The Hippogryph is a mount for Bretonnia, introduced in Total War: Warhammer.
Description
Fierce beasts who will fight to the death any who enter their territory, be that man or dragon!
Lore
Hippogryphs inhabit the Grey Mountains which is the mountainchain seperating Bretonnia from the Empire. From there they would prowl the surrounding landscape in search of sheep and cattle to eat although they where known for praying on men and orcs aswell. When hippogryphs went in for the attack they went almost berserk in their fury which could result in the slaying of an entire herd of animals. They are however not the smartest of animals and a prey that got out of sight was quickly forgotten as the hippogryph would instead start looking for new prey.
Hippogryphs where extreamly territorial and would fight to the death against anything that entered their territory, be they man, dragon or even another hippogryph. This ment that hippogryphs often avoided each others territory. Hippogryphs would sometimes attack the eyries of pegasi in order to take them as their own but they tended to avoid the eyries of the great eagles that also inhabited the Grey Mountains.
Bretonnian Hippogryphs
Hippogryphs where concidered favoured mounts by those bretonnian knights who wanted a mount more fierce than a Pegasi. Taming a hippogryph was concidered one of the most worthy challenges a bretonnian lord could face which made them much sought after. This was no easy feat however as a hippogryph must be captured and broken at a very young age so chicks or eggs would have to be stolen from the eyrie of adult hippogryphs, a very dangerous mission sometimes given to knights errants searching to prove themself but more often given to pesants with the promice of "huge rewards" to anyone that survived and returned with a healthy egg or chick.
Even when tamed a hippogryph rider had to be ever watchfull as even a temporary loss of control could make the hippogryph throw its master out of the saddle
Real life
In real life the first mention of a hippogryph that we know of comes from the poem Orlando Furioso by italian author Ludovico Ariosto (1447-1533 AD). In the poem a hippogryph is said to be the result of a union between a mare and a griffon.