Bestiary - Ancient Peoples

Disapperature

Little is known of these enigmatic creatures. Outwardly humanoid, although with a more lithe and delicate frame and translucent skin, they possess the ability to disappear at will. Note that this is more than just invisibility; they can in fact move through our world and another, which they describe as a beautiful woodland realm. They can each shift realms around eight times in an hour, although there seems to be no limit on how quickly they can be used in that time.

It should be noted that they seem incredibly child-like in nature, possessed of almost no malice or vice, but instead are characterised most by their innocence.

Realmshift

Instantly jump into their home realm, then reappear anywhere they want that they have seen in the player realm.

Phase

The Disapperature partially teleshifts, not moving in location but allowing objects to pass harmlessly through them. Doesn't use up a Teleshift jump, but can only last three seconds, or they take a minor level of damage every few seconds. If they stay there for more than a minute, it'll kill them. If re-materialising with something inside them, they take narratively accurate damage.

Squank

A truly bizarre creature. In their resting state, they resemble a large blackbird but with bronze and gold feathers, and golden eyes. A spine of feathers runs down their back which can be raised to form a beautiful, multi-coloured fan. Even in Midplane, the Squank had no natural lifespan, but instead chose when they wished to end their lives. The oldest known are several tens of thousands of years old. They also artificially control their population. They do not allow for more than 50,000 of their kind to exist at any given time, and so limit children to a one in, one out policy.

Their other notable feature is their tears; Squank can shed tears which hold memories. These tears are kept in a great library in the City of Light and Sorrow. Accessible only to the Squank, Uffrith and those they grant the knowledge of its travel to, it contains a library of tears, which can be used to access the memory of the moment when it was wept.

Tears of the Squank

In the City of Light and Sorrow, ten thousand scribes imbibe the tears sent back by the Squank out in the world, who then relive the memories wept and transcribe them to be held in the city Library of Memory. This can be done by anyone who drinks the tears of a Squank.

Pool of Tears

On their death, a Squank's body melts into a pool of tears over the course of a few seconds. These tears are thought to contain all the memories of the Squank over its life, but are jumbled and cannot be read.

Uffrith

Often seen travelling with Squank, the Uffrith look much like their cousins, but with plumage in blues and deep greens, and with a feather-fan of black and silver.

They cast some form of memory-altering field around themselves, and often work with the Squank, taking tears to the City of Light and Sorrow to ensure a Squank can report back what it saw at any time. No-one knows how they travel back, but it does not appear to involve flying. They are also notoriously hard to remember.

Hidden From View

At a moments notice, the Uffrith may disappear from the notice of others around them. This appears to take the form of psychic suggestion, as they tap into the minds of those around them and make them believe they are a random object and unimportant.

Tamper With Minds

The Uffrith may alter a single memory in the mind of a single person each day. The new memory will last for a period of one day per Uffrith who was present when it was made.

Azodin

A rarely seen and huge creature, the Azodin has the head of a bear, the body of a lion, and is covered in an almost pure, white fur. In legend, they're considered omens of good luck and warriors for truth and justice.

Primordial Roar

With its huge chest and powerful voice, the Azodin can roar with a volume and power to shame any other creature. The sound inspires its allies and causes its foes to quake in terror.

Mighty Smite

A single blow from one of its huge, clawed paws is enough to fell even the mightiest creatures.

Kinisepaths

Roughly humanoid, with long fingers, delicate limbs and green skin. Their origin stories tell that they are descended from a plant called Garsemine. This plant grew to have a consciousness, networked between millions of individual nodes. Over time, it grew to be able to control the scents it produced, which allowed it to attract a specific creature, known as geriopodes, to eat it. Upon doing so, the plant became indigestible, and entangled itself in the nervous system of its host.

Both sides benefited from this - Garsemine gained locomotion and the ability to manipulate its environment directly, whilst the geriopode host gained the ability to communicate via scent, excreted through sweat glands. The paired creatures are known as Kinisepaths.

Scent Control

Through the Garsemine inside, the Kinisepath can excrete scents which have a variety of effects. For example, making the inhaler suggestible, to lustful, angry, or ill. Anything affected must pass a fitness check to ignore it.

Great Wisdom

The Garsemine/Geriopode relationship, over time, causes the host to suffer memory loss, as the brain slowly gets overwhelmed. To prevent eternal madness, they therefore only host for 50 years at a time, and then rest for another 50 to recover. However, the Garsemine retains all its memories and knowledge, and thus given their now vast age, has resulted in them becoming both incredibly knowledgeable, and considered very wise. They're often sought out as oracles by other races of the Golden Plane.

Bereoback

Bereoback is possibly the single oldest creature still alive, known to have existed in the skies over Orth before any of the other Ancient Peoples ascended to wherever it is they reside.

Fully two miles long, 500 feet wide, 200 feet deep and around 2.5 million tonnes in mass, it is so vast it is capable of carrying a vast glass dome on its back, filled with some form of gas.

Its great age makes some believe it might be related to the Triumvene in some way.

Fluke Blast

With a mighty whoosh, Bereoback blows toxins from deep inside its body, altering its course in the night sky.

Tailwhip

Bereoback's tail is fully 600 feet across. Despite being in a vacuum, it still moves it, perhaps out of habit. When threatened, it appears to be able to produce a blast of energy from it, capable of destroying almost anything it hits.

