Earthdawn Revisited - An Explorers Guide to Barsaive (Flora, Flora and Monsters)

Return to home page:

= Physical Beings: =

Dragons

 * Western (Or Earth) Dragons - Intelligent name-givers that have been know to eat people that put them on a list of creatures. Often the size of a large house, flying, firebreathing and sometimes skilled warriors and magicians.
 * Leviathans (or Water) Dragons - Sea-serpents of great intelligence and size.
 * There are tales of Air and Fire dragons from elsewhere in the world, but these have not been confirmed by scholars.

Name-givers

 * Dwarves
 * Elves
 * Humans
 * Obsidimen
 * Orcs
 * T’skrang
 * Trolls
 * Windlings

Twisted name-givers and suspected Name-givers

 * Horror-touched
 * Changelings - Windlings corrupted by the horrors that are capable of shaping bone with their bare hands. They invariably kill travellers only after torturing them and folding their skulls inwards upon their brains.
 * Quizlings
 * Blood Adepts - Those who use the forbidden art of blood sacrifice to empower their adept abilities without sacrificing their artistic skill.
 * Drakes: Name-Givers instilled with draconic essence and able to shift between humanoid and small dragon-like forms. Extremely secretive, believed to be working as spies for dragon masters.
 * Awakened animals - mundane animals with name-giver levels of intelligence and the ability to shift in to a human form.
 * The Infected (The blood disease)
 * Ghouls - Humans infected by the flesh disease. that diminishes their sight, increases their sense of smell and makes them obligate cannibals. They can only survive on name-giver flesh leading many to kill themselves in despair first.
 * Bane Sidhe - Elves infected with the blood disease
 * Vampires - Humans infected with the blood disease

The corporeal dead:

 * Souls and bodies are quite different things and both may meet with unfortunate ends. When a body is neither cremated nor buried with proper rites and wards, the empty vessel can become host to a number of entities which animate their flesh.
 * Shedim (Fresh) - These opportunistic horrors will possess an empty corpse they find. However they are completely unaccustomed to their new bodies and must spend time learning how to move them meaning that they are initially slow, clumsy and barely able to perceive their surroundings. They can pose a threat in large numbers however. They can be killed by decapitation, burning or other means of catastrophic destruction. When animated they will kill those around them to create more hosts for their fellow Shedim.
 * Shedim (Exprienced) - If a Shedim survives its initial creation process it becomes far more dangerous. Able to properly control its body it can run and use weapons (although without much finesse)
 * Shedim (Elder) - After decades of existence some Sheddim can even learn to speak and appear as a normal namegiver. It must learn all of this from scratch and can even use a type of horror magic to restore its host body to the state it was in when it died, leaving it hard to distinguish from a living person. They become careful and cruel, infiltrating populations and inflicting death on a large scale with poison or disease.
 * Preserved dead (Shadim-possessed Mummies) - Whilst such practices are broadly outlawed, some civilisations practice ritualistic burial. They preserve the dead in tombs and mausoleums. When Sheddim possess these long-dead vessels, they have no chance to make them appear normal. But in time they can make them inhumanly strong and fast. Their preserved flesh holding the spirit to them firmly.
 * Cadavermen - These are created as a part of a curse, either by Horrors or cruel Nethermancers binding the soul of the deceased to their own body. They are still intelligent people raised from death. They are unable to eat anything but the flesh of name-givers they are driven by unbearable gnawing hunger pains unless they have recently eaten. They appear as near-rotten corpses but some have inhuman strength that degrades over time.
 * Summoned dead (Skeletons/zombies) - Whilst this is frowned upon, it is not as foul as creating Cadavermen it is possible for a nethermancer to animate the decaying meat or bones of a person to create a simple automaton. These creatures have no will and are simple puppets to the creators will.
 * Drowned dead - Those who die at sea may be possessed by other creatures. These bloated corpses are much like Sheddim, but driven by a different spiritual parasite that has a corporeal phase of its life cycle. They drown their victims and use them as hosts for tiny worm-like parasites that infest bodies of water seeking more corpses. They have a similar lack of finesse to Sheddim possessed corpses, but are able to swim and possess great strength.

