The Valkyrie
June 14th, 2006, 02:35 PM
"They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned -- well, if that's so, the harpies have three millenia of scorn pent up in each of them."
-Esseker Nomad
Harpies: Before the wrath of Vadhya swept over Fallien and remade it, it is said that a female prophet from beyond the seas came and drew maidens of the tribes away from their scriptures, forsaking both Suravani and Mitra for a fabricated god. Instead of allowing them to perish in the Vadhya, Mitra swept the women up and twisted their bodies to horrid feathered beasts, a cross between woman and foul carrion bird.
Harpies commonly kidnap Fallien children and carry them off, screaming to their lair-nests. There they "eat" them, by sucking out their life and turning them to ash, and absorb their youth. Harpies are incredibly vain, and cannot stand being called ugly (1 in every 10 harpies are actually good looking). Mitra had originally intended on forcing them to live short lives of misery and pain (particularly the molting), but the harpies' queen was clever, and discovered ways to keep living to punish the others of Fallien.
"The sweetest of lips holds the deadliest of poisons."
- Fallien Proverb
Rava Featherblood: In aftermath of the Vadhya, when the harpies were vomited down onto the dry and thirsty earth, it became apparent that not all of the maidens had suffered the worst of the repercussions. Among those few rose Rava Featherblood, a hellion amidst the shrieking feathered demons. She viciously fought against the others that scrabbled to lead the harpies and through both a clever wit and sharp talons, rose to her status as queen in a glory of blood gore.
Rava appears as any usual woman would, save for a large pair of brown feathered wings that grace her back, though the tremendous claws on her fingers and warped feet cresting with talons at times off put the desperate men. Like all Harpies, Rava shuns clothing as she associates it with the humans that they all hate. The denizens of Fallien call her and her kind (the less mutated of harpies) the "Desert Sirens", as their beauty has drawn many men to a messy and painful death.
"I can only pray that when I die, I truly will become a phoenix."
-Deklan Warrior
Phoenix: These tremendous birds make their nests on the platueas towards the heart of the desert, and when their feathers catch the sunlight, the radiant glow rivals that of any king's treasure vaults. Old Fallien fables say that a phoenix is born at the fall of the strongest, most courageous warriors, and even when killed by a hunter's arrows, or a poacher's blade, its body will ignite in flames and crumble to ash, from which a younger phoenix arises in a nova of flame. Usually docile and friendly creatures, to infuriate a phoenix is to make an enemy with it's entire flock. It is said that these amazing birds will give you a crop of their feathers, which yield magical qualities, if one instills trust in you.
"It came shrieking terribly from across three dunes to the north, swaddled in rags and waving a worn and scuffed scimitar over it's head. It killed three guards with it's teeth and another two with it's rusty blade before [Urusua] cleaved it in two with his axe. It's horrific orange eyes, burning like coals, still terrorise my nights."
- Hatazista Merchant
The Arta: Fallien was once a land of fortune and green, but now that hospitality is gone and the land is unforgiving and cruel. The dry, hot sands take many travellers each day from carelessness. These travellers, often dwelling on a rage to be taken so soon, are drawn back by the desert as the Arta, terrible dead things that prowl the sands to take their vengeance out on those more fortunate than themselves. In the daylight, they can be easily avoided from the dark spot of sand that marks their graves, a stain of color akin to blood, but at night, it's more difficult to see. The Arta travel through the desert like fish through water; beneath the suirface, which makes them a formidable enemy if one isn't prepared to fight them.
The Arta can be identified by the stained, dirty wraps of silk that cover their often emaciated forms, their glowing orange eyes peering out from beyond. It is said to see the face of the Arta is to go mad. Even the hardiest of knights scouring the desert on peregrination have at times returned with bloodied mouths from ruptured voice boxes from months of continual screaming, eyes wild. Swift in step and motion, an unarmed Arta (which is common) can still be deadly.
“I once saw a wild one in the desert on a moonless night. At first, I mistook it for my own Shas, but in the knowing glance of the eyes, I saw the beast uninhibited by drugs. If it weren’t for the flash of light from my lantern, I would have become it’s next meal. It was the first time I’d seen one wild, and I pray every night with all that I am that it will be the last.”
