Long ago there were beings called Jotuns that ruled over the cosmos. They fought shadow wars with the gods every night, engaging them in combat and harming them, and drinking deeply of their fear. However, Jotuns did not revel in the causing of the pain, they only did this to sustain themselves on the fear of the gods. The Jotuns where powerful, intense, and wild, and they fed upon fear. Unfortunately for the Jotuns they were bested by the gods once, reducing their legend, destroying the Jotuns themselves. For the Jotuns are phobovores, eaters of fear, and they were only able to defeat the gods due to millenia of work, distilling fear within the gods themselves. But after their defeat, they waned into very minor sprites, fit only for scaring children.
Read MoreThe black haired barbarian climbed around the crenellation at the top of the tower. He slipped noiselessly into the tower, where it was said the wizard's treasure was kept. Oiling the hinges to the door, and deftly picked the golden lock to the treasure room. As the door slid silently open, and the barbarian went to slip through. Only to be met by a large lizard, with cold black scales, sharp teeth and fetid breath. The Barbarian drew his blade, snarling to himself to be so foolish as to trust a wizard's defenses to be made of steel and stone. Things as valuable as the Gem of Triflorus must always have a guardian.
Read MoreThe bravest of the animals is the Rooster. The Rooster will fight any other animal if it is required to, or even is provoked. This bravery has made the rooster one of the great symbols of valor. Their place in heraldry has made the rooster an important sacrifice on before battle. Offering a rooster, or a rooster and a hen, to the way to a battle is said to ensure glory. However, the rooster is a bird who rarely wins a fight, and this confidence has to have come from somewhere.
Read MoreHags are dangerous on their own, They are a predator upon humans, especially lone travellers, but they are not incredibly dangerous to towns or villages. Most of the time, a group of farmers who discover a hag in the area can chase it away, meaning that hags spend their lives in fear, predating on humanity and also fearing them. Hags, however, have a solution to this problem, forming Covens.
Read MoreHags are often mistaken for wizened women, typically wrapped in warm but tattered robes with unkempt skin and hair, when it's visible. Despite this, hags are not actually human, simply another of the intelligent humanoids, with their wizened and sickly appearance being a facade. Hags are often full of vigor, and able to overpower travellers they encounter.
Read MoreAs the storm rolls in, the skies begin to darken, the thunder begins to roll. Those nights mothers know to keep their children in the dark. They know the winds carry the haunting spirits, those of croup or chills, but their fear pales in the face of the fear of the Hunt. As nights grow cold, and the storms roll in, heralding the autumn, the Wyld Hunt rides the dark skies. But the braying of the hounds is only there to make the prey fear, the beat of the hooves of the horses also herald the arrival of their riders. As loud as thunder, and as swift as the southern winds, and with hair that shines like the moon.
Read MoreLike the dryads or the naiads, the Cloud Shepherds - also called nimbiads - are the personifications of nature. Rather than spirits, they are people who come down from the sky. They often cavort with the gods amongst the cloud islands they call home. Only during the dry seasons do they come down to the world to weep with the grasses for rains. They generally appear like small wisps of smoke or vapour, possibly with small arcs of lightning or rumbles of thunder, but they can appear as an alabaster skinned person with blue eyes and lips, and pure white hair. When enraged they turn a very dark grey with lightning yellow hair. These humanoid forms are still quite fragile, so the nimbiads often shy away from mortals who they see as violent and dangerous.
Read MoreStorm Crows are a greater cousin of the so-called mortal crow. The mortal crow has inherited much symbolism from their nature as scavengers and dark creatures. Warriors see the crow as an ill omen, the caw of the crow is the call that will bring them to the beyond. But the Storm Crow is not like their mortal cousin. The Storm Crow is the scavenger of thunder and lightning. As the clouds form, the storm crow begins to gather, their caws as cries carrying through the stillness before the storm. Those who know the signs know that this means that the spirits of lightning are gathering in those clouds.
Read MoreThe Coelboidae are the most ancient snakes. As the songs of creation burst forth from the heavens, the dragons began to rumble to wakefulness in the bowels of the earth. But those deep places also held other serpents, lesser serpents. As the waning of the time of myth, the lesser serpents faded into the snakes, and their eldest were the Coelboidae. They do not bear claws and wings like the wyrms, they are fully legless, but still at least as long as an elf is tall, and most of the are far larger. They are usually coloured to look like the place they live, and shed their skins often to blend into the area.
Read MoreInside every hero a fire burns bright enough to be seen by even some normal mortals. Heroes shine so brightly that they sometimes are seen with halos or as a burning pillar. Those heroes though sometimes falter. They sometimes fall. Lust, greed, and fear have broken heroes but that spark cannot die. These heroes leave behind their light, shattered and broken. Two burning points of leftover potential.
Read MoreThe Dendan is the larger cousin of the whale. The great beast of the deep, the fear and desire of ever sailor. The tales of the Dendan are told by firelight, when sailors remember their lost brethren. The shanties of those who have slain one are only sung to defy the very waves themselves.
Read MoreSome people do things too evil for the gods to condone. Ending heroes before their story is over. Inventing murder. Creating the first liches. These things the gods will punish by exiling the being. Not from a kingdom, city, or even a temple. These creatures walk the earth alone forever, with no options for succor, and the gods themselves preventing them from resting their heads.
Read MoreChimera are generally not naturally occurring creatures. There's a belief that they are the creation of the deities, or the children of deities. However, they are typically created by alchemical or magical accidents. In fact, they are not really a species in the same way other creatures are, each specimen is created as a result of a unique event (though sometimes you do get a brood rather than a unique individual). This means encountering a Chimera is often fraught with surprises, even by the most learned or experienced survivalists.
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