Get Monster Journal Entry #8 - the Wyvern Today!
Illustrated by Joao Gabriel.
Hey guys!
I am happy to bring you Entry #8 of the Monster Hunter Journal -- the Wyvern!
The Wyvern emerged from the medieval European tradition of the dragon rather than a single ancient myth. The name ultimately derives from the Latin word vipera "viper", though Old French and Middle English words contain associations between dragons and large, venomous serpents.
By the later medieval and early modern ages, particularly in English heraldry, the wyvern became recognizable as a distinct form of dragon - a serpentine-bodied creature with two legs, two wings and a long barbed tail. This was in contrast to the four-legged dragon. Medieval sources did not always treat this distinction with consistency, as "dragon" remained a very broad and flexible term that applied to both two-legged and four-legged creatures.
The wyverns used in European heraldry where frequently associated with ferocity, venom and monstrous power, and it was from that origin the creature came into being rather than some previously developed mythological species.
The creature we recongize in TTRPG's today was published in D&D's original Monster Manual in 1977 as a now-familiar distinction between a true dragon and its more animalistic cousin. Instead of a magical, intelligent, four-legged dragon capable of breath weapons and speech, the wyvern was presented as a dangerous flying predator with two legs and two winged arms, armed with a venomous scorpion-like stringer at the end of its tail.
“So does the wyvern partake of a fowl in the wings and legs, and does resemble a serpent in the tail.”
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