Gynroch ap Roch, Wocor of Powys

The nonsense beast that is the wocor can take many forms, some of which are truly a living nightmare, but Gynroch ap Roch is as typical an example of such a creature as can be. An avian head tipped by savage beak-like jaws, scabrous leathery wings and a long, scaly neck and tail gives it the appearance of a wyrm – a weak, lean wyrm maybe, but a wyrm nonetheless – yet its chittering speech and vicious temperament mark it for what it surely is. As the men of Powys know to their cost, wocorau may seem comical at times, even whimsical, but Gynroch ap Roch’s wiry muscles belie a preternatural strength and one snap of its enormous beak can crack stone. Worse, to listen to the throat-noise and the un-words it speaks is lethal, for allowing a wocor into the mind leads to insanity and hysteria, a slave to its every humour; and yet the Brythoniaid - perhaps through the long exposure of man and wocor to each other amongst the peaks of Brycheiniog - have garnered enough trust from the wocorau to persuade Gynroch ap Roch to lend his singular attributes to Cadwaladr's armies and thus the defence of Teyrnas Gwynedd from barbarians to the north, west and east.