Remnants

 * (Semi-intelligent creatures that might have been other branches of name-giver)
 * Pangoli - Social, omnivorous ape-like creatures believed to have some kin-ship to humans but have a beastial level of intelligence akin to a dog.
 * Feral Trolls - Degenerate creatures descended from Trolls that have forgotten their names. Much stronger than their civilised cousins they mix raiding with some crude barter and carry random weapons like large stone axes or clubs
 * Harpies - Semi-intelligent flying humanoids that attack in flocks and are terrible carriers of diseases and parasites.
 * Ogres - Intelligent but brutish humanoids that can smell precious metals and gems and carry unnaturally tough clubs. there is rumoured to be a rare variant of Ogre that can instantly heal its self.
 * Yeti/Sasquach - Arguably intelligent but having no ability to speak or write. They are shy and retiring but able to mimic almost any sound. They are rarely seen but rabies and the blood disease can drive them from their homes in violent rampages.
 * Naga - large snakes with a bald name-giver face. They are capable of camouflage, entrancement and may be able to practice magic.

Horror-touched

 * It is unclear exactly which beasts were twisted by the Horrors and which are the product of deranged mages. So see the Magically enhanced beasts.

Common Beasts

 * Greater mammals:
 * Giraffe
 * Hippopotamus
 * Rhinoceros
 * Elephantines:
 * Dyers - enormous herbivorous herd-dwellers that have two lower tusk akin to those of an elephant but reversed. Deceptively quick when angered. Sometimes used as cavalry by Orks and Trolls, but very hard to domesticate. They can toss a human-sized person up to 30 feet into the air.
 * Elephants - Unavailable this far North, but they are used extensively by the Therans as beast of labour.
 * Mammoths
 * Primates:
 * Chimps
 * Gorillas
 * Orangutangs
 * Lemurs
 * Galagos
 * Lorisids
 * Equines:
 * Horses
 * Draft horses
 * Riding Horses
 * War Horses
 * Ponies
 * Granlain (A large sub-species of horse that can carry Trolls)
 * Donkeys
 * Mules
 * Zebra
 * Carnivores:
 * Canines:
 * Wolves
 * Domestic Dogs
 * Hunting Dogs
 * War Dogs
 * Riding Dogs
 * Felines:
 * Troajins - Tiger-like animals used as mounts by Dwarves native to certain forests and jungles, 4 feet tall at the shoulder with a 5 foot long body and a 3 foot long tail. (100 sp)
 * Kaer Cats (What we would call `Domestic cats`)
 * Great cats (lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards)
 * Ursines:
 * Bears (Some argue that this should be categorised as a magical beast owing to its animosity to humans and ability to be summoned by saying its true name which is why they are commonly called bears, which just means `Brown ones`)
 * Foxes
 * Hyenas
 * Avian:
 * Zoak - A difficult to train beast somewhere between a lizard-like bird and a bat. With plumage on the head and chest, but leathery wings and a curved beak. (115 sp)
 * Chickens
 * Ducks
 * Geese
 * Dodo - Small easy to raise flightless birds
 * Various waterfowl and other birds.
 * Bovines: (Cloven hooves)
 * Cattle,
 * Aurochs - Large semi-domesticated cattle
 * Yaks
 * Cows
 * Sheep
 * Goats
 * Llama
 * Pigs:
 * Boars
 * Pigs
 * Deer
 * Antelopes
 * Gazelle
 * Small mammals:
 * Lagomorphs
 * Rabbits
 * Hares
 * Pika
 * Mustelids:
 * Weasles
 * Ferrets
 * Stoats
 * Vermin
 * Bats
 * Moles
 * Rats
 * Mice
 * Numerous others
 * Reptiles: (Yes this is deliberately anachronistic)
 * Turtles
 * Tortoise
 * Crocodilians
 * Aligators
 * Crocodiles
 * Snakes
 * Amphibians
 * Lizards
 * Frogs
 * Toads
 * Salamanders
 * Invertebrates:
 * Insects
 * Spiders
 * Scorpions

