The Beastiary of Fair and Foul

[CaptainPenguin]

Note from the author, Wisdom Gjurri Harrnolfsenn of the Imperial Arcturan Library of Wisdom:
Though I am considered somewhat of an authority on the subject, there is much more to learn than I have written down in this book. If you should think that you are prepared to battle the demons of the night after finishing this book, you might perhaps instead guide yourself to the nearest temple for some guidance.
And so, without further ado...

[CaptainPenguin]

The Dhampiri are dark demons of the night, men who are dead and yet not dead. It is known that Dhampiri are the children of dark gods, who cannot abide the touch of sunlight.
Dhampiri drink blood in order to sustain themselves. They become shadows during the day, and sunlight destroys them, as does fire, and water. Dhampiri have the power to become bats and wolves, and to cast dark magics.
Some well-known Dhampiri are the Count Brahms Draciul, who dwelt in the gloomy mountains of Woron, and is presumed destroyed. Another is the feared Tenebrio, who is believed still to be alive, and dwelling in the Black Forest.

[CaptainPenguin]

The Warg-Wolf is truly a thing of evil.
Through means unknown, certain dark-minded men can assume the shape of huge wolves, ravening and vicious. They can also become a sort of wolf-man, standing huge and mighty. These Warg-Wolves are driven by a horrible bloodlust, and are uncontrollable.
Some Warg-Wolves are victims of the Wolf Curse, in which they change into their wolf-form on every full moon. These are often tragic victims of previous Warg-Wolf attacks, having had the lycanthropy transferred to them through a wound which they survived.
Warg-Wolves can inspire fear in any being. They can climb sheer surfaces like spiders, and shake off mortal wounds. Their howls drive animals mad. Their claws can carve through stone.
Warg-Wolves can be slain only by weapons of silver or by a draught made with wolfsbane.
Lycanthropy, the Wolf Curse, cannot be cured.

Wyldlings are mysterious beings who dwell in the deepest of forests and most remote of mountain fastnesses. They are said to be the children of Faerie fathers and mortal women, half-beast, half-man beings with magical powers.
Wyldlings appear much like Men. However, they have the traits of some beasts. For instance, one Wyldling may have soft fur that coats it's entire body and antlers, while another may have spider's eyes and six limbs.
It is said that these Faerie children have many magical abilities, such as taking the shape of animals, becoming invisible, or entrapping mortals with their magical flutes.

[CaptainPenguin]

Cyclopes are the misbegotten children of the Titans. They are horrible to behold, twisted and horned, and bestial, with a single, great, wheel-like eye in the center of their face.
Cyclopes devour men whole and destroy entire villages in their rages. They are as strong as 100 men, and as tall as 10.
Most Cyclopes dwell on the infamous Isle of the Cyclopes in the Southern Sea, where they constantly battle each other.
Cyclopes are dull-witted and stupid. They are also very gullible.

There are tales told that these stupid Cyclopes are actually the dull-witted children of the true Cyclopes, who are as gods. It is said that these Great Cyclopes are imprisoned forever by the gods.

[CaptainPenguin]

These beings are monsters of northron myth, huge demigods who battle the true gods for supremacy.
These giants come in many varieties; flame, frost, fog, and mountain giants, giants of the sea.
They are great and magical beings, raging elemental forces.
But, of course, if they exist, they are few to be found.

[CaptainPenguin]

The Nymphs are the daughters of Shaya, the Earth Mother. They are beautiful demigoddesses who dwell in certain parts of nature. By divine edict of the Gods, Nymphs are not allowed to love mortals, though they often do anyway, and suffer such consequences as the Earth Mother can bear to carry out upon her beloved daughters.

Dryads-
These are the spirits of trees. Each dwells in it's own chosen tree. Their appearances change with the seasons. In spring, they are young girls, with gowns of flowers. In summer, they are beauties of the forest, clad in leaves. In autumn, they are mothers, in robes of fallen leaves. In winter, they sleep as old, dignified women with dresses of frost and ice. Dryads are sensuous, earthy, and love to laugh.
Dryads protect their trees with ferocity when they are endangered. If a Dryad's tree is slain, so is the Dryad.

Hamadryads-
The Hamadryads are the flower spirits. They each have their own chosen blossom, and dwell within them. Unlike Dryads, they have only two forms; when their flower blooms, they are radiant beauties, but all other times, they are old women with robes of withered vines. Hamadryads are caring and gentle.
Like Dryads, Hamadryads protect their flowers with passion, and are slain if their flower is destroyed.

Naiads-
These are the spirits of rivers and pools. They are always beautiful, though their robes and gowns change color like the waves and tides. They are mercurial and seductive, and often enjoy luring men down into their underwater homes, keeping them until they tire of them and allow them to drown.
Naiads are wounded when their streams are polluted, and die during droughts, though they live again at the next rain. They are not as vulnerable as their Dryad or Hamadryad sisters.

Oreads-
The Oreads are the spirits of stones and hills. They have an earthy beauty about them that transcends seasons. They tend to be slow to warm up to mortals, save when love comes upon them, when they burst with volcanic flame.
Oreads are the least vulnerable of all Nymphs. They are injured by mining in their hills or stones, and the displacement of soil causes them irritation, like a bug-bite to a mortal.

