Male Hatchling
Name: unnamed
Species: Ornate Sylph
Birthday: Friday, December 24, 2021
Owner: WerewolfGuinn
Element: Air
Ornate sylph hatchlings are festive, carefree little things, happily riding breezes all day from almost the moment they hatch. Their wings are still small and unable to support their weight on their own, but this is not a problem when they can command wind - albeit only in small amounts. Hatchling sylphs soon learn that they can summon much larger winds if they work together, and so it's common to see whole flocks fluttering from tree to tree together, making a chorus of happy bell-chime chirps, while their parents keep careful watch over them. Even at a young age, ornate sylphs love shiny things, so magi seeking to make friends can play with a whole flock for a day by offering them small pieces of tinsel.
After years of sylph origins being a closely guarded secret, magi at the Keep woke up one cold morning to discover decorations hanging from every tree in sight and a gorgeous, previously unknown variety of sylph perched upon them, trilling bell calls at each other. Keep researchers have since found that they arrive from lands yet undiscovered on the far side of the world, using their masterful control over wind to make the unfathomably long journey, and the Synaran varieties were likely carefully cultivated from these wild ones. They arrive only when it snows and disappear again when the weather grows warm, and appear to have taken up residence at the Keep in particular due to the abundance of shiny things they can steal to decorate trees with there at wintertime. Male ornate sylphs claim a tree and then use whatever shiny things they can find to festoon it. They then perch upon it, displaying their bright feathers and chiming at passing females, who choose mates based upon which tree is best decorated. In their zeal to decorate, no tree is safe, not even oracle trees or vosmari, and so it is not uncommon to see brightly decorated trees slowly migrating around the Keep with a mildly alarmed sylph perched upon it during solstice celebrations.
Sprite art: Mysfytt (hatchling) | Description: Kestrad