# Creatures of WotA



## Zero Angel (Aug 29, 2012)

Hi All,

Figured I would share some images with you all that I created for my world. 

First, an archaeopteryx. Yes this is based off the dinosaur, but is much larger and has some nice features that turn it into a suitable mount for smaller races. 







Let me know what you think or if you have any questions or comments.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 29, 2012)

Hmm...thought I could circumvent having to upload these to the Gallery and just post the img links to my own website--worked at first, but then it failed. Here are the rest of the images I tried to upload with the first post.

A female mazetouched minotaur suffering from the sanguine pestilence. Minotaurs believe that reality is a maze. The mazetouched are those that are able to escape the maze, but stay behind to lead others (almost like Bodhisattvas for minotaurs). Males have antlers as well as additional sets of horns. 






A manticore in profile. In WotA, manticores have a toxic breath, a bite 100 times worse than a komodo, a jaw like a Tazmanian tiger, teeth like a great white, a poison scorpion stinger and launchable poison quills. 






And a face shot of the beast as well:


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## Jabrosky (Aug 29, 2012)

I totally dig the Archaeopteryx! I mean, I like all these drawings, but being a dino nut the Archie is my favorite.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 29, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> I totally dig the Archaeopteryx! I mean, I like all these drawings, but being a dino nut the Archie is my favorite.



Thanks! I totally agree about dinosaurs, and archaeopteryx is one of the best!


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## Sheilawisz (Aug 29, 2012)

Those are scary creatures Zero Angel, and especially the Manticore!!

You draw very well, I have some drawings of my creatures too but they are not so good... What size is the Manticore, and also how heavy? What is the effect of its poison quills?

Drawing our Fantasy creatures can be great fun =)


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## Zero Angel (Aug 29, 2012)

Sheilawisz said:


> Those are scary creatures Zero Angel, and especially the Manticore!!
> 
> You draw very well, I have some drawings of my creatures too but they are not so good... What size is the Manticore, and also how heavy? What is the effect of its poison quills?
> 
> Drawing our Fantasy creatures can be great fun =)



Thanks Sheilawisz! The important thing with these drawings for me is to get the concept on paper so I don't have to juggle so much in my imagination. Manticores are born about the size of a medium sized dog (think "normal" German shepherd to large German shepherd). Upon reaching adulthood, they are about twice the size of a large lion (or normal size of a liger =P). They continue to grow after this, but it slows down. 

Their poisons and bacteria continue to grow stronger through age as well. A middle-aged to elder manticore is able to kill an elephant by piercing it in the body with a single quill (although if pierced in a foot or something like that I could swing it either way depending on the manticore). This is actually the same as the original description of manticores in legend. 

Juvenile manticores are not able to launch their quills and this is the best time of their lives to attempt to hunt them. 

Also, if it looks odd to you that the back "legs" look like arms, that is because they are designed like arms. The manticore actually walks by pulling itself forward or "climbing" along the ground. 

As far as weight, it depends. I have them as being ravenous at all times. I drew the manticores for a novella I wrote (which I hope to release this winter). In it, the manticore launches a few volleys of quills at an entire herd of stegosaurus-like dinosaurs, called "spike-backs" by the local lizardfolk if I am remembering correctly. It then proceeds to eat them. All of them.

Basically, the foul magicks that created the manticores (elven evolution wizards) has created an insatiable beast that is forced to eat at all times. No matter how much they eat, they generally look like the manticore in the drawing--starving. 

Rarely, manticores are used as a trash dump for spoiled meat, but generally manticores in captivity are starved as this weakens the potency of their poisons if it is sustained over long periods of time. 

Anyway, to your question, a manticore the size of a liger (think 900 lb liger here) would probably weigh somewhere between 2-400 pounds. But no matter how much they eat, they are almost immediately going to "burn" it off.


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## Sheilawisz (Aug 30, 2012)

I have read about the Manticores of legend in books about mythological creatures and stories, and they are always described as really dangerous but otherwise not supernatural creatures... Your Manticores are magic-related then, that makes them scarier and I like them more than the classic version.

In my stories I also have anomalous, supernatural-like species with mysterious powers, maybe I should share some of my drawings here!!

Good luck with releasing that novella this Winter, your Manticores would look great in a movie =)


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## Zero Angel (Aug 30, 2012)

Sheilawisz said:


> I have read about the Manticores of legend in books about mythological creatures and stories, and they are always described as really dangerous but otherwise not supernatural creatures... Your Manticores are magic-related then, that makes them scarier and I like them more than the classic version.


That's great to hear! I meant they were traditional in the sense that their quills could kill elephants. They are natural in that their furnace-like digestive system is not affected by antimagick and they do not actively work any magick themselves. Although you could argue the potency of their poisons being affected by their diet as supernatural. Their origins are definitely magickal, but they have since bred true. I have a lot of the traditional "hybrid" creatures being created by the elven evolution wizards and then escaping or being unsuitable (chimaera, wyverns, pegasi, gryphons, minotaurs, merfolk, giants, humes, centaurs, etc). 



Sheilawisz said:


> In my stories I also have anomalous, supernatural-like species with mysterious powers, maybe I should share some of my drawings here!!


You definitely should!



Sheilawisz said:


> Good luck with releasing that novella this Winter, your Manticores would look great in a movie =)


Thank you! I always think my stories would be good movies or shows, but that is probably because I usually have a lot of action. I think the thing I find creepiest about them is the way they pull themselves forward while walking. It's how I would imagine a person would walk on "four legs" if they had no forward push from their legs, and that human-like quality is what I find the creepiest by this otherwise monstrous thing.


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## Holland (Oct 7, 2012)

!Smiles! Creature Design!


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## Telcontar (Oct 9, 2012)

That Manticore is awesome. Grotesque, disturbing, and mean, just the way it should be.


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## Zero Angel (Oct 9, 2012)

Telcontar said:


> That Manticore is awesome. Grotesque, disturbing, and mean, just the way it should be.



Thank you very much! It was very difficult to nail the design the way I had it imagined and my "inspiration pictures" were everything from men, primitive hominids, lions, hyenas, scorpions, porcupines, sharks, Tasmanian tigers and more I can't remember.


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