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Best New Critters

Hi,

I was reading the world building thread about re-mything which I enjoyed when it occurred to me that as sci fi fantasy writers we really should be coming up with a few of our own unique critters / races instead of just using the established tropes.

So I thought why not have a place where we can share our own creations.

To start things off if people are interested, I thought I'd include a couple of my own and see what you guys think of them.

Snap Dragon - this is a monster I developed for my book Wildling. It's not really a dragon despite the name. It's a walking forest sort of shaped a little like a dragon / reptile. It lives on a high central plateau and most of the time just looks like a copse. But every so often - normally at night - it sort of uproots itself and starts hunting unfortunate campers. It has no muscles or skin, but is in fact just comprised of densely interwoven branches and roots, and it hunts by essentially sneaking up on its prey and then crushing them underfoot so to speak. After that it settles back down and slowly absorbs their crushed juicy remains through its root system. The name comes because it is roughly shaped like a dragon, and because of the snapping sound it makes when its foot comes crashing down on an unfortunate victim. It is essentially huge, slow moving and indestructible to most weapons, but if you can set it on fire and run away for long enough it'll burn to ash.

Sprig - these are living trees rather like the spriggen in some RPG's. They come from the book I'm just finishing up called The Arcanist. In essence they are extremely thin - think not much thicker than brook handles - humanoid shaped trees with shoulders and hips but no heads etc. Each shoulder might have two or three arms sprouting from it, each hip two or three legs, and of course the arms and legs are essentially thin branches. They have no intelligence but can obey orders and be used as an army. They kill because each end of an arm or leg is essentially a spear point, that can be driven through flesh or mild steel. They walk slowly and in jerky movements, but are very hard to kill. They're very hard to hit with a gun because of their thinness, and you wouldn't want to face one with sword in hand because lets face it - they might have six or more spears to impale you with while you're trying to defend against one.

Anyway, there's two of mine. Let me know what you think and I'd love to see some of yours.

Cheers, Greg.
 

acapes

Sage
Awesome, Greg! I love the Snap Dragon especially, great creatures.

None of mine come to mind right now but I'll have a think. I made something scaly the other day but nothing really distinctive.
 
I've never created a monster, so how about these:

Silk: A silk tree is like a bare weeping willow native to sandy, acidic soil with little nitrogen and other nutrients. It draws water from the ground, but instead of gaining sustenance from photosynthesis and soil nutrients it devours all sorts of underground critters with it web of roots. To spread its seeds, it grows long white hairs with a tiny seed at one end that it releases into the wind the way some spiders throw up a filament of web for use as a sail. Hence the name "silk." Most silks get caught in trees and starve, but the lucky ones land on creatures. They're so light they aren't noticed. The silk wraps itself around the creature and contracts, curl tighter and tighter, digging deeper into the creatures skin, slowly killing it. Silks have been known to take off a deer's leg or a child's head. When the creature dies, the silk embeds the seed in the corpse, from which it springs another silk tree.
 
Not original bu a couple I took from American Folklore instead of European....

Snawfus: A large snow white deer native to the southern mountain ranges. 6 feet at the shoulder the males grow a massive set of antlers that bloom with flowers during the spring and summer. Their breath comes out as a fine bluish mist and legend says that's what's responsible for the fogs that seem to cling to the peaks of the mountains.

Hodag: Believed to be a member of the same family as the Manticore a Hodag is a large quadruped about the size of a grizzly bear with a large almost oversized head and jaws. The head is topped in both male and females with long pointed bull-like horns. A single row of dorsal spines go down the creature's back and the tail ends in a bony spike. Fur color ranges from Black(Cave Hodags) through to shades of brown and grey(Shovel Nose Hodag)

Wampus: The wampus is a large predatory cat with an almost human intelligence. Their fur is patterned and colored to blend into the forests of the region, and their cries can mimic the distress calls of several prey species with some even learning to mimic human children.
 
Hi,

Stephen, I like your deadly seeds. The only thing I would say is that it seems unlikely that a tiny strand of silk could amputate body parts. It might be better if the silk could somehow burrow into the skin, slowly growing through the victim and killinh him by penetrating vital organs etc.

Hainted, the wampus sounds like a brilliant ambush predator and I love the thought of a cat luring its prey by sounding like distressed children etc. There's something brilliantly manipulative in that. I may use something similar in one of my books.

