Hey Veeky Forums. Care to tell me about your harpies?

Hey Veeky Forums. Care to tell me about your harpies?

I'm currently doing some "research" on them for my setting. One of the players is ~8km away from a mountain nest and I'd like to do his encounter neatly.
Also post some birb pics

Can they interbreed with humans?

My harpies are completely reasonable men and women around dwarves, humans, and orcs. However, they are addicted to the flesh of elves and will do terrible, terrible things to get their fix.

They have a symbiotic relationship with humans and subsequently became uplifted by being around them leading to increased intelligence to the point that many run their own businesses and have equal rights as humans.

That said, they will commission buildings made to allow them to host people because their actual homes are the roosts on the roof of the building with the rest of the building allowing them to easily move in and out and visit with not harpies.

>Hey Veeky Forums. Care to tell me about your harpies?
Sure. One lives two houses over, goes to walk her dog every morning, cusses at kids playing too near her lawn, and smells bad.

Generally look like OP pic
>Owl Harpy
They are shorter than most harpies (1,5m) and are brown/cream feathered. Their eyes are large with an almost unseeable white sclera.
An owl harpy's flight makes almost no sound, which is why they can easily surprise their prey during their nightly patrols. Like owls, they can rotate their heads to 250º. One of the most lonely species, an owl harpy almost never hunts in group.
When breeding season comes they will go to the nearest village, knock out the tallest man and bring him to a place where they won't be disturbed, taking his seed while he is still unconscious and quickly leaving to gather branches and dry leaves to make its nest atop a tall tree. An owl harpy only interacts with humans during eventual conflicts. they seem to be very shy
Their favourite preys are dogs, cats, wolves, rodents and various kinds of bird.

Dunno if I should cont with other species. Also have a harpy pic.

They're animals, despite having humanoid features, they have literal bird brains and depending on specific sub-species range in how aggressive and territorial they are. Their origins are unknown but probably had something to do with magic.

>Owl Harpy
Did someone say Owl Harpy?

DAMNIT! What was the name of this manga again!

Bird Café!

Thank you!

Cute

One more

>Crow Raven
Standing slightly lower than a regular human, the crow harpy has dark grey/black feathers and eyes of varying tints of brown.
Unlike other species, instead of actively hunting they prefer to lay traps around places where they observed potential prey sleeping/walking/feeding. Very intelligent, they regularly work in groups to lure bigger animals to intricate traps, such as pitfalls, or to steal food from humans and/or their crops.
When breeding season comes the swiftest and the strongest individuals will capture a male (they have preference for dark-haired ones) and bring him to their lair, where every crow harpy will take turns in taking his seed. When they are done the man will be regularly dropped to the ground or simply left to live around them as a pet of some sorts. These men almost always quickly die from malnourishment.
It's one of the few harpy species to be intelligent enough to be able to speak human languages. Some individuals develop a taste for trading and commerce and stop hunting because their food can be easily bought.

They're essentially bandits of prey. Usually nomadic, they like to kill people and eat them, then sell or use anything of value on them. They're still monsters though, and thus gain more numbers by kidnapping men.

Their preferred method of assault is grabbing a target with their talons, fly high enough, then let them die from the fall.

That's not laughing, that's regurgitating for a hungry baby.

Someday, I'd like to have a setting in which a race of Harpies have grown up in cooperation with a nation of Humans.

That sounds like the basis of the most qt medieval air force.

Why have the human nation and harpy nation be friends when they could be enemies?

In my setting, after giants got kicked out and almost exterminated from fantasy Scandinavia, fantasy Poland decided to invite them over and give them nice things in exchange for stomping their enemies. Harpies would be even easier to negotiate with

Several breeds, all with roughly the same profile, but each unique in some way:
Arvahn-dark feathered and owl-like, hunt at night
Rahadahan-Small with swarm tactics
Fidier-Fire using with fire sorcerers
Neggi-At once the weakest physically and ranged deadliest, use bows and dropped bombs (alchemists)
Hahidum- Faster than others, fly higher, mountain dwellers
Verrode-Small in size, but agile in flight, forest dwellers
Yineeri-Jungle Verrode with bright feathers
Rihibbe-migratory ambushers
Emnes (one syllable)-Bright colors, poisoned claws
Blue Threels-Tough and hard to kill, not always 'blue'
Red Threels-appear to rage as barbarians
Green Threels-Hard to see but good perception
Lavender Harpies (Threels)-Smell magic (weakness)
Purple Threels-Stunningly beautiful (Nyaid)

These are in various places and do not get along well. Only the Purples do not kill their human mates, leaving them insane, blind, etc. None practice hygiene and most carry diseases. Some villages 'sacrifice' a male to keep them at bay, but larger populations require more sacrifices.

Several of these are legacies from other campaigns and GMs. Only Verrode and Yineeri are mine.

Possessing solely a human head and neck of a beautiful woman, the rest of their body is similar to that of a very large bird of prey. They're society is based on small groups of sisterhoods centered around an older Harpy who controls the group by a mixture of respect, knowledge, and intimidation. Harpies are by their nature cruel and petty, committing acts of murder and mutilation for perceived slights. They also frequently steal beautiful objects and the treasures of passing trading caravans, but they also understand and desire objects containing sentimental value, and many a teddy bear, holy relic, or heroic weapon have found their way into a Harpies den.

Harpies frequently kidnap any beautiful children they see unguarded, forcing them to work within their nests, high atop mountains in areas impassable to those incapable of flight. The treatment these children receive varies from nest to nest and from harpy to harpy, but is typically harsh and abusive. Some Harpies will downright torture disobedient captives and will pit the obedient ones against each other by limiting food and assigning chores based on which child is the most pleasing to the Matriarch. Individual Harpies often pick and choose favorites among the children, and will often sabotage the efforts of other slaves, while whispering the praises of their favored servant to their matriarch.

Any child that survives years of this treatment without losing too much of the coven's favor will generally find themselves subsequently outcast around their adolescence as the Harpies rarely want to risk the presence of a full grown man or woman, who could likely overpower any single individual harpy. These outcast children, due to their beauty, and the cruel behaviors and tricks they learned in their years of service, often excel in the field of criminal ventures. As such it is not uncommon for many famous bandits and outlaws to claim, often truthfully, to be a "Harpy's Child".

>Hey Veeky Forums. Care to tell me about your harpies?
They're found all over the world, mostly in mountainous regions. They're mainly scavengers, stealing food and valuables from travelers to furnish their lairs with.

Depending on the region, some are more hostile than others. Ones closer to civilization are less feral and don't really attack travelers, being content to steal belongings they've left behind or sneak off with them when they have their heads turned, whereas ones farther from civilization are more crazed and are known to attack and even eat travelers.

They're usually led a "queen", usually the mother of the others, who they bring offerings and food to, along with mates occasionally. The queen then divvies out the food and belongings, and sometimes mates, to the rest of the tribe, keeping what she likes for herself.

>Can they interbreed with humans?

Yes, along most other races. They prefer humans and elves, though (along with half-elves). It's their primary way of breeding, since male harpies are incredibly rare. In fact, a minor point in one of my campaigns was the party rescuing a drunken cleric who was kidnapped by a few harpies and offered to their queen for mating.

I like this.