Behemoth, Laviathan and the Ziz This is as big an iteration of these as I could fit within dwarf fortress's resolution limit and the head of Laviathan is about the size of a Hydra.
Colors of behemoth are barrowed from muskox, the rest I couldn't be bothered to find the colors for in the game.
The design of these was chiefly in trying to make the archetypal version of their animal group. The birdest bird, the fishest fish and the grazerest grazer.
Laviathan is simply fictional, and so I had a lot of freedom in inspirations. In specific, I looked to eels for length, koi fish for dragonishness and a particular queensland grouper found in the loch lomond aquarium for magnificent gills.
Behemoth is also easy, what with it's name meaning cows, and I wanted it to feel like a massive wall of a creature. I looked to water buffalo and oxen in specific.
Ziz is interesting because it has the most uncertainty with regards to real life counterparts, being possibly a massive version of the biblical bird, Canaf Rananim (wing of joy).
This bird is theorized to be either the peacock, ostrich, crested lark or eurasian stone curlew, so I drew from all 4 in designing the bird. The wing of joy is also notably stupid, flying, tough on its babies and a fan of going into the dirt. This bird being the ziz is argued about and so is this entire section, what with some people saying these literally are describing 4 separate birds.
This entire process made me look at a lot of really gorgeous birds from back home and for this I am delighted.
