Dinosaurs

    - Non-standard. "Dinosaur" as a modern concept encapsulates a very broad selection of drastically differing varieties of animal, of which their only similarity to each other is being extinct. Given a fantastical environment without this shared commonality, "dinosaurs" are not practically spoken of under a blanket terminology. Speaking broadly of "large reptilian monsters," one could be talking about any number of fanciful beasts, many of which would not be dinosaurs by any stretch of the definition. 

Some cultures group theropods with other large terrestrial avians, such as ostriches. Northern cultures may not distinguish significantly between small pterosaurs and birds. Ceratopsians share more in common behaviorally and in physical description with animals like rhinoceroses, and would never be lumped into a single grouping with an animal like a tyrannosaur, should both be encounterable.

That said, for the sake of clarity, and as an accessible reference guide, an index is provided here, for finding specific glossarium entries, organized by the real-world scientific (or common) name of the dinosaur. Other prehistoric, non-dinosaur fauna are also included here for convenience.

Demons, Abyssal

    Abyssal Demons, also called Thurse, are entities of pure chaos and hunger. They are without well defined form, and wander the abyss aimlessly, banished from the sight of divinity, who almost universally see them as an affront from their inability to take ordered form or behavior. These beasts are nearly universally fatal to encounter. They are nearly invulnerable to harm, and take no well defined pattern of behavior, attacking with blind determination. Demons that have been tamed and given identities are known as Devils. Most of these are in service to their warden, Satan, and act as his emissaries in the physical world.

    Curiously, Demons are put to use by Lókfaer engineers, using their boundless energy as the driving component of thursengines, great machines capable of driving Lókfaer contraptions and war machines.

    See also: Devils

Demon-Lord

    A powerful spirit, elevated by a dark entity to a position of power. Demon-Lords of a given kind are members of orders, each order having been created together long ago. Most serve Mwt, who has maintained dominion over the more well known tracts of hell for several millennia.

    Demon-Lord's may be summoned in secret by mages for nefarious purposes. They may be used as guards, but more frequently are used to direct hordes of lesser hellions/fiends.

    In the bureaucracy of Mwt's Hell, demon-lords do not answer directly to Mwt, but are under the thumb of unique Hellions, sometimes called Archdemons, who are frequently lesser deities, or demigods made to submit to Mwt.

Demon

    1. (Hellion) A general term for the many varieties of Hellspawn, the monstrous beasts that inhabit Hell and its subordinate planes. 

        - see: Hell; Hellspawn; Atrocy; Demon-Lord

    2. (Abyssal) Thurse, more commonly called Abyssal Demons, chaotic formless creatures that roam the Abyss, and are used for various purposes by Lókfaer.
        - see: Abyss; Demons, Abyssal; Devils

    3. (Spiritual Entity) A Malevolent Spirit that takes possession of a weak willed creature

        - see: Spirit, Malevolent

    4. (Tortured soul) A Iudicandus, a tortured soul summoned from Perdition.
        - see: Perdition; Iudicandorum

    5. (Eastern Fae) A term used for Yōkai by westerners, unfamiliar with their sometimes monstrous and unusual forms. They are a clade of Fae, shaped by eastern cultures.

        - see: Fae; Yōkai

Croon

    Croon are large bulky beasts, vaguely bird-like, but with fine, short integument rather than feathers. They spend their days in small to large herds in swamps and bogs, feeding on various sorts of vegetation. They are known for their crooning cries, which become more intense in the late summer, when they rut. Docile, but skittish. In some species, the crooning call seems to come from the crest like extrusion crowing the head. They have vaguely duck-like bills.

Constrictor

    Most encountered are no bigger around than a man's thumb, but the Constrictor (also called a Boa, or a Boa Constrictor) may grow to the size of a Great Asp (or larger, according to legend). Like some other beasts, they can live for many years, and seem to never stop growing. For a snake, it is quite docile and slow moving, even at great size, and are kept as pets by some. The creature subdues its prey by wrapping its great bulk around and around, slowly tightening until the prey can no longer draw breath, and dies. It then swallows its meal whole. It has no venom, and only has teeth at the back of its mouth, which point inwards, making it nearly impossible to free from its clutches flesh that has begun to be swallowed.

