quote

Astraia is not without its dangers; there are strange and sometimes deadly creatures prowling its forests and lurking in its caverns.

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Of the many creatures wandering these lands, few can match the vehemence or the startling craftiness of the changelings. It is dangerous enough to encounter one out in the wilderness; I shudder to think what might happen were one to be unleashed upon civilization.

- Kertus Ferrigan, Studies of the Known World: Volume V

appearance.
Changelings take on the appearance of any kind of animal or person that they see, down to the most exact details. Their single obvious tell is the blackening over of their eyes when experiencing a surge of strong, primal emotion, such as fear or rage.

behavior.
Changelings are aggressive at best, and downright murderous at worst. They can mimic the behavior of just about any other individual creature, though they're better at mimicking appearances than personalities. They're surprisingly clever, able to imitate sentient behavior to whatever end they feel is required, and will do most anything to get what they want; usually, should you encounter a changeling, what they want is your death, though changelings have also been known to be very protective of their offspring.

habitat.
Changelings do not often venture anywhere close to civilization. They enjoy their solitude, roaming the wilderness, and can be found in most any climate.

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There are few things in this world that can compare to the surge of adrenaline in your veins as you make good on your attempt to outrun a royally pissed-off cockatrice. A small word to the wise; never piss off a cockatrice.

- Councilman Az Darkwing

appearance.
Cockatrices are giant, carnivorous flightless birds. They typically stand somewhere between 8-9 feet high at the head, with big glossy feathers that come in a wide variety of colors. They have big yellow eyes, and sharp, cruel beaks that make vultures look downright cuddly.

behavior.
Cockatrices are territorial birds that live alone for most of their lives. Males are aggressive when it comes to their territory, and usually don't hesitate to chase trespassers right off; females on the other hand are usually very docile creatures, unless there's offspring involved. Then they're past the point of aggressive - get too close to their babies, and they will not hesitate to feed your broken body to them. The only thing that can halt an angry cockatrice is deep water or large heights.

habitat.
Cockatrices can usually be found in warmer climates, like swamps, jungles, and deserts. They don't often mark out territory around human settlements, but when they do, it becomes a problem for the locals.

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There is no creature so utterly devious and unmerciful as an angry faery; they take on the faces of those that we have lost or long for in order to draw the innocent and unwitting to what is surely a grim death. A caution to those who would disturb nature's sanctuaries; trust not the senses, only the mind.

- Kertus Ferrigan, Studies of the Known World: Volume IV

appearance.
Faeries have the frightening ability to take on the appearance of a person with great meaning to the intended victim, especially those that are somehow out of reach. When seen like this, faeries project an air of rapturous beauty and hypnotic grace; however, when a faery is forced to reveal its true nature (usually by startling it or rejecting it), one can easily see their twisted faces, vaguely resembling a human's, and their cold eyes.

behavior.
Faeries are not malicious creatures unless provoked. When undisturbed, they keep to themselves, well out of sight and mind even when near at hand. It's only when their homes - their rivers, their forests, their meadows - are disturbed (usually by destroying, trampling, or otherwise blocking something up) that they show themselves to seek out bitter vengeance. Few have ever walked away from a face-to-face encounter with a faery alive, and those that haven't survived have never been seen or heard from again.

habitat.
Faeries are typically found in places with lots of flourishing life, far from civilization. Should one accidentally disturb a faery's home, quite possibly the only saving grace is that faeries are never so vengeful as to completely abandon their homes; if you can get far enough away in time, it may not come after you. A faery's home can often be denoted by the presence of wisps; small, floating lights (sometimes known as faery lights) that appear sporadically throughout the night and day, and do not often travel farther than ten yards away from the faery's home.

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A horror is but a terrible amalgamation of the bodies of dead things; the smell of rotting flesh and blood follows wherever it goes, and it exudes no warmth. I can only speculate as to how these things are created - there does not exist any power in this world that can bring back the dead, but perhaps there is a power that can create new life from it. I shudder to think of what else such a power might be capable of.

