Great Eagle
The Great Eagle is a massive bird, over ten feet in length and with a wingspan of thirty feet, its plumage pure white, with silver-grey at the head, wingtips, and tail. Like most raptors, Great Eagles are carnivorous hunters and scavengers, their size allowing them to take humans, reindeer and even elk, though they favour the easier food source that is large carcasses left behind by migrating herds. Great Eagles are muscular creatures and strong fliers… while they are not the most graceful birds in the air, they seem to take pleasure in flying into the hearts of winter storms and blizzards, soaring and flying in and out of ferocious winds while letting loose their long, screeching calls.
The Great Eagle has suffered greatly since the time of the First Age, when it was pushed out of major northern flightpaths as the god of artificial flight Vanileth achieved dominance over the god of natural flight Oplath Daigono Shar, who surrendered them to preserve more favoured species such as the Strix. The few that survived often did so as part of the menageries of Solar and Lunar Exalts with interest in falconry, as only Charms could render the birds tamable. These semi-domesticated Great Eagles were released in the far North during the Usurpation, persisting as semi-mythical predators in the stories of the Northern barbarians and still favoured by the Lunar Exalts dwelling along the edges of the Northern Wyld.
In the RY500s, The Guild sponsored hunting expeditions and facilitated trophy hunts to take the large northern birds which predated its herds and beasts of burden, such as Strix and Great Eagles. The Eagles suffered the most under these efforts, as they were particularly vulnerable to the hunting ploy of leaving a dead Yeddim or Mammoth on the open snow, then attacking with bows and spears once their quarry landed to feed. The eagles were soon declared extinct.
However, the Great Eagle was not finished just yet. The Lunar Exalt Gerd Marrow-Eater gathered a handful of the last surviving eagles and began to train and breed them, forging them into a growing army of loyal familiars. He keeps the eagles close, not yet ready to reveal them across the North, though occasionally they appear to the folk of the Haslanti League. The Haslanti typically hunt flying beasts without mercy, to protect their airships from predation, but they know that the Great Eagles do not seek to harm those who travel by air, and take the sighting of one as a sign of good fortune… or of the location of particularly harsh winds where they might join it in testing their skills.
