Magical Birdsong - The Rare Fuya Birds

The worlds of fantasy RPGs are vast, and limited only to the imagination of the Game Master. It's always exciting to fill your world with great unknowable monsters from between worlds or immense dragons dominating the skies.

It's also easy to do this. I think for a game master to make their world magical but lived in, they must twist the normal, the familiar. Putting a magical spin on something we all know makes the world familiar but alien.

The lone fuya bird leaving great streaks of energy in its wake - Dreamtail Heron by Caio Monteiro

Fuya Birds

Many birds we find in this world are equally common in worlds of high fantasy. Eagles, doves, and vultures are key symbols in old and new mythology, with the obvious pop culture call backs of robins and ravens.

There's little more beautiful or scary, than when birds swarm. They move as a cloud of thousands and swirl as one, with absolutely no way of talking. Imagine how they'd move and behave in a world of magic.

Fuya birds are flocking birds, that travel in the thousands along the magical leylines present in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. Birds by the thousand are charged with magical energy. The birds have slender, long necks and tall legs to let them strut the turbulent ground that these magical lines often situate themselves on. Their deep blue plumage often ebbs with magical energy.

Flocking Together

It is almost impossible to catch a single fuya bird on their own. The inherent magical energy within the birds draws them together. There's a faint psychic link between birds all born in the same flock. If one is away from their flock for more than one day, the magical energy within them fades and the bird dies.

It's a common tactic for those who poach fuya birds to isolate them, yet keep them in magically isolated cages to keep the energy within their forms. Their bones and feathers have been a key ingredient in magical items for centuries.

They gather on the wind and travel great distances

Chorus of the Many

The excess raw magic found in every fuya bird has to be expelled in some natural fashion. The fuya birds migrate across the world constantly. They cover miles every day, flying in enormous flocks of in the thousands.

Mages and ornithologists seek out the paths of these birds to find a very interesting natural phenomena. If a person stands alone near a swirling flock of fuya birds, they will be instinctively drawn to the stranger. The person has nothing to fear if they stand still. The birds will harmlessly swarm around them. The psychic link between the birds will extend out to the standing person.
The birds will give a psychic reading to the person, and give it back out in an abstract way. The person's thoughts, feelings, and memories are sung back to them as a grand song. A person can only hear this song once in their life, and it's completely unique.

Flight of Fancy

An adventuring party may see a flock of fuya birds on the edge of their vision. They might be tasked to find a flock out in the wilderness either to hear the song, or to get the birds to lead them to a magical disturbance. They aren't harmful or aggressive, but they do bring great mystery and wonder to a game.

Now we want to hear from you. How would you introduce fuya birds to your game? Are there creatures from our world that got a strong magical twist. Let us know in our Discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.