    

    See also: Asp

Cœrulór

    A Cœrulór appears at first glance to have the form of a large wild cat, like a panther. On closer inspection, this fae creature ceases to be familiar in appearance to much of anything. Between its legs stretches a think membrane, like a flying-squirrel. It may appear to have four, or six, or possibly more legs. Its upper surface is covered in black shimmering fur, while the underside is thick with small finger like appendages and thorns. Protruding from between the neck and front legs are two long grasping tentacles. The beast has the mysterious ability to shift itself in and out of locative materiality, making its precise location difficult to ascertain to an onlooker. In this state, it occupies a superposition within a general area-- any attacks aimed at this area will have only a percentage chance of striking the creature's flesh. The Cœrulór is a secretive creature, and prefers to hide in shadows, striking upon prey from above.

Cockatrice

    Though slightly taller than a man when standing erect, a Cockatrice is more typically seen slinking standing aright. Its head is roughly like that of a rooster, with a comb-like crest, and flesh that hangs beneath the beak. The beak itself is filled with coarse teeth. The body is scaled, snake like, but with a mane of feathers about the neck, and down that covers the armatures of the wings. The front limbs are otherwise like a bat or dragon, with membrane between the digits that would allow flight, though they are only ever to be seen using them to descend gracelessly from a height; they are too massive to fly with wings as small as they are. The beast is indeed dense with bone, muscle, and thick hide, making it a formidable foe in its own right. 

    The gaze of the beast is frightening, paralyzing those weak of will. The creature is indiscriminate with its food-- it has a poison in its belly that will digest bone and wood and some metals. The fumes alone of this poison are deadly toxic on the creature's breath. The creature has warm blood, and is thus not susceptible to the Basilisk curse; the creatures are none the less sometimes confused, due to the paralyzing gaze of the cockatrice. A Cockatrice is born when a rooster lays an egg after eating a snake, which may occasionally happen during certain parts of the year, under the watch of certain constellations.

    See also: Ichneumon; Basilisk

Changeling

    Changelings are infant Fae swapped discreetly for infant humans. They grow to resemble the people who raise them, as a result of eating human food, and being separated from Fae influences. The "infant" Fae would likely not have been truly a newborn, but a Fae convinced entirely that it is an infant human. Whatever lives they lived before becoming changelings are forgotten, as is typical of Fae who shift into drastically different forms. These changelings are often very difficult to raise, and never lose their fae-spirit. They are wild, curious, uncoöperative, and typically disinterested in learning to read, write, do math, etc. They are, however, intensely social by nature, and have a carefree approach to life. They tend to have a wanderlust that drives them to travel from a young age. 

    That is to say, the changeling appears to age at a rate typical for a human. The changeling will have convinced itself so thoroughly that it is a mortal human that they may even appear to "die" if seriously injured. This works in reverse as well. If an attack is not convincingly injurious, the changeling may ignore it. Certain types of magical effects are thusly ineffective on changelings, even if they typically work on other Fae. While it is inevitable that a changeling eventually discovers her true nature, they tend to be very slow to being convinced of it, and may even carry on their lives as usual after finding out. However, once a changeling is made aware of their nature as fae, certain fae characteristics may begin to present themselves- specifically the tendency for Fae to change in form overtime to fit their desires or behavior.

    The human children who the Fae "infants" are swapped for are similarly usually raised in the Greenwood believing they are Fae themselves. Raised eating fae food, they tend to take on fae qualities, and usually remain child-like in form, with greatly extended lifespans. These children are also sometimes known as "changelings" but are more formally known as Fae-Touched.

Centaur

    A Centaur is an amalgam creature with the upper torso of a man tapering to the haunches of a horse, six limbs in all. Certain populations of centaurs prefer to stand on two hind legs, and wear robes to obscure their equine torsos. Centaurs were created as a result of a Fae curse- they were not originally humans merged with horses, but rather horses who had their heads and necks transfigured into imitations of the upper bodies of their riders. As a result, the psychology of the centaur has more in common with that of a horse than with that of a man, albeit more intelligent.

