Raptor

Raptors are a carnivorous avian species native to Valoran, ranging from deep jungles and forests to the windswept highlands that border the Freljord. Though they vary by region, all are formidable hunters. Even far from the top of the food chain, a pack of jungle raptors remains a capable predator and rarely becomes prey itself, and a swordsman crossing the eastern forests learns to grip his blade at the first sharp, bird-like screech that warns one is near. They hatch in seasonal broods, and in the quieter hinterlands the worst a traveler usually meets is a stray raptor left roaming after the hatching season. In Demacia the raptor is a creature of pride and legend. Silverwing raptors wheel and duel unseen above the northern marches, screeching through clouds heavy with the cold of the Freljord, and the mountain city of High Silvermere is known as the City of Raptors. Greatest among them are the raptor-knights of the Greenfang Mountains, housed in a fortress that minotaurs raised centuries ago at the command of King Argostan. Beautiful in flight, they descend to the rivers to greet travelers, as the shield Cithria and the minotaur Kriel witnessed on their journey east toward Everpeak. They are more than an ornament of the realm. At the battle of the Nockmirch, Valor returned with a flight of raptor-knights from the west, and their sudden landing scattered and routed a Noxian force that had all but overwhelmed Garen's Dauntless Vanguard. Raptors leave their mark on the peoples around them. Their bright plumage litters the forest floor where they feed, hunters who track them learn that even a maimed raptor can still gut a careless attacker, and far to the south the fletchers of old Icathia prized azure raptor feathers to wing their arrows. Whether soaring on Demacian thermals or slipping between jungle trees, the raptor is counted among Valoran's fiercer wild things.