Bloombeaks
"If the cliffs are in bloom out of season, a Bloombeak is watching." -Old Dwarfish adage
The Bloombeak is a rare and revered mountain-dwelling avian native to the coastal highlands of Everwealth’s northern ranges, in regions settled by Dwarfish communities. Resembling a cross between a shaggy-bodied crane and a thistle-colored heron, the Bloombeak is known not only for its haunting, music-like calls, but for the uncanny fertility it brings to the land. Wherever it roosts, flora erupts into sudden bloom, even in rock and frost. This strange side effect, believed to be magickal in origin, once made the bird a harbinger of good harvest and sacred fertility. Yet in the wake of widespread famine and desperation, the Bloombeak has been nearly hunted to extinction for this property present even after death within the creature's blood. Its downs also command exorbitant prices for use in alchemy and luxury bedding, while its beak is prized for making magickal inks, and its talons fetch a high price in smithing guilds as rare alloy conductors; A long list of, very pricy, benefits to harvesting one tempting many to push the Bloombeak further and further towards the end, with every successful hunt, without a second thought. Some Dwarfish elders claim the mountains will never truly heal until the Bloombeak returns to sing them into bloom again, but the grim aftermath of The Great Schism may ensure that day never comes to pass.Basic Information
Anatomy
The Bloombeak stands nearly four feet tall, with a long, swan-like neck and a shaggy coat of downy feathers that shimmer in soft purples, muted greens, and pale slate-blues, like mountain heather in mist; The creature's tail feathers exaggerated and long, like a graceful billowing cloak often in a collor opposite it's main coloration creating a striking gradiant across it's back. Its beak is curved like a scythe, jet-black, and lined with etching-like ridges, sometimes pictured gloiwing a soft blue in the daylight believed to channel latent magicks. Its talons are gnarled but delicate, tipped with pale iron-colored claws. Most striking is its ‘crest’, a fan of thin, hair-like quills that hum faintly when the bird sings, vibrating in resonance with stone. Fossil evidence from Dwarfish dig sites suggests the species began as a mundane cliff-crane, which over generations of nesting near concentrated ley energies in the western highlands, slowly transformed. Their exposure to alchemical runoff, residual enchantments, and lost Dwarfish technologies thought to have accelerated an otherwise natural evolution into something wholly anomalous. Scholars from The Arcane Coalition have argued the Bloombeak may be the result of an unintended binding ritual from early Dwarfish druids, creatures born not just from nature, but shaped by its worship. This theory is partially supported by the bird's seemingly exclusive association with Dwarfish presences across historic accounts of sighting it. To this day, it remains a living artifact of magickal convergence, part beast, part blessing, and entirely unique to the stony ribs of Everwealth’s fading mountain spine.
Genetics and Reproduction
Bloombeaks lay only one egg every five to six years, nested in crag-top roosts lined with moss, bones, and iron flakes, materials believed to help focus their fertility magic. Chicks imprint on specific mountain ranges and will never nest elsewhere. Mating pairs remain together for life, and if one dies, the other often wanders off to perish alone.
Growth Rate & Stages
- Hatchling: Nest-bound for up to six months.
- Juvenile: Gains first bloom-inducing feathers at one year.
- Mature: Fully fertile and territorial by three years of age.
- Elder: Song deepens and becomes slower, able to influence plant life up to 50 feet in radius.
Ecology and Habitats
Temperate coastal mountains with strong updrafts and mineral-rich cliffs. Once common near Dwarfish strongholds, now sightings are limited to forgotten crags near the ruins of old Elfese Hollowmarch and Northspine. Wherever a Bloombeak nests, flora blooms with unnatural intensity. Thistles, mosses, and even dormant seeds burst forth, sometimes growing from bare stone. This effect has been studied but never replicated. It’s suspected the bird releases trace arcane particles through its feathers and song that stimulate plant life.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Bloombeaks feed on stone-lichen, small cave crustaceans, and certain flowers known for their aetheric resonance. Some evidence suggests they may intentionally consume magickal spores, affecting the bloom-field they generate. They never scavenge carrion.