Cheers, Greg.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Here's one taken from a nightmare I had this morning:

The wawl is a type of hive-minded, parasitic fungus. When dormant, the fungus resembles a squishy, transparent cucumber. If woken, the fungus becomes teardrop-shaped, grows limbs in front and behind and a mouth at the narrow end, and a coat of short fur-like bristles. The active wawl somewhat resembles a rat without eyes, ears or tail. Each core wawl can have up to five living offshoots at a time; these offshoots are mobile, and draw nutrients to the core by seeking animals and even humans as prey, latching on with their limbs and tearing off chunks of flesh. The bitten prey experiences paralysis and laryngitis until the wawl or wawls are removed from them.
 

Tom

Istar
Cool thread! Here's a critter I haven't used in years.

The Luan--

In its true form, the luan is a vaguely humanoid monster with black skin, yellow eyes, and numerous spines sprouting from its head, arms, and back. A creature of the supernatural, it is not entirely corporeal, which gives it the appearance of an animate shadow.

The Luan cannot live in its true form for more than a few years, or else it will fade away. Instead, it feeds on the life force of its victims (usually humans, occasionally large mammals such as deer) and inhabits their bodies after they have died. It lures its victims to it by creating an illusion of something they value--a dead loved one's voice calling, or perhaps a spring of clean water--and then engulfs them in its shadow-like body. It sucks away their energy, leaving an empty shell behind, which the luan then enters.

To survive in its victims' bodies, the luan has to be an expert at mimicry. It integrates the victim's memories into its own, essentially becoming its own prey. Often it will "return" to its victims' homes and live with their families and friends without detection. In this way, when it has spent its current form's energy, it has a variety of new victims to choose from.

However, the luan's greatest strength is also its greatest curse. Sometimes the host's memories are too powerful, and the luan's own mind is overwhelmed. It may be confused at first as to which memories are its own. Occasionally, if the victim's mind is especially strong, the luan will become its host. It will lose all memory of its own life and believe it is its host until its death, or until its original memories are reawakened.
 

skrite

Scribe
The Luan--

In its true form, the luan is a vaguely humanoid monster with black skin, yellow eyes, and numerous spines sprouting from its head, arms, and back. A creature of the supernatural, it is not entirely corporeal, which gives it the appearance of an animate shadow. .

This creature absolutely rocks!
 

Saigonnus

Auror
Nightmare hounds: these creatures don't eat, sleep, drink or rest. They hunt the goddess Arasti's chosen in small packs of 3 or 4. Their saliva is acidic and they regenerate very quickly, a matter of minutes from almost dead to chasing the chosen once more. The only way to kill them is to remove their head, which is exceptionally difficult for chosen, since most are animals much like the hounds themselves. Usually they have to rely on the two-legs to kill them, the reason for their long association with the humanoid races of the world.

Creeper vines: created by wizards to serve as a defense mechanism, these plants have long tendrils that creep along the ground relentlessly. They overrun buildings, tear down masonry or stone in a matter of weeks, but are relatively easy to keep at bay using axes and woodknives. A cousin to the creepers are strangle vines that; like their cousin, grow fairly fast and spread quickly. The difference is their tendrils are covered with contact sensitive hairs. Like the name suggests, anyone touching the tendrils might be trapped by the vine, which uses more tendrils to subdue the victim. They don't eat per se, but hold the victim still until they decay, the vitamins leeching into the soils beneath the vines.

Half mile tree: the fruit of this tree is delicious, sweet and smells heavenly. If a fruit is eaten, by the time you are a half-mile from the tree, you fall into a coma. What's more, it makes you sweat a substance that smells like rotting meat, making you a tempting target for carnivores and scavengers that live in the area.
 
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Hi,

Tom the Luan sounds awesome. There was a Philip K Dick novel that reminds me a little ofit. The MC was an android on a mission to destroy part of humanity, who had been programmed to act as a particular human being that he had replaced. And the book is about his struggle to recognise that he was not the human being he had replaced - at which point he could blow up and destroy the dome etc!

You could do something very similar to that.

Cheers, Greg.
 
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Hi,

Saigonnus love the name of your half mile tree. I love it when people name critters descriptively for some aspect of them rather than making up some name that has no meaning to a reader.

