Below is a list of beasties, monsters and uglies that harrow the Northerner’s mind.

Slagon, the closest the land, not just the North, has to a dragon. Much like dragons, slagons are giant scaled lizards with powerful frames and long, hazardous tails. But contrary to their cousins, slagons wings are vestigial and thus they cannot fly. Furthermore, slagons disgorge stomach acid from their bodies in lieu of fire. They are also blind beasts. However, what they lack in vision and an ability to fly they make up for with superb sonar hearing and the ability to camouflage themselves. Some soldiers believe animal killings, particularly grisly ones, out in the woods are the doings of a hungry slagon.

Assumed location: Any forest across the North.

Dark Elves, tall and gracefully slender humanoids with dark skin and pointed-ears, ergo their name. Notoriously anti-social, dark elves choose to live alone yet often terrorize their human relatives, though they do not make a habit of killing them. Dark elves are nocturnal creatures and so are rarely “seen” at night. But they are not immortal, not even long-lived. Since they are thought a sub-species of human, their lifespan is believed equal to that of humans, which in the North is (mind you, without any statistical or even empirical proof) sixty. One of the more curious habits of dark elves is their predilection to sleeping upright with open eyes. It is not uncommon for Black soldiers to be compared to dark elves, which is rarely used positively. This is the only species of elves in the North’s bestiary: so, no wood elves, snow elves, etc.

Assumed location: The abandoned ruins of humans settlements.

Ghoulie, the North’s derivative of a zombie. Ghoulies are fast on their feet and quintessentially rotten-looking. But their bite does not mutate their victim into another ghoulie. They are consummate eaters in that they devour their victims voraciously, leaving almost nothing behind. Strangely enough, ghoulies are said to appear during thunderstorms when the pounding of the rain awakens them from their slumber. Therefore, they are “common” in the springtime and early fall when the North experiences the greatest amount of rainfall. Ghoulies do not shamble nor are they insomniacs like zombies. In fact, they sleep more than they eat. But they are considered the undead. Supposedly, these monsters are the reanimated corpses of the men, women and children who perished in Sin’s labor camps.

Assumed location: Cool, damp and dark environments such as caves, crypts and the subterranean networks of cities.

Giants, as their name implies, are stout and oversized humanoids who have a much higher threshold for pain and a lifespan in the thousands. They live a homey lifestyle, fond of herding and fishing. But giants are shy, in that they go out of their way not to be seen. However, if provoked, which according to popular opinion involves either stealing their food (“beware the mountain goat,” goes the warning) or contaminating their water source, they will not hesitate to reveal themselves with the intent to kill. Giants are born from the mountains, which gives them their supersized mass, and rarely stray from their stony mothers once conceived. Their bones are believed to reconstitute into the minerals that give rise to the North’s mighty mountains.

Assumed location: About the foothills and caves of mountains.

Waterlily, seductive women who prey on isolated mammals near water, particularly bodies of waters. These monsters live in the water because they are hogtied to water: a waterlily can only kill a mammal when it makes contact with her aquatic abode. Without this contact, as little as a toe, she is helpless and left wanting. But waterlilies evidently prefer humans for sustenance for they will utter any manner of charms and perform all kinds of sensual stunts to capture their attention, the most notorious being to expose their naked bodies out of the water, a lithe finger beckoning the beholder come. Some will allegedly have sex with their human prey before making a meal out of them. It is because of their penchant for wearing a water lily in their hair that gives rise to their name. Supposedly, it evokes the aroma of crushed berries.

Assumed location: The Castriann Sea. It is through either curiosity or boredom that they journey south into the North.

White Konda, great white snakes that strangle their prey and spit venom. There are five in all, each tongueless, and all but one is eyeless. These eyeless four track their prey using their scales which can sense ambient heat. The fifth one, known as the Eye, has a Cyclopean eye that detects the heat since its scales lack the ability of its brethren. Each konda is over a hundred feet long and “appear” during the winter. The other seasons they spend sloughing their skin underground. According to legend, the kondas were created by White when he broke off five of his ribs and forced these down the throats of five cyth lords♦. So doing, he then kneaded their bodies to work out their rigidness and to extend their size. But this popped out the eyes of all save one, whose eyes were instead combined. Their tongues Death ripped out since they’d become too small. To supplement this loss, over four he set a heated boulder so that they could sense the heat of their prey through their bodies, while to the Eye he gave infrared vision with a brand.

Assumed location: The wilderness during the winter. Outside of that season, deep underground.

