Peryton Perytons were twisted and depraved magical creatures that appeared to be a cross between a giant eagle and a demonic - looking , fang - toothed stag . They were known and feared for tearing the beating hearts from their victims ' chests . Description . A peryton ' s feathered and winged body was about 7 feet ( 2 meters ) long and 5 feet ( 1 . 5 meters ) tall and was similar to that of a giant eagle with dark green or gray - green feathers . Its head , however , was covered in blue - black or purple hair and was roughly the shape of a deer ' s . Its maw was full of jagged fangs and its claw were as sharp as razors . On the top of its head were a set of extremely sharp and strong antlers , which were as hard as steel and jet black in color . A male had light blue chest feathers , while a female ' s were pale brown . A peryton ' s eyes glowed or glittered and were an orange - red color . Whatever fell magic created perytons granted them a deceptively strong hide that was nearly impervious to anything but magical weapons . Perytons reportedly smelled like humans , although others said the smell was indescribable and immediately triggered a sense of dread . Perhaps the strangest feature of a peryton was its shadow . The shadow did not usually resemble the shape of the beast ; instead , it was said to appear as the outline of whatever creature whose heart the peryton last ate , usually an adult human . Other reports suggested that the peryton ' s shadow was " always " that of a human , and a legend told that they had once been humans themselves , hence the human shadow . There was some controversy as to when and what shadow would be cast by a peryton . Some argued that the only time a peryton cast its own shadow was immediately after killing a victim but before consuming it . Others said that a peryton ' s shadow reverted to its own only " after " eating a heart and for a brief period afterwards . Some attributed this phenomenon specifically to the female . In any case , the matter of the peryton ' s shadow was a longstanding mystery by the 14th century . Personality and Behavior . Unlike the eagles they resembled , perytons did not glide at high altitudes . They preferred darting close to the ground . There were conflicting tales about their maneuverability on the wing . Some claimed that they were poor fliers , while others reported that they were so maneuverable as to be able to turn at a right angle at full speed over a distance of only two hundred yards . Perytons were as intelligent as human s . They were said to have foul tempers , but could be intelligent , patient , and cunning . Perytons would make detailed plans for a hunt , then carry them out meticulously . They would wait any length of time to achieve their aims , and though they might appear relaxed , they were ready for their prey . They could understand at least Common and sometimes other languages , but they could not speak , at least not in words recognizable to most . Some believed that they had a language of their own , which was described as a series of pained or enraged screeches and roars , even human - like screams . By the 14th century , none had bothered , nor taken the risk , to decipher it . They were perpetually unhappy creatures and despised their own existence , yet they were driven by a desire to kill others and someday ascend to a higher form of existence by the eating of a " perfect heart " . The perytons believed that the perfect heart must always be eaten fresh , which was why they tried to tear it from living prey with their sharp talons . So strong was this desire that more intelligent perytons even kept and bred other creatures to harvest their hearts . Human hearts were the preferred variety . Strangely , perytons did not believe that an elf could have a perfect heart ; they would never eat the heart of an elf , but they might still kill an elf for other reasons — or for no reason at all . Despite this , some believed that a peryton would in fact eat an elf heart , or keep them as food . Malar the Beastlord would sometimes send perytons to aid his followers or attack their enemies . Combat . Perytons attacked by slashing with their horns , snapping with their ferocious jaws , or clawing with their deadly talons . They were adept at attacking with all three at once . They were especially dangerous when making swooping attacks . Ruthless , they tended to focus on attacking weakest foes first , making surprise flyby attacks from behind cover , and then darting off again . If drawn into melee combat , they hopped about on the ground , using their wings to stay about 5 feet ( 1 . 5 meters ) off the ground . Stronger perytons would sometimes carry smaller prey and drop them from great heights . Whichever target was chosen , a peryton rarely changed to a new one until either the target or peryton were killed . Whenever an opponent was helpless or unconscious — whether from crippling , paralysis , " etc . " — a peryton would attempt to rip the heart from the victim with its claws . It would immediately consume the organ . Society . Perytons sometimes hunted in groups , but their chaotic natures made it difficult for them to cooperate . They often fought over prey , since they feared that someone else might have the chance to eat the perfect heart . They usually nested in small groups of between two to eight perytons or family groups of up to four . Nests were usually made several miles from their nearest neighbor . They were very careful about where they made their nests , choosing locales where they could avoid other winged creatures ; even if they weren ' t a threat to them , the perytons didn ' t want the competition or interference . They sought an easy , clear path to their hunting grounds . Ecology . Peryton females laid eggs with shells as hard as metal . It was said that acid was required to melt through the shells . Some scholars believed that the reason perytons consumed hearts was because of the high iron content of that organ , which was thought to be used in both the perytons ' antlers and eggs and perhaps their skin and feathers . In any case , a female peryton was not fertile unless she had eaten a fresh heart . This heart had to come from a humanoid — human for preference , but dwarf , elf , ogre , and orc hearts would do , though some thought