Age: 157 (young for his kind, not long matured)
Race: Griffilisk (Griffin/basilisk hybrid)
Race Information: Altu is the only of his kind.
Appearance:
His eyes are an eerie orange.
Personality: Altu has adapted well to the solitary life, but dislikes being alone for long periods of time (though he doesn't show it.) Extremely difficult to gain his trust, and you must prove to him that you are worthy of it. Very resilient and most rude comments bounce off him, unless you really tick him off.
Altu is quite easy going and loves to sleep and lie around, but can get ticked off if you wake him up for a stupid reason.
History: EDITED All gryphons start out as eggs. Originally Altu was a normal gryphon, but while he was in the egg stage he was stolen away by a wizard and experimented on. This wizard injected basilisk DNA into the egg. The egg was recovered and the wizard was killed. With the egg back in gryphon hands, it seemed that all was well.
However, as Altu grew up, it became apparent to the other gryphons that he was not like the others. During this time, he began to grow features which were distinctly basilisk. Instead of fur, he grew scales. His eyes became distinctly serpent-like and other changes.
His parents and the clan in general were naturally horrified. Long debates were held, as to what should be done with this monster/victim created by the wizard. Some argued that it should be destroyed, while others argued that it was a victim of a heinous act and that it shouldn't be punished for a crime it had no part of.
In the end, they decided to spare the life of Altu, by a slim majority. Even though his life had been spared though, everyone knew that he was a monster. At best he was ignored, at worst he was tormented by other gryphons in his age group. It wasn't an easy thing to go through all that, but by surviving it, he developed a strong mental/physical fortitude and people began to notice.
The first person to notice was Alden. As students, they were opponents in a mock air battle. Altu was at a disadvantage, because his scales made him a lot heavier, making him less agile, but much stronger. In spite of this though, Altu managed to outfly Alden and beat him decisively.
Instead of calling Altu names or accusing him of cheating, Alden simply got back up and asked to run the exercise again. With each battle, they learned more from and about each other. They had five battles. Two were won by Altu, two by Alden, and the fifth one went on so long that the match was called off, before the gryphons fell from the sky with exhaustion.
The two gryphons became friends and after this series of battles, they went on to defeat nearly every other gryphon they flew against in training. At the end of training, it is the custom to grant the best gryphon a command of a unit. Here though, the leaders had some trouble. Both Alden and Altu were the best gryphons.
The leaders asked the two gryphons to fight in a match to the death for command. This isn't illegal, but it was unusual and was brought about by those who wanted to see who would win, the gryphon or the freak. This match didn't happen though because Altu refused to fight. Alden was awarded command by default and Altu got subjected to even more ridicule, some even calling him cowardly. His mental fortitude was tested here. Alden was given command of a recon unit. Alden picked Altu, among other gryphons, to join his unit.
Altu is better than Alden, in the sense that he has more fortitude. Alden didn't have to work nearly as hard as Altu did to get where he is today. For Alden's part, he recognizes that Altu was treated badly. Alden feels that if he had spoken up instead of Altu, their roles might be reversed. He isn't sure if he didn't speak up because it happened to quickly or if he didn't want to speak up at all. He often splits his recon group into two, giving Altu one half, while he takes the other.
They are roughly equal in terms of fighting skill, Altu tends to use his superior strength to win battles, where Alden will try to use his superior agility to make quick and precise strikes. The styles compliment each other.
In their last mission, they were flying ahead of a large group of gryphons, when their team was caught in the same large storm that the ship was caught in. Now members of the recon team are missing, dead, or injured on this island.
Abilities: His thick. scaly hide is a good protection against blunt weapons, and as is his feathery mane. He has the ability of a basilisk's stare, but a lot more tuned down. Instead of killing anyone who looks into his eyes, he can make then feel pain if he wishes. Agile in flight.
Weaknesses: His belly scales are soft and his weak point. His feathers get water logged easily and so he could quickly drown if he fell into deep water. He isn't very fast on land.
Hey Griffinkeeper? I was wondering if Altu and Alden could know each other from the tribe? If not that's fine
And Griffinkeeper I hope this is ok. ***
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