Magically enhanced beasts

 * There is a very grey area between magical and mundane beasts. Some birds appear to be able to detect and avoid high magic areas. Some beasts have a terrifying life-cycle, unique physical abilities or grotesque appearances that can only be the result of magical manipulation, The following are just the most clear-cut cases known about. Most magical animals are a result of magical experimentation or accidents. Horror-touched beasts are the result of direct intervention by the horrors.
 * Many mundane animals have magically transformed counterparts that grow to an enormous size. The most obvious of these is the Wyrd Mantis, a preying mantis about the size of a human.
 * Dracoforms: (Excluding True Dragons)
 * Aždaja (or Hydra) - 7 headed beasts the size of a small cottage. They can breath fire or have other abilities. There is known to be a large bounty for evidence of their destruction posted by various parties.
 * Wyverns - Two-legged dragonoids. Unintelligent and feral creatures only about 30 feet long. Claw-tipped wings and a barbed stinger on the tail which drips with a deadly poison.
 * Espagra - Flying dragon-like creatures with an iguana-like head about 12 feet long. Not intelligent, they are hunted for their brilliant hide which is imbued with tiny amounts of true air and makes the most fetching leathers.
 * Flying creatures:
 * Chakta Birds - Intelligent social flocks of black corvids with gold tipped wings and red flecks in their feathers. Known to attack travellers that do not know how to placate them.
 * Cockatrice - Bird-lizard hybrids, featuring a beak with teeth, bird-like wings and body but a lizard-like tail set with highly poisonous barbs.
 * Firebird - A bird made of living flame that lives only in the rolling lava of the Deaths Sea. Possibly the same creature as the very similarly named Fire Eagle.
 * Crakbills - 5 foot tall flightless carnivorous birds with a hatchet-like beak and long running legs. They are feared for their paralysing breath.
 * Chimeras - Large flying beasts with a lions head, 2 additional heads to either side and bat-like wings. Renowned for being exceptionally stupid.
 * Ice Flyer - White winged baboon creatures that fly and fight in flocks of up to 2 dozen. They can magically freeze their victims to the spot.
 * Pegasus - Winged Horses. Unlike horses they are extremely difficult to domesticate.
 * Shadowmants - Flying manta-rays that carry a viscious stinger that can kill a troll in a few minutes.
 * Shrieker Bat - 4 foot long bat-like creatures that have large eyes and small ears, which can paralyse victims with their screech and can shatter brittle items, even swords in some cases.
 * Quadrapeds
 * Basilisks - Small lizard-like creatures about 4 foot long with a rooster-like comb on their head. very dangerous creatures that kill with their gaze.
 * Brithan - A cross between a Bear and an elemental having a bad day. They look ursine except for a pair of curved ram horns.
 * Cerberus Hound - A three=headed dog that can spit acid and conceal its self.
 * Dog-Asps - a normal-sized snake which can emit a barking sound that leads animals astray.
 * Felux - A lion breed changed by magic to give it eyes about as large as a human palm. These eyes can be used to illuminate an area like daylight and they can strobe their light to disorient their prey.
 * Fenrir Wolves - Horse-sized wolves that are magically resistant.
 * Golden Boar - A boar-like creature with supernatural regenerative abilities.
 * Hell Hounds - Dog-like creatures with flaming eyes that can breath gouts of fire. Intelligent pack hunters
 * Lightning Lizard - Dog sized lizards with long tails that can shoot lightning from their eyes and can warp themselves in an electrical discharge.
 * Manticores - Intelligent spell-casting beasts driven mad by the Horrors. with the face of a name-giver, the body of a lion, bat wings and a mace-like tail.
 * Unicorns - Powerful horses with a spear-like horn. Some believe they are peaceful and can destroy horrors if approached by people of exceptional spiritual purity. Others report being gorged by the horn. The horn is reported to be able to detect and purge and poison if ground up and digested.
 * Vetta - Gazelle like-creatures that can suck the energy out of people and animals alike and leave them lazy and listless.
 * Plague-lizard - a wolf-sized lizard-rat hybrid that spreads plague through its many pustules on its skin.
 * Saural - Lizard-frog creatures that live primarily in the Serpent river and secrete a potent acid.
 * Skeorx - A horse-sized tiger-like creature with a snake-like tail with razor-sharp bones. aggressive, resistant to magic and with claws that can shred plate steel they are highly dangerous.
 * Storm Wolves - Taller than mundane wolves and found in packs of up to 2 dozen strong. They can summon and control storms. In stories they often help heroes and are staunch enemies of corruption.
 * Wild Minotaur - A bull-like creature with a dwarf-like face. curiously no females of this species have ever been observed.
 * Humanoids
 * Willow-the-wisps - Tiny humanoids that often give off light. Highly variable in their nature, some are hostile, some are passive only guiding people to a ruin. Some can twist magic and some create sound rather than light. Unclear if these are the same creatures as the ghostly Lostlings.
 * Triplicants - humanoids with sub-name-giver intelligence that can summon duplicates of themselves (normally an additional 2 hence the name)
 * Plagues - Gaunt humanoid figures that spread pestilence and disease capable of evading attacks by use of illusions.
 * Insectoids:
 * Greater Termites - cat-sized termites that can chew through metal and stone and work as a co-ordinated collony.
 * Worm-like creatures
 * Krilworm - Nocturnal flying worms about 6-12 inches long, they are winged one-eyed serpent-shaped creatures with a large maw and a single eye each. Its tail has 4 poisonous tentacles upon it and they swarm like piranahs in the air. Nethermancers traditionally have an affinity for them.
 * Krillra - about 15 foot long versions of the Krilworm they are often found in the midst of swarms of the smaller creatures.
 * Earth Q'wril - A harmless but strange creature able to move through the earth as easily as if it were water. It looks like a cross between a mole and serpent about as long as a human forearm.
 * Sea Snakes - large amphibious snakes that are warm blooded and omnivorous. A threat to swimmers in many rivers.
 * Others:
 * Leechrat - A 6 legged rodent that rides upon a larger beast as a controlling parasite.
 * Qural - Jungle-dwelling things that live in tree tops they are know for their paralysing tentacles that can drain a namegiver body of all blood in just under a minute.

