Taxology of Madness, Bizarre, and Weird

[Xathan]

Creatures and NPCs I'm making just for fun. Feedback is greatly appreciated. This first post will include a link and a 1 sentence description of it. Let me know what you'd like me to elaborate on. Creatures come first, will explore NPCs and Others later.

Upcoming Creatures:

• Maisthu: A vicious predator that combines elements of ape and panther.
• Nefod: A massive flying creature that sustains aerial ecosystems.
• Swampgrasp: Massive slugs with ten foot saw-bladed tongues.
• Examiloc: Behemoth creatures that carry with them swarms of strange monsters.
• Sarpeti: A cave dwelling primate with an odd symbiotic partner.
• Bloodwraiths: Descendents of vampire bats the size of wolves with their old feeding habits.
• Skyrake: Chimeric creature, combining elements of serpent, bird, and feline.
• Gtulyp: Lovecraftian horrors that bore into a beings chest, replacing the victim's heart.
• Noctid: Maddening beings that encase themselves in humanoid shells made of hardened resin
• Se Tari: Decadent beings that remove their lower bodies to replace with a skittering platform.
• Romites: The worst elements of termites and rats combined.
• Prisderms: Ethereal jellyfish of the sky.
• Xecalopid: Massive space octopus, and the beings that ride them between worlds.
• Hudg: Primitive cave dwellers with six eyes and bizzare feeding habits.

[ooc=Statblocks]
I'm just doing creatures first. Categories marked with a * fall under "if applicable."
Description
Habitat
Behavior
Society*
Variants*
Biology*
Relations*
Other*
(Relations could cover interactions for sentient species, but also covers what creatures they are related to in the taxonomic sense.)[/ooc]

EDIT: Changed title to make it less obnoxiously long.

[Xathan]

Hudg
Description This squat humanoid lopes towards you in a simian gait as the six eyes that cover its forehead glare with hate. It opens its mouth to bellow a challenge, and a second mouth salivates in the back of its throat

The hudg are short, stocky humanoids that dwell underground, a race of beings related to goblins and their ilk. The hudg, however, diverge in their eyes and mouths - six of the former, two of the latter. This is a side effect of their biology - no single hudg is a single being. What most see of the hudg - the squat humanoid, typically brandishing primitive spears and clubs - is the male of the species. The inner being is a ropelike creature that resides in the males mouth and along the back of his esophagus, boring its eyes up through her skull so it can see, is actually his mate as well - and the females are typically natural arcanists, though few hudg live long enough for them to obtain any great power.

Habitat Underground, preferring damp regions with plenty of mushrooms. The female eyes can see perfectly in the dark. They prefer caverns with fairly easy access to the surface since the best meat is often found there.

Behavior Hudg would not be even remotely noteworthy if it weren't for their mating rituals - they spurn technology, having only slightly above ape intellect, and rarely gather in groups larger than a hundred individuals. These smaller gatherings are a natural limitation of their underground habitat - too much larger and they could not support themselves. However, they are unique in how they handle mating. At birth all hudg are nearly larval - still possessing a tail and small legs - and pretty much helpless, requiring cool water filled with algae to survive. They are also born hermaphroditic: every hudg camp has two pools, each containing a different algae, and which algae the infant feeds on determines their gender. Upon developing a full body, the same day his gills stop functioning, a male hudg's first act is to crawl over to the female pool and climb underwater and open his mouth. There the eldest females (a year or two, who at this point look like long, fleshy spines with a flat toothed mouth and four eyes on stalks) assess his strength and durability and intellect - at which point they fight over who will be bonded with him, the winner swimming into his open mouth and attaching himself to his body. If no female prevails, or the male attracts no female, the male drowns.

