Kerub the Armoured Griffin

The last griffins have been extinct in Signum for three or four hundred years. Annals describing the rising of the Dornell dynasty in the Grypharim Empire mention these powerful and proud creatures. Reportedly Amadeus Dornell, the founder of the dynasty, fought his numerous foes, riding a mighty white-winged griffin.

Memories of those times have almost faded in people’s memory. Nobody could say for sure why there are no griffins in Signum anymore. Their images are left only as a symbol on legions’ war banners. And so many fables have been told about these creatures, but in the twilight of their lives, people stopped believing in screams of griffins filled the skies above Signum.

Everything changed when grypharims came. People said, that the touch of Queen Zenobia awoke to life petrified griffin eggs high in the mountains. But grypharims only laughed hearing such stories.

“Things are much simpler,” Queen Zenobia explained to the novices of her order. “Griffins, just like grypharims, are blessed with good grace of goddess Aria. When Aria went to voluntary exile to one of the external worlds, her connection with her creations was broken. But due to the magic knowledge, which we received from the goddess as well as the gems of life, that appeared from her blood, we were able to keep this connection. Now, when the laws of universe in Signum are violated, griffins are reborn by the will of the goddess. We believe that goddess Aria will come back here one day and we will finally be able to serve her, as we did in the past.

Legionaries cover bodies of young griffins with the most robust armour, so that in battle they are even more deadly to their enemies and invincible for their arrows and lances. Kerub is a young leader of the “Wing of battle” griffins,it is armoured from claws to beak. When it takes a nosedive at his enemies, the sound of its wings reminds hurricane blasts. Its steel claws tear the flesh of its foes apart. Kerub is still young, but sometime it will select a rider — the person who will be able to harness it, so that they would race against the wind together. Cassandra predicts that its rider will be a great warrior of the Grypharim Empire. The one who will give rise to a new dynasty.