The Age of Chaos:
Tengu were monsters whose behavior varied between groups and individuals throughout the ages. However, in general their disposition was to spread chaos in the world and they were hostile towards humanity.
Tengus crows were thieves and tricksters while wolves were looters and bandits. Both occasionally tortured, killed and devoured human beings, kidnapped children and tied them up in trees. They amused themselves by committing sacrilege and tempting religious humans to sin. Daitengu and some kotengu who acquired more power were feared for their power and their fickle moods, which could generate typhoons, storms, fires and other natural disasters. Tengu, commanded by a great evil dai, fomented wars and evil in human societies, giving power to humans of low character and sowing the seeds of men's bad instincts. Opposing them were humans who, through skill, strength and cunning, defeated them in both power and cleverness. Many religious men fought them vigorously, considering them no different from demons.
At this time, however, there were also a few tengu who were noted for their friendship with humans. One great tengu was the master of a swordsman who became a great hero for justice.
"Anti-tenguists claim that Sōjōbō taught this hero the arts of war so that he would foment more wars to seek revenge for the clan he had lost. The truth is that the king took pity on the boy and sympathized with him. Many or few, there have always been good tengu." - Daitengu of Mount Kurama
The totality of records of good tengu in the first era, however, is almost entirely restricted to a few daitengu. Records of other types of tengu of the time acting in a moral or noble way are few and far between, both among monsters and with humans, but they do exist. One record involves a crow tengu who gave gifts to a man in exchange for music and another of a wolf tengu who guided a child kidnapped by her pack back to its parents, and then being rejected by her own pack for her kindness, was adopted by the human family.
"It is believed that this is because the daitengu interact more with nobles and other elites, and therefore had access to writing. Lesser Tengu who performed good deeds had their small deeds forgotten." - Karasu-tengu reporter from Youkai Mountain.
Finally, there is talk of tengu whose favorite victims were not religious men but their opposite, especially those who sinned through pride, envy and anger. These tengu were practitioners of religious disciplines and virtue and punished sinners.
The age of women:
The goddesses of the east also took part in the conspiracy to create the monster girls, dissatisfied with the status quo of women in times of both war and peace. They went to the female daitengu and, combining their powers, reincarnated them into the first known tengu women, although they made no distinction between good and bad daitengu for this purpose. The daitengu together with the goddesses then spread the enchantment to the lesser tengu women, reincarnating them as monster girls.
The tengu women, although different from the originals, took advantage of their new bodies to establish new forms of chaos and destruction. Being now beautiful monster girls, it was easy to engage and seduce mortals in order to rob them, spread discord or lure them into traps.
One of their favorite victims were priests, monks, married men and any other men who demanded some form of sexual modesty from themselves. They loved to make them lost. Men who proved resistant to their charms were "spirited away" and raped by them, some were returned and some were not.
However, as in the previous era, some tengu were kind, and as more came into contact with humanity, more became genuinely attached and from this point on, not only individual tengu but entire clans began to seek a greater spiritual life.
"It was a short era, but one of great epics. Enemies falling in love in a cycle of love and violence, disputes between human and tengu women over men, wars between tengu clans over men... I have a whole section in my bookshop dedicated to the topic." Human Librarian of the Human Village
