Large winged lizards with poisonous scorpion-like tails and sharp teeth, wyverns were distantly related to mighty Dragons. They hunted the same tangled forests and caverns of their kin, and with leathery wings that gave them a wingspan of up to twenty feet, were extremely proficient flyers. They were covered in hard scales, ranging from dark brown to grey in colour, and generally communicated via hisses and throated growls. Lacking forelegs, they were relatively slow on land, and used their large stinging tail to maintain balance when on foot. In the sky, however, wyverns were extremely dangerous, wielding their stinger and claws with great ferocity.
They differed wildly from their cousins, however, in terms of magic ability and resourcefulness. They lacked a draconis fundamentum, the ability to breath elemental magic, and while wyverns were more cunning than ordinary beasts, they did not possess the intelligence of their draconic cousins. As a result, they could often be tricked or eluded by creatures that spotted them hunting from the air, as they generally followed a direct path to their prey with no thought given to possible ambushes.
Wyverns were a primary threat to mortals living on the borders of civilization. Though they were reticent to attack a creature more powerful than themselves, they generally hunted large creatures, making livestock an ideal source of food. They would often incapacitate targets during the day while grazing in the fields, and were strong enough to pick up and carry medium-sized livestock straight to their nests. As a result, they were often dealt with by professional monster hunters, who would track down the wyvern to take their claws, teeth, and stinger to make Wyvern Poison.
Wyverns could be tamed for use as a mount, though doing so was a difficult and often deadly challenge; raising one as a hatchling offered the best results. However, even wyverns trained from birth often possessed a violent temperament that cost the life of many would-be masters.