-Nirrakali Man
Karuku-tal - These strange feline creatures had once lived in harmony with other beings upon Fallien. The Vadhya, however, drove them past the brink of insanity, twisting their minds and their bodies into something terrible even as the lush lands of Fallien were withered away. Before this, they had been noble creatures. Pampered and worshipped by commoners, kept as guardians and familiars by Fallien’s kings, they were considered more valuable than their weight in gold, more precious than a good horse. When Suravani took down the kingdoms, her wrath was turned as well to these pets. She took the daylight hunters and made them unable to stand the golden sun, the gleaming full moon. She took their loves, and turned them against them. Driven mad by the pain they could not comprehend, they took to the desert and the vast caverns found there. Now, mere shadows of their former glory, they are monsters that stalk through the desert on cloudy and moonless nights. The Nirrakali have developed an anti-psychotic drug to use on them, and keep them as familiars and guardians. Care of these are crucial, as neglecting the needs of the sensitive skin of these beasts and allowing them to harm themselves with an open window or faulty doorway will break the hold of the drugs, pain pushing them again into the madness that makes them killers.
Their general structure is that of an Earthian cheetah. A cat with a long, lean body. Very little body fat is found on these, their heads are small and flat, their hair so short it is nearly fluff, and brindled in color like that of a boxer. Their liquid movement is due to the fact that they have no bones, but cartilage. It makes them lighter and more flexible, but they also use it to their advantage in their cave homes, squeezing through crannies they shouldn’t have been able to in the first place. They are almost incapable of being brought down with bludgeoning, as their frame bends with the blows and comes right back. Master hunters, movement attracts them. Sensors in their noses pick up on electromagnetic fields, and long whiskers act as dishes to channel and code these signals. The electricity made by the diaphram of a human breathing is enough to bring those who are closeby, and they also use the sensing equipment to find their way thorugh the tunnels that they unwillingly call home. Their eyes have been changed, pupils turning milky, though the irises have kept their dark color.
While their inability to cope with the darkness has made their eyes almost useless, they need not risk the light to know when it is safe to come out. These electromagnetic sensors are pulled by the moon as much as the tide is, and on new moon nights, they swarm the desert, fulfilling their need to be free. Their thick, heavy claws allow the Karuku-tal to burrow through the sands as easily as sharks swim in the waters, making them terribly dangerous in the desert. Attacks will come from below, so travelers on dark nights must be aware of the difference between sand moving from the wind and sand moving from a Karuku-tal attack. In the caves, they are just as deadly. Their claws can retract, and on the underside of their paws, they have pads as a gecko does. Scaling up a vertical surface is easy for them, and the smaller ones can even sit on a ceiling, waiting for someone to pass by under them.
They are made for survival, for even twisted into the shadows that they used to keep the Fallien people safe from, they have indeed survived. When first they moved to the caves, they were on the edge of extinction. While the population isn’t bursting, it is comfortable, and no other creature in the desert seems to have any negative effect on them. Their one weakness is light. Any kind of light will burn their skin, and send them screaming to their caves. Only the strongest, most hardy, and most rare of these creatures have begun to withstand weak moonlight.
"They say these beasts can speak and think and write as a human can, but I don't believe it. I only know they take our livestock - and our children if we're not wary." -Spice farmer, Ruuya
Desert Drakes - Rather than flying these creatures glide on the rising air currents from the heated desert sands and random oases found throughout the dunes. They have two different sets of claws. The front set is razor sharp and retractable, giving them a deadly weapon in conjunction with their teeth. In addition the front limbs are quite nimble giving them the ability to manipulate objects almost as well as a human. The back set of claws is much more shovel like, allowing the creature to dig deeply into the sands of Fallien’s deserts. It is beneath these sands that the drakes sleep, emerging at sunrise and thriving on the wind currents the heat of the day brings. They are covered in strong plates of mottled greys and tans which although difficult to break are surprisingly lightweight. Desert drakes are quite intelligent, and are thought to have a language and hierarchy of their own, including a leader for each region or hive of drakes.
"We were traveling by the light of the moon, when suddenly these creatures appeared before us. I thought they came from behind the dunes, but there were so many of them. I was certain we would die, but our guide whispered some strange Fallien word and they all disappeared." -Outlandish Trader
Summons – Taking various shapes, these creatures are slaves to the Oasis shamans. Often seen in the form of a falcon or a hound, they attack Outlanders and other assumed enemies of the Oasis tribes. Stronger and larger than their mundane counterparts, Summons are difficult to best and often appear out of thin air and disappear again in the same manner. It is said that a single word can banish them if one knows it.
"There was a scraping metallic sound while I was gathering water at the oasis outside of camp, and when I turned there was a massive scorpion behind me. I screamed, dropping the water, and later I heard that a man had been crushed to death trying to kill the scorpion. Suravani bless his soul." -Nomadic tribeswoman
Giant Scorpions – Usually measuring between four and six feet long, and equipped with deadly pincers and even deadlier venom, this desert hunter is not a beast you want to meet while traversing the dunes. These nocturnal creatures will attack if provoked, often using their pincers to crush a victim to death. This is preferable to their sting which leaves a victim writhing in pain for several hours before violent seizures and then death. The smaller the scorpion is, the deadlier its venom.
