World Snippet 1: Baby’s first Bestiary

//World snippets will be a mix of journal entries and short events that don’t warrant a whole interlude. They’re basically patreon exclusive excess worldbuilding. Hope you enjoy!

Alright, with Edith telling me all  she can remember from her mother’s bedtime stories and other tales she heard, it’s time to update my bestiary, starting from the basics.

Witchbeasts (also called mana touched beasts or just plain monsters)

Basically, roided up magical animals. No rhyme or reason to their forms, changes or powers. It’s magically imposed adaptation, with results being tied to a roll of the die. Unsurprisingly, the main driving force of this is chaos mana. Little side note on the damn thing, it seems to be a common mana type that pops up everywhere in the world, but usually in tiny amounts. With silver and a few other things cleansing it, it usually has little effect, but in harder to reach places, where the strange substance pools, you will invariably find a witchbeast or two.

There’s a few things to note about these creatures. Most end up being at least slightly smarter than their common fellows, but also slightly more bloodthirsty. Their cores are artificially expanded and forced to form mana crystals which form a feedback loop of creating and devouring mana until their bodies are twisted and the only way to become stronger is to eat something equal or bigger than them. Seems like a more rudimentary version of my own nature…

Speaking of, I asked her about the errant thoughts I managed to take from the beasts… the visions and ideas I got from devouring their souls… Regardless of how messed up that is, I at least got a lead. One thing she remembered was that important thoughts, beliefs, even actions end up being glued to the soul thanks to mana. The sorcerer I ate back in the attack likely had some strong beliefs in his soul, but I didn’t get to digest those ideas properly, I didn’t get to sit, listen and amalgamate his knowledge into the small garden of reality defying truths that I managed to weave together. I probably burned all of his life’s work to survive….

Fuck that, tangent. Right, well these ideas are probably a result of the chaos mana too. As Edith said, the only mana humans can hear is chaos, and considering the fact that witches and witchbeasts are quite literally the same thing, it makes sense that whatever strong idea the chaos gives, coupled with whatever experience the animal accumulates, ends up becoming that strong belief. I sadly find myself excited at the idea of studying how a proper human core would feel like… And not the bandit leader’s, he was barely even magical, but a proper one…

Holy beasts (Also called spirit beasts, mana beasts or sorcerer beasts)

Wouldn’t you know, the same bullshit was spread to animals. Technically, this is more of a classification rather than a species, but the idea is pretty simple. Some witchbeast variations are ultimately more common than others. Most I’ve seen used some kind of mix of biological mana types and simply improved their own natural attributes. Add enough of the same kind of witchbeasts, let them interbreed for a few thousand years and you get a holy beast. 

They are known for their cleverness, much more controlled magic and physical mutations and for being overall menaces. They range from shy and isolationist, to fiercely territorial, to intentionally ignorant of civilization. In fact the main reason they’re even called “holy” is because the gods of this world like claiming some species as their own holy animal. The goddess that came after me and her sister share some kind of massive bull with horns growing out of its horns as their holy animal, so apparently those just live around in the empire, or at least they did everywhere aside from Mother’s territory.

An annoying tidbit about this, though, is that wyverns, despite fitting this category perfectly, are not considered holy beasts because of the whole war. Speaking of….

Lesser Dragons (wyverns, drakes? sea serpents???)

Yeah, apparently there’s a bunch of lesser dragon versions. Wyverns are the more common one, since the only requirement is to either be born of wyverns or be born from a dragon that has wings and legs. No wings? Probably end up with a drake, or lindwyrm. No legs? Then probably a water serpent, which contrary to popular belief, is not stuck in the water. They act similar to normal water snakes, just with some magic.

I asked how she knew so much about dragons, since even I didn’t clock the fact that wyverns came from dragons, I really only thought that they were a similar species, like chimps to a human. Either way, it turns out that living under a dragon means having to know as much as possible about them, who would’ve guessed?

Either way, it is interesting to know that I will probably stumble across more complicated variations. Mother had a very stereotypical european dragon body plan, but expanded. Father on the other hand seemed more like a lindwyrm type. There’s probably more body plans, and maybe some don’t fit a classic body plan, but I at least know to expect more strangeness if I ever meet another dragon… who am I kidding, I’ll meet another dragon sooner or later, that’s just how life is.