Thinmen, emaciated humanoid men with elongated limbs and unhingeable joints. Save for an innocuous slit for their ravenous maws and another serving as a nose, they are faceless. Moreover, nothing differentiates one from the other. Since a thinman can unhinge its jaw, it can devour its prey whole. And though they are said to have a shambling gait, they are not considered slow on their feet but can “get at it” when they detect a meal. Thinmen detect their prey via scent, and their preferred prey? Young mammals. Specifically, younglings and auditors, with the occasional calf or lamb when children are unavailable. These beasts, then, are often employed by mariscals and bushcrafters to frighten their charges. The source of many a monster tale.

Assumed location: Any forest, foremost at night.

Vampire, the classic undead bloodsucker. No sparkling. No defenders of helpless humans. They come from evil who will feed on any mammal, even fish. But vampires do not sleep in coffins or transform into bats. Rather, they sleep in crypts or underground tunnels or any dark, decrepit place. The infamous stake to the heart will end them; fire as well—so long as it consumes their heart whole. But neither garlic nor “holy water” has any effect on them. And while sunlight does harm them, it cannot kill them. Legend says that the original vampire was a dark elf who turned to ravenous murder. Therefore, if a human is bitten by one and should they survive (for a vampire’s bite is venomous), they are said to take on the aspect of a dark elf. Fortunately for the wary-minded Northerner, vampires are not thought common.

Assumed location: The farthest corners of the North where humans rarely venture. Where the nights be longer and the daylight scarce.

Sprite, diminutive and sociable creatures who make their homes out of earthly materials such as clay, rock or dirt. Sprites resemble, to an extent, goblins with their long noses and big ears; but they are stark-naked, brown-skinned and slender. They are known to be mischievous, stealing food supplies and weapons, loosing animals from their pens and by their touch causing brown spots to appear on fruits and vegetables. When a soldier becomes suddenly lightheaded upon standing up after drinking, some argue (whether jokingly or not) their beverage was contaminated with a sprite’s urine, which is said to cause dehydration and stomach cramps. Sprites form basic colonies that range from thirty to fifty members, establishing those colonies on grassland prairies or among the hills. Since they are territorial by nature, they raid rival tribes or wipe them out altogether. They are even thought to have their own set of primal rituals and competitions like humans. What’s more, like humans, sprites prefer a sedentary life to a nomadic one.

Assumed location: Havashat Hinterlands save those who choose to pester humans or are bitten by wanderlust.

Draugr, undead warriors who are slaves of Death. These are slow, shambling monsters with wicked strength who are impervious to physical attacks and most weapons save the dirk and rocket-propelled instruments. Draugr are as infamous for their strength as they are for their pair of glassy white eyes: the mark of their possession to White. Since heat can burn them, draugr favor bitterly cold temperatures and environments. The original draugr is thought to have been created by Death after he collected the dismembered parts of an old man who had been murdered for his taboo tastes in meats (i.e., cannibalism). Consequently, draugr have a taste for human flesh.

Assumed location: The coldest reaches of the North such as the shores of the Castriann Sea or the peaks of Lover’s Crest.

Gillspider, eight-legged terrors with the upper body of an obese human and the mug of a spider who abhor the light. The “gill” in their name comes from the gills at the sides of their necks that help them absorb the moisture in the air for gillspiders live deep in the rock. They ensnare their prey in silken webs and slowly feed off them. Naturally, because of these monsters, no small number of Northerners have a phobia of caves. A gillspider’s eight legs, despite having the joint-structure of an arachnid’s, resemble human legs but with barbed hair. Females are thought smaller than their male counterparts but quicker and yet more clever. In spite of their eye-melting appearance, gillspiders are not thought to come from Death’s overactive imagination. Thus, theories surrounding their origins are wild, such as a wolf spider impregnating a sleeping woman.

Assumed location: Deep within the underground of the North.

Werewolves, feral beasts that stalk the North. But there are two distinct breeds of lycan: the lunar werewolf and the dire werewolf. Lunar werewolves are similar to a traditional werewolf in that they are bipedal wolfen humanoids “seen” typically during a full moon. However, they are not men who transform into lycan but are such at conception. Furthermore, these beasts are omnivores, blind and nigh immortal: severing their hearts from their chests is the only way to end them. Silver does them no harm. Loud noises do, for their ears, like their noses, are exceptionally sensitive: both in terms of locating prey and sustaining injury. Dire werewolves are essentially enlarged wolves with a yellowish tint in the whites of their eyes. They are the assumed sires of the common wolf, though less in number. Unlike the common wolf, dire werewolves hunt solo, have a hardier constitution and are more aggressive. Their lone comparison with a lunar werewolf is their tendency to hunt at night while using the day for rest.

