the graxtos

In the stacks of the Library of Stolen Words, some handful of creatures lurk. In the cracks of bookshelves, spiders weave webs, and into those webs little insects fly. Much bigger than that, and the creatures are chased from the library by it's guardians: seven cranes, three ravens, and one Loval. Or at least, that's what the legends say.

Legendary Protectors (?)

It is unclear if the creatures have individual names. Presumably, they do each have a name, but much like the library these are lost to time if they ever did truly exist. In fact, most knowledge about the library's guardians is unknown. They are stated to be powerful protectors, and work in conjunction with a loval. Lovals themselves are flighty creatures kept with more powerful and dangerous creatures that can respond to the loval's alerts. This would indicate that the cranes and ravens were dangerous, but what warrior wouldn't bet on themselves against 10 birds?
It is typically believed that the birds are in fact shape changers who molt to their true forms when danger arises. This is true in about half of stories. In the remaining few they are spell casters and one or two they simply are. For the stories that say the birds have secondary forms, each bird is said to have a different form. In different stories there are different forms. Some are winged, and ones that are closer to birds are usually favored when trying to decide which legend is true. This makes griffins a favorite shape. Some prefer more ferocious forms, suggesting dragons.
While officially guardians of the Library, the birds' true loyalty is to the The Lost Librarian. Stories about the Librarian include his birds in tow and often times brandishing their talons to protect their master, while no stories speak of actually protecting the library itself. It's not clear what powers the librarian has. Typically he has spoken of as a god, so he should not be defenseless. This complicates the understanding of the birds' place in the library.