Many daitengu, already in the age of chaos, were not his disciples, but sought mastery in what they considered higher paths, in body and spirit. They despised the bestial nature to which other tengu, greater and lesser, were subjected, and already at this time they served as teachers for valiant humans. The emergence of daitengu women was not only a source of lies, but also of authentic love between the new race of women and human men. These marriages, the rapprochement with human society and the original ambitions of the daitengu eventually led some of these powerful women to unite in a front in order to civilize the monster girls.
It is said that their original goal was to unite all the youkai, or even all the monster girls, under the banner of the daitengu. The fact is that they started a war against the most evil elements of the supernatural world and managed to subjugate almost all the tengu under their command.
Teaming up with nobles, heroes, sages and other high-born human men, the daitengu organized the crow and wolf tengu into complex and organized societies. They set up a caste system where they constitute the nobility of all tengu, the equivalent of queens or empresses. They built beautiful, fortified cities integrated into the tengu mountains, developing their own civilization and the era of peace was born.
"We have turned murders and packs into clans. We have led the wild force of the kotengu to greater purposes. Instead of mocking the divine, we now seek it. We are no longer slaves to demonic desires. All this is due to the superior power of our daitengu ancestors and noble humans." - Daitengu of Spring Mountain
Characteristics:
Heightened senses: Like other bird girls, crowtengu are endowed with good eyesight and hearing. Similarly, hakurou tengu have good hearing and sense of smell.
Natural weapons: Hakurou tengu have the teeth and claws common to other canine monster girls. Some crow tengu families have claws on their toes, or even bird feet with claws. As for beaks, crow tengu only have them when they wear their ceremonial or war masks, or when they metamorphose into crows with high magic. The daitengu, notably, have no such features.
Martial arts: Tengu, especially hakurou and dai, have an innate talent for martial arts, both with and without weapons. It is common in their culture for them to improve throughout their lives. There are dojôs led by tengu and some tengu, especially hakurou, sometimes seek masters outside their society. Depending on their martial arts philosophy, tengu range from fully incorporating their natural weapons into their fighting style, considering them part of their nature, to completely denying them because they are reminiscent of savagery.
Flight: The daitengu and karasu-tengu fly naturally. They are only able to take short flights as children and need to be supervised, being considered able to take full flights from the age of 7 onward. The hakurou tengu don't have this as an inherent power, but many learn to use magic to fly due to the fact that schools of air magic being quite common in tengu communities.
Innate genius: Daitengu are famous for their power. However, unlike some beings whose strength is conceived naturally over time, daitengu need to cultivate it. All legendary daitengu were also renowned as scholars and practitioners of their arts, never resting on the laurels of their genius.
"There are stories, famous to the ko and infamous to the dai, about lazy daitengu who always thought they were superior being defeated by particularly hard-working kotengu. It is said that our lords tell these stories to particularly spoiled little dai as a form of warning. As for us, we tell them to inspire our brethren." – Anonymous tengu.
Control over the winds: A natural ability of karasu-tengu and, to a greater extent, daitengu, they possess natural magic over the air and winds. A common use is to refine their flying skills. Other uses include: deflecting projectiles, generating air projectiles, cleaning houses, drying, manipulating sounds... Powerful Tengu can generate typhoons and tornados in moments of fury.