Biological Cycle
The Bloombeak experiences a unique and deeply symbolic biological cycle tied closely to the turning of Everwealth’s seasons and the magick-rich coastal climates it once thrived in. In spring, the Bloombeak enters its Vernal Bloom Phase, its most vibrant and active period. During this time, its tail-feathers extend into long, plume-like fronds tinged with magenta and green, secreting a faint pollen-like dust believed to stimulate plant growth. Local flora around nesting sites flourish rapidly, and some scholars suspect the bird’s presence alone catalyzes brief periods of unnatural overgrowth. Dwarfish horticulturists once captured this dust to use in “stone-root gardens,” coaxing plants to grow in mineral-heavy soils where nothing should thrive. As summer wanes into autumn, the bird’s color fades, its once-gleaming chest plumage turns a dusky bronze, and the floral crest atop its head sheds petal-like feathers in scattered bursts. This is the Withering Phase, during which the Bloombeak becomes more reclusive, ceasing its melodic calls and flying only to forage or defend its hidden territory. In winter, the Bloombeak enters a dormant trance-state known by Dwarfish naturalists as Stoneperch, a form of hibernation where it anchors itself to mountainside cliffs or rocky outcrops, wings folded tightly and heartbeat slowed. While in this state, the Bloombeak's feathers harden slightly into bark-like rigidity, helping it blend with lichened stone, and its metabolism drops to negligible levels. Only the rare bloom of winter crocus around its perch might give it away. This seasonal stasis is not just a biological necessity, it’s considered a sacred mystery by Dwarfish priests, who believe the bird to be a living bridge between growth and decay, echoing the cycle of life carved into the stone records of Newforge. Some Dwarfs even leave offerings of dried flowers or fragrant oils beneath known Stoneperch sites, praying for endurance in hard times or renewal after loss.
Behaviour
Elusive and dignified, Bloombeaks are silent unless alone or nesting. Their calls are low, melodic groans that echo through valleys, part mourning wail, part territorial warning. They are never aggressive unless their mate or nest is threatened. Strictly monogamous, rarely seen in groups beyond pair-bonds or parent and fledgling. The appearance of a lone Bloombeak is considered an omen, either of fertility, or ruin.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Bloombeak possesses remarkably acute sensory adaptations, making it as mystical in perception as it is in form. Its vision is finely attuned to detect faint magickal auras, allowing it to perceive leyline flows and arcane residues as glimmering trails in the air, an evolutionary trait believed to aid in nest-site selection and its legendary role in seasonal overgrowths. Bloombeaks can spot movement up to three miles away, even through mist or snowfall, making them all but uncatchable by traditional means. Auditorily, their wide ear openings hidden beneath feathered ridges can detect vibrations in stone and soil, granting them an almost seismic awareness of their environment. This makes them especially difficult to approach in cliffside habitats, where a single misplaced footfall can cause them to take flight before they are even seen. More curiously, Bloombeaks exhibit an extrasensory behavior known as "blight-screaming." When in proximity to areas of spiritual corruption, necromantic residue, or excessive decay, they emit a low, harmonic croon that resonates through plant life and is believed to encourage cleansing growth, lending some weight to myths that the birds "sing rot into bloom." Dwarfish folklore claims that the birds can sense regret, especially in dying miners or soldiers, and will perch above the recently fallen as a kind of mourner or silent judge. Whether this is romanticized superstition or a real empathic sensitivity remains hotly debated by scholars and spirit-workers alike.
Scientific Name
Crucidrax florens
Origin/Ancestry
The Bloombeak is believed to descend from an ancient genus of cliff-fliers that once thrived across Gaiatia during the Lost Ages, massive highland birds that nested atop pre-Schism citadels and carried wind-borne seeds across continents.
Conservation Status
Critically endangered. Some branches of The Scholar's Guild have offered high bounties for live captures, while Dwarfish restorationists call for protective pacts. Rumors speak of secret Bloombeak gardens, guarded by fading Dwarfish lines sworn to protect them.
Geographic Distribution
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