Hippogriffs and History

I'm in the middle of writing a timeline for the history of the Skies of Mor-ladron (SoM), starting with the Great Catastrophe when the world was sundered and the cities rose into the skies to escape. (I definitely need to come up with a shorter name than “the Catastrophe,” which takes too long to type.) One of the first issues I ran into was figuring out how a ground-based society explores the new world of the skies, especially since they are stuck without great magics or magical items. Magic existed, but not at a high enough level to support the growth needed for survival. I have the idea for a light-as-air wood, currently called driftwood, which grows in the rainforests that hang from the clouds. (All the names are temporary, but they make me laugh.) Ships in the SoM are built from driftwood—but all that would come later. The cities would need a way to get off their individual islands and find the driftwood to begin with. 

My current working idea, as you may be able to tell from the title, is that one of the cities, probably Empyrean, created hippogriffs by magically fusing birds and horses. Once I had the hippogriffs in mind, the idea didn’t stop there. We use different horse breeds for different jobs, so I thought: what if I make a bunch of hippogriff breeds for this world? 

Is this distracting me from making a timeline and talking about ancestries and things people actually want to hear about? Probably! But this is what my brain is on, so this is what you are getting a blog post about. 

Now, are hippogriffs just flavor, or are there actually mechanical differences between the breeds? I’m not sure—first of all, we’ll have to see what kind of statblock MCDM gives hippogriffs (if they have them). I would imagine there’d be minor mechanical differences, like speed or damage. I tried to come up with some cool breed names for this post but couldn't find enough that stuck, so I’ll describe them and come up with the names later. And, of course, we won’t cover all of the breeds—just some of the most impactful in the history of SoM. Let’s dig in.

Empyrean was the capital of a great empire, with stores of food and water enough to last a year and strong men and women at the walls. During the early days of the Catastrophe, they held firm against the hordes of demons and beasts that threw themselves at the great city. One day, the great magi of the city learned that the might of the mortals and celestials would not be enough, and a great cataclysm would soon break the world. With this warning, the great magi and runecrafters of the city worked night and day to prepare a powerful spell that would save it from destruction. On the Day of Ascension, as this day would soon come to be called, the people gathered in the city's center, the great magi in their towers began their spell, and Empyrean broke free from the earth and rose into the sky.

The populace had mixed feelings. They were glad to be free from the demonic hordes, yet after the Day of Ascension, they were trapped in the city with nowhere to go. Their food stores wouldn’t last forever, and there was nowhere to begin growing more. The magi made many promises that day to tame the crowds and soon set to work. One of the first great works they created, and one of the main reasons for Empyrean’s success in the skies thereafter, was the creation of the hippogriff. 

The first successfully created hippogriffs are based on an actual bird: the albatross. These hippogriffs can travel long distances and sleep and eat while in flight. They lock their wings in place to use as little energy as possible. Although these albatross hippogriffs turned out to be good long-distance travelers, they were too small (which is saying something, as they had a 20-30 ft. wingspan). They could only carry one person and enough food for the rider and the hippogriff for a week. This was not enough to explore the great expanse of the skies, much less bring back sufficient supplies for a whole city. So, the magi created the greater albatross hippogriff, similar to the original but larger and stronger. With a wingspan of 30-40 ft., the greater albatross hippogriff is capable of carrying three riders or a single rider and enough food and supplies to last nearly a month. 

These enormous hippogriffs allowed Empyrean explorers to explore far beyond the nearby islands that appeared after the breaking of the world. (As I’ll explore in a future post, the other islands rose a mere 20 days after the Day of Ascension.) Greater albatross hippogriffs flew for weeks at a time, and the explorers soon found they were not as alone in the skies as they’d thought.

During the next couple of years, Empyrean found or was made aware of Mount Ancora, Hilean, and the Green Isle. With each discovery of another people, the skies and its resources seemed to shrink. Violence and skirmishes started breaking out, specifically with the elves of the Green Isle, so named because of its endless trees. Lumber was in short supply, and the Green Isle had (and still has) the largest collection of trees in the skies. Many of the elves fought atop giant birds of prey, and the Empyrean hippogriffs were not nimble enough to contend with them. 

In response, the magi set to work again and created the war hippogriffs. Swift wings were small and quick, able to keep up with even the quickest of the elves’ warbirds. They are based on the peregrine falcon. Others, like the Crested War Hippogriff (also known as IronWings), were large and imposing, made to wear heavy armor and barrel into their opponents; their heads were crested with feathers to intimidate their opponents. These are based on the harpy eagle. These hippogriffs helped to balance the scales against the Green Isle. Although Empyrean failed to take control of the isle, they used their leverage to gain favorable terms in the lumber trade. 

With the discovery of driftwood and the creation of airships, the use of hippogriffs declined but did not cease. Hippogriff riders helped protect ships from pirates and privateers, enabling Empyrean to increase its wealth and wield some power over its neighbors—at least initially.  

What's Next 

Soon, we’ll do a high-level pass over some of the ancestries that call SoM home and talk about where they might live. A basic understanding of the ancestries will give me a better framework to create a short timeline of the significant events since the world's breaking. Then, I can start building details on the major cities and cultures.