Crag Eagles

Overview

Crag eagles are the great eagles of high country on both sides of Caeldon: the cliffs of the Ironspine and the Stormcrown, and on the far side the open shelves of the High Scars. They take whistlers, hares, and young goats, and on the high pastures lambs and kids. Orc escorts and Dwarven wardens, who will never meet, both count a feather from one as the mark of a high road walked.

Appearance

A crag eagle is the largest bird most people ever see: as long as a Human's arm from beak to tail, with wings that spread wider than a tall Human is high. It is dark brown, with a golden-buff nape and crown that shine in sunlight, feathered legs, yellow feet with black talons as long as fingers, and a heavy hooked beak. Young birds show white patches on the wings and tail.

It soars for hours on flat, slightly raised wings, circling on the updraughts of a cliff, and drops on prey in a long, steep, half-closed stoop. It is mostly silent; at the nest it yelps.

Habitat and Range

Crag eagles nest on cliff ledges and hunt over open slopes and shelves: in the Ironspine, the Stormcrown, and the heights of the Headwater Marches. On the far side they hunt across the High Scars. A pair holds a range of many days' walk.

Behaviour and Temperament

A crag eagle hunts whistlers, rock-dwelling creatures, hares, grouse, and the young of goats and deer, and eats carrion in winter. It sometimes takes a lamb or a kid from a high pasture, and herders say it has taken small children, which has happened, though seldom. Pairs mate for life and keep to their range. They avoid people.

Life Cycle

A pair builds a huge nest of sticks on a ledge, added to each year, and raises one or two young; often only one survives. Young eagles wander for years before settling. A crag eagle may live thirty years.

Uses and Dangers

Their feathers fletch arrows and dress the caps of those who have earned them. Their cost is the odd lamb or kid. Herders on the high pastures keep the youngest children close when an eagle is circling.

Lore and Belief

Among the Orc kindreds of the High Scars, a feather from a crag eagle is worn by escorts who have walked the highest passes, and finding one on the trail is a good sign for the crossing. Ironspine Dwarves give one to a warden who has walked a hold's whole stretch of high road. Neither knows the other does it. Headwater Humans say an eagle circling over a house marks a child for greatness or for loss.

Shepherds remember the eagle-years when lambs went every week, and every village claims as its own the child carried off a Headwater ledge and found alive in the nest.

Where It Appears

• Overview: Animals