Possibly magical beasts
Currently unknown if they are unusual natural beasts or the result of magical breeding.


 * Thundra Beasts - A barely domesticated brute that seems to be a cross between a dinosaur and a rhino. Used by Ork scorcher cavalry and some trolls.
 * Huttawa - Creatures with the body of a lion or tiger but the head of an Eagle. about 4 foot at the shoulder. Not terribly bright carnivores. (95 sp)
 * Kue - Creatures with a lizard-like body but feline facial features and mannerisms, used as ground mounts by Windlings. (90 - 100sp)
 * Griffin - Griffins have the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. They are fierce predators, swooping down on their foes to pin them. Once their prey is trapped and helpless, they tear them open with their sharp beaks. None were kept in Kaers and only a handful have been carefully raised from eggs since the scourge. These are so rare as to be unavailable on the open market. They can fly, but can not stay airborne for long with a rider.

= Incorporeal: =

Spirits of death (Ghosts)

 * Ghosts: Below are numerous types of ghost, but all at all types take at least a day or two to manifest and a proper funeral in that time will prevent them from becoming ghosts. Once a ghost has formed and is laid to rest a funeral is almost always held anyway, though it's usefulness is debated in academic circles, it is almost always done for good measure by all wise death-guides. These are only a sampling and many hundreds of types of restless spirits are known to exist, each with their own specific rituals to grant release. However there are a few common themes:
 * They seek to inflict their fate on others.
 * They will generally give away details about their death by their actions
 * Remedying their needs in life is a way of laying them to rest (e.g. finding the lost, recognising the lonely, bringing justice to a victim or food to the starving.)
 * In most cases people killed as the result of a ghostly possession or action become lost souls themselves which are immediately subsumed in to the original ghost, creating a more powerful spirit. However when the original spirit is laid to rest, the names and details of the subsumed ghosts appear in the minds of all those around, allowing for proper funerary rites to be done for the ghosts victims.
 * There are specialists called Death-Guides, well versed in funerary practices, wards, charms and herbs that allow them to lay restless souls to peace. These are often, but not always nethermancer adepts as their magic can give them some advantages in identifying the cause of a restless spirit. Nethermancers can also destroy the restless dead, but this is believed to amount to the extermination of their soul and nethermancers who do this are easy prey for both madness and the influence of the horrors.
 * Special types of ghost: (there are almost countless types, but these are known varieties)
 * Spectral Dancers - contrary to their name, not all are dancers, though dancing examples are the most prevalent. These are the ghosts of people who died whilst obsessed with their art. They are seen by others who share their passion and enthrall victims out into endless performances far from help until they die of exhaustion. However as they are dead, they can not create new art, only repeat existing performances by rote.
 * Lostlings: Died not knowing where they are (often at sea). Incorporeal ghosts that distort the world around them, producing false lights, slowly growing their area of influence causing others to lose their way.sometimes as many as a dozen people can be lost in a single house and if not dealt with, more can be formed, leading to missing towns. They can be addressed several ways. First they need to be found, which requires a length of thread tied to a major landmark and a compass, map, sextant or other navigational aid. Rather than pointing North or similar, it points to the lost soul. The spirit(s) must be handed the twine along which they return home.
 * Lonelings: Similar to Lostlings they are socially lost. They died unnoticed or unmourned. They are incorporeal undead that inhabit an area that cause people within its influence to become unable to see or hear each other. Causing a place to become like a ghost town, though people can still be heard calling in the distance. Laying them to rest is theoretically easy. They need to be called by name three times and told to rest which causes them to appear (calling any of their victims three times by name also ends the spell on them, though they need to leave the area lest they succumb again). This can require a lot of investigation. Burning sage can ward off the ghosts effect.
