- The Winter Swallow: Alright, Carn. Remember that you have to kill one of each monster before adding it to the bestirary.
- ‘Best Knight’: Why, pray tell, must I engage in such inanity?
- TWS: That’s just common sense! Ten copies before you get all the stats and you don’t get the full entry until you manage their conditional drop.
- ‘BK’: Sigh. Please stop acting like this is a game, my lord.
- TWS: You’re no fun. Poignard would’ve done it.
- ‘BK’: Yes? Is this one of the Squires of the Shining Lake? Could you redirect me to your Lord Commander?
- TWS: That’s a joke, right Carn? You aren’t actually messaging them? Carn?
Undead:
A catchall term for creatures that have been magically animated through the particular school of magic known as necromancy. Most often, these creatures are raised specifically by a necromancer and are bound to follow that necromancer’s commands, but the proper circumstances can result in undead naturally occurring, in which case they often possess little motivation or intelligence beyond the drive to consume life.
Bonewalker – One of the most common forms of undead, bonewalkers are magically reanimated skeletons, the bones cleaned by the necromantic energies and bound together by the same spell that animates them. They possess a form of sight, granted by the spell, but it is largely alien to conventional human sight, more along the lines of a sense of the varying levels of life within the surrounding environment. They are rather weak, since the spell animating them can be disrupted if the bones are separated or destroyed.
Zombie – A second of the more common forms of undead, zombies are little more than reanimated corpses, like bonewalkers but with flesh on the bones. This makes them somewhat tougher, since the spell is more difficult to disrupt, but they are still only about as strong as the average human. Similarly, the spell can only preserve the integrity of the corpse for so long, so if the body is damaged enough, it will ‘die’ again.
Ire-wraith – A mid-tier undead, just threatening enough to be ranked above low tier like bonewalkers, zombies, and more relevantly, poltergeists. Ire-wraiths are semi-corporeal spirits formed by the lingering grudges of the unjustly slain. As in, literally composed of anger. That makes them problematic since most of the time someone dies from an Ire-wraith attack, they’re unjustly slain. Tends to cascade into an infestation pretty quickly. Otherwise, not too difficult to kill as long as you have magic or honed weapons that can disrupt their phasing abilities.
Vampire – Unlike the other listed undead, vampires are something of a variable-tier creature. A newly raised vampire isn’t much different from a zombie, just with enhanced physical capacity, the ability to walk on walls, and enhanced healing. The major difference comes from the demonic possession of the corpse that separates a vampire from a zombie. It’s only when they’ve been around for a while and absorbed enough life force that the demonic spirit grows strong enough for stuff like transforming into pests, summoning fog, and hypnotizing with their eyes. Takes about a decade before they can fake human intelligence and a century before any kind of “high vampire”, evil lord or lady in a gothic castle stuff can happen. Die to decapitation, incineration, and holy means. Staking and drowning paralyzes them, they can’t cross running water, and garlic burns them. And of course, arithmomania. They can enter places uninvited and the sunlight only seals their power since they’re nocturnal creatures, so don’t count on those common stories. This is all, also, just for regular vampires. Gaean vampires are an entirely different beast and there is, admittedly, a vast array of ‘bloodsucking monsters’ which share similarities to vampires without adhering to the specific definition. For instance, Strigoi and Revenants share some features with vampires, including an undead nature, but, lacking a demonic, animating spirit, do not have the same suite of abilities. Similarly, Baobhan Sith, Kyuketsuki, and Empusae are all forms of bloodsuckers, but are starkly different from vampires in practice as each is a member of a different other-worldly ancestry.
Gaean Vampire – A catch all term for things that are ‘like vampires, but a step beyond’. The only definition that can encapsulate the entire scope of what a Gaean Vampire’s existence is ‘a bloodsucker that came from the earth and shall return to it’, thus providing the title of ‘Gaean’. With that being said, it’s mostly a poetic way to describe that they are beings with no progenitor in terms of vampirism; in short, what has been described before as a ‘True Ancestor’. For example, the definition could be used to describe both a being whose latent was awakened through a dark ritual, like Erebus’ Miss von Jormungandr, or a demonic spirit made physically manifest, like a certain lich’s familiar. The former, however, was once human and forged into something else while the latter is a being whose spiritual nature was always vampiric. The only commonality uniting them all is that they must consume blood in some manner, though many find other sources of sustenance, such as religious devotion or hopes and dreams.
The Fae (Or Fey. Depends on how you’re feeling.)
The broadest descriptor of fairies. Generally, the term is only used as a name for the members of fairy-kind that possess no human-like intelligence, but it can be used as an adjectival descriptor of the likes of the sidhe. Worth note that there’s a whole lot of varieties that get lumped together without consideration for the subtle differences between them. For instance, the Seelie and Unseelie of Tycortua, Tylwyth Teg of Skahios, Gloaming and Auroral courts of Lacalba, and Hyakki Sith of Austall are all considered the same except for nationality despite important differences in nature and rules.
Fae Wolf – Honestly, I don’t know what you expect me to say here. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A wolf from the other-worlds of the sidhe, effectively what our wolves would be like if they evolved in a world with magic and the common sense of fairyland. That being said, they are ‘just wolves’ with claws and fangs as sharp as honed swords, fur as tough as metal, and the kind of non-sentient intelligence common to a lot of magical predators. And they’re often about the size of a pony.
Assorted Mystic Beasts
Griffon – One of the classic magical beasts, a flying creature with the front of an eagle and the back of a lion. Not especially interesting, as magical beasts go, but that’s where their true value lies. Since they don’t have anything like fire breath, the ability to teleport, or human intelligence, it makes them comparatively easy to domesticate. Originally native, at least on this continent, to the Golden Hills, the Tycortuan military has a long tradition in training them as war beasts for their enhanced strength and the aerial superiority they give as a flying steed. They are actually surprisingly loyal once a bond is formed.
Sandlobster – The Hell Sea’s awful. Sandlobsters are — exactly what they sound like — lobsters that live in the dunes of the south-eastern desert. Just lobsters about twenty feet long with razor sharp pincers, a thirst for blood, and carapace harder than a lot of warded armor. And they don’t even have the decency to taste good boiled. The meat’s far too tough unless you cook it just right, in that Desert-folk way. They also have too many legs. Makes me glad the Forest-folk killed all of the web-spinners centuries ago.
True Dragon – The embodiment of destruction, terrors which make manifest Humanity’s primal fear of fire, darkness, and serpents. They are exceptionally rare, rare enough that it’s uncertain how they’re born since they can’t maintain a population themselves. Scholars theorize they’re born from magic itself to serve as calamities that purge the world like a forest fire. They grow larger than the average dragons and are most famous for their magic-repelling scales. These scales actually function by accumulating naturally synthesized Nihil Iron in the body. As such, the older and more magic resistant a true dragon gets, the darker their scales turn. Green dragons are the youngest, eventually turning red until the oldest and most dreadful of them are left as black as cast iron. Black dragons are immune to all magic and told about in myth and legend as the kind of monster that heralds the world’s end. True dragons have no more intelligence than that of a predatory animal, but they are born from malice and carry that same evil within them.