[CaptainPenguin]

In Imperial Year 678, the infamous Duke Eldward Khlack, styled the Duke of Gears, launched his famous rebellion against King Lastyr V of Marcosia. For those who were not paying attention to their tutor, Khlack was a brilliant, though unstable, man. It was said that he was a sorceror. But beside that, he was a master of the artifice of creations he called "gearworks". These gearworks still baffle sages and greybeards to this day. They are composed mostly of metal gears and rods, with mysterious cubes and filaments of an unknown fiber. Khlack never taught anyone but his daughter how to create and animate these "gearworks" and so that knowledge died with them in the failure of Khlack's Rebellion. In any case, Khlack launched his rebellion, and his warriors were great metal men, made from the Duke's own "gearworks". He made a small army of these gear-men, who soon became known as Khlack's Gear-Warriors.
The Gear-Warriors were terrible foes. They had flesh of metal and were as strong as a bear. They were tireless, absolutely loyal and disciplined. They could survive lopped arms and legs, and the removal of their heads was no stop. Only fire and water could stop them for good. But the Gear-Warriors had their disadvantages, as well. It seems that they malfunctioned often, and stopped fighting at the most inconvenient of times.
The majority of Khlack's army was destroyed after the Rebellion, when Khlack himself and his daughter, Senthia, were beheaded. The wreckage of Khlack's Warriors can be found in markets and houses, used as portions of houses or buildings, or even as armor. In the mountains, one can find the weathered, rusting hulks of Khlack's Gear-Warriors laying in abandoned chasms and cliffs. However, it seems that some may have escaped, for every year, there are sightings of Khlack-men wandering about, attacking travelers, razing farmsteads, raiding trading carriages, and generally making great nuisances and dangers of themselves. Many say that this is impossible, that whatever sorcery made the Gear-Warriors function could not have held up for 400 years. But still, one must wonder...
Khlack's Gear-Warriors stood about 8 feet tall. They appeared much like a huge man wearing blocky metal armor with massive hands and feet. Their faces were made to look like fearsome battle-helms. Beneath the armor, they were a bewildering array of gears, rods, filaments, boxes, cases, tubes, crystal bulbs, water-tanks, steam-chambers, and the like. The right hand of each Gear-Warrior was a great sword or axe blade. Some smaller, lighter, and more mobile Gear-Warriors had instead some sort of arrow-throwing crossbow or barrel. All of Khlack's Gear-Warriors had a tall, narrow pole (OOC: antenna) that protruded from the back-plate near the left shoulder.

These Gear-Warriors sound much like crude versions of the metal men described in that volume we have on the "krill" that Azinis says was written by a sorceror, yes? -Wisdom Dolas

[CaptainPenguin]

In the elder days, out of the northeast, came a dragon, on wings of flame, who laid waste to the early kingdoms of the North. Scatha he is called, this dragon, and he still lives, and dwells in the north.
Scatha the Worm, as he is called, dwells in the Ryphaean Mountains of the Far North, which ring the sorcerous lands of Hyperborea and dead Ixia. Many warriors have gone into into the Ryphaeans, seeking to prove their strength by seeking out the Dragon of the North and slaying him. A fine idea. Their bones decorate the slopes of his mountain.
The Worm is extremely intelligent. This is known. Though he rarely deigns to speak to his meals, the famous healer and magician Abaris of Hyperborea is known to have conversed with Scatha and survived. The dragon speaks in a deep, booming tone, slightly below his usual roar. Scatha is very knowledgeable on subjects such as history (he has been around for most of it), ancient times, and black magic. Of course, the Worm only speaks to those who he is most impressed with.
Scatha is also very vain. He is arrogant, haughty, and lordly in manner. He considers "ape-sons", as he calls men, to be beneath him.
Scatha is 150 feet long. He has a long snout with many protruding dagger teeth. This snaggled mouth gives him a seeming of constant, arrogant grinning. His chin, jawline, and brows are bearded with chitinous spines and horns, and a pair of magnificent curving black horns crowns him. His entire body, save underbelly, is plated with rock-hard ashy-red scales. His underbelly is tough and leathery, as is the membrane between his great clawed wings. A spiny fin-frill, which starts between his horns, runs down his entire body, becoming a full blown fin at his tail. The end of said tail is a corona of spines. Scatha has only one eye, the right one, which glows with a baleful red light. His other eye socket is scarred and empty, the eye lost  to a golden arrow fired by the sorceror Aelorio.
Very few have had the privelige of witnessing Scatha's fiery breath. Those who have say that it is like looking into the fiery face of the Inferno itself.

[CaptainPenguin]

The Huldra is a creature of the Durmalgish and Eregard lands, a spirit who walks in the form of a human woman. She is very beautiful and goes naked. Her skin is pale, and her hair raven black, hanging down below her ankles. This very long hair serves to hide her long tail. This tail is the only way in which the Huldra can be told from a human woman, save perhaps that most humans don't walk naked through a blizzard.
The Huldra is a seductress, who entraps men in her gaze, taking them as lovers for a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, or longer. When the creature becomes bored of it's lover, it entombs the hapless soul into the stone of it's mountain home.
Some say that the Huldra is only the female of an entire race of mountain beings with powers over stone, but this is folkloric conjecture.