Gryphons are a nomadic race, traveling in families that range in size from as few as five to as many as fifteen. There may be families that are beyond this range at either end, but those are rare and there are usually exceptional circumstances behind it.
They are among the few creatures who can open the natural portals around the worlds—in fact, their purpose, whether self-imposed or not, is to guard the portals. They use the portals to travel between worlds and universes and have settled routes that take them from portal to portal to allow them to check on all natural portals in the Seven Universes. Every few hundred years, each clan meets and adjusts the routes their families take for more efficient coverage. The clan heads also meet with each other on occasion to ensure the routes are being covered and discuss anything important they may have encountered on their travels.
There are five clans of gryphons, with their own distinctive appearance and talents. As a general rule, the coloring of the cat part of the gryphon follows the coloring of the bird part, but there are times when that is reversed. The first clan is the largest, with the bird part looking like an eagle and the cat part looking like a lion. If another clan discovers something escaped through a portal (particularly if it escaped from the Starlanes, outside of the Universes), they commonly call on the first clan to deal with whatever it is.
The second clan is a hawk-jaguar mix in appearance. They are not much smaller than the first clan.
The third clan is a falcon-cheetah mix. They are the smallest of the gryphon clans but also the fastest. They tend to act more as scouts, being the weakest clan as well. Their smaller size and relative weakness is a result of sacrificing a portion of their magic in the Upheaval. Their sacrifice kept the humans of Alcea from becoming mindless berserk warriors in fights, and all the gryphons claim the third clan was granted greater wisdom by the Creator in honor of their sacrifice, and they are held in high regard by the other clans.
The fourth clan is an owl-leopard mix. They are the only nocturnal clan, and are also the only gryphons capable of opening a portal to the Starlanes, although they will only do so in rare cases.
The fifth clan is a harrier-cougar mix. They are the next smallest clan. They are capable of telepathy between members of their clan and members of a family can sense when another member of the family is in danger.
Gryphons are a sentient race and should be considered people rather than beasts. They keep to themselves and avoid contact with others, preferring to simply patrol the portals and keep watch for evil sneaking in. However, when they do encounter other people, they are typically polite and respectful, provided the other people aren't trying to kill them. When provoked, they are deadly, armed with talons, claws, and sharp beaks.
Gryphons are actually omnivores, although in practice they almost exclusively eat meat. They eat plenty of food, although they are capable of going for long periods without it. It's believed they use part of their magic to sustain themselves in those times.
As they are nomadic creatures, there is no one habitat where the gryphons can be found. In fact, frequently they cannot be found on a particular world, as they only travel through instead of staying.


So I realize I mention a number of things here without explanation, like the Seven Universes, the Starlanes, and the Upheaval. That's because I wanted the focus to be on the gryphons and I wanted it to be a reference for myself, and extra explanations would just get in the way. So here's your brief explanation of these things (maybe someday they'll get their own threads).
The Seven Universes is something created by Arien and myself; my world of Rhoive exists in one of those universes, his Mage Academy stories exist in another of those universes. The universes and the worlds in them are connected through portals.
The Starlanes are kind of the area between the Universes. They're still sort of a vague concept to me, despite having existed for a long time in my head (although it's only recently that they became the spaces between) and so I don't have much to say about them, other than the fact that there are things that live there. Generally, pretty nasty things, the sort of things you really don't want getting out into the physical multiverse.
The Upheaval is an event in Rhoive's history, where magic was more or less obliterated and what wasn't destroyed was changed.
Anyway, if you have questions about any of those things, feel free to PM me, and if enough people do that, maybe I'll get around to creating threads for them. Or I'll just wait until I get a sub-forum, and then make threads for them...

Oooh! *bounces around thread* Awesome gryphons, yay!

I like your gryphons. Different combinations of raptors and large cats is a good idea.

And now you know what your gryphons are like, too. Also! I need a talent or something for the second clan; thoughts?


Thanks! I was writing the thing up and realized I wanted the clans to look different from each other, and using different raptors and cats seemed the way to go.

Ooh, I love your gryphons! I think my favorite is the owl/leopard mix.

I'm the new guy here, so take this question in that vein. I'm curious where you want to take this idea. Do you already have a plot in mind, or is this a people in search of a story?

My tendency is toward character driven plots, so that's where my thoughts go - hence keying on the above quote. You have extensive details regarding the fundamentals, but what exactly is their purpose? What motivates them to guard these portals?