 * Hungerlings: Died of starvation. They inhabit the bodies of others but exert no control. Instead they cause food to literally turn to ask in the victims mouth. An unbroken circle of bread and other foods can contain and compel them. The spirit must be asked for its favourite food, it is unable to lie. Giving it the food it desires lays it to rest and breaks the curse.
 * Battlelings: Those who died in war linger as spirits that possess the living. The victims dress themselves in a semblance of their old uniforms and return to take up arms against any who wear colours they don't recognise. Because of these, most armies allow an armistice to gather and repatriate the dead, but sometimes invading armies intentionally do not grant this, in order to leave a lingering problem in the lands of their enemies. They can be dismissed by wearing a high ranking uniform of the appropriate army and calling out asking the soldier in the name of their country/cause to state their name, rank and home. Then they need only be formally relieved and paid a coin to be laid to rest.
 * Murderlings: Unavenged murder victims. These are vengeful spirits that Incorporeally haunt the place of their death. They possess people and try to re-enact the crime that leed to their deaths. They can be laid to rest by the suitable authorities formally identifying and passing sentence against and punishing the murderer. Notably it must be the correct person and the sentence must be appropriately harsh, but sometimes a ghost reappears if the wrong person was convicted.
 * Vainlings: Somebody who died looking at their own reflection. These ghosts are bound to the reflective surface they last saw themselves in. But it is important not to shatter the mirror. Because if even a tiny shard is missed, the ghost persists. The ghost is invisible except in mirrors, where it appears in an idealised form, but can exert force on reflections even if the victim can't see it. So it could strangle a victim seeming like an invisible force but looking at the victim in a mirror shows the attacking ghost. They can be subdued for a time with silver weapons but it is hard to fight with a mirror in one hand. But the ghost can be laid to rest with a sufficiently skillful and impressive piece of art commemorating them.
 * Suicidelings: Suicide is generally rare given that it is known that restless souls rise from it, as well as being illegal, but that doesn't stop it from happening, most commonly by those who wish to avoid interrogation by their enemies and by foolish teens. They posses people in the area and try to recreate the circumstances of their own suicide.
 * Mage who dies whilst astrally projecting
 * Cannibals.
 * Hungry dead
 * Sky-Fallen

Spirits of elements (Elementals)

 * Fire
 * Air
 * Earth
 * Water

Spirits of nature (Fae)
Technically they are just another type of elemental spirit but as they embody living things their behaviours are more elaborate and complex.


 * Wood
 * Beast

Spirits of beyond (Horrors)

 * Shadows - A living shadow made from a soul torn from its body by the horrors. Capable of possessing people and mimicking a real shadow.
 * Nightwists - Ephemeral spirit creatures that corrupt the magic of an area
 * True Horrors - No two Horrors are the same, they originate from beyond this world and appear to require a high magic level to survive in our world. They appear to feed upon the pain and suffering of intelligent people which also allows them to survive longer in lower magic areas.
 * Lesser Horrors - These spirit-creatures are reflections of their parent Horrors.
 * Shedim - Spirits that possess the corpses of the dead and re-animate them to slaughter more of the living. They are the primary reason that burial is generally outlawed and cremation is the primary method of disposing of the dead.
 * Insect Spirits - These beings are only ambiguously classified as Horrors. They seek out pacts with mages and form cults, they manifest as various sorts of giant insects and can create hybrid host bodies with phenomenal strength.
 * Blights - Lesser Horrors of disease that inflict contagion on people.

= Flora = Most of Barsaive is covered in thick tall forests that have not known the taste of a lumber jacks axe in centuries.

Barsaive woods are dominated by broadleaved species: willows and poplars in river valleys, alders on swamps, and mixed forests dominated by oaks, hornbeams and limes in other parts of the country. In some regions these dry-ground forests may also feature beeches, spruces and sycamores. This diversity of tree species supports rich wildlife. Local trees include: the common oak, black alder, common elm, European white elm, white willow and small-leaved lime.

However its larger forests are largely coniferous with pines and spruces.

Return to home page: