Shalyrian Airwhales

These great levitating leviathans are visitors from the cloud moon of Shalyria, where thousands of their kind roam the skies in great pods.  The exact means of their occasional migrations to Galhadria are not well understood, but from time to time, pods of airwhales can be found migrating across the Galhadrian skies.  These peaceful leviathans drift calmly, using their great fins to catch the wind and sail.  The means they use to control their buoyancy is mysterious, likely related to the great empty sacs or bladders inside their bodies.  Skywhales are capable of rising so high in the air that creatures which depend upon wings cannot reach them - indeed it is their only means of defense against large airborne predators such as dragons or rocs.  They tend to avoid storm systems and bad weather areas, and rarely fly over land.  Skywhales seem to enjoy direct sunlight and the Wise Scholars of Greysage theorize that they take nourishment from the sun itself, like plants, even though they are clearly animals.  While most skywhales which appear in Galhadrian skies are believed to return home to Shalyria, there are at least a dozen individual skywhales who have been regularly sighted for hundreds of years.  Some of those which have lingered in Galhadria for many decades have become festooned with plants, small animals, and even occasional structures.   A sailor’s legend tells of a great and ancient skywhale which hosts an entire inn on its back, and drifts a regular route between Avantarra, Nova Eian, and Valea.