ECOLOGY

Environment any (Positive Energy Plane)
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure double

There is a common myth among many far-flung tribes of a great and regal bird who comes sometimes with prophecy and other times as a savior for a great hero.

These majestic creatures are both stern and benevolent, using their power to scatter a tribe's foes or to herald great eras of prosperity. To benefit from the being's attention, the leaders of the tribe must acquiesce to the bird's demands, which typically include accomplishing some difficult quest to which the bird's enigmatic prophecies allude. While sometimes these radiant messengers are phoenixes, occasionally they are a rarer sort of prophet— majestic birdlike creatures from the Positive Energy Plane known as turuls.

Turuls often treat the Material Plane as a hunting ground, where they might feed upon wild beasts or hunt undead and other creatures that wantonly spread mayhem.

Such hunters keep to themselves, avoiding other creatures, but other turuls take a more active role with peaceful, intelligent creatures. While a few turuls go so far as to portray themselves as deities, granting protection and healing in return for worship, most of these magnificent outsiders watch from a distance, treating their chosen tribe more like pets, meddling only when their favorites are threatened or in the midst of dire circumstances.

While many turuls enjoy their forays on the Material Plane, the massive avians are intrinsically tied to the Positive Energy Plane. They also seem to be somehow related to the jyoti—another race of avian natives of the Positive Energy Plane—though neither turuls nor jyoti care to divulge the true nature of the relationship. Some scholars of the outer planes suggest that the two avian species are actually incarnations of the same genesis, while others postulate that turuls are some higher form of jyoti within a cycle of reincarnation intrinsic to many of the Positive Energy Plane's denizens. Both theories are mere speculation.

Unlike the more social jyoti, turuls tend to be loners.

They keep company for short periods of time, either to mate or purely for the enjoyment of one another's company, but such couplings last for a few decades at most. Instead of dwelling in crystalline cities like the jyoti, turuls roost at the tops of tree-shaped gemstone formations that spring up from the landscape of their home plane. Turuls are haughty but talkative and sometimes welcome visitors. They perch silently upon their crystal trees, taking time to speak to any who approach them, so long as they find the conversation worthwhile. As soon as they lose interest, they politely dismiss themselves or their guests. Those who don't leave are typically met with scorn if not aggression. Turuls are not used to or fond of being ignored or insulted.

In stark contrast to the jyoti, the turuls hold no hatred or ill will toward deities and their servants, at least when they encounter such creatures on planes other than the Positive Energy Plane. While on the Material Plane, turuls will even work with good- and neutral-aligned outsiders to protect their hunting grounds and adopted humanoid communities.

In rare circumstances, a turul dwells at the heart of a jyoti crystal city, supervising these settlements from atop their eyries as ever-vigilant protectors. Those who do become more like the jyoti over time, and treat outsiders with the same anger and vehemence as their wards.

Such arrangements are typically short-lived, though.

Turuls who live with jyoti only do so for a century at most, and when they leave, their personalities and relations with others revert to a more calm and contemplative manner. Such might hint at some arrangement wherein a turul agrees to become part of a jyoti community, living by their rules for a period in return for something the turul covets— such as mystical knowledge, information about egress to the Material Plane, or possibly one of the artifacts that the jyoti hoard.

The most consistent relationship the turuls have is with phoenixes. Those fiery avians often treat turuls like royalty and willingly serve them, whether or not the turul has expressed any interest in gaining a flaming entourage. Though, for all their impatience with other creatures, turuls tolerate the presence of phoenixes better than they do others.

Part of turuls' legendary moodiness stems from the same myths for which they're best known—those wherein they bring prophecies of light and peace.

On some Material Plane worlds, such tales are so pervasive that mortal heroes go as far as venturing to the Positive Energy Plane to seek blessings and wisdom from turuls. The great avians have little patience for those who presume upon their occasional benevolence. Not only that, but a turul's prophecies are not merely boons to be meted out.

Rather, their promises of peace and prosperity typically come about via changes they've affected using their own considerable power, or as inevitabilities they've had the foresight to predict. In the rarest of cases, some turuls claim to have communed with the power of the deepest Positive Energy Plane and that they serve as messengers of that mysterious cosmic will. Whether or not such is true few can know, but that possibility has certainly influenced the greatest variety of mortal myths regarding turuls.

Gigantic in stature, turuls stand nearly 30 feet tall and have a wingspan of almost 50 feet. They weigh upwards of 15 tons. While they reside on the Positive Energy Plane, turuls are effectively immortal. They age only when traveling from their home plane.