Assumed location: Forests for walker werewolves; mountains for dire werewolves.

Sea Ripper, aquatic terrors that prowl the bitter waters of the Castriann Sea. They are like kraken with their display of strong tentacles, but with the ferocious head and neck of a hydra. Scales cover their bodies. Sea rippers are aggressively territorial beasts and can live long lives if they aren’t devoured by their own kind. Curiously, it’s thought that swaying an object before their serpentine eyes will calm them, even put them to sleep. Though sea rippers will kill anything in sight that they either feel threatened by or intend to consume to satisfy their insatiable appetite, their one notable weakness is waterlilies. Waterlilies can tame them and make of them their beasts of burden. Tales abound of these she-devils standing upon the broad backs of a sea ripper, speaking to it their sinister commands.

Assumed location: Castriann Sea.

Moonknights, tall specters who manifest at night in the moonlight. Supposedly, moonknights are the ghosts of the lonely and tormented who perished during the Tyrant’s reign of terror. Their name hails from their famed armor which reflects the light of the Artemisian moon and which is composed of the tears the ghosts shed when realizing their spirit was still bound to the rock after death. It is no surprise, then, that a moonknight would be morose and cold of spirit. Still, moonknights are not considered dangerous to human life. They may be approached. They may even assist a human who is in mortal peril—or they may pursue him to the death if they be particularly spiteful towards the living. Like werewolves and draugr, moonknights are solitary creatures, but are more inclined to wander for they have no set territory.

Assumed location: Across the North, though they share an affinity for its deserted settlements.

Spider-witch, disfigured and emaciated women who worship the Night. These nocturnal evils feast on adults and children alike by luring them into traps, often involving webs, which they secrete through their withered flesh. Spider-witches live together in groups of seven called havens, with the most senior spider-witch called the Blackeyes, for she is believed to have multiple eyes like a spider: each one black to symbolize the absence of a soul. Moreover, she is immortal. Spider-witches worship the Night because, according to legend, they were birthed by the Night. As for how the Night gave birth to these hags (since the Night, though she has a gender, has no form), there are many theories. When a spider-witch dies, the Blackeyes will command a young woman be abducted to replace the loss. Their haven must always be at seven, otherwise, every witch, the Blackeyes included, will perish due to an occult oath they made with the Night.

Assumed location: The many forests of the North.

Ogres, ugly and short-statured beasts who will sleep just about anywhere: in hovels, upon hills, under bridges, even inside old meat freezers. Part of their love for rest has to do with their need to hibernate during the winter. No ogre stands above five feet and most have large potbellies which they beat or slap to communicate with others. They tend to live in wooden huts and are famed as much for their lethargy as for their love of flowers. They eat flowers, wear flowers and even go so far as to cultivate flowers. As the popular refrain goes, “Go for a meadow, find an ogre.” The greatest meadows of the North, the Adonis and Spuns, were created by ogres—or so it’s said. But contrary to the above refrain, ogres are, fittingly, hard to find. Because they are so hideous to behold, they are self-conscious over their appearance and prefer not to be seen, foremost by humans whose beauty they envy. So, ogres are largely benign. But should one awaken them from their slumber, they will not find these creatures so forgiving.

Assumed location: Among broad fields exposed to the sky.

Organchewers, one of the more unsettling monsters in the North, organchewers are as their name states: devourers of organs, especially mammalian. An organchewer resembles an enlarged cricket, except they don’t hop. Upon locating a target, it will dash towards it, attach itself to the victim’s body using the barbs on its legs, and promptly scurry towards the face. From there it will force its way into the mouth and delve into to get to the organs. Organchewers, therefore, devour their victims from the inside out and will burst out of the chest cavity much like a particular alien from a particular movie. Fortunately, these monsters are short-lived and spend the majority of their brief lives underground, exiting largely to procreate. Furthermore, due to their aversion to the cold, they “appear” only when the climate has warmed sufficient to their liking.

Assumed location: The Lower North where the temperatures are a bit more tolerable.

♦A cyth lord is a genus of viper, in particular, the puff adder. They can be found in the North as well as in the Spiritmark. It is by far the most venomous snake in Magnesa with death resulting in about 10 minutes.