I saw the ravenstag post from a few days ago and idk if it's come up in the fandom before but the peryton is apparently a mythical creature with stag and bird parts?? no idea what they're associated with but more fodder for the fantasy aus is always a good thing imo :)
That’s right! The peryton was created by Jorge Luis Borges for his Book of Imaginary Beings:
“The Peryton is said to have the head, neck, forelegs and antlers of a stag, combined with the plumage, wings and hindquarters of a large bird, although some interpretations portray the Peryton as a deer in all but coloration and bird’s wings.
According to Borges, Perytons lived in Atlantis until an earthquake destroyed the civilization and the creatures escaped by flight. A Peryton casts the shadow of a man until it kills one during its lifetime, at which time it starts to cast its own shadow. A Sibyl once prophesied that the Perytons would lead to the downfall of Rome.[1]
In Borges’ original Spanish edition, the word is given as peritio so the presumptive Latin original would be peritius, which happens to be the Latin name of the fourth month on the ancient Macedonian calendar,[2] (Peritios, moon of January). The connection of this, if any, to the peryton is unclear.”
It’s interesting that the murder motif is still there, and also we now have an explanation for why the ravenstag also had that form of the wendigo that was basically a black man with antlers: Will was seeing its shadow. If the ravenstag/peryton is meant to symbolize not just Will or Hannibal but their connection, them as a couple, then the ravenstag wouldn’t start casting its own shadow until they killed together - which they now did, with the Dragon.