Skylord

Skylords (Tholiyunai-i) are giant, fearsome bird-like creatures with hairy scales. They can be encountered on Woilani or the surrounding islands and seas.

Appearance
A Skylord has hairy scales, and is about the size of a windsled, or a small ship. It has a near perfect sky blue colour on its underside while flying, however the top side is very colourful. The Skylord as a true bird of prey-like beak and equally fearsome claws. Its eyes are positioned slightly below the beak, giving it 3D vision on the ground, without compromising its air flow.

Magic
Skylords are capable of negatism. They seem to only be able to reverse moving objects and gravity. It is suspected this is part of the reason why such a giant creature can fly, as it is believed Skylords,  without magical support, cannot stay airborne and will glide to the ground.

It is believed that periodically, the creature will give itself a boost by reversing gravity on itself, lifting it up, and then glide on. It will also often use its negatistic abilities to disorient or kill its prey, or to lift its pray out of the water.

Habitat
Skylords are known to mostly roost in blackfields (Niashechu), on the side of the volcano, as this allows them to stay warm throughout the night, and keeps predators at bay. At day, they can be found anywhere over Woilani, its surrounding islands and seas. It usually preys for large animals, especially aquatic ones, but has been known to attack sandfields (Yoawiyachu) tribes or ships, usually for whatever food they have, but also for nesting material (the wood and cloth) and are also known to eat Lo-o, but usually wont bother those which dont travel in large groups, or without vehicles.

Uses
Whenever a Skylord attacks a sandfield tribe, they will defend themselves as much as they can, they are as often successful in this as they are not, but when they are, the Lo-o of the tribe will butcher the animal, salt the meat, and store it to provide for the tribe. The hairy scales will be used to produce decorations and jewelry both for personal use and to sell to other tribes, or northerners, the hairs are also used to weave sails from or rope. The skull is hollowed out, and used for sacred rituals and the rest of the bones are used to either repair their sail-sleds, or the production of tools. Then, the non-edible organs are buried as a sign of respect to the great beast.

Northern society usually just lets them float on the water, and be eaten by the fishes or other Skylords.

In Myth
In ancient ruins and the Obsidian City, paintings and carvings have been found seemingly depicting Skylords. In the ruins in the sandfields, these creatures are seen to be worshipped, and archeologists believe that some strange bowl shaped areas were used as sacrifice pits for Skylords. They cannot agree on what was sacrificed however.

In the south, in the blackfields, images depicting Lo-o riding Skylords can be seen.