Lesser Phoenix
Lesser Phoenix or False Phoenix is a species of bird native to the Broodlands and nearby volcanic islands. While monstrosities in classification, they have some magical capabilities similar to that of the fire elemental “true” phoenix.
History
It is believed that all lesser phoenixes are descended from Ohn’nara and a true phoenix. Their pseudo-elemental nature made them reliant on the presence of volcanos, or prominent corruption from fire elementals let loose on the material plane. While the lesser phoenix is by no means confined to their natural home in the Broodlands, the reliance their life cycle has on volcanic activity confines them to certain areas on the Waking Shores and chains of volcanic islands nearby.
Life Cycle
Lesser phoenixes are brood parasites, and lay their eggs in the nest of another bird downwind from an active volcano. As the egg is slightly warm to the touch and aids with the incubation process, birds will often find it appealing and keep it in their nest. When the newborn phoenix hatches, it will imprint on the birds that hatched it. On the Broodlands this will is often an ohuna’s nest, and the two species have a long spanning history that borders mutualism rather than parasitism. The host bird will then raise the phoenix hatchling until it becomes a fledgling, which then it will be instinctively drawn upwind to the volcano to live out the rest of its life.
Much like its ancestor, a lesser phoenix is capable of resurrecting itself. When it dies it turns to ash and its feathers scatter. If the ashes or feathers find their way to the nest of another bird, and that nest is in close proximity to volcanic ash or fire elemental corruption, then the soul of that phoenix will be reborn within an egg in this nest. This egg turns black and takes on the slightly warm quality of a usual phoenix egg. The newborn chick has the memories of its previous lives, more of them the more essence of the previous phoenix they were exposed to, and resembles both what they looked like before and the type of bird it hatched from. So long as the process happens in a timely fashion, a phoenix can resurrect itself like this indefinitely. For this reason, when a phoenix is dying of old age, it will take a dust bath in volcanic ash and deliberately seek out the nest of another bird.
Husbandry
Lesser phoenixes were long kept as companions of black dragons and the djaradin of the Broodlands before the Sundering. Black dragonsworn were known to keep them as well, and those who ventured to the Waking Shores for various purposes brought them back in small numbers to mostly kaldorei and shu’halo communities where they became exotic pets. Small breeding populations were developed outside of their typical volcanic range through the intervention of magic, which resulted in these populations becoming largely domesticated.
Following the Sundering, the Broodlands were cut off from the rest of the world. However, a small domestic population was kept and maintained by the remaining highborne. During the Exile of the Highborne, these birds were brought to Quel'thalas. Here, once again their populations were perpetuated by magic, and they were largely left to roam. Given this brood’s reliance on the quel’dorei, they remained in the cities and parks or were kept in homes as pets. Over time their populations dwindled due to the necessity of magic to replenish their populations.
