Gy'waka Bird

[Wretched 2038]

Gy'waka bird
 

Introduction

A Gy'waka bird is a large 'bird like' creature that the Kharajyr will discover and tame come the 3.0 map. It could be used for many things, such as: Fast travel, food, training, battles and much much more - there's no end of possibilities. The main reason we are looking to implement a unique creature to the Kharajyr is to actually seperate us lore-wise from the other races and give us some RP that can't be found anywhere else in the world. So yes, the Kharajyr's own type of mount because cats on horses just doesn't suit. They can be found in jungles and won't leave them by choice. To be removed, it will have to be forced into it, and this was result in it acting depressed away from home.
 

Habitat and lifestyle

The Gy'waka birds are native to the Kharajyr jungle island in the 3.0 map, they are very very rare and are found nowhere else in the world apart from this island. They are carnivores and will consume almost anything that vaugely resembles meat, this includes humanoids too. The Gy'waka birds will never hunt the more dangerous humanoid creatures unless they are so desperate for food that there simply is no other choice, however they will happily kill and consume children that wouldn't usually pose a threat, on a daily basis. Their long, sharp beak is perfect for pecking large chunks of flesh off a creature's bones, and their large springy legs mean they can cover shocking distances in a very short time, running at about 45mph at max speed. They do not however, have a great many tastebuds, resulting in them eating anything large enough to be eaten.

They are not stupid creatures, in fact, they are very smart indeed. The Gy'waka are able to mentally adapt to problems that may occur. For example, if they hear the shouting of a race that commonly hunts their kind in the distance, they will of remembered this and they'll flee. This also means that the Gy'waka learn to tolerate the Kharajyr as they begin to see them as a source of food and protection. Although they are feathered, their layer of feathers is very thin due to their adaptation to the warm jungle enviroment. The reason the Gy'waka birds settled on this island years ago, was due to the fact that it was a haven to them - there they found plently of prey and no predators. This has also resulted in a somewhat cocky personality in the Gy'waka, they will never look up, as they are the highest of all predators. This does mean that Kha' are able to jump down onto them from above with moderate ease.

Fortunately, the Gy'waka bird's exterior senses are usually very strong. They have decent hearing and would probably notice you approach or move about around them unless very stealthy. And their sense of smell is almost completely useless too. The do however, have amazing sight. Their sight strength is extremely more powerful than that of a Kharajyr's which allows them to pinpoint their preys location fairly well. Gy'waka do however, have two blind spots of which can be approached. Due to the positioning of their eyes, they are unable to look directly forwards, and their arrogance prevents them from looking directly up too.

Do not be fooled by the Gy'waka bird's wings. It is in fact, a flightless bird. It has long since evolved past the need for it's wings as everything it ever needed was found on the ground of the island where they lived. Using their wings proved to simply be wasting their energy, so as time went on, they no longer were able to use them, yet they still cary smaller wings as they never vanished completely.

Unity with the Kha'

Upon arriving at their island, it didn't take long for the Kharajyr to discover the marvelous beasts that they named the Gy'waka, which loosely translates into 'wings of our Goddess'. The Kha' believed that finding these creatures was a blessing from their Goddess Metztli herself, and that they should respect her gift and make good use of it. As they first approached the Gy'waka birds, they did so with caution. The Gy'waka fled away from the strange creatures, hiding themselves in the opposite corner of the island as they began to work out what to do.

The Kha' approached them with offerings of both fruit and meat, laying them down in the jungle floor and then retreating to observe them from a distance. Much to their surprise, the birds consumed every last crumb of meat, yet didn't touch the fruit at all. After a few more of these visits, the Gy'waka began to accept the Kha' as friends, now understanding them to be no source of trouble. They spread back out over the island and continued their day to day lives amongst the Kha', often filling their stomaches on meaty treats left by the Kha'.

It then didn't take long for the Gy'waka to allow the Kha' to approach and touch them, creating a new bond of companionship. They didn't seem to mind the Kha' strapping saddles and ropes to them provided they were offered a large amount of food in exchange. And so with that, the Kha' had been able to mount these giant birds that they had been so lucky to stumble upon.

Training

A Gy'waka is not a horse. If you displease it in even the slightest of ways, then you can expect to be launched right off it's back. If one tries to become the Gy'waka's master, then you will never be able to successfully mount and ride one. The bird is a creature to be respected, after all. To even get onto it's back, the Gy'waka must fully trust you and you it - as not all Gy'waka will be so keen to be your mount. It takes a great deal of understanding the bird's pride and nature before you may attempt to mount it.

