CAWWW
***
The Great Cockatrice were fierce and feared, but also revered and adored. It really did depend on which village you visited and what people you asked.
To some, the Crowned Beasts were seen as majestic marvels, traversing the blue skies, protecting their territories and eggs at no bother to the people. Stories even told of the rare matriarch Cockatrice befriending the brave warrior after weeks of fierce-gentle courtship in the lands of the Void Disciples. To others, they were barbaric nightmare fuel.
Ancient tapestries depict Warriors riding on their backs almost as often as they record the destruction and violence of the beast, sympathisers would say; in defence of their feathers and their young.
Nowadays, the story is different. After years of technological advancement and the cruel feather shearing of the late-modern fashion era, the great Cockatrice are rarely heard of beyond rumour, and their existence thought of as mostly fairytale.
Those who know the truth understand that it was the Feather Poachers entrapment and heinous treatment of the captured beasts they were able to lull into false trust that has led to their present day rarity. Kept in squalid conditions and unable to stretch their wings or feed off of the realm, the mothers stopped producing eggs and all their feathers turned fragile waste. The males of the species who are notoriously less trusting, lost to their own brutal in-fighting around mating season with fewer and fewer females with which to bond.
It is, of course, the mistake of these greedy fashion makers to ignore the possibilities that lie within a Cockatrice Egg. It was always the mystics and wizards who understood the properties contained within these eggs, and so it was often the prize of any expedition led by a wizard to steal such an egg. Unfortunately for most, where a warrior wasn’t already sleeping outside of a mothers cave - a human bodyguard for an ancient beast, the power of the cockatrice itself was more than most could ever survive. Most would not dare to try; for their power was common knowledge, at the time.
The Male Cockatrice were well known to breathe fire and whip their tails in mid-flight aerial combat. Alas, the Duels of Cockatrice are the inspiration for many of the realms most awesome works of art. Dual fatalities were not uncommon, often through exhaustion if not the gore of battle. Less often encountered, although more often befriended, the Female Cockatrice is said to breathe fire even hotter and grow even longer in tail. Larger than their male counterparts, their talons are said to have beheaded some of histories greatest generals.
No stranger to war or drama, there now exists a group of wizards who still believe in and tell stories of the Cockatrice. The Valley of the Void Disciple is the destination of a great pilgrimage for these wizards who believe that even the oldest and most decorated eggs of the “ancient” Great Cockatrice still contain the potential to unleash mythic powers and wipeout entire bloodlines.
The most interesting of the stories about surviving Cockatrices are the ones that concern “The Great Mother.”
It is in the Valley of the Void Disciple that these stories are most often told.
The Great Mother is said to be a Triple Crowned Cockatrice, purportedly much larger than those that have ever been studied by any scholar. In addition to being much larger, it is also said to be the most intelligent of beasts. Evading all of the cities most skilled anthrozoologists thus far, most have written off the stories as here-say. Yet, a few of the prized eggs have newly made their way to the black markets around the Alchemists Archipelago and mysterious fires at Mesozoic Cockatrice farms in the Desert regions spark further intrigue. One must imagine that there exists wizards who wish to befriend The Great Mother as was once supposedly possible with these beasts. At the same time, there will be those who will want the honour of claiming its death and its eggs.
The Ancient Wisdom goes:
Be fierce and she will fight you
Be gentle and she will love you
Be brave and she will respect you
Be equal and she will find you
What stories are yet untold of the Triple Crowned Cockatrice?
(Lore written by O)
***
Cluck Cluck
Entered by: 0x4463…5e56 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
