Clucken

"A source of food, companionship, and capability packaged in intelligent subservience. The Clucken is a biological utility knife."

~Amy addressing Orber Agricultural Board

History
The Divine Clucken created the Clucken as gift to mortalkin. These bi-pedal, flightless, avian creatures can stand between a half and full meter, or higher depending on breed. They show unyielding loyalty to those who provide care or protection. This loyal protection is shared between peers in feral packs or to domestic caretakers.

Cluckens are extensively used as supplemental troops or trained as watch guards. Battle ready cluckens are released by their handlers, brutalizing their targets with animalistic abandon. Scout cluckens lead their handlers through mines or traps, or alert them of enemy positions. The city-state of Orber is universally acclaimed for it's militarized clucken program.

Wanderers often travel with a clucken companion. They are warm sleepmates, excellent scavengers, loyal, and can better the odds of a fight. If the worst comes to pass, they provide a week's worth of rations. Some terclet breeds are large enough to be ridden as mounts by Hobs.

Clucken Breeds
Alone, a Clucken represents a formidible opponent. Their teath through leather and thin metals. Three talons and a muscled spur can break bones or trample flesh with ease. Thick, fiberous feathers protect their thick skin from abrasion or weather elements. A single tersel (male clucken) is an even match for an unarmed farmer. A terslet (female clucken) could face down an angry, Arcii pumped, bull Torg.
 * Ruku- (Pronounced "Roocoo") A traditional Torg meat breed of lower intelligence. Ruku are docile and easily attached to caretakers.
 * Savant-The most common breed of clucken found in the wilds. The majority of domestic clucken are from this genepool.
 * Braeg-Braeg are tempermental, massive cluckens with scale-like feathers, increased muscle mass, larger wingspawn, and beaked snouts. This is the original, primal breed.

Terslets are structurally larger and more durable than their male counter-parts. Terslets are slow to accept change, often developing instinctual habits. They are ideal for protecting clutches of eggs and young or staking out nesting territory. Terslets are strong enough to be equipped with light armour.

Tersels are smaller, more agile, and process new stimuli at a faster rate. The ability to adapt makes them keen canidates for utilizing elemental orbs or pursuing and wooing female mates. They attach themselves to mortal trainers quickly, allowing for rapid training.

The compact, muscular body of the Clucken provides nutritious meat. It even contains trace amounts of raw soul, a by-product of their elemental abilities. The gullet is often used by alchemists for its properties of arcane malliability. The rough, outer feathers are used as roofing, in decor, and as a fiber base (when stripped from the stem). The soft, down is used in dyes, as insulation, and are showered upon newly wed Torg couples for fertility. A blue Clucken feather is emblematic of a loyal lover in Avudar society.

The birds can hold Elemental Orbs in their pronounced gullets. These orbs are also a product of the Divine Clucken. Depending on the element, Cluckens inherent a unique set of physical properties. A fire orb grants fire breath, space orbs grant teleportation, wind orbs allow for flight, etc.