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...