-Esseker Nomad
Harpies: Before the wrath of Vadhya swept over Fallien and remade it, it is said that a female prophet from beyond the seas came and drew maidens of the tribes away from their scriptures, forsaking both Suravani and Mitra for a fabricated god. Instead of allowing them to perish in the Vadhya, Mitra swept the women up and twisted their bodies to horrid feathered beasts, a cross between woman and foul carrion bird.
Harpies commonly kidnap Fallien children and carry them off, screaming to their lair-nests. There they "eat" them, by sucking out their life and turning them to ash, and absorb their youth. Harpies are incredibly vain, and cannot stand being called ugly (1 in every 10 harpies are actually good looking). Mitra had originally intended on forcing them to live short lives of misery and pain (particularly the molting), but the harpies' queen was clever, and discovered ways to keep living to punish the others of Fallien.
"The sweetest of lips holds the deadliest of poisons."
- Fallien Proverb
Rava Featherblood: In aftermath of the Vadhya, when the harpies were vomited down onto the dry and thirsty earth, it became apparent that not all of the maidens had suffered the worst of the repercussions. Among those few rose Rava Featherblood, a hellion amidst the shrieking feathered demons. She viciously fought against the others that scrabbled to lead the harpies and through both a clever wit and sharp talons, rose to her status as queen in a glory of blood gore.
Rava appears as any usual woman would, save for a large pair of brown feathered wings that grace her back, though the tremendous claws on her fingers and warped feet cresting with talons at times off put the desperate men. Like all Harpies, Rava shuns clothing as she associates it with the humans that they all hate. The denizens of Fallien call her and her kind (the less mutated of harpies) the "Desert Sirens", as their beauty has drawn many men to a messy and painful death.
"I can only pray that when I die, I truly will become a phoenix."
-Deklan Warrior
Phoenix: These tremendous birds make their nests on the platueas towards the heart of the desert, and when their feathers catch the sunlight, the radiant glow rivals that of any king's treasure vaults. Old Fallien fables say that a phoenix is born at the fall of the strongest, most courageous warriors, and even when killed by a hunter's arrows, or a poacher's blade, its body will ignite in flames and crumble to ash, from which a younger phoenix arises in a nova of flame. Usually docile and friendly creatures, to infuriate a phoenix is to make an enemy with it's entire flock. It is said that these amazing birds will give you a crop of their feathers, which yield magical qualities, if one instills trust in you.
"It came shrieking terribly from across three dunes to the north, swaddled in rags and waving a worn and scuffed scimitar over it's head. It killed three guards with it's teeth and another two with it's rusty blade before [Urusua] cleaved it in two with his axe. It's horrific orange eyes, burning like coals, still terrorise my nights."
- Hatazista Merchant
The Arta: Fallien was once a land of fortune and green, but now that hospitality is gone and the land is unforgiving and cruel. The dry, hot sands take many travellers each day from carelessness. These travellers, often dwelling on a rage to be taken so soon, are drawn back by the desert as the Arta, terrible dead things that prowl the sands to take their vengeance out on those more fortunate than themselves. In the daylight, they can be easily avoided from the dark spot of sand that marks their graves, a stain of color akin to blood, but at night, it's more difficult to see. The Arta travel through the desert like fish through water; beneath the suirface, which makes them a formidable enemy if one isn't prepared to fight them.
The Arta can be identified by the stained, dirty wraps of silk that cover their often emaciated forms, their glowing orange eyes peering out from beyond. It is said to see the face of the Arta is to go mad. Even the hardiest of knights scouring the desert on peregrination have at times returned with bloodied mouths from ruptured voice boxes from months of continual screaming, eyes wild. Swift in step and motion, an unarmed Arta (which is common) can still be deadly.
“I once saw a wild one in the desert on a moonless night. At first, I mistook it for my own Shas, but in the knowing glance of the eyes, I saw the beast uninhibited by drugs. If it weren’t for the flash of light from my lantern, I would have become it’s next meal. It was the first time I’d seen one wild, and I pray every night with all that I am that it will be the last.”
-Nirrakali Man
Karuku-tal - These strange feline creatures had once lived in harmony with other beings upon Fallien. The Vadhya, however, drove them past the brink of insanity, twisting their minds and their bodies into something terrible even as the lush lands of Fallien were withered away. Before this, they had been noble creatures. Pampered and worshipped by commoners, kept as guardians and familiars by Fallien’s kings, they were considered more valuable than their weight in gold, more precious than a good horse. When Suravani took down the kingdoms, her wrath was turned as well to these pets. She took the daylight hunters and made them unable to stand the golden sun, the gleaming full moon. She took their loves, and turned them against them. Driven mad by the pain they could not comprehend, they took to the desert and the vast caverns found there. Now, mere shadows of their former glory, they are monsters that stalk through the desert on cloudy and moonless nights. The Nirrakali have developed an anti-psychotic drug to use on them, and keep them as familiars and guardians. Care of these are crucial, as neglecting the needs of the sensitive skin of these beasts and allowing them to harm themselves with an open window or faulty doorway will break the hold of the drugs, pain pushing them again into the madness that makes them killers.
