Appearance:
Saphira is a hybrid between a swan and a peafowl, created through powerful magic. She is a rather large bird, weighing in at about seventeen pounds, with a nearly seven-foot wingspan, and a standing height of over three and a half feet. She has a long, slender neck, usually held up in somewhat of an ‘s’ shape, with a small oval-like avian head. There is some black skin which extends from her eyes in the shape of a ‘V’ toward her beak, ringing around its top and bottom and forming a fleshy knob at the top. Said beak is orange, fading to pink at the tip, somewhat short, tapers to a dull point at the end, and has nostrils on the top.

The feathers across her body and lower neck are pure white. However, just past the middle of her body they begin to take on a bright blue which gets more pronounced nearer to her tail feathers. The same can be said of her upper neck, with the top of her head being nearly the same blue color as a peacock and even sporting their unique round crest feathers. Her wings are white on the leading edge, with the primary and secondary flight feathers on the other side of the wing gaining color from white to blue nearing the tip. Each flight feather also shows that unmistakable blue green and brown ‘eye’, creating a dazzling pattern across her wings. Her legs are covered in pure white feathers down to just above the joint, giving way to brownish grey scales from there down to her webbed feet which have clawed points at the tips of her toes. Her body is shaped somewhat like a squished oval, angled up toward the base, with her wings usually folded on each side of her body.

Personality:
Saphira is a very intelligent bird with a keen sense of curiosity. She may have had a rather sheltered life so far, but she has long wondered what could be found beyond the boundaries of the forest home she shared with her master. Now that she’s off on her own, she is finally able to satiate some of that curiosity as she wanders the forests both on foot and wing, but because she lived with only her master for so long, never exposed to anyone else, she is usually shy, or at least suspicious around strangers at first. Give her time to warm up to you though, and you will find that she is quite a sociable creature once she’s out of her shell. Saphira is also proud of what she is, even if her master had to make up a name for her species. She knows she's special, and quite beautiful. She is also a little vain about her appearance, and hates getting dirty or having her feathers mussed up.

History:
Saphira is a rather unique creature, who came into the world in an unusual manner. But let’s back up and talk about her former master for a moment. She was a rather accomplished elven sorceress named Sylvine, who decided to go off on her own to further her studies without the distractions of living around a lot of other people. So, she moved way out into the middle of nowhere, and began her work, but it didn’t take terribly long for her to start to feel the need for some sort of companionship. Moving back would be a last resort, as her work was not finished, and she didn’t want to go back early unless she had to. So she decided to get herself a pet. Rather than set out to try and tame a common beast nearby, she ultimately decided to test her abilities and create a pet that would be uniquely hers.

She traveled a bit and ended up buying a swan egg and a handful of peacock feathers from an exotic animal trader. Along her travels, she began to research the rather complicated spell that she was about to perform, planning out every detail she could think of, from controlling how quickly her new companion would age and increasing its intelligence, to making sure it would turn out female, and thus hopefully be a somewhat less aggressive bird, while hopefully also having colorful plumage. Finally, ready to perform the spell, she placed the egg in a small basket along with the peacock feathers, and began the complex spell. The spell demanded all her concentration for quite a length of time, and she closed her eyes and freed her mind from all other thoughts while starting to chant the incantation from her memory.

Upon completing the spell, she opened her eyes and walked over to the basket, to find that the feathers had vanished, and the light grey egg had taken on small blue spots. Sylvine continued to incubate the egg until it eventually hatched and she heard high pitched peeps and chirps coming from the room where the egg was being incubated. She went to investigate, and found a small yellow and grey bird moving around the room. Even though the baby bird didn’t have the vibrant blue plumage of a peacock, and she had no way of knowing if it ever would, she decides to name the young bird Saphira. A fitting name, she thought, for a bird with sapphire feathers, and pretty either way.

Saphira’s aging had been significantly slowed, just as Sylvine had planned, but there was a drawback, in that the young bird stayed a baby chick just as long as a human baby would. However, as the years passed, slowly but surely, Saphira grew. It also quickly became apparent just how smart she was, as Sylvine soon had to start magically enchanting the lock on her pen to keep the inquisitive bird from escaping and getting into mischief around Sylvine’s tiny home in the forest. More time passed, and soon Saphira began to learn how to fly, and started doing something that even Sylvine never expected, she began to talk, first just mimicry, but eventually Sylvine was able to hold simple conversations with her avian companion.

There was one thing that Sylvine in hindsight had wished she had the forethought to give unto Saphira as part of the ritual that created her. She wished she had given her some sort of magical power, even if only some minor abilities to help boost her own powers. Fortune smiled on the sorceress and her new companion however, as the magical nature of Saphira’s 'birth', did imbue her with some amount of power. Seemingly dormant for the early part of her life, these powers begin to show now as Saphira grew still more and began to approach adolescence. The first manifestation of her ability showed as she learned to control the movement of air, creating small wind gusts around her, first displayed as she used it to open a door that was almost completely shut to get through.

Her abilities grew with her, and eventually expanded into new elements. She proved ability in water magic as she used it along with her power over wind to envelop herself in fog to playfully hide from Sylvine. It seems that any leftover magical power used in her 'birth' latched on to aspects of Saphira’s being. Being a bird, affinity with the air is obvious, and the swan part of her adds affinity to water. She may have other talents waiting to manifest, but only time will tell.

Several more years passed, and Saphira grew into her juvenile stage, and eventually neared adulthood, her body really taking shape now as she finally molts away her baby plumage for it to be replaced by vibrant blues and pearly whites. Soon, Sylvine finally decided it was time for her to leave her home deep in the forest, and head back to civilization once again, not wishing to become a lifetime hermit. Saphira watched with curiosity as the sorceress began to gather her few belongings to prepare for the journey back to where she had come from all those years ago. Saphira was only told that they were going somewhere far away, and not why, despite having asked.