Cheers, Greg.
 
Hi,

Ireth, I like your wawl. My only thoughts are where do the teeth come from? And the name is difficult to say in my head.

Cheers, Greg.
 
Hi,

Stephen, I like your deadly seeds. The only thing I would say is that it seems unlikely that a tiny strand of silk could amputate body parts. It might be better if the silk could somehow burrow into the skin, slowly growing through the victim and killinh him by penetrating vital organs etc.

Hainted, the wampus sounds like a brilliant ambush predator and I love the thought of a cat luring its prey by sounding like distressed children etc. There's something brilliantly manipulative in that. I may use something similar in one of my books.

Cheers, Greg.

There's actually 3 different legends about the Wampus, or Wampus Cat depending on where in the South you hear the story. One's just a large black cat with inhuman intelligence and a hatred of people. One is a Native American legend about a woman that is turned into a large cat for violating sacred laws. The last is about a large cat that has hunted the mountainsides for so long the legs on one side of it's body are shorter than the other. You escape it by running past it, and as it turns to pursue it tumbles down the mountainside. Good luck with the story.
 

Saigonnus

Auror
Hi,

Saigonnus love the name of your half mile tree. I love it when people name critters descriptively for some aspect of them rather than making up some name that has no meaning to a reader.

Cheers, Greg.

Thanks Greg, I thought about that too when I chose that name. I haven't truthfully used it any stories as yet, just designed it for a story concept as part of a magically created/natural defensive network used to keep people from traveling beyond the city that was originally their prison after a great war.

I think it takes something away if the author has to explain why it has that name, instead of showing why.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Night Squirrel

The night squirrel is similar to the regular squirrel, except it's blue, with dark purple markings. It's also nocturnal (hence the name).
When the night squirrel is threatened or in danger it can light up its tail in a sudden bright flash of light - similar to a camera flash. In this way it can blind predators and escape from harms way.
 

skrite

Scribe
I love the nightmare hounds and the half-mile tree. Just too cool.

I have a creature in my WIP called a howler. A howler is why some people believed in warewolves because they have a similar appearance. When a vampire has fed on a person for so long, as the victim looses more of him/her self, it becomes more and more of just a beast that is a slave to it's master vampire. They howl at night, not as pack hunters, but out of sorrow for what they have become.
 
Hi,

Skrite, that is brilliant. You could create whole stories about the howlers and the sense of loss they feel. Deeply emotional stuff about redemption, despair and pain. I'd be tempted to call them thralls though.

Svrtnsse your night squirrels would be a brilliant alarm system. Simply stock a garden, orchard etc with them and whenever an intruder approaches by night - assassin maybe - everyone's alerted as they pass under the trees.

Cheers, Greg.
 
I have several but the only one I can easily find is this one:

Drindox-

A large, horse-like animal, roughly the size of a Clydesdale. It has sharp, cloven hooves and very sharp, pointed teeth. Their eyes have slit irises, similar to a goat. They are carnivorous and group together in herds but hunt in packs. Males are the leaders and rule by brute force, dominating and requiring other members of the herd to show submission to the leader. sick or injured members of the herd are attacked by the herd and either driven off or killed and consumed. They are vicious and deadly. They pose a real threat to any creature their size or even slightly larger. They have no consistent predators in their natural habitat, although dragons and other large predators will occasionally hunt them, as a result, there are fearless opponents. They are highly intelligent and are able to adapt to changing situations quickly. They use tactics when they hunt, flanking maneuvers and herding prey into ambushes, ect. They have infra-vision which allows them to see heat signatures, especially effective for night hunting. Due to their intelligence, they are extremely difficult to hunt and/or capture.

Captured Drindox are used to pull mining carts. They are very sure-footed and can move large amounts of ore. They are only used above ground because they become uncontrollable below ground or in confined spaces. Drindox are never tamed or even domesticated. The only way to get a Drndox to follow commands or allow itself to be ridden it to force it into submission by a display of superior force. This has to be reinforced often and any sign of weakness by its "master" will cause the Drindox to launch into a brutal attack. Dominated Drindox must be furnished with a regular supply of meat or they will go into a frenzy and become uncontrollable. Regular mistreatment and/or pain infliction will also cause a dominated Drindox attack it's "master" and any others near by.
 
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