• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Hunting

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I want to have a scene, maybe even a couple, that turns on a hunt. I could have the group hunt deer or boar or other traditional animals, but I figured why not hunt fantasy animals? This turned out to be rather more limited than I would have guessed.

I have a couple of restrictions. One, the hunted creature cannot be intelligent or humanoid. If they have speech or form a society, then they're not hunted, even if they're "evil" like orcs or whatever. Those are fought, not hunted.

Two, they cannot be unique. Sure, I could take the Hydra and make it into a race of hydras and hunt those, but I have in mind something more like deer or wolves--creatures that are more or less ubiquitous, hunted either for meat or because they're a nuisance (or outright danger).

These are, IOW, creatures that would be the object of an organized hunt by nobles.

I wound up with a much shorter list than I would have imagined. Normal animals would include bear, bison, boar, deer, elk, fox, moose, and wolf. Fantasy animals include auroch, basilisk, bugbear, bunyip, kelpie, roc, wyvern. Possible additions: cockatrice, griffin, kluude (Belgian), tarrasco (Spanish), dire wolf.

It's interesting to me how poor is the popular imagination. Many of the fantasy creatures are merely hybrids, stuck-together inventions. Remove the giant-sized versions and the were-creatures, and the list is even shorter. There just aren't that many fantasy monsters roaming the countryside.

What would you add to my hunting list? Note: I have a master list that includes non-European monsters, but that's just for general reference. Altearth is strictly the European continent and mythology. Unless the author decides to invent something. <g>
 
I'll throw in that aurochs are an extinct species of cattle, pretty cool ones, so how much you want to throw them in under fantasy is on you. They've been trying to recreate the breed for quite a while now. Turns out they're kind of angry buggers. Could, as is my favorite, dig into prehistory for other fun species of those currently hunted and some less common ones. Depends on how far back you want to go and what the limit you want to put on what is possible. Go after the Irish Elk or wooly rhino's or terror birds, though those were more restricted to the America's I believe. Really, prehistoric fauna always can add a bit of oomph to it.
 

Slartibartfast

Minstrel
I have a copy of Bodley 764 for just this type of problem and have plagiarized the following suggestions for you: Wild-ass, goat, unicorn, manticore & tregelaphus.
There's a facsimilie here if you're interested.
Would the rules of Altearth allow you to present animals as they were misunderstood by the medievals, either in terms of putting them in the wrong place or in terms of giving them some of the characteristics they were erroneously assumed to have? If yes that could give you more options and I'm sure Mr Mandeville and friends would be pleased to help.
 

Insolent Lad

Maester
They could go into the mountains and chase the fabulous Dahu, both the clockwise and counter-clockwise versions. They'd have to chase them in different directions, of course.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
The map I've linked might help you out Skip. Some ones I saw on a glance that you had yet to list were the Wolpertinger and the Strix

https://i.redd.it/9dti4qzwz0x21.png
That is a gorgeous piece of cartography!

Wolpertinger is another one of those hybrids that are just too embarrassing. It's like it was made by a ninth grader. I may try to use it somehow just because it's Bavarian.

Which reminds me, I really need to have at least some localized monsters. I've used the tarrasco in A Child of Great Promise and will probably keep him in the Pyrenees. So there would be two categories of "wild" animals--ubiquitous and local. Strix would be good, especially for falconry.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
They could go into the mountains and chase the fabulous Dahu, both the clockwise and counter-clockwise versions. They'd have to chase them in different directions, of course.
The exact same myth exists for the haggis, which is of course an animal, just ask the dropbear.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
That is a gorgeous piece of cartography!

Wolpertinger is another one of those hybrids that are just too embarrassing. It's like it was made by a ninth grader. I may try to use it somehow just because it's Bavarian.

Which reminds me, I really need to have at least some localized monsters. I've used the tarrasco in A Child of Great Promise and will probably keep him in the Pyrenees. So there would be two categories of "wild" animals--ubiquitous and local. Strix would be good, especially for falconry.

Hope it helps. If I happen to find a local creature that would the fit the bill in my Limburgish folklore readings I will send you a message, but the unique creatures here tend to be spectres of some sort, and I doubt anything magical or not can sink its teeth into those.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
A stroll through Mandeville reveals the same strains as in other medieval monsters--a whole lot of humanoids in exotic form, or else animals with anthropomorphic features. Add in the Mr Potatohead creatures (hybrids) and you've just about run the gamut (well the etymology of that word was unexpected).

I ain't complaining. Within a story, just one or two exotic creatures would serve just fine. And I'm sort leaning toward having goblin hunts and kobold hunts. My goblins are only low-level intelligence. I haven't decided about kobolds yet.

There's also the possibility of having a creature be hunted by one people (e.g., elves) but not by another (e.g., humans). Just a nice bit of cultural tension.

Thanks, Ban, for the offer wrt Limburg.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Do you want to use creatures that have been a part of folklore, or are you open to making up creatures from scratch?

In Enar's Vacation, I introduced the Night Squirrel. It's a nocturnal version of the regular squirrel, except it's blue with a white tail. When the night squirrel is attacked, the tail emits a flash of light in an attempt to blind the attacker.

Now, hunting squirrel isn't exactly big game, but the basic idea could be applied. Take a regular creature and give it a fantastic ability of some kind.
 

