

The planetary biosystem is also the least Earth-like of the Star Kingdom's habitable worlds, and the colony's original cattle did not do well there, but a genetically-engineered variant of the Plains Buffalo, imported from the planet Beowulf in 1612 PD, adapted with phenomenal success, and two of the Star Kingdom's major exports to the older planets are buffalo hides and meat. Gryphon was the last planet in the Manticore System to be settled by colonists, resulting in it being the one with the smallest population and the least traffic for centuries to come.

Gryphon had an unusually high planetary rotational axis at 27 degrees, which produced drastic climate changes as the Gryphon year progressed.
