Ah, Kúsha, extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring creatures, but you must be very careful, and I mean very careful! You see, Kúsha are very proud, loyal and noble creatures, but they're very easily offended as well, to insult and offend a Kúsha is a terrible mistake, possibly your last! I've known people torn to pieces by an angry Kúsha, but they're perfectly friendly enough, but you must show respect and reverence to them, you must bow before them, only then do you have a chance of gaining their friendship and loyalty!
I have a Kúsha that is friendly and extremely loyal to me, to the point that I guess I could call him a "pet", I'm proud to have such a magnificent and wonderous being as a pet and a friend!
—An Ingzan Kúsha expert explaining Kúsha to someone
Kúsha were strange winged half-Eagle, half-Horse creatures of the planet Ingza Prime, they were real, living counterparts to the legendary Hippogriff, how they evolved and why they evolved they way they did is unknown, and they're extremely mysterious creatures, their tendency to live in dense forests and move around a lot has made them difficult to study, their temperament has also made studying them hard, as only specialist experts can study them, due to the fact that Kúsha get very angry and dangerous when offended or insulted, but are friendly, and even loyal in some cases, if proper respect and reverence is shown to them. The Ingza found the Kúsha extremely fascinating and awe-inspiring, and many symbols of power, flags, and the like, feature Kúsha, and many Ingza want their species to live alongside the Kúsha in respect, friendliness and loyalty.
We share this world with these beautiful creatures, we are both Ingzan species, native to this world, I think therefore we should live side-by-side with our Kúsha cousins, Kúsha are pure, noble, loyal and friendly, I have nothing but admiration for them!
—A Ingzan who believes the Ingza and the Kúsha should live side-by-side
In the wild Kúsha live in herds, generally away from civilization, they usually kept themselves to themselves, but wouldn't mind Ingzan visitors, so long as proper, respectful, procedures were followed, in a few cases, Ingzans even managed to become a member of a herd, the Kúsha that was most loyal and friendly allowing the Ingzan to ride on them.
In Ingzan civilsation the Kúsha were admired and respected for their noble, loyal and friendly temperament, some members were kept in zoos, but Ingzan law declared that Kúsha could only enter a zoo of their own free will, meaning that usually a zoo keeper would have to become friends with a Kúsha to get it to join his zoo, owning a Kúsha or Ingzan Blood Eagle was extremely respected by the Ingza. Hunting Kúsha and Ingzan Blood Eagles was banned under Ingzan law, as Kúsha and Ingzan Blood Eagles were deemed invaluable and protected species, and also due to the fact that both animals were animal personifications of the Ingza.
Behind the scenes[]
The Kúsha is based on the Hippogriff species of the Harry Potter universe, of which the writer is a fan.