Slartibartfast

Minstrel
...the Mr Potatohead creatures...
I absolutely love that term.
And yes you're right but there are some subtle weirdnesses mentioned in Mandeville and other medieval sources which you could add to make a normal animal more fantastic, or higher-status for a hunt by the Nobility. Things like animals subsisting purely on air, being allied to the devil etc. I enjoy the idea of medieval silliness in general, something like a small colony of rabbits who only eat something really obscure and lead travelers astray or are shrouded in perpetual darkness etc.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Do you want to use creatures that have been a part of folklore, or are you open to making up creatures from scratch?

In Enar's Vacation, I introduced the Night Squirrel. It's a nocturnal version of the regular squirrel, except it's blue with a white tail. When the night squirrel is attacked, the tail emits a flash of light in an attempt to blind the attacker.

Now, hunting squirrel isn't exactly big game, but the basic idea could be applied. Take a regular creature and give it a fantastic ability of some kind.

That's a good idea and I don't mind doing that. I'll save it for a specific purpose rather than trying to add to the menagerie.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I enjoy the idea of medieval silliness in general, something like a small colony of rabbits who only eat something really obscure and lead travelers astray or are shrouded in perpetual darkness etc.

In storytelling terms, having a transient bit of weirdness can add a lot of depth. Call it the Tom Bombadil ploy. <g>
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I want to have a scene, maybe even a couple, that turns on a hunt. I could have the group hunt deer or boar or other traditional animals, but I figured why not hunt fantasy animals? This turned out to be rather more limited than I would have guessed.

I have a couple of restrictions. One, the hunted creature cannot be intelligent or humanoid. If they have speech or form a society, then they're not hunted, even if they're "evil" like orcs or whatever. Those are fought, not hunted.

Two, they cannot be unique. Sure, I could take the Hydra and make it into a race of hydras and hunt those, but I have in mind something more like deer or wolves--creatures that are more or less ubiquitous, hunted either for meat or because they're a nuisance (or outright danger).

These are, IOW, creatures that would be the object of an organized hunt by nobles.

I wound up with a much shorter list than I would have imagined. Normal animals would include bear, bison, boar, deer, elk, fox, moose, and wolf. Fantasy animals include auroch, basilisk, bugbear, bunyip, kelpie, roc, wyvern. Possible additions: cockatrice, griffin, kluude (Belgian), tarrasco (Spanish), dire wolf.

It's interesting to me how poor is the popular imagination. Many of the fantasy creatures are merely hybrids, stuck-together inventions. Remove the giant-sized versions and the were-creatures, and the list is even shorter. There just aren't that many fantasy monsters roaming the countryside.

What would you add to my hunting list? Note: I have a master list that includes non-European monsters, but that's just for general reference. Altearth is strictly the European continent and mythology. Unless the author decides to invent something. <g>


I noticed much the same thing with my worldbuilding - take away the more patched together beasts, and what you have left isn't that remarkable. However, my worlds are populated by creatures from several planets. Part of 'Empire: Country' revolves around a hunt for a 'Bearak,' a six legged grizzly bear sized creature with toxin tipped tentacles growing from the top of its skull. A bearak is quite capable of picking up a full grown adult human with these appendages and hurling him several yards.

Related to the bearak are the dog sized Vree, very much smaller versions of bearaks, though they tend to be pack animals. Generally, a few sturdy peasants with clubs and axes can deal with a Vree infestation.

Droath are elephant sized herbivores, also possessed of six legs and tentacled snouts - plus a horrific open sewer type smell. Docile creatures, they are employed as draft animals by humans, goblins, and others.

Titus Maxiimus, early on in Labyrinth: Journal, encounters a 'Thunder Lizard,' sort of a dinosaur/dragon hybrid.

I also tossed in the likes of winged snakes and flying monkeys just because...
 

ShadeZ

Maester
Could always just invent one. My books have tons of animal grade monsters that are basically their magical realms version of a common animal for example a racoon with pure black fur that turns into a pine cone via polymorph when frightened. Basically just take a normal animal and lengthen or shorten things like ear size fur, tail whatever and add odd or magic quirks to it like polymorph, luminescence and so on.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I can and probably will invent an animal here and there. But in Altearth I try to include as much historical or pseudo-historical as I can. I just sort of thought that after a thousand years, we humans would have come up with more.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
I can and probably will invent an animal here and there. But in Altearth I try to include as much historical or pseudo-historical as I can. I just sort of thought that after a thousand years, we humans would have come up with more.
So, in my books there is a hunter race that when they have family get togethers hunt rare prey one of these is a white stag based of an old myth of a white stag that is magical and grants wishes if you catch it. It is simalar to a unicorn but very fast and elusive. If you've been deer hunting you know a white deer would be very tricky for humans to hunt because deer are already very quiet and fast prey. I beleive there is a black demon boar in myth too but id have to find some sources for it cause both of these are pretty old myths.
 
The Elasmotherium, better known as the Siberian Unicorn, is an extinct genus of large rhinoceros endemic to Eurasia, and completely covered in hair. The modern day renditions of them are extremely cool, and they lived possible within written history. A rhinoceros-like creature was found on a Nineveh obelisk, and could possibly be the Hebrew Re’em mentioned in the Bible, translated as unicorn in the KJV. Another user mentioned the auroch, which most definitely lived within written history, hunted by the Romans, and another possible contender for Re’em.
 
Top