Monster Mash: K is for Kinnar

The kinnar are depicted in the tapestries and mosaics of palaces. They are beautiful and enigmatic creatures, resembling fey humans with flowing hair from the waist up and exotic, colorful and long-legged flightless two-tailed birds from the waist down, and they are always a pair: the male kinnara and the female kinnari.

Created By Love.  Kinnar are often hunted by fey who either despise their beauty or goodness, desire their feathers for fashion, or wish to capture them to perform. They are usually difficult to catch, as they don't require food, water or even sleep, instead meditating in each other's embrace for brief stints under the night sky.

Kinnar are love-sick creatures obsessed with their mates from the moment they meet. They are literally created in the the Twilight Realm of Dawn from feelings of unrequited love. Due to the fey lords sending hunters after them, the kinnar often escape to the relative safety of the material plane where they are legendary.

The shy and cautious creatures generally avoid humans. They live in remote jungles and forests away from prying eyes. But they have a weakness that lures them from safety towards other creatures. Kinnar are attracted to burgeoning love.

Drawn to Love.  Kinnar can detect romantic thoughts from a long distance. When they detect these thoughts, they are attracted to the scene. If the love is strong enough, they are drawn to it like a magnet and cannot resist. They seek the young couple out and, if they appear to be alone, the kinnar will perform a ritualistic dance and sing for them. In many couples this is believed to be a powerful blessing and it is considered bad karma to ignore the endorsement of two lover's romance by the kinnar. After performing, they will usually return from whence they came.

Sometimes their desire to witness romance is used against the kinnar.

Exotic hunters who specialize in catching the most exotic creatures will attract the kinnar by throwing parties for the young or bringing a new couple close to the area where the kinnar have been sighted, so that they can set up a trap. They then capture the kinnar and sell them to wealthy nobility that would keep them for entertainment. They are valued as divine creatures by many cultures and their performances are said to have many magical qualities. Their dance is often their best defense as it usually charms creatures that see it for the first time long enough for the kinnar to escape but there will always be hunters who find ways to counteract the effect.

Til Death Do Us Part. Hurting the kinnar is considered extremely bad karma and killing a kinnar is a terrible act. If one kinnar of a pair is slain, the other kinnar will go mad. It will sing a song that has been known to kill and attack the responsible party, and all around it, until it literally collapses and dies of a broken heart.