Yarvet
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The yarvet is a great bird of prey endemic to Levens and found on no other sphere. Unlike the solitary raptors of other worlds, yarvets hunt in flocks that fly in aligned formation, one bird holding high while the others drive prey from below, and a yarvet separated from a flock loses its purpose entirely. They are large enough to kill a man if trained to do so, and their presence is inseparable from the heraldry, ceremony, and strategic position of Gethinisharr.
Description[edit]
Yarvets are considerably larger than the common hunting hawks of other spheres, with wingspans exceeding a man's outstretched arms, and are commonly dappled in copper and stone-grey. Their build favours altitude and glide: broad chest, long wings, and a flight pattern that depends upon the draft from above and the drop from height rather than sustained beating. They are not built to beat endlessly forward in the manner of smaller cooperative breeds.
The beat of yarvet wings carries across the mists beneath the crowns and is a recognised sound of the Gethin court. Within the halls of Aeryth Yaruun they roost in the rafters of the Eirhelm, and are noted for reacting to tension in a room — shifting on their perches, ruffling their wings, or crying out at moments of sudden silence.
The ghost pullet[edit]
The rarest breed is the ghost pullet, named for the pale light that clings to its feathers. The effect is visible only under moonlight and never under sun, and is described as a pearlescent shimmer that makes the birds appear uncanny at rest. Ghost pullets hatch in the cliffside hollows of southern Levens and are exceedingly rare. Birds of a single brood may be recognised by a nesting signal — a slow blink, left eye first.
Ghost pullets are among the most prestigious gifts exchanged between courts of the River, and are commonly presented on the birth or naming of a royal child.
Behaviour[edit]
The defining trait of the yarvet is its dependence on the flock. They hunt high, patient, and cruel, and a yarvet without a flock does not simply live alone — its wings become weight. A ghost pullet placed among smaller cooperative breeds is expected to rise and dominate them; one raised too young among such birds may instead learn to follow, matching a pace and altitude its body cannot sustain, and will eventually collapse from strain rather than injury.
This pattern is well enough known among falconers to have become proverbial in noble households, particularly in Canmore, where it is applied to heirs raised among the wrong company.
The Ramsu Frenzy[edit]
Yarvets cannot abide the Ramsu, the great winged beasts of San Ema. A ramsu entering the skies of Levens is detected almost at once; the yarvets rise in aligned fury, tear the beast apart in flight, devour its innards, and let the carcass fall to the surface. Few riders survive the descent.
No explanation commands agreement. Some hold it to be territorial rage; others insist the birds have simply developed a taste for ramsu flesh. Scholars have proposed inherited rivalry, scent, and older shared territory, none of it demonstrable. The common Levens answer is that they like the taste.
The consequence is strategic rather than curious. When the Rawkin kings lost the nexus of the gate system in the lower levels of Bræcwyn Hold, the crowns became unreachable — and the ramsu-riders of San Ema, the finest skybearers of the River and the one force that might have reached them by air, could not approach. The yarvets are therefore the reason the abandoned thrones remained abandoned for generations.
Cultural Role[edit]
The founding lord of the house that holds Aeryth Yaruun was a falconer, and the crown granted to him was the nesting site of the largest yarvets on Levens. The birds are consequently bound to that throne's identity and to the ceremonies held upon it.
At the Aethercall, the daughter of Lord Mallin Crey performed a choreographed dance concluding with a great yarvet descending before the assembled court to land upon her bare shoulders. She did not flinch as blood ran from where its claws had gripped her, and the crowd's applause was considerable.
Terms of yarvet husbandry follow the older vocabulary of the mews: pullet for a young female, formel, tiercel, eyass, intermewed, lure-wise. Enclosures are built as half-shadowed domes of latticed cedar and knotted cord, ringed with bramble.