Condor dragon

For other uses, see Condor.

"That's the monster we saw in the sunberry grove."
"It is the mantigrue, daughter."

―Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka and Chirpa^[2]

Condor dragons, also known as mantigrues, were a species of flying, predatory reptavian native to the Forest Moon of Endor. They were distinguished by their bony dorsal ridges, large fangs, clawed legs, and red, leathery wings. Their yellow eyes had sharp vision, and they inhabited cliffsides that ran through the forests. One condor dragon was the slave of Morag, the Tulgah witch.

Biology and appearance[]

"The mantigrue's skin is too thick to hurt."

―Logray^[2]

Mantigrue in flight — A condor dragon in flight

Condor dragons,^[1] also referred to as mantigrues, were a hideous^[3] reptavian creature native to the Forest Moon of Endor,^[1] a world located in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories.^[4] They had bony ridges that ran along their spines, two clawed legs, and red, leathery wings with an average span of three meters. The dragons were also distinguished by their large fangs, piercing yellow eyes with sharp vision,^[1] and long, pointed beaks.^[3] Condor dragons had green skin,^[1] and the Ewok shaman Logray claimed that their skin was too thick to hurt.^[2]

Behavior[]

Condordragons-woswfg — A nest of condor dragons preys upon a rearing spider.

Condor dragons were carnivorous predators. When hunting, condor dragons launched from high buttresses and flew in spiral swoops. They often screeched while attacking. Large condor dragons were reputed to snatch Ewoks from the backs of their pony steeds. Although condor dragons preyed upon many species, such as the rearing spiders, they found Ewok ponies to be unpalatable. Some condor dragons were also scavengers.^[5]

The dragons usually captured prey alive and brought them to their eyries.^[1] Their nests could be found in caves, canyons, and on crags. Condor dragons were both nocturnal and diurnal.^[5] Some condor dragons could be trained, such as the one owned by the Tulgah witch, Morag.^[6]

History[]

"The sunberry trees have ripened at last. Tomorrow, you will return to the Ewok's forest and destroy every berry tree."

―Morag, to her condor dragon^[2]

Following the Battle of Yavin, the collector Jener Mich tasked a group of spacers to hunt and kill an unreasonable number of mantigrues.^[7]

Morag, the Tulgah witch, enslaved a condor dragon and used the beast to devour sunberry trees, which were used by the Ewoks of Bright Tree Village. Without the sunberries, many Ewoks became sick. Long after,^[2] in 3 ABY,^[8] Morag's condor dragon stole two sunberry trees from a grove near Bright Tree Village, frightening the Ewoks Wicket Wystri Warrick and Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka. The dragon brought the trees to Morag, who then ordered the beast to destroy every berry tree in the grove. Aware of Morag's plot, the Ewok shaman Logray created a special soap that was used to coat the trees and render them invisible. When the condor dragon returned to the grove, it was unable to see the sunberry trees and left.^[2]

Warning: The following section contains information from a Star Wars Legends source that was released outside of the Lucas Licensing process, and its licensing status was never confirmed by Lucasfilm Ltd.

On another occasion, Morag created a poisonous potion and commanded her condor dragon to disperse it across the Ewoks' berry forest. In response, Logray made an antidote that negated the poison's effects.^[9]

Unlicensed information ends here.

In 3 ABY,^[8] Chief Chirpa of Bright Tree Village used magic to illustrate a tale in which Morag rode on the back of a condor dragon to steal the Sunstar/Shadowstone. He also recounted how Logray, in his youth, had courageously lassoed the dragon's tail and flown to Mount Thunderstone.^[10] Sometime later, Warrick engaged with Duloks—the Ewoks' warring cousins—and a condor dragon was set on him, grabbing him by the leg and taking flight. Warrick's friend Teebo leapt onto the beast from a hang glider and slayed it with an axe, rescuing Warrick.^[11]

After Sanyassan Marauders raided Bright Tree Village^[12] in 3.5 ABY,^[13] the Ewok Warrick and the Human girl Cindel Towani fled into a cave along a sheer cliff and encountered a hungry condor dragon.^[3] Warrick accidentally awoke the beast and defended himself with a spear, but Towani was grabbed by the dragon as it flew from the aerie. Warrick pursued the dragon on a hang glider and rescued Towani from its claws.^[12]

Behind the scenes[]

The condor dragon first appeared in the 1984 storybook The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense, by Joe Johnston, and are identified as "mantigrues."^[14] The species later appeared in the 1985 film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, on which Johnston also collaborated.^[12] For the film, the dragon was realized by Industrial Light & Magic through stop-motion animation.^[15] According to Ewoks: The Battle for Endor co-director Ken Wheat, the film's condor dragon was constructed from pieces of the rancor puppet used in 1983's Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.^[16]

The species was first identified as "condor dragon" in the 1995 reference book The Essential Guide to Characters, which recounts events from the Ewoks film.^[17] In The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (2008), the terms "condor dragon" and "mantigrue" have two separate entries.^[18]^[6] The subtitles of Ewoks: The Battle for Endor misspell the species as "mantrigue."^[12]