A reference sheet for Kleptic, a magpie kenku. Kleptic commissioned this ref sheet a couple of months ago and asked for the character to be based on a black-billed magpie with a few small adjustments (e.g., starling-like dots), plus a feral version and some other details, such as a hood, for other types of roleplay.
What’s a kenku, you may ask? Kenku are anthropomorphic corvid characters from the fantasy roleplaying universe, particularly Dungeons and Dragons. Usually they are based on crows or ravens, but there’s nothing that says you can’t utilize other corvid, or even other non-corvid species. There have been various iterations of them in D&D sourcebooks, but they are best known for being excellent pickpockets and thieves with a high degree of cunning and stealth, as well as some resistance to magic. Their alignment is generally neutral/chaotic.
There are some excellent cosplay suits based on kenku, particularly since they became available as a playable species around 2009 with D&D Fourth Edition (Monster Manual 2), and further tweaked in 2014 (D&D Fifth Edition). One of my all-time favorite suits is made by Rah-Bop and you can see photos of her wearing it on her Tumblr. For a quick summary on kenkus, check out Wikipedia’s article on the subject, which has links to other resources.
