The Wyverns · The full story

The war-beasts of the Ironteeth

Bred in a pit to be bigger and meaner than the last, and worked until they were expendable — the Ironteeth war-mount that turned an army into an air force.

Bred in the Fang

The wyverns are the Ironteeth's winged war-mounts, bred and broken at the facility in the Ferian Gap. The system is brutal by design. The best-bred wyverns are trained on bait beasts — living practice dummies thrown into the pit to be torn at, deliberately maimed so they can't fight back: teeth chipped, claws broken, the venomous spikes sawn off the tail. Abraxos was one of the oldest bait beasts in the Fang, which means he had already outlived that job by years — a horrifying thing to be good at.

The Crossing

A wyvern proves itself by the Crossing — a leap from a cliff across a gorge that shows whether it can truly fly under a rider. It is terror made into a test. Abraxos refuses it again and again, Iskra Yellowlegs whipping him to make it worse, until Manon grafts spidersilk into his ruined wings and he finally opens them mid-fall. Titus, the vicious bull bred to carry a Wing Leader, never gets that far — the scarred bait beast kills him in the pit first, and Manon claims the runt instead, over her grandmother's objection.

The wedge and the passes

A trained wyvern is a tactic, not just a mount. The Thirteen drill their beasts through narrow rocky passes until they can thread terrain no other clan's wyverns can survive — and when six Yellowlegs give chase, the coven splits into pairs and kills them by flying routes the enemy mounts crash trying to follow. In formation they fly the wedge: a living spearhead that punches straight through an aerial line. It is the shape that wins the War Games, where Abraxos dives unbidden to catch the falling Petrah Blueblood when Keelie is lost.

The last charge

In the final battle the Thirteen fly the wedge to drive through the enemy to a Morath witch-tower on the Plain of Theralis, losing mounts and riders the whole way. Abraxos is hurt and grounded and cannot go with them. The surviving coven dismount and Yield — a witch's self-detonating death — to bring the tower down before it can level the allied castle. The Thirteen die there, wyverns and witches together. Afterward, Terrasen lays flowers where they fell, and a five-hundred-year curse quietly comes undone.

The war-beasts of the Ironteeth

Bred to be spent, drilled into a weapon, flown in a wedge that could break a sky — and, at the last, dying with the witches they carried.

The pit
The best-bred wyverns are trained on bait beasts — living dummies thrown into the pit to be torn at, maimed so they can't fight back. Abraxos is one of the oldest of them.
Bred to be spent
The Ferian Gap facility churns out bigger, meaner mounts season after season; a bait beast's entire purpose is to be expendable to the ones being trained.
Titus in the pit
Iskra Yellowlegs shoves Manon into the breeding pit with the vicious bull Titus; the scarred bait beast kills him, and Manon claims the runt as her mount over her grandmother's objection.
The Crossing
A wyvern's first true flight is off the cliff across the gorge. Abraxos refuses until Manon mends his torn wings with spidersilk, then opens them at the last second and flies.
The War Games
When Keelie is lost, Abraxos dives without command to save the falling Petrah Blueblood — intelligence and loyalty beyond a trained beast — and Manon wins Wing Leader on the supposedly weak mount.
Through the passes
The Thirteen drill their mounts through narrow rocky passes; chased by six Yellowlegs, they split into pairs and down the pursuit on terrain the enemy wyverns can't fly.
Carried through everything
Gravely wounded, Manon rides Abraxos toward the allied camp and slips unconscious from his back into the sea — the mount bearing her as far as it can before she falls.
Assault on Rifthold
The Ironteeth wyverns join Erawan's aerial campaign against Rifthold; Manon's unit operates apart, the mounts answering commands well beyond a typical beast.
The wedge at Orynth
The Thirteen fly the wedge to punch through the enemy to a Morath witch-tower on the Plain of Theralis, mounts and riders picked off one by one as they break the line.
Flowers on the field
The coven dismounts and Yields, dying with their wyverns to bring the tower down; Terrasen lays flowers where the Thirteen fell, and the old Crochan curse comes undone.

What was done to one of them

Iron, spikes, and silk

Iron teeth and welded spikesWhat Manon put back on Abraxos after the Fang cut it off him — broken teeth pulled and replaced with iron, spikes welded onto the tail to restore the venomous strike his handlers had sawn away.
Spidersilk wingsHis wings were too torn for the Crossing, so Manon bargained a Stygian spider for a bolt of spidersilk and grafted it into the membranes — the reason they hold, and the reason they shine faintly in sunlight.

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We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Manon on a shirt without knowing which way the iron teeth snap — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

Officially licensed