    There is another type of creature called a Centaur, which resulted from the same curse that turned the heads of horses into the upper torsos of their riders. The riders themselves were cursed, having their heads transformed into the head and haunches of horses, rendered incapable of speech, forced to crawl across the ground. Populations of them still exist, tucked away in strange corners. They possess the minds of men, but the generations have rendered them into reasonless beasts

Cetus

     1. (Deity) Mysterious god of the ocean, and of sea monsters in particular. Strange, with an alien mentality, and unknowable motives. Sometimes thought to be malevolent but may merely be indifferent to humanity. Occasionally prayed to by fishermen, begging his forgiveness for robbing his ocean.

    2. (Sea Monster) Cetus is a term used occasionally to refer to any particularly large, frightening sea-monster, weather it be a Leviathan, or any of the other myriad horrors of the sea, as reference to the deity of the same name (see def. 1.) 

    See also: Leviathan

Camel

    A Camel is a strange desert dwelling creature, sometimes called a. Horse-like as a grazer, sheep-like of face, with a long gracile neck. The back bears one hump among the smaller, southern varieties, two for the larger, eastern kind. The two humped eastern Camels are covered in thick hair, to deal with the cold arid climate of their home, and are somewhat larger. The southern, one humped kind is sometimes called a Dromedary, and is easily domesticated, and used as a beast of burden by peoples of Mesembria. All varieties of the animal is well adapted to dry weather, needing little water or food. 

    The camel's urine is dark, thick, and very concentrated, and is said to have medicinal properties. Traditionally, it is mixed with milk (typically also sourced from the Camel). It is quite slow, difficult to encourage to walk at faster than a man's pace. Mountains to the west are said to have a small variety, with no hump, and covered in wool, that the natives weave into cloth.        

    Will spit if provoked. Despite rumor to the contrary, the camel's humps are not full of water, rather it is where the animal stores fatty tissue.

Bugbear

    1. (Cursed Bear) A bugbear may be any variety of bear (black, brown, northern, dire, etc.); an afflicted creature, struck with a terrible curse. All of the bear's natural drives are lost, and the bear begins to wither from no-longer eating. The flesh droops from the creatures bones, and the eyes glaze over with white pearlescent cataracts. It is a ghastly sight to behold, standing deathly still in the woods, though one is likely to smell the beast before seeing it, as the flesh begins to rot, and the thick fur becomes matted with filth. This natural horror is augmented by a supernatural aura of fear projecting from the creature, most intense when in view of its terrible eyes.

    The curse is said to be the result of intense malice directed against a bear, perhaps as a result of the bear killing and eating a beloved individual. Normally, this would result in a creature wasting away, or fleeing its home, the bears natural resilience and stubbornness work against it, allowing the curse to fester in the creatures body, corrupting the soul.

    2. (Beast-man) non-standard, see: Lonce; Atelwer; Foreshaped 

Bicephalus

    The Bicephalus is a pair of Giants fused together into a lumbering uncoordinated monster, bearing two miserable, temperamental heads atop one set of broad twisted shoulders. There were once several of these creatures, all created by the mad flesh-wizard Zivzov, punishing a clan of Wris who stole his cattle. After the wizard's demise, all of the miserable two-headed guards perished as well, all except for Bicephalus, who still haunts the ruins, kept alive through some sort of magic. He is very old, and very angry-- particularly at himself. Or rather, the two heads that call themselves Bicephalus are angry at each other, as they are distinct minds, each controlling half of the grotesque body. The creature sometimes goes by the name Taranau, but considers this name private, and will not tell it to foes.

    

    See also: Wris

Beithir

    Beithir are a variety of Titan, and are counted at times among dragonkind for being reptilian, large, and for their cleverness, but these are similarities only in broad strokes. Beithir seem to operate outside of standard physicality, and many of their features are said to be mere notions of those features, rather than actual physical attributes. They can be said with certainty to be large and serpentine, with a viperous head and mouth large enough to swallow a man whole. Length seems variable-- that is, an individual may itself vary in length depending on the occasion. They do not move as one might expect a giant snake to move, but rather how an enormous centipede might move. One may get the impression that the Beithir has many small legs, but there are none to be found. The scales of the Beithir are small and tight. The creature has a bluish cast to its complexion. The Beithir is said to have a "sting" but this is, again, somewhat abstract. It is said to be like being struck with a bolt of lightning, though there is no flash of light, nor any movement from the creature at all, save for a fixed stare from its unsettling eyes. When it wishes to, the Beithir has a pair of human-like arms that it may use to manipulate objects, or open doors. The creature is capable of telepathic communication, though it rarely deigns to talk to its prey. 

Bees, Sentient

    Not to be confused with red bees who may be sentient if possessed by an intelligent soul. Proper sentient bees are very much alive, and quite natural, known to inhabit the southern jungles. They are not visually distinguishable from ordinary bees. They construct massive hives, which serve as a central hub for their distributed intellect. Memories and other knowledge is stored in special complexes of honey. They are thought to be the creation of certain mysterious southern gods, to act as emissaries, devotees, and recorders of scripture. Tithes of pollen and sugar will win favor, which may allow a visitor to probe the depth of the bees' knowledge.

Bees, Red

    Most insects have fractional souls, with simple minds not too far removed from plants and minerals. But hive creatures are different. Though each unit insect (be it bee, ant, termite, etc.) has only a tiny mote of spirit, their collective is interconnected in a large, distributed soul. When a hive of bees is fully killed, and this spirit is departed from every unit bee, this strange soul may be supplanted with something else. This may be a soul constructed by a psychosophist, or the soul of some demon, or the restless soul of a dead mage. It is a delicate skill, binding a soul distributed among a swarm in this way, but the methods are well documented. A swarm of "Red Bees" is exactly this-- they are not really so much red as merely dry and dark in color. A swarm of this nature has the benefit of being able to infiltrate through very small openings, and is quite challenging for a foe to destroy completely with conventional weapons. As servants to a thanaturge, they thusly make ideal spies.

Bees, Pus

    Pus Bees are, perhaps, poorly named. They do not remotely resemble bees in appearance or behavior. The association comes from Pus Bees congregating in "hives" where there can be found "honey." However, rather than the "bees" producing the green ooze that could be vaguely described as honey, it seems that the honey is some variety of slime mold that lives in symbiosis with the bees. Consumption of the honey causes psychosis, and the scent seems to resemble bear piss. Congregations of pus bees are found frequently in dead trees and logs on the outskirts of the poison forests of the south-east Midalrealm. 

    The green "honey" protects the bees over the winter, and the bees will consume it during times of scarcity. Most of the time, however, the bees-- which resemble floating, disembodied zits, up to two inches in diameter-- meander aimlessly through the air. When the bees a living creature, they burst in a spray of pus. The pus induces vomiting when in contact with exposed flesh. The vomit, in turn, attracts more bees, who feed on it. If not cleaned from the skin immediately, pustules form on the skin, which will eventually pop free from their host to rejoin the hive.

    While Pus Honey is occasionally consumed in certain communities as a recreational drug, care must be taken to avoid consuming live Pus Bees (Pus bee honey should always be cooked before consumption, just in case). Swallowing a pus bee results in what is called puking sickness.

Bees, Carrion

    Looking no different from typical honey bees, but for their unusual blue color, Carrion Bees are often found swarming around rotting meat. These bees are bred and kept in caves and dungeons to the far south, but have been found as imports elsewhere. Rather than gathering pollen and nectar from flowers, carrion bees, as their name would suggest, eat meat and decaying flesh. Their hives are disorderly, unlike their flower-feeding cousins. These haphazard combs are more challenging and tedious to harvest, but produce honey none the less. This honey is, like the bees, blue, and has a strange bitter flavor, but in no way resembles flesh or decay in scent of flavor. The type of beast fed on by the bees when producing the "honey" will produce slightly different results. The honey accepts magical effects easily, and is often used as an ingredient in elixirs.

Bear, Dire

    The Dire Bear is far larger and more threatening than even the the large grizzled brown bears, cave bears, or white northern bears. Sometimes known as an Ursoc, or Rought, the Dire Bear will hibernate through the winter as it's smaller cousins do, though it is much more easily disturbed, and sleeps for less time. It gives little pause at the cold for it's very large size, but this size builds in the beast a hunger that is hard to satisfy in the lean months, making the bear a plague to ranchers near their territories.