Skyray

Skyray - *Soralua*

*Aeromanta Magovora*

Animal, Air-Breathing Ray

* Largest Recorded Length: 8 metres (body), 12 metres (incl. tail)

* Average Wingspan: 8 metres

* Largest Recorded Wingspan: 12 metres

* Average Life Expectancy: 40-50 years

* Longest Recorded Lifespan: 63 years

## Description

The Skyray is an extinct species of air-breathing magical ray which flew in the skies above Inecuria, passively feeding off the magical energy of the powerful aerial Magestream currents to sustain itself. The Skyray was the largest of the aerial Magovores by a significant margin, and gained a reputation across Inecuria for being the most beautiful and graceful.

The Skyray for the most part resembled a typical Manta ray, but lacking the gills of the marine variant, instead using lungs to breathe with. Their colour and skin pattern is largely the same, except that rather than displaying black and white colours, they were black and very pale blue. Skyrays were also known to leave sparkling iridescent trails behind them and have eyes that glowed in the dark, but this is thought to be a side effect of them consuming the Magestream rather than an inherent trait. The very close similarity between Manta rays and Skyrays has led most scholars to believe that Skyrays were originally Manta rays who were transformed with the aid of magic (either by accident or with the help of a powerful mage) to be aerial magovores.

Exactly how the Skyray managed to keep itself afloat in the air is unknown, but it was doubtlessly through some magical means. Its propulsion was also clearly aided by magic, since the flapping of its "wings" should logically not have been enough to move the creatures along, particularly not at the rapid speeds they were known for; a Skyray at full speed was estimated to travel at 40mph (64.4km/h).

## As Food

Both Harpy and Cisen ancestral folklore tells of hunting Skyrays, but neither makes a reference to their taste, and they were eaten very rarely since so much effort was required to hunt one down; they are only referenced as being consumed at the grandest of feasts. No other nation of Inecuria is known to have successfully hunted a Skyray. It is assumed that they tasted similar to other rays.

## Conservation

The Skyray has been extinct in this world since the 13th century, but populations are known to persist in the Dreadlands.

Once it became clear in the 12th century that magic was fading and would soon disappear entirely, a grand multi-national conservation effort took place to ensure the survival of the Skyrays as well as the other aerial Magovores, opening carefully controlled rifts into the Dreadlands to allow the creatures to pass through into a place they could continue to survive in. The conservation operation saved the lives of many thousands of Magovores, but many remained by the time the aerial Magestream currents dissipated entirely in the 13th century. A harrowing period from approximately 1270 to 1290 saw Inecuria littered with the fallen corpses of Magovores which succumbed to starvation and fell from the sky, and the huge bodies of the Skyrays caused a great deal of property damage and two deaths.

The Skyrays were the only aerial Magovores to slip through into this world during the magical revival of the Civil War, passing through the dimensional tears created by the Dreadstorms. Only a small amount of these returned to relative safety in the Dreadlands, and most perished once magic dissipated again, once more collapsing to the ground and causing a great deal of damage with their giant corpses.