rule the others. The desire to take hold of a bigger dragon is one of the rare things that can iniciate a war between ofidogriffs. The biggest ofidogriff of the clan that occupies the biggest dragon is king of all it's kin.

There are however rumors about some recent problems with a certain lich thst tried to raise the royal skelleton. He probably failed, otherwise all ofidogriff clans would be very angry right now.

Thanks for reading. Valmar Cerenor!