Squawk Renaming

Within the last year we have changed the naming conventions in the Squawk Role-Playing Game. Many creatures including the intelligent reptilian species of the Squawk setting were often named after well-known monsters from mythology. The new names are designed to be less confusing:

• Aeolytes, named after Aeolus, ruler of the winds in greek mythology, used to be called rocs.
• Behemoths, who get their name from the bible (Job 40, suggesting the largest and most powerful animal,) used to be called ogres.
  
• Boreans, named after Boreas, the cold north wind from greek mythology, used to be called orcs.
• Dromes, from a latin root which suggests running, used to be called basilisks.
  
• Gafflings, whose name suggests a gaff or hook, used to be called hobgoblins.
  
• Gremians, from an English name meaning "enrages", used to be called gremlins.
  
• Gygeans, from the Ring of Gyges described in Plato's Republic (which made it's wearer invisible,) used to be called gargoyles.
  
• Leviathans, who get their name from the bible (Job 41, suggesting a giant sea creature,) used to be called draconians.
  
• Lyndwyrms, whose name suggests lindworm (a wingless bipedal dragon in British heraldry,) used to be called minotaurs.
  
• Myrmidons, named for a tribe commanded by Achilles in greek myth and whose name meant "ant-people", used to be called manticores.
  
• Orns, from a root word suggesting birds, used to be called gryphons, cockatrices or harpies.
  
• Phages, from hematophagy (blood-eating), used to be called vampires.
  
• Skand, from the root of words like "ascend" and "descend" (suggesting leaping and climbing,) used to be called kobolds.
  
• Strix, from a bird in roman legends that fed on human flesh and blood, used to be called elves.
  
• Stygians, from the river Styx which separated Earth from Hades in greek mythology (also used in words like stygofauna to suggest underground water,) used to be called trolls.
  
• Titans get their name indirectly from the titans of greek mythology through the english word titanic, suggesting largeness.
  
• Zephyrs, named after Zephyrus, the west wind in greek mythology, used to be called unicorns.

Zephyr

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, zephyrs are small intelligent hadrosaurs with a single ridged horn as a crest. Originally they were conceived as furry creatures with a zebra-like mane and stripes.

However, we have extensive information about the skin of some hadrosaurs like the "trachodon mummy" discovered in 1908. The interesting skin of real-life hadrosaurs is covered in fine scales with patterns, wrinkles and variations that suggest how the creatures might have been colored in life. Hadrosaur species also had distinctive frills running down their backs.

Inspired by the skin impressions of these and other herbivorous dinosaurs, we have redesigned the zephyr to have smooth skin covered in tiny non-overlapping scales and a "mane" which is actually a frayed dorsal frill.

More pictures and information about zephyrs...

Titan

In the Squawk, Role-Playing Game, titans are huge armored dinosaurs related to ankylosaurs. Titans are one of the newest intelligent species in Squawk, designed by my brother Ulrich, who also produced this image.

More pictures and information about titans...

Stygian

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, stygians are flightless pterosaurs adapted for swimming. Like beavers, stygians are builders, creating dams and other structures to modify their freshwater habitats. Like platypus, stygians have and electrically sensitive snout used to navigate and find prey in dark and murky places.

More pictures and information about stygians...

Strix

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, strix are intelligent primitive birds with raptorial beaks and talons.
More pictures and information about strix...

Skand

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, skands are small intelligent predatory dinosaurs.

• information about skands
• more skand pictures
  

Phage

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, phages are pterosaurs that drink blood, similar to vampire bats. Pterosaurs are flying reptiles, probably archosaurs, with leathery wings. Pterosaurs look a bit like their bird cousins and and a bit like their more distant bat relatives, but they also have unique features including wings supported by a single elongated finger instead of the four-fingered wings of bats or the fused hands of birds.

Vampire bats are not the only real-life animals that feed on blood. Many invertebrates also practice hematophagy, including mosquitoes, some worms and most leaches. So do some lampreys and even a bird called the oxpecker. Although we don't know of any actual blood eating pterosaurs, Mark Witton and Darren Naish's Azhdarchid Paleobiology research challenges the stereotype that all pterosaurs lived by fishing and scavenging like modern shorebirds.

More pictures and information about phages...

Orn

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, orns are flightless primitive birds. This is the third intelligent species we designed for Squawk (after gafflings and myrmidons) and the first which was not based on a creature from one of our earlier RPGs.

(Drawing by my brother Ulrich.)

The original orn was a bird- headed humanoid called the "harpy." Next came the "gryphon" and "cockatrice" which were sometimes giant archaeopteryx- like creatures and sometimes feathered crocodiles.

Finally we settled on an idea that combines some of all those ideas, an anthropomorphic primitive climbing bird with a long flexible body (perhaps similar to the narrow-bodied, four-winged fossil bird relative Microraptor gui.)

More pictures and information about orns...

Myrmidon

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, Myrmidons are intelligent ceratopsian dinosaurs. They are also the second intelligent species we designed for Squawk (after gafflings.)

• More pictures and information about Myrmidons
• Illustrated history of the myrmidon design
  

Lyndwyrm

In the Squawk Role-Playing Game, Lyndwyrms are intelligent theropod dinosaurs with massive horns and shaggy manes. Lyndwyrm horns are inspired by the horns of Carnotaurus, but they are much longer and twisted like the horns of Triceratops.

(The lyndwyrm images above were modeled and rendered with Blender by my brother Ulrich.)

The feathery mane is inspired by the primitive plumage of real life dinosaurs such as Dilong paradoxus, which are thought to be close relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex. We don't know for sure whether the direct ancestors of T. rex had feathers. If some of them did, then it is likely that T. rex itself had some feathers.

More pictures and information about lyndwyrms...