My next tendency is toward the mundane (per Julian Todd). I know most fantasy writers have a taste for spectacular reasons, but I favor simpler things. So, my first thought would be that these gryphons are like the Venetians of their world. In other words, their reason for guarding the portals is to control trade. Simple reasons like that can lead to great stories. For example, the greed of the Venetians led them to prey on the Byzantines, and while a great and honorable empire was crumbling they stood by counting coin. That seems prime motivation for some disgruntled, disinherited prince from the empire they were supposed to be helping to lay a curse on them ... which finally makes the link to the characters of the story.

Those are just my thoughts. If you like it - want to banter some ideas back and forth for a bit - let me know.

Thanks!


Thanks for your comments, Resha!

I don't really have a story for the gryphons yet, and to be completely honest, I'm not entirely looking for one for them, either. I know they exist in this particular world of mine, and I've been trying to develop the world a little further, hence writing something like this up.

That's a really good question about what motivates them. I don't think it could be something like controlling trade, since most people can't use the portals, at least not anymore. That's a really neat idea, though, and I think I'm going to have to consider "mundane" motivations when I'm plotting out other stories. And although I'm not sure why they do it, I'm pretty sure the gryphons are, in part, guarding against the beings that live in the Starlanes.

I hope you don't mind if I get a little picky, but I don't understand you.

I thought the gryphons could use the portals. As such, my idea was that people would pay them for their use. So they can't use the portals? Is it that they merely guard them, i.e. prevent anyone undesirable from using them?

But ... if no one can use them, what is there to guard? Or is it only their enemies who can use them? If so, again I see a story in that - though I heard you that you're not really looking for that right now.

Ohhhh. Got it. Huh. Never actually thought about that possibility, maybe because in my mind the gryphons have always been more separate from the world, not really a part of it.

...You know, I think I might need to either change some things about the portals or the gryphons. As things currently stand, the gryphons can use the portals. Most people can't, because it takes some magic to open them (or, well, whatever remnant of magic remains--and oy, I just realized the Alceans should probably be able to open portals). However, there are...things...that live outside the Universes. An open portal is a weak spot of sorts, where something could slip through. It's possible they can even use a closed portal for entrance, because otherwise the smart thing would be for the gryphons to not use the portals either...

(Arien, did we ever talk about the gryphons doing more than guarding the portals? Like some sort of maintenance or something?)

So pretty clearly I have some stuff to think over. XD Thanks for pointing out the holes in what I have; way better to catch it now than when I might have a story riding on it.

I'm glad I could help.

Well, they could be doing some sort of maintenance, or making sure they stay sealed, perhaps. Or maybe even closed portals can sometimes be gotten through, or... New idea. So what if the Starlanes chaps found a way to break out at some point, and the gryphons did something to seal them, and they have to go by/through every once in a while to maintain it?

(And the Alceans being able to open portals is an interesting thought, but perhaps they usually don't know how?)

Also, about abilities for the second clan, what about something stealthy/sneaky?

Maybe the gryphons can travel through them fairly safely, while anyone else would be in great danger, so the gryphons both guard them and conduct some trade through them?

That could work...and I like that better than having closed portals be a danger too, in part because I think we'd decided at one point that the spots most likely to be breached were the artificial permanent portals, because the walls of the universes are thinner there. I mean, we could still have closed portals be a risk, but it'd be much smaller compared to the APPs. Regardless, though, we should probably have a brainstorming session while I'm visiting you.

(As for the Alceans, yeah, that's how I see it; they don't really have a reason to know they can do it, for one thing.)

Stealthy/sneaky sounds good. I'll give it some thought, see what I come up with.


I'll have to think about that; it could definitely be the case that anyone else runs the risk of possession/letting something out.

And I've never really thought about the gryphons being involved in trade before, probably because in my mind there isn't much interworld contact. But just because Rhoive and Hlior are isolated doesn't mean other worlds have to be...

There's also the thought that trade might be what they're supposedly there for, but that this has been forgotten by most of the groups they have contact with ... or, conversely, that only a very few groups have the necessary knowledge and have made the cognitive leap from "gryphons can go through portals" to "gryphons can carry our goods through portals and bring back goods from other worlds."


That reminds me of the meeting of the Families in Citizen of the Galaxy (though it's a motif that comes up all through literature).

Good point. And I can imagine that the people who do have that knowledge would keep it quiet so they can have a monopoly on it...


I haven't read that book in a while, but I think I kind of remember that...

Keep in mind that that can be very difficult sometimes. The world of business is ruthless...