Pegasus

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*bird-horse howl-screeching*

It's a horse with wings. You like horses? You like flying? Yeah, a pegasus has you covered on both accounts.

Originally "Pegasus" was the name of a specific horse, Medusa's rape-child after Poseidon plowed her. His wings were attached to his shoulders, to make it easier for his human riders to actually ride him. Since then the word has become a common noun to refer to any horse with wings, and nowadays the wings are further back, towards the bottom of the ribcage. Requires either magic or a flippant disregard for the laws of physics to work as horses have the aerodynamics of a brick.

Beware of horse apples falling from high altitude.

Dungeons & Dragons[edit | edit source]

Since the original foundation of the D&D meta-setting was basically "European and Mediterranean folklore mashed together and sprinkled with 70s pop-culture", pegasi have been around a long time. As in, they were part of the original White Box back in 1974! In Basic Dungeons & Dragons, pegasi first appeared in the Basic set, and were then reprinted in the Expert set and the Rules Cylopedia. Over in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, they first showed up in the original Monstrous Compendium for 1e, then made it into the Monstrous Manual alongside the Greater Pegasus from Dungeon Magazine #61. Afterwards, they've been in every single Monster Manual from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition onwards.

Pegasi are characterized as fully sapient creatures, occupying the same ambiguous niche between fey and magical beast as the unicorns, with whom they share a patron god in Eachthighern. In older lore, pegasi are said to lay eggs rather than being born live, and some sources also claim they have feathers in lieu of tails, manes and fetlocks. They are usually characterized as bitter enemies of griffons and hippogriffs, though their interactions with perytons tend to be an afterthought.

In AD&D, pegasi can Detect Good & Evil to a range of 60ft at will. The Greater Pegasus is a rarely spawned creature that can be encountered either leading pegasus herds (flocks?) or may spontaneously spawn from the corpse of a slain medusa - 5% chance of either. This elite version has 6 HD, +1 morale, and 20% magic resistance.

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Warhammer Fantasy[edit | edit source]

In the wild and weird world of WHFB, Pegasi are natural creatures with connections to the winds of magic, while they look like horses from the outside, on the inside they are completely different, sharing anatomical structures with birds and possessing hollow bones. Despite this, and owing to their innate magical nature, they are fully capable of carrying a heavily armored warrior on their back and flying for over 12 HOURS without visible strain. Also, they are omnivores, feeding on carrion as well as vegetation. The more tainted ones are of course, fully carnivorous possessing horrifying mutations ranging from mouths of full of rending fangs to wings akin to that of bloodthirsters.

Like the Black Dragons, Dark Pegasi are a result of the Dark Elves' usual Dhar magic pumped into a Pegasi at their foalhood. They were mostly favored as steeds by the Druchii Sorceresses but may also be ridden by Dreadlords. Morathi has a Dark Pegasus named Sulephet. Total War: WARHAMMER introduced a regiment of renown called the Raven Heralds, a unit based of an unique End Times dark riders unit called Ravenspears, which in this version their mount were replaced with Dark Pegasi and they use repeater crossbows instead.

There's also a variant of Pegasi in the southland of Arabyan region called Radiant Pegasi where it would absorb and daze any enemies with sunlight. It is unknown if the Arabyan nobles or Bretonnian crusaders tamed them for mounts, or there's an undead variant ridden by the Tomb Kings.

Bretonnian, Imperial knights and nobles alike seek out pegasi for both their majesty and their status as the steeds of powerful people, which often results in conflict between both of these powerful empires. Balthasar Gelt has his pegasus Quicksilver who he likes to armor with metal skin and razor sharp wings with his lore of metal.

Monstergirls[edit | edit source]

Pegasi monstergirls are rare because the standard approach to doing them, making them into a winged centaur, looks rather overly complicated in the eyes of many.