Zoltan the hippogryph (pronounced ZOL-tin, and not zol-TAN) is a prime example that not every member of the race of Mythicals is rich and powerful and influential. He is homeless on account of getting kicked out of every apartment and flophouse in town for trashing the place and beating up his fellow residents. He's a filthy slob and is practically feral in behavior. He mostly gets work by being hired to play random muscle; folks assume that he's so stupid that they can talk about all sorts of things around him and it will fly over his head.

This isn't exactly true.

Zoltan isn't exactly unintelligent, but his needs and desires are so simple that knowing about arms trades, drug deals, and smuggling operations are pointless and useless to him. He's aware of them, he listens, but he simply doesn't care.

Unfortunately for Zoltan this means that he is occasionally visited by Kryst who is seeking information about Zoltan's employers. Usually Kryst pays him, but sometimes Kryst will magically beat the hippogryph down to get what he wants if Zoltan doesn't feel like talking. Zoltan would consider ripping the rat's head off were it not for the fact that when Kryst pays him for his information, he often pays him fairly well, and Kryst is smart enough to know that the beatdowns are a last resort.

Zoltan's history is a big unknown. Kryst did a background check on him and managed to find a birth certificate but the names of the parents on it were fake. This might mean that Zoltan was a black market baby, or had simply been abandoned. He did a cursory search for gryphon or hippogryph parents in the city listed but came up empty. There are also no records for him in the foster system. Another explanation is that Zoltan is an illegal immigrant and somehow managed to score forged papers, but Kryst hasn't gone so far as to do an INTERPOL search on him yet. As Zoltan is only really guilty of crimes by association he hasn't felt the need to as of yet.

The truth is though, nobody knows what goes on in that head of his. He can talk but uses as few words as possible. He shows no interest in relationships, friends, or anything other than his own basic needs. He sometimes seems devoid of emotion, and sometimes lashes out over the slightest thing. And sometimes, every so often, he will do something that hints that there is a very cold and very calculating mind hiding away and waiting for just the right opportunity.

Zoltan is actually an iridescent black. The scanner totally ate all the purple and blued out the black bits.

Copic marker and helpen on canvasboard. Image is available for sale.