- late High Priestess Saya of Aera

appearance.
Horrors are large creatures, often possessing bulky bodies and multiple limbs, sometimes wings. Their bodies appear to be made of bones of every shape and size, melded together into a hard, uneven armor. Horrors usually possess too many more long, serrated fangs than should be able to fit in their mouths, and their eyes are black, empty pits in their skulls. They're prone to making a bone-rattling, unnatural shrieking sound that grates the ears and stops the heart.

behavior.
Horrors are nasty creatures. They kill anything they see on sight, and will often go from one town to the next, wreaking as much havoc and destruction as they possibly can before moving on. For the most part, however, they're clumsy and stupid.

habitat.
Horrors have no specific habitat, though they tend to stick close to civilization.

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The wolves of the Far North far surpass their southern cousins in their appetites and their savagery. They are lethal predators of the wilderness, fearless hunters that will pursue their prey until either they or the prey is dead. They are the main reason why travelers do not often venture north without substantial protection; northwolves have been known to pick off caravans and stragglers alike.

- Kertus Ferrigan, Studies of the Known World: Volume V

appearance.
Northwolves are very large cousins to wolves; they come in the same relative shape and colors, though they usually stand about five feet high at the shoulder, and their bodies can be up to nine or ten feet in length. Northwolves possess the uncanny ability to rise up on their back legs, with forelegs that very much resemble humanoid arms and hands. On four legs and on just two, northwolves are very fast, easily keeping up with a galloping horse, which is part of what makes them so deadly.

behavior.
Northwolves are known to be vicious, but they are still animals. Like their smaller, purely four-legged southern cousins, northwolves live and hunt in close-knit family packs. One pack will often stick to one clearly-marked territory for as long as they live, and these territories can be easy to avoid for travelers who know what to look for and know their way around the Far North. Young northwolves are known to sometimes break away from their family packs to search for a mate to start their own with. These lone wolves are the most dangerous, as they wander the most and are more likely to take caravans and well-informed travelers by surprise. They also sometimes cause trouble for human settlements in the Far North when they begin staking out a territory for their pack with their new mates too close to settled lands.

habitat.
Northwolves are only ever found naturally in the large mountainous territory of the Far North. They are well-adapted to the cold, so much so that climates which are too far south will more often then not make them sick from the heat. Northwolves have never appeared of their own volition anywhere south of the Far North's official boundary line.

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A terror is not a creature to be trifled with; like something out of a nightmare, they infest the places of the dark and damp, waiting to tear apart their next victim as a school of piranha would.

- Kertus Ferrigan, Studies of the Known World: Volume V

appearance.
Terrors are bipedal, humanoid creatures. They have rough gray skin, stretched taut over their bent, bony frames, and hideous fanged faces. Terrors possess long, serrated claws which grant them the unnerving ability to crawl on any surface, including walls and ceilings. In terms of size, terrors are small, usually the same size as kai.

behavior.
Terrors are nasty little buggers. They live in colonies, and can breed and grow at an insane rate when settled into a place. They are purely carnivorous, often hunting food to bring back to their hive. There is never just one terror; if one is found, there are sure to be many more in the vicinity. Terrors are cowardly, however, not prone to taking on larger adversaries unless they have an overwhelming advantage in numbers. They are also terrified by fire, heat, and bright light, which blinds them quite easily. Terrors are never seen outdoors during daylight.

habitat.
Terrors usually make their sick hives in dark, damp places. They are nocturnal creatures which prefer the dark, damp, and chill.

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A wraith is a shadow; barely more than a whisper in the wind, a ripple in the water. They cannot be seen in the waking world, haunting our dreams and draining our happiness until we have nothing left.

- Evarius Baerin, A Written Record of the Unnatural

appearance.
Wraiths have no physical appearance, as they are metaphysical beings which exist between the planes of the waking world and the psyche. Wraiths are only known to manifest themselves in dreams, and these manifestations can take on any sort of appearance that is appropriately terrifying for the dreamer.

behavior.
Wraiths feed on misery and suffering. Though not directly lethal in nature, they tend to seek out those weak of mind and spirit, as people with such qualities are easy targets. Wraiths fill their victims' sleeping minds with nightmares specially tailored to heighten the effects of their victim's unhappiness and pain, and feed off these emotions during the victim's waking hours. A wraith will sometimes follow a victim for a long period of time; the whole of their lives even, if their inner turmoil is strong enough. Wraiths can be warded off by magical enchantments, though the rarity of magic in Astraia makes such enchantments hard to come by.

habitat.
Wraiths can be found (so to speak) wherever there is sentient life.

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