Sakul

 I was bored, so here again a sangheilian animal I swiftly colored. Me and my friend decided to call it Sak'úl.
Yes I know I should do the cover for our comic, but I'm not in the mood for Flood abominations and shiny Sangheili armor...

And for those wiseguys calling this a cheap copy of Avatar's leonopteryx, here are some words for you:
The idea for this came up long before I even knew there's a movie called Avatar going to be made and I made this sketch before it was in theaters, so I've never seen the leonopteryx before, which looks retarded by the way. I don't have the need to copy stuff from a movie with cheap storyline and ugly wannabe aliens looking like the new blue Nekkidelf class from World of Warcraft. Just because it has four wings, it doesn't means it's stolen from your oh-so-good movie (the leonopteryx has six limbs, not four like mine...) and it has nothing other in common with your Pandora plushies each retard wants to hump. So if you start bitchin' about it, shut the hell up and fap to your weirdo fanbase, I just don't fucking care!

Ok, enough bitching, here's the info stuff:
This family of animals is a good example of how far evolution can push an organism. While the harsh storms of Sanghelios caused some flying animals like the hundara to give up the ability to fly etirely, others evolved into perfect masters of flight, riding on the sandstorms running over the deserts and hunting prey on the ground from above. Mostly those animals almost never land, eat, sleep, mate and even give birth in flight, causing to change the superfluous legs into a second pair of wings, giving it greater maneuverability.
The Sak'úl is the biggest member of it's genus and one of the biggest animals of Sanghelios. Though there's another feared predator as big as him dominating the skies, he for sure is the only superpredator spending his entire life in flight, making him one of the most feared predators of the planet.
The Sak'úl is at the very edge of the biologically possible and though he's an incredibly fast hunter in the sky, he's somewhat clumsy on the ground, only capable to take off again when leaping from a cliff, so he usually controls the skies over mountain chains. When the Sak'úl has, to land on planar habitats, due to fights or sickness, he's usually doomed to die a slow death, due to his inability to lift his bodymass back into the sky to hunt.
Usually this animal lives far away from civilization, feeding on other flying animals, but when he gets the chance, hell strike like an arrow from above, attacking cattle and sangheili as well to pray on them, what makes it extremely dangerous. Even when caught on the ground, the Sak'úl won't give up that simple and attack with his sharp fangs. A force of nature each Sangheili should be aware of and which is only hunted when some individuals start to terrorize farms and trade lanes. That's why many sangheilian myths exist around this mighty animal and it is said, that the heavy beats of a Sak'úl's black wings and it's rage give birth to sandstorms who will run over the lands and cover their dark intents from the sights of each sangheili.

The color is based on the Gypaetus barbatus, the biggest most beautiful bird we have here in the Alps of Switzerland if you're asking me. I can often see them during winter above our house when they fly in circles searching for carcasses. Damn, those birds are friggin huge and impressive with a span width of over 3m, but you just have to love them en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypaetus…

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