Quiren

A quadrupedal, elegant creature, similar to a gazelle or deer, with long, forward-leaning horns. Grazes on grasses and leaves, and seems to lack any form of language, making it nearly unique amongst the sentient and sapient creatures known, almost all of which are capable of language in some form.

Mostly peaceful and gentle.

Charge

The Quiren rears up and hurls its body forward, straightening out its body to stab with its horns.

Also, thanks to its size or strength, anything medium-sized or smaller hit by it suffers Knock-Back.

Narwabbit

Narwabbits are similar to normal rabbits, but with a pair of bone horns protruding from their heads, one large (the front) and one smaller. They're also vastly larger than normal rabbits, being around four feet tall when stood up.

Capable of running incredibly fast, and jumping over 10'.

Thumper Kick

Using its powerful legs, the Narwabbit lashes out and hits the object of its frustration with incredible force.

Headbutt

The Narwabbit propels itself at its target and slams into it using its tough horns.

Octophele

Much like a giant octopus, some sixty feet from the top of their heads to the end of their tentacles, these curious creatures float hither and thither, rarely interacting with other species. Singularly of the Ancient Peoples, they do not live outside of Orth, but float through its skies instead. They communicate with a series of groans and chirps, combined with flashes of colour from their skin. To date, no-one has translated this complex language, and they seem disinclined to teach us.

On the rare occasions when they do interact with other species, they seem to do so to offer guidance. No-one knows why they do this, but it appears to be without bias to any nation or group. Whilst we do not know their language, they speak all of ours fluently, albeit in a massive, bass "voice".

Non-Linear Thought

The Octophele perceive time not as an ant on a string, moving from one side to the other, but as a person looking down on a loop. Their entire existence is known to them from the moment of their birth. They can impart knowledge to a party, although only through the form of setting a task to be completed, and through doing so, the person will come to a realisation that aids them.

Floating Gas-Bags

When Octophele get old and die, they float exactly 3,141 yards into the sky and explode violently.

Myrthin

It's unknown whether Myrthin is one person or many. Light seems to fall off it, making identification nearly impossible. In either case, it appears to have near complete control over the ability to make portals between two points within a half mile of each other. Doesn't require line of sight, but does require that it has been to or at least seen both the start and end locations.

Portal

Myrthin creates two holes in space. Anything that enters one exists the other at the same speed it went in. Myrthin will not create portals that intersect with a sentient creature.

Broken World

Pushing its powers to the limit, Myrthin rends space apart, creating a hole into which things go and do not come out again. It's theorised that it might be able to find things it's put there, but no-one has seen this happen.

Silacarius

Tall with cold, but beautiful features, the Silacarius dress like monks in robes of varying colours. They're outwardly similar to medium sized bears in appearance, but with the ability to make glass explode into shards, turn to sand (and visa versa), and sing with great beauty.

Detonate

Anything they wish nearby made of glass explodes, sending glass shards everywhere. Treat like a frag grenade.

Sonic Blast

Sends out a pulse of air, blasting into anything in its way. Treat like Hurl.

City of Glass, Heart of Stone

The Silacarius live on a station built entirely from of glass and crystal. As a result of this combined with their powers, they have incredible control over their minds.

Malegaros

A creature with incredible powers over gravity, it's able to fly, induce massive gravitational shifts in any direction it chooses, and even turn gravity itself off within 30' of itself. Physically resembles a large orange blob with large eyes and ears at the front, along with a small nose and toothless mouth.

Reverse Gravity

Turns gravity off around itself. The effect to which gravity disappears fades out to 30', but within a 12' radius is nullified.

Define Gravity

The Malegaros chooses an object and increases its gravitational pull to 1.1g. This effect radiates from the central point in the same way as reverse gravity

Massive Slam

Manipulating gravity on a small scale, the Malegaros imbues an object nearby with resistance to and then massive increase in gravity. This allows it to float objects around and then smash them into the ground (and anything between the object and the ground) with incredible force.

Willonian

Sentient trees. They communicate through a form of branch based sign language. When it flowers, it's able to "see" heat. Loses its leaves every six months, and lays dormant for another six before flowering again.

They are considered very wise and capable of incredible control over electrical energy, from helping revive the very recently killed, to blasting lightning from their leaves.

Thunderstrike

The Willownian pools charge in its branches, then lashes out with bolts of lightning, doing high levels of electrical damage.

Deadly Sap

Anything getting too close can be dripped on by the Raloren flowers which cover the Willownian. The sap dripped is incredibly sticky, and is normally used to drip onto birds. Their wings then stick together and then get stuck to the ground, meaning they die and decompose, feeding both tree and flower.

Man of Stone/Manovelar

Immovable, inviolable, possessed of seemingly impossibly dense mass, Manovelar is a marble-white humanoid with featureless face which ripples when "talking". He appears to be ageless, and does not require food or drink. He is the believed to be the first of the Triumvene, considered the three most powerful beings in the world.

He has been observed holding up more than six tonnes of granite on his head with seemingly no effort after a failed attempt to attack him.

Block

Manovelar puts itself into the path of an oncoming object. Irrelevant of the object's size, mass, density, speed, temperature or anything else, on hitting the Man of Stone it will fall to the ground, or if travelling at high enough speed, break or disintegrate.

Pillar of Light

The energy from an incoming object is normally channelled through the Man of Stone into the ground far below as heat. However, the energy may instead be put into a beam of light projected from the creature's face. The brightness of the beam is proportional to the amount of energy being absorbed.