Wyvern

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Where wyverns dare...

Wyverns are a combination of a wolfish-lion, with bat wings and a scorpion tail, that live in the harsh cliff-terraces of Kalimdor's the Barrens. They hold great enmity for harpies, as the vile creatures like to capture young wyverns for food and to subvert and train as guardians.Template:Cite

Like hippogryphs, wyverns are intelligent creatures — as smart as any humanoid. Their fierce predator instincts, as well as their harsh environments, lend little trust for humanoids, however. Despite this, wyverns are new allies to the Horde. The greenskinned orcs proved themselves to wyverns in battle against harpies attempting to kill a Stonetalon Mountains flight. Since then, the two species have a growing respect for one another. Wyverns share respect for the tauren just as they do the orcs, though the former are simply too large to join forces with a flying wyvern. A wyvern may choose an orc with a willingness to take to the air, and the two establish a formidable aerial scouting and combat team. Such orcs are known as wind riders. Wyverns are encountered alone as often as they are found in an orc rider’s presence.Template:Cite

Wyverns share a common ancestry with dragons and gryphons.Template:Cite Wyverns revel in flight, dutifully carrying Horde riders (also called "Wind Riders") along various routes surrounding Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar for a small fee.

Orcs raise wyverns to serve as steeds both in and out of combat.Template:Cite Not all wyverns are friendly to the horde; some are even enraged. They do not give up their eggs willingly, forcing the Horde to take the eggs to raise the newborn wyvern. Professional wyvern trainers wear thick, elbow-length leather gloves to protect themselves from baby wyverns' deadly stings.Template:Cite

They speak Orc and Taur-ahe, and are capable of learning Common and other languages.Template:Cite

They are also mobs found in the Stonetalon Mountains and Thousand Needles zones.

Wyvern (dragonkin)

Another kind of wyvern are beasts resembling a dragon, but in reality the two creatures could not be farther apart. Where the dragon is intelligent and wise, this creature thinks of nothing beyond feeding its belly. It will even eat its own young if the season is bare of other prey, caring nothing for the parental instinct. These creatures are voracious and possess only enough intelligence to realize when their prey is experiencing pain — in which it takes pleasure. In the lands of Azeroth, this creature is hunted by every sapient race except the Scourge - which uses the fearsome beasts as aerial mounts to harry and destroy their opponents.Template:Cite

Sand wyvern

These large creatures beset desert regions. The harpies of Kalimdor are known to treat with these creatures, hunting with them and training them as instruments of terror.Template:Cite

Flying mounts

Main article: Wyvern (mounts)

In The Burning Crusade, Armored Wyverns are the epic flying mount of the Horde in Outland, see below. However, in some cases they were apparently trained to accept any rider, as seen by the bombing roosts around Halaa.

Myth

Despite their mammalian qualities in Warcraft, wyverns are actually a type of reptilian dragon found in medieval heraldry. Wyverns were easily determined from other dragons by their four, rather than six, limbs, and their clawed tail. Wyverns were bipedal — their wings grew out from their forelimbs. Of course, the Wyverns could breathe flame (typically from the nostrils, whereas dragons were typically able to exhale flame through the mouth). The Wyvern had an even worse reputation than the dragon — while dragons could be benign or wise, Wyverns didn't seem to be sapient. In heraldry, the wyvern was never used for a crest or coat of arms among the greater powers of Europe (though the beast was known as far west as England).

The more leonine wyverns of Warcraft were intended to fit the Horde's newer, wiser image, and contrast the evil-looking dragons they stole from Alexstrasza. Like their Earth counterparts, their wings are attached to their forelimbs. The scorpion-like tail is Blizzard's own addition; mythologically, it was possessed by the Manticore, not the Wyvern.