it specifically had to be human . She would only remain fertile for an extremely short time — between three and eighteen hours , during which time her shadow matched her form . She would then lay between one and four eggs at a time . A mated pair of perytons shared the duties of guarding their nest and sitting on the eggs . A peryton egg had an incubation period of up to a month . A hatchling had to be fed for the first month of life , then grew to maturity in only three months . The parent perytons often carried live prey to their nests , and watched as the infants killed and consumed them themselves . The young stayed with their parents for as long as a year , after which they left to establish their own nests . Perytons were omnivorous and , apart from their need to eat hearts to reproduce , they could sustain themselves on vegetation . A typical meal might be rabbit , deer , or horse , but they much preferred humanoid flesh , particularly that of a human , for the sake of eating their hearts . If they were successful in tearing out and devouring a victim ' s heart , the flesh of the corpse served as a meal . Perytons faced few natural predators , but one notable exception was griffon s , which were powerful enough to hunt them . Locations . Perytons preferred living in temperate climates , in forests , mountains , and hills , but they could survive in colder environments as well . Large populations were known to exist in the Spine of the World ; the Neth Stand forest ; the Nether Mountains ; the Giant ' s Run Mountains , where they roosted in old giant - sized palaces ; the Starspire Mountains , the Walls of Halruaa ; the Lonely Moor , a part of the High Moor ; in the Goblin Marches and the Stonelands ; the northern Thunder Peaks ; and the west Galena Mountains , from which they ranged across Thar . In the Stonelands and southern Goblin Marches , perytons were an incessant threat to goblin s , orc s , and the other tribes that dwelled there . Very few goblinkin and orcs possessed magical weapons that could pierce their tough hides , giving them little defense against peryton attacks . From there , they often swooped upon caravans passing through Tilver ' s Gap ; sometimes , a single large caravan would be harassed several times by perytons of different nests . Travelling east of Arabel got to be so hazardous in the 1360s DR that groups in Cormyr pushed for an mounted aerial division of the Purple Dragons to combat them . The careful perytons themselves nested over Tilver ' s Gap to avoid competition with griffon s elsewhere in the Storm Horns and to avoid the defenses at Castle Crag . History . Clearly magical beasts , perytons were widely viewed as having had a magical or otherwise unnatural creation . No - one knew for sure how they ' d come to be , but there many theories had been put forward . Many scholars pointed to the facts that a peryton had the scent and shadow of a human and required a human heart to reproduce , and concluded that they had once been human , perhaps cursed or magically transformed millennia before . Perytons were generally said to be the creation of one of the evil deities , but which one is forgotten . It was known that the Beast Lord of the ruins of Dekanter propagated perytons , but whether he first created them or only bred them was not clear . An alternative and perhaps more sinister tale was put to paper by Brother Delf of Verdusk , apparently relating an ancient legend . He told that perytons had once been the Khala of Imaskar , a human race of evil Bane - worshipers . As punishment for their crimes , they were cursed by five gods of law . Lathander , god of the dawn , said " You have been swift as an eagle in your flight from justice , so I curse you each of you with the body of the eagle . " Mystra , goddess of magic , said " Fierce as a wolf have you been in your persecution of the innocent , so I curse you with the teeth of the wolf . " Torm , god of duty , said " Foolish as a stag in rut have you been as you shunned what is true and good , so I curse you all to bear the head and horns of the stag . " Ilmater , god of suffering , said " You have tormented and torn heart and soul from your victims , so I curse you with unnatural appetites , so that you may only live and prosper after devouring the hearts of your prey . " Finally , Mielikki , goddess of the forest , said " While you acted as beasts , your heart contained evil which only humans can know . I curse you to always cast the shadow of the humans you once were , to always remind you of your terrible deeds and of the souls that you have lost . " Thus , they became the perytons . This tale was unsupported by fact , but it did explain all their unusual human traits . However , some , like Talyssa Strongbow , considered it ironic that their curses , particularly that of Ilmater — who aimed to shield folk from suffering — only drove the peryton to further murder and savagery . This cast doubt on the tale , or on the wisdom of the gods . In the Year of the Groaning Hart , perytons , along with harpies and manticore s , destroyed the city of Lis in the Moonsea region in what was known as the Flying Plague . Sometime around 1372 DR , King Obould Many - Arrows made an arrangement with the perytons living in the Spine of the World to defend his eastern border . In exchange , he granted them prisoners for heart - harvesting . This allowed him to focus his attentions on the Silver Marches . Rumors . A disturbing rumor circulating in Tilverton in the mid – 14th century told that a lowland nest of perytons in the Stonelands kept captive humans , elves , orcs , and ogre s . As the story went , they tended to and even cared for them , as a farmer would their cattle , because they slaughtered these poor folk for their hearts and for food for the whole nest . Some they kept alive for breeding , to replenish their stock . Trivia . The year 1128 DR was named the Year of the Peryton . Appendix . Background . The originated in Jorge Luis Borges ' s " Book of Imaginary Beings " . They combined the features of stag and eagle , and originated in Atlantis . In this original depiction , they cast the shadow of a man until they killed one , after which they cast their own shadow . The peryton first appeared in D & D with the original " Monster Manual " ( 1 edition ) in 1977 .