Adult Male
Name: unnamed
Species: Ornate Sylph
Birthday: Sunday, December 19, 2021
Owner: StarlightandLace
Element: Air
Ornate sylphs grow up quickly, between the first snow of the year and the last, and are considered adults once their antlers grow in. Ornate sylph parents lovingly decorate their hatchlings' antlers with the shiniest, most durable of the ornaments on their tree, and the sylph will carry those same decorations for the rest of its life. Adult ornate sylphs are about the size of a small deer, and have great mastery over wind, able to easily summon a small breeze or a strong gale in an instant. Before they fly off to lands unknown, newly grown sylphs often gift their molted hatchling down to favored magi friends. These gorgeous feathers are treasured belongings, often made into jewelry or carefully crafted into rare, precious potions, and it is said that they can be used to summon the sylph in times of great need.
After years of sylph origins being a closely guarded secret, magi at the Keep woke up one cold morning to discover decorations hanging from every tree in sight and a gorgeous, previously unknown variety of sylph perched upon them, trilling bell calls at each other. Keep researchers have since found that they arrive from lands yet undiscovered on the far side of the world, using their masterful control over wind to make the unfathomably long journey, and the Synaran varieties were likely carefully cultivated from these wild ones. They arrive only when it snows and disappear again when the weather grows warm, and appear to have taken up residence at the Keep in particular due to the abundance of shiny things they can steal to decorate trees with there at wintertime. Male ornate sylphs claim a tree and then use whatever shiny things they can find to festoon it. They then perch upon it, displaying their bright feathers and chiming at passing females, who choose mates based upon which tree is best decorated. In their zeal to decorate, no tree is safe, not even oracle trees or vosmari, and so it is not uncommon to see brightly decorated trees slowly migrating around the Keep with a mildly alarmed sylph perched upon it during solstice celebrations.
Sprite art: Mysfytt (adult) | Description: Kestrad