To begin, a Gy'waka must first be trained to register a Kha's voice. The training Kha' will first produce soft clicking sounds with his or her mouth while gently pulling on the reins to direct the bird's head in the direction of which way you wish it to turn and face. After the bird finally obeys and turns it's head, you feed it something meaty as a reward. It will not take long for the Gy'waka to understand that obeying your commands will result in being fed. The tricky part is getting the Gy'waka bird to remember which command is which. However with a vast amount of training, all Gy'waka should one day be fully trained and mountable creatures.

The Gy'waka will recognise a Kha' as a friend, but it will not recognise any other race as such. The Gy'waka are fed anything vaugely meat-like, so the corpses of other races are also in their deit. This makes the Gy'waka see other races a nothing but prey, and they will not respond to them in any way, in fact, they may even attack them if a non-kha' made an attempt to mount them. It would take many, many years for a Gy'waka bird to be taught otherwise, and even then, it'd probably be too old to do anything beneficial. This is purely a Kha' mount.

Commands

-Two clicks of the mouth while pulling on the reins to the left will turn the Gy'waka left.

-Two clicks of the mouth while pulling on the reins to the right will turn the Gy'waka right.

-Saying " Ku' Ku' " which translates into 'Go Go' will result in the Gy'waka moving slowly forwards.

-Saying " Ry'da " which translates into 'Haste' will result in the Gy'waka sprinting forwards.

-Saying " Cu'fan " which translates into 'slower' will result in the Gy'waka slowing it's pace.

-Saying " C'uab " which translates into 'Stop' will result in the Gy'waka slowing to a stop.

-Saying " G'eam " which translates into 'attack' will result in the Gy'waka attacking whatever it's facing.

Appearence

The Gy'waka stands upright at about 11ft tall. It has a shockingly large beak and a pair of firm, strong legs at it's rear. Each Gy'waka bird has dull, grey coloured wings with a beautiful red stripe down their backs. Their chests are very lightly feathered and their skin can be seen clearly through it, their legs however, have no feathers at all.

The males and females are very similar in almost every way, however there is one key difference that will allow you to tell them apart almost instantly. The males have a large cluster of red feathers sticking out the back of their head, while the females have nothing there at all. The pictures below, are of a male Gy'waka bird, if you look at it's head, you will clearly see that.
 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Life cycle

A Gy'waka will on average live upto the age of 85, at which point they will be too old to continue their day to day lives so the other Gy'waka birds will kill and consume what's left of it. If it weren't to be killed by the other birds, then it could easily live up to the age of 100 before it dies of natural causes. A Gy'waka will be fully grown as the age of 22, it is at this age where their red stripe will appear. The Kha' know when a Gy'waka is ready to be trained by waiting untill it plucks it's feathers and grows the red stripe down it's back.

As mentioned before, the birds are not stupid and they will never attack their own young. In fact, getting between a Gy'waka and it's young would almost certainly result in your death, even if they're related or not, all Gy'waka look out for each other's young. So as you can imagine, it's wise not to go anywhere near the children untill they reach the age of maturity when their stripe begins to show. This is the only real danger the Gy'waka present to the Kha'.

After a male and female Gy'waka mate, the female will lay one egg at a time about 2 months after they've mated. Unlike some other birds, a female will lay no eggs at all if she has not had them fertilized by a male. After that, an egg takes on average 1 month the hatch and the child will stay close to either it's mother or another of it's kind untill it reaches the age of maturity.

OOC reasons for the mount

-To create something unique to the Kharajyr that may inspire people to join.

-To generate a vast amount of RP within the Kha' community and others who may somehow get involved.

-Because let's face it, Kha' on horses is a tad strange.

-More benefits to becomming Kha'

-To improve the tribal sense of being Kharajyr.

-To improve how exotic the Kha' are, and to make this clear to others.

Side notes

I can't stress enough, that this is purely a Kha' mount. Not something that every other person in the world will be riding because it's the new thing. The Kha' need something like this to spice up their already pretty stale RP.

A massive thanks to Shadowoking for designing the Gy'waka in the first place.

An even bigger thanks to the Kha' community for all their help.

[Lita 677]

I love it. :} Yes, I did just steal your emote.

[Jon Evaglno 202]

...And suddenly, I think of Skyward Sword. No comment on the lore. I just wanted to spread LoZ to this thread. Off to my next great adventure!

[Guest Guest]

Me gusta. It should provide unique RP that I would love to see within LoTC.

[Skippy 2466]

Interesting, seems pretty nice. Though wouldn't the bird's short sight make it a less reliable source of travel?

[EmeraldStag 165]

...And suddenly, I think of Skyward Sword. No comment on the lore. I just wanted to spread LoZ to this thread. Off to my next great adventure!

Psst, they are flightless birds, but I do see the resemblance. Also, I really like this lore, a lot. Hope it gets accepted.

[Watyll 1102]

Hrm, I think you have some things about bird biology to learn ;)

First off, if everything it needed was on the ground, it would retain a huge advantage by having wings. It wouldn't lose them.

Second, these birds are birds of prey. You state that they have a poor sense of eyesight. If birds of prey, who evolved to catch prey from the air while on the wing, they would rely heavily on eyesight to catch meals. Just like real life raptors.

What would hunt these birds? Predatorial themselves, they would scarcely provide enough meat for anything that hunts them. And what would be able to hunt an 11 foot tall bird? Why did they all collectively move to the kha island?

[Zarsies 6073]

ZarZar says yes.

[Wretched 2038]

Interesting, seems pretty nice. Though wouldn't the bird's short sight make it a less reliable source of travel?

Nope, because the Kha' ride and direct them. Hence why without Kha', they're pretty useless.

Hrm, I think you have some things about bird biology to learn ;)

First off, if everything it needed was on the ground, it would retain a huge advantage by having wings. It wouldn't lose them.

Second, these birds are birds of prey. You state that they have a poor sense of eyesight. If birds of prey, who evolved to catch prey from the air while on the wing, they would rely heavily on eyesight to catch meals. Just like real life raptors.

What would hunt these birds? Predatorial themselves, they would scarcely provide enough meat for anything that hunts them. And what would be able to hunt an 11 foot tall bird? Why did they all collectively move to the kha island?

I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of evolution actually.

When you look throughout histroy, you will see several cases of birds losing the need for their wings. The bird simply evolves to have wings it can't use when it had a change in enviroment that lead to it not needing them. And no, it wouldn't have a huge advantage, as I've stated in my original post: It's just wasting energy. Why fly to the creature when you can easily run up to it and gobble it up much faster.

And again, yes there are birds of prey. But they're simply not something like an eagle.... They evolve. They evolved in such a way that meant eyesight was no longer of importance to them as they live on an island filled with life. And in the dence jungle undergrowth, hearing would be far more efficient than sight. So as they lose the need for sight, they gain in other senses such as hearing.

And what would hunt them? Drakes, packs of wolves and various other LoTC creatures that have been implemented in the past. They're much like the dodo bird: They can thrive in the jungle where nothing poses a threat, but anywhere else they are killed off. And when one found this haven, the majority followed. The few who stayed behind would of been too few and picked off.

It's not a matter of biology. It's a matter of evolution. And remember Watyll, real life and LoTC are two very seperate places.

[rukio 8910]

Hrm, I think you have some things about bird biology to learn ;)

1.First off, if everything it needed was on the ground, it would retain a huge advantage by having wings. It wouldn't lose them.

2.Second, these birds are birds of prey. You state that they have a poor sense of eyesight. If birds of prey, who evolved to catch prey from the air while on the wing, they would rely heavily on eyesight to catch meals. Just like real life raptors.

3.What would hunt these birds? Predatorial themselves, they would scarcely provide enough meat for anything that hunts them. And what would be able to hunt an 11 foot tall bird? 4. Why did they all collectively move to the kha island?

1. I'm fairly sure its stated they have wings, they just do not use them anymore. (No need to, ect.)(Think: Burrowing owls....I think)

2. Go look up how owls hunt.

3. Maybe creatures that hunt in groups?

4. Maybe they liked the prey on said island, or the layout of it, or both.

Anyways, I really like this idea. Even if I'm not a kha, I think it could definitely add some interesting roleplay. Support~

[Watyll 1102]

Nope, because the Kha' ride and direct them. Hence why without Kha', they're pretty useless.

I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of evolution actually.

When you look throughout histroy, you will see several cases of birds losing the need for their wings. The bird simply evolves to have wings it can't use when it had a change in enviroment that lead to it not needing them. And no, it wouldn't have a huge advantage, as I've stated in my original post: It's just wasting energy. Why fly to the creature when you can easily run up to it and gobble it up much faster.

And again, yes there are birds of prey. But they're simply not something like an eagle.... They evolve. They evolved in such a way that meant eyesight was no longer of importance to them as they live on an island filled with life. And in the dence jungle undergrowth, hearing would be far more efficient than sight. So as they lose the need for sight, they gain in other senses such as hearing.

And what would hunt them? Drakes, packs of wolves and various other LoTC creatures that have been implemented in the past. They're much like the dodo bird: They can thrive in the jungle where nothing poses a threat, but anywhere else they are killed off. And when one found this haven, the majority followed. The few who stayed behind would of been too few and picked off.

It's not a matter of biology. It's a matter of evolution. And remember Watyll, real life and LoTC are two very seperate places.

I'm quite a strict person about realism, unless there is magic involved. As for the birds losing wings, those birds were never predatory, except the ancient birds from the ice age. And I actually do love the idea.

[EboBren' 87]

I want to start by saying that this lore looks great and I feel as though it will bring a lot of RP to the Kha. Now I do have several things I wish to ask about the Gy'waka's lifestyle.

First, you said that if anything, even another of it's species, gets between a Gy'waka and it's young, that it would attack it. This leads me to believe that the birds live more so solitarily then in packs, but then you also speak of them eating the elder birds, but that points towards more of a group style of life. So in the wild, do they live in herds, small familys or alone?

Second, will the animals be breed by the Kha? It is common that animals are breed to perfection by their maseters, but perhaps the Kha honor the Gy'waka to much, or have some other reason they can not? It would open a lot of RP if they had breeders.

Lastly, how rare would they be? You said that they live on the island because they had plenty of food to sustain them and no predators, so are they possibly overpopulated?

I know I'm bring a lot of real life stuff into LotC, so if you want to brush off some questions that's fine. :)

[Wretched 2038]

I want to start by saying that this lore looks great and I feel as though it will bring a lot of RP to the Kha. Now I do have several things I wish to ask about the Gy'waka's lifestyle.

First, you said that if anything, even another of it's species, gets between a Gy'waka and it's young, that it would attack it. This leads me to believe that the birds live more so solitarily then in packs, but then you also speak of them eating the elder birds, but that points towards more of a group style of life. So in the wild, do they live in herds, small familys or alone?

There isn't really a term for how they live. But they understand if you're old and useless, you're only taking up space. So they understand that one day their young will grow up just like them, and they wish to protect that. But they see themselves as a very proud species and elderly Gy'waka just don't fit into their idea of 'strong and proud'

Second, will the animals be breed by the Kha? It is common that animals are breed to perfection by their maseters, but perhaps the Kha honor the Gy'waka to much, or have some other reason they can not? It would open a lot of RP if they had breeders.

I suppose the Kha' could breed them, yes. I see nothing wrong with that. But of course, after the child was born they couldn't go anywhere near it.

Lastly, how rare would they be? You said that they live on the island because they had plenty of food to sustain them and no predators, so are they possibly overpopulated?

I know I'm bring a lot of real life stuff into LotC, so if you want to brush off some questions that's fine. :)

Well they breed very slowly with only one child at a time. And the birds aren't mated for life, so it'll only usually happen once or twice in their lifetimes. So no, they don't overpopulate as they simply don't need to. There is limited space on this island and naturally these birds are slightly territorial, they don't want an infinite number of their kind wandering over the place, just like how you wouldn't want 50 people living in your house.

[Mithradites 1161]

"Ohohohohohohoho. Thissa bird will make-a de Kha more mobile inna da junguls. Lu-shun willa finda one and dissect eet for funzies! Ohohohohohohohoho!"

Great lore, Benbo. You ride your cassowaries to the ends of the earth! 3.0 will be conquered, not with cannon, but with giant chickens!

[Wretched 2038]

"Ohohohohohohoho. Thissa bird will make-a de Kha more mobile inna da junguls. Lu-shun willa finda one and dissect eet for funzies! Ohohohohohohohoho!"

Great lore, Benbo. You ride your cassowaries to the ends of the earth! 3.0 will be conquered, not with cannon, but with giant chickens!

You never fail to make me smile, Mithypoo.

Thanks... :lol: I think....