Widrens

Last updated Nov 30, 2024

• Fauna
• Infra essent realms
• Predator

Widrens, also known as Black Owls, are a group of nocturnal, predatory birds native to the -1st and -3rd realms. They are carnivores descended from the Eurasian Eagle-Owl. They are larger and darker than their ancestors, and inhabit the forests of their respective realms. Some populations shifted into other realms, such as the Pygmy Widrens, who inhabt the 2nd realm.

Widrens can reach a metre in length from head to tail once mature, with a wingspan of up to a metre and a half. They have reflective, black feathers for staying hidden in the dark, and sharp talons on their feet, which they use to grasp objects and attack prey. Their eyes are large in order to see in the dark, and they are almost completely black from head to toe.

Widren employ the use of many behaviours to survive. They are solitary nocturnal hunters, hunting and surviving alone once they are mature. They make their nests in treetops, and their young are known to fight one another to filter out the weak. Once they leave their nests, they go out to find a mate, and the cycle repeats until they are old and unable to hunt.

They use alucinara to induce hallucinations and flashes of light in prey, and to keep them in place and stop them from escaping. Their reflective feathers further confuse prey, and they are known to make strange and sporadic movements to take advantage of this.

Widren feathers are often collected and used as decoration in textiles and high-class clothing, and are commonly seen in the clothes of royals and nobles. Their talons are also used in tools for slicing and cutting in the textiles and farming industries.

Many minikin cultures revere, worship, venerate, and fear widrens, as minikin are a prey animal of the black owls. It has been seen that some Minikin cultures adapted their perception of the Petrified Child to align better with their perception of Widrens, seeing it rather as a black owl than a stone child.

Widren are carnivores, consuming a diet of medium to small sized aniamals, including young minikin, other rodents and mammals, amphibians, lizards, and other birds’ eggs and young.