The most common predatory bird of Nemen... = OVERVIEW = With a wingspan of over 2.5 meters, this massive bird is the bane of those who dwell among the high slopes of the mountains that dot the world. Living especially in southern regions, there have been sightings, however, as far north as the ice cap. It’s large (20 cm), bright red, curved beak and black/yellow claws up to 10 cm in length, the Cymar is almost an unstoppable predator. Of course, the rest of its body is in proportion to the wings, beak, and claws, and the bird stands a towering (for a bird, that is) 1.5 meters when fully grown. Not only is the Cymar a dangerous beast, it is the subject of many tales of superstition and omens. It is spoken among the dwellers of the southern island of Nemen that it possesses the power of mind control, and is rumored to have at times persuaded hapless youths to its roosts, where the bird then devours the ill-fated young one in a gruesome manner, and then carrying the bones in its beak and dropping them in the village from whence the child came. However, the accuracy of this tale has never been proven, and is thus regarded by the most learned as, "peasant rubbish". Yet, there have been reports of the Cymar, in times when other prey was scarce, carrying off a child who strayed too far from home, and once or twice even the grandparents of such youngsters. One of the most striking accounts is from an excerpt from a book on the evils of poverty by the famous author (at least among the circles where such work is appreciated), Mo’ablan, a native of the northern lands: ''"…It was a time of great suffering for those stricken by that horrible disease, the disease of poverty. While the merchants and nobles feasted, the peasant who, with his toil, put the bread on the landlord’s table and the bedraggled beggar in the gutters of a side alley found not a bite to eat anywhere, and, even those who took to armed robbery or thievery soon felt the pangs of hunger, for there was nothing left to steal. Thus it came to pass that the poorest of the poor, the farmers who feebly attempted to farm their wheat on the barren slopes of Mt. Gordhalen, were forced to butcher their last meager ass, the one with the ribs sticking out as if to puncture the breast, the one that even the roaming bands of disgruntled serfs from the nearby countryside had overlooked. One family in particular felt the anguish of these times. Their father having perished but two winters before, the half-orphaned family of five children and their mother looked so thin that instead of eyes they seemed to have bottomless wells, and as substitute for arms, brittle twigs that looked ready to snap in an instant. The final straw came for the family when the mother sent two of the younger children out to gather gleanings from the recently harvested farms of their neighbor, a rather affluent farmer. Instead of taking the longer, safer route, or, at least so the village storytellers relate, as their mother had commanded, the two children took a shortcut along a high cliff. On the way there all had been fine, but, upon returning, with baskets with the bottoms barely covered with the scanty wheat stalks that had not been carried off by other hungry peasants or by a famished bird, they decided to return on that higher, although shorter, mountain path. Faces flushed with fear that their mother would learn of their disobedience, which might break her heart at a time when it was already under such tension, they scampered along, careful of not spilling any of the precious grain."'' ''"Without any forewarning, they spied, only ten meters away from them, blocking the path, sat a giant bird with white and gray plumage and huge feathers. Even from this distance, they could see the sunlight reflecting off the huge beak and the needle-like nails on the tensed claws. Stepping back nervously, the children tried to make a hasty retreat, but in a flash the bird was upon them. Tearing both to shreds in an instance, the bird seemed to relish the agony it was causing, and the gleam of its eyes seemed to brighten as it saw the blood splatter on the boulders. When it had finished its meal, it quieted, and, after a brief rest, it gathered the bloody and mangled remains of what had once been two lively and eager children, and, flying high as to almost puncture the clouds with its still blood-stained beak, the bird dropped the bones and bits of flesh over the house and tiny plot of land owned by that aforementioned family. That evening, when the mother went outside to see what mischief her two beloved young children had gotten into this time, she saw the scattered body parts of those same youngsters, and her tense heart did break, another victim of not only the deadly Cymar, but also a victim of poverty…"'' Generally described as fearsome in appearance, the male Cymar has beige to light gray colored plumage, and females are the same color but have brown markings, rather sporadically, over both wings. Both sexes have two beady, gleaming eyes which are said to be the cause of the mind control, or at least hypnosis, that the birds are rumored to perpetrate. In addition, it has several tapering feathers (black for females, red for males) on the top of its head which, besides adding to its already hideous look, do not seem to serve any purpose. It should be noted of the effect the Cymar has on the food chain of Nemen. Because it is so large, the bird needs quite a large territory to find an adequate amount of prey, and thus is not especially common on the island. However, because it is there that it is most concentrated, the Cymar has managed to suppress all other larger predatory birds there. Thus, although it is rather rare for the average player to see such a bird if s/he is not in the mountainous regions of the island, it is the only larger predatory bird, and thus is automatically the most common. = ORGANIZATION = Usually Cymar males live solitarily in their roosts high among cliffs, usually near the top of mountains, from where they can watch over their entire territory. Females are more social, and considerably less dangerous to players, as they are only about 2/3 of the size of a male. They sometimes live in groups of two or three and communally raise their young. The Cymars mate once every two years, and a female lays up to four eggs, of which most hatch. The eggs, although usually the task of stealing them from the nest is fatal or near fatal, they are said to restore health and give extra strength for a short while to those who eat them. STATISTICS BLOCK || Organization:|| Males: solitary Females: offspring rearing family groups || || Activity cycle:|| Day || || Diet:|| Carnivore || || World View:|| Aggressive predator || || Avg. Lifespan:|| Up to 50 years || || Frequency:||Semi-Common || || Climate/Terrain:|| Mountains || || Altitude range:|| 200m ASL-3000m ASL || || Latitude range:|| Everywhere, more common in warmer areas || || Stats (Species value (comparison value)):|| Str: (), Con: (), Agi: (), Dex: (), Qck: (), Int: (), Per: (), Mem: (), Wil: (), Emp: () -|To be defined later|- || -- sweatshop