Their general structure is that of an Earthian cheetah. A cat with a long, lean body. Very little body fat is found on these, their heads are small and flat, their hair so short it is nearly fluff, and brindled in color like that of a boxer. Their liquid movement is due to the fact that they have no bones, but cartilage. It makes them lighter and more flexible, but they also use it to their advantage in their cave homes, squeezing through crannies they shouldn’t have been able to in the first place. They are almost incapable of being brought down with bludgeoning, as their frame bends with the blows and comes right back. Master hunters, movement attracts them. Sensors in their noses pick up on electromagnetic fields, and long whiskers act as dishes to channel and code these signals. The electricity made by the diaphram of a human breathing is enough to bring those who are closeby, and they also use the sensing equipment to find their way thorugh the tunnels that they unwillingly call home. Their eyes have been changed, pupils turning milky, though the irises have kept their dark color.
While their inability to cope with the darkness has made their eyes almost useless, they need not risk the light to know when it is safe to come out. These electromagnetic sensors are pulled by the moon as much as the tide is, and on new moon nights, they swarm the desert, fulfilling their need to be free. Their thick, heavy claws allow the Karuku-tal to burrow through the sands as easily as sharks swim in the waters, making them terribly dangerous in the desert. Attacks will come from below, so travelers on dark nights must be aware of the difference between sand moving from the wind and sand moving from a Karuku-tal attack. In the caves, they are just as deadly. Their claws can retract, and on the underside of their paws, they have pads as a gecko does. Scaling up a vertical surface is easy for them, and the smaller ones can even sit on a ceiling, waiting for someone to pass by under them.
They are made for survival, for even twisted into the shadows that they used to keep the Fallien people safe from, they have indeed survived. When first they moved to the caves, they were on the edge of extinction. While the population isn’t bursting, it is comfortable, and no other creature in the desert seems to have any negative effect on them. Their one weakness is light. Any kind of light will burn their skin, and send them screaming to their caves. Only the strongest, most hardy, and most rare of these creatures have begun to withstand weak moonlight.
"They say these beasts can speak and think and write as a human can, but I don't believe it. I only know they take our livestock - and our children if we're not wary." -Spice farmer, Ruuya
Desert Drakes - Rather than flying these creatures glide on the rising air currents from the heated desert sands and random oases found throughout the dunes. They have two different sets of claws. The front set is razor sharp and retractable, giving them a deadly weapon in conjunction with their teeth. In addition the front limbs are quite nimble giving them the ability to manipulate objects almost as well as a human. The back set of claws is much more shovel like, allowing the creature to dig deeply into the sands of Fallien’s deserts. It is beneath these sands that the drakes sleep, emerging at sunrise and thriving on the wind currents the heat of the day brings. They are covered in strong plates of mottled greys and tans which although difficult to break are surprisingly lightweight. Desert drakes are quite intelligent, and are thought to have a language and hierarchy of their own, including a leader for each region or hive of drakes.
"We were traveling by the light of the moon, when suddenly these creatures appeared before us. I thought they came from behind the dunes, but there were so many of them. I was certain we would die, but our guide whispered some strange Fallien word and they all disappeared." -Outlandish Trader
Summons – Taking various shapes, these creatures are slaves to the Oasis shamans. Often seen in the form of a falcon or a hound, they attack Outlanders and other assumed enemies of the Oasis tribes. Stronger and larger than their mundane counterparts, Summons are difficult to best and often appear out of thin air and disappear again in the same manner. It is said that a single word can banish them if one knows it.
"There was a scraping metallic sound while I was gathering water at the oasis outside of camp, and when I turned there was a massive scorpion behind me. I screamed, dropping the water, and later I heard that a man had been crushed to death trying to kill the scorpion. Suravani bless his soul." -Nomadic tribeswoman
Giant Scorpions – Usually measuring between four and six feet long, and equipped with deadly pincers and even deadlier venom, this desert hunter is not a beast you want to meet while traversing the dunes. These nocturnal creatures will attack if provoked, often using their pincers to crush a victim to death. This is preferable to their sting which leaves a victim writhing in pain for several hours before violent seizures and then death. The smaller the scorpion is, the deadlier its venom.