Dragons (apparently there’s a lot of names for us, but the only one other than dragon that I know is Ayrah’s which is Godling and I don’t like the implication.)

Yeap, dragons, big monastery thing, rapidly mutating monster, basically the roided up version of roided up versions of animals. Greedy, prideful, gluttonous, intelligent, powerful… literally everything about dragons of myth is somehow even more accentuated in this world. It’s strange just how well the pieces of the puzzle fit… Mana dependent, reliant on fortifying a lair and stockpiling a small country’s worth of gold and gems, always in possession of artifacts, scrolls, magical inventions and who knows what else. Mother had a whole ass vault of things, and from what Edith said, Mother was a pushover.

Aside from what dragons have materially, it’s important to keep track of what actually defines a dragon, since shape is a suggestion at best. The basics, at least as far as Edith knows, is that a dragon tends to have all-terrain drive, air, water, above and below ground, a dragon usually is capable of moving decently in most of those, or really well in a couple of them. I am decently good at above ground and flight, with alright water mobility compared to most animals and zero subterranean capabilities. I’m a pretty fine creature in that aspect.

Physically, at least, there’s a few things almost all dragons share. Scales, horns, a lack of soul and a heart that is sought after. She doesn’t know why, but apparently a dragon’s heart is extremely valuable, something that I think the merc party talked about when they tried to murder me and my siblings.

Next big thing, magic. Turns out that dragons are pretty much the peak of magic. Heavily dependent on it, but also excelling at the most complex and powerful magics, with the caveat that dragons use a very unique style most of the time which is only used by one other type of being… mana beings. I’m opening that can of worms next, don’t be impatient, self. Either way, it’s a strange sort of magic that humans at least have no clue how to even grapple with. The most that human mages know is how to disturb a lingering spell, like mother’s enchanted tunnel. Mana beings don’t talk much and at least from what Edith knows, no dragon has tried to take on human students before. In all fairness, dragon magic, as I’ve realized, relies on something humans can’t do, namely the direct manipulation of external mana.

Humans shape their spell inside their cores and then shoot it out. I shoot out the mana and then make the spell. We are not the same.

Mana beings (There's probably a lot of them)

Honestly, Edith doesn’t know much about these things. They’re made of mana, as the name says, and they have strong magic, but that’s really all she knows. I can guess that the pillars of living mana might be some kind of mana being, since they seemed to have wills and thoughts, and they both fought against and helped my siblings devour them… I don’t know enough, sadly, but I fear these may be some dangerous things that I will have to study if I am to understand my own powers. They have the same magic as dragons, or at least they use the same principles, which means that an old, sapient mana being might be able to give me tips that mother didn't even get to mention. I mean, her main teaching method was just showing stuff, so…

Either way, seeing what a meeting between my parents is like, I would currently prefer a mana being over another dragon, so I hope I meet one soon.

Hopefully won’t need to fight one…

Cyclops (I think)

Let’s talk about something more normal. No, actually, these are far from normal, but at least these are made of meat and aren’t dragons.

So, the giant horse things are cyclopses. What the fuck? There’s a few legends about them, apparently, like the fact that the god of the ocean did it with a bunch of blind underground fairies (guessing they’re a type of mana being) and out came these big boys. When I asked what’s the deal with the horse head, she told me that the god of the ocean is known for his love of horses, especially the sea horse, not to be confused with the seahorse. It’s a type of holy beast that sounds suspiciously like a hippocampus. I asked if Poseidon came to this world to be freaky, but she did not seem to recognize the name. She also didn’t know the god’s name at all, just that it was a male. For now, I’m calling him Posseidon.

Anyways, the bastards are huge, omnivores (scary) and live in family units. They carve their homes into mountains, usually expanding a normal sized cave, and have some rudimentary technology and language. When I asked how the hell she knew so much about those things, she claimed that her mother knew a lot about them. They’re somehow pacifists and aside from hunting they don’t like hurting things. Could’ve fooled me…

Anyways, apparently they’ve got some innate magic of theirs and they use those horns for something, but Edith forgot what that was. Yeah, I’d rather not see any more of those monsters anytime soon…

Revenants (they’ve got a lot of flavors)

Edith knows quite a bit about these things, since they seem like the baseline “give people funerals or this shit happens” monsters. Revenants are this world’s version of angry zombies, though the normal kind of zombie also exists, I’ll expand on those below this. Anyways, revenants. Really any corpse with enough death mana around it and a lot of resentment in their moment of death will end up like this. Based on the identity, species and type of resentment, each revenant can be categorized.

The one we killed, the vengeful songstress, happens when a lady is murdered by a loved one and left in a body of water. Particular as hell, but intriguing. A not so fun fact, however, other women murdered by the songstress become songstresses themselves and work together to pull in prey. Doesn’t even matter if they’re resentful or not, they just turn after a while, which explains the mostly untouched corpses in the water. These things are mostly bound to water, usually rotting away if they leave it for too long. The transformation is also pretty slow compared to most revenants. Anyways, this thing has basic “Creepy lady in the water” powers, namely enchanting people with her song so they let their guard down and become easy meals. They don’t do much aside from killing, eating and trying to make more of themselves. The common way of dealing with them is purifying the water they’re bound to, but that’s holy stuff and Edith doesn’t really know how the process works.

A different type of revenant, one that scares me more is the wrathful wraith. As the name implies, it’s a ghost. Or at least partially. These are usually dead sorcerers with a lot of blood on their hands, so nobles. They are still meaty creatures, but they can turn spectral and like haunting their homes or the battlefields they died on. There’s no easy way to deal with these, they need to be killed by other strong sorcerers since mundane means don’t affect them much.

There’s a few other kinds, but the story is the same with all of them. Someone betrays them or they got unfinished business, they die, they come back angry and full of death mana. They’re not a common sight, but they are terrifying when most villages lack a single mage.

Corpsers (Revenants but with less will to live)

These are the less magically savvy version of the revenants and they don’t usually need some strong attachment to the world. Still a result of death mana, these are corpses that become animated when enough of them are in a single place, so battlefields especially make a handful of them.

Notable mentions are the ghouls, basic creatures really, they’re feral amalgamations of at least three corpses rolled into one. They’re constantly rotting so they consume whatever meat they can reach, acting like dogs and eating the other nearby corpses. They can become a problem if they’re left to feast for too long, somehow gathering the mass and becoming small, gluttonous giants that ooze death mana.

The other type of corsper she knows about is the thrall. This is as close to a normal zombie as you can get. Normal body, usually animated by death mana, having only basic instincts unless someone controls them. She doesn’t know how they are  really made, but she knows that the “masters” , some type of specialized mage that controls monsters, can order these guys around pretty easily.

Roheg (Weird lizard)

Yeap, that’s how she described the thing. Weird lizard. Apparently it’s just a mundane animal, but it acts strangely. The damn thing sounds like a water monitor but with a slightly more crocodilian head, larger front hands with wicked claws and a crippling fear of mana. They hide if there’s any actual quantity of mana within 50 kilometers of themselves. Basically no mage can see them. They live everywhere on this continent, but only common folk see the things. Even their corpses apparently run away if someone with magic gets close. I don’t know how that happens without mana being involved, but I am too afraid to ask.

Monkeys (Uninspired name imo)

Basically, a particular, somewhat wide spread type of holy beast. They’re not even really monkeys. It sounds closer to ringed lemurs though these lemurs are actually deep brown with green fur patterns and have exclusively nature mana. They mess up forests and migrate randomly all year round. People don’t actually interfere with them much for the same reason the town around mother’s river was so large and beautiful. They mess up forests but bring in a bunch of useful mana that boosts agriculture wherever they go. They like moving around settlements, but are too shy to interact with people. I wonder if they would give me some good insight if I were to eat a few…

There’s more I should write down, but the town’s in sight and I need to be careful now. I’ll ask her about Ayrah’s people and any other sapient races whenever we have some real downtime. Ah, gotta mark this quick…

Note: Writing into my soul while full on mana is marginally more tolerable, but I feel my storage depleting faster than they should. I’m apparently using mana to offset the backlash from this…. I should be careful not to overdo it.