Society Hudg society is determined after the Union climbs out of the pool. The shorter it was underwater, the more status it has the rest of its life - A short time submerged clearly means the male was highly desirable and the female highly capable, as the Hudg assess it, and therefore that particular hudg deserves a high status. Although each hudg are two beings they rarely conflict amongst bonded partners - they have been one since before they truly had conscious thoughts. Other than that, their "society", such as it is, bears more in common with primates than society-building beings - each clump of hudg is ruled by an Alpha Union that controls the clump through its status as being shortly underwater and strength (both physical and mystical - it is unclear if the hudg are right about staying underwater or if because those that stay underwater for a short period of time are presumed to be leaders and therefore given first picks of food is the result of the Alpha being strongest of the clump) and communicates using a vocabulary of roughly two thousand words. The creatures typical actives are gathering food, caring for the young, raiding nearby clumps for children or for territory, and attacking underground dwelling creatures to eat as food or, again, territory.

Variants Two major variants exist. One are the rhudg, a significantly larger (growing to over three meters tall) version of the cave dwelling species that dwells in swamps and marshes, and the are the thudg, which are jungle-dwellers where the female has long, slender, six segmented limbs that extrude from the male's pectorals. There are rumors of a species that lives far deeper underground that rivals humans for intelligence, but such rumors are thankfully unconfirmed as of yet. (Read: Only vague ideas here.) Perhaps more horribly, there have been cases where mad wizards have bonded a female hudg to a humanoid, male or female, and the resultant creatures have thankfully all been killed before too much could be learned of the results. (Also vague ideas.)

[ooc]It's rare one of my own creatures makes me squirm. The hudg are one of those cases.[/ooc]

[HippopotamusDundee]

Very very cool. In a kind of disturbingly squicky and Lovecraftian kind of way. In other words, I love it!

[sparkletwist]

I quite like the list of creatures that you've come up with. :)

A while ago, I was trying to come up with creatures/monsters/whatever for Asura, and I didn't come up with anything as interesting as some of these. So, first of all, I hope you don't mind if a steal a few ideas, and secondly, don't feel too bad about any sort of creative slump, because this stuff is quite creative!

taxidermic sense

Nitpick: I believe you mean "taxonomic."

[Seraph]

The Hudg is awesome and creepy, and I am having "Aliens" flashbacks. 

I am looking forward to seeing the next ones on your list.  Some of these sound like things I'd want to steal for some setting or other.  I am especially interested in all the entries from Sarpeti to Romites. 

[Xathan]

Hippo: knowing our shared love of Lovecraft, I hoped you'd like them. :)

Sparkle: Thanks, on all counts. :D And yes, yes I did - I'll have to fix that when I'm not working from phone. :P

SH: the Xenomorphs of aliens were an inspiration, I freely admit. I'll get to the rest of the list ASAP - I'm working as inspiration strikes.

　

[Xathan]

[size=14]Noctid[/size]

Description: The humanoid creature standing before you seems to be wearing armor of solid obsidian without any cracks. Its helmet is sleek and predatory with no gaps for eyes. The creature moves with a fluid grace that its armor should be impossible, and its mesmerising motions distract you from its intentions until a thrown dagger of the same obsidian enters your heart.

Noctids are a reclusive but deadly race of creatures from an alien realm that managed to slip into our world through a crack in reality. Their natural forms are poorly adapted to our world, so they encase themselves in a substance they excrete, Noctidum, and persue their endless goals of attempting to reclaim their former realm while eradicating all imperfect life on ours - which is, in their eyes, all of it. Despite the above description a Noctid shell has no need to be humanoid in apperance and can virtually any form, though Noctids prefer humanoid hands for ease of manipulating tools of this world. Their forms are always perfectly symmetrical and always strangely beautiful if predatory - their shell is a work of art as much as it is part of them.

Without their shell, a Noctid is a disgusting blob of cancerous flesh barely able to move and possessing only enough strenght to feed on insects and other small vermin to begin rebuilding their shell.

Habitat: Noctids prefer deep, dense woods, underground, or abandoned dwellings of other races. Direct sunlight causes their resin shells to slowly dissolve, and without their shell they are near defenseless. As such, Noctids prefer the dark places of the world and nights.

Behavior: Noctids know their numbers are small, so they tend to attack settlements far from their home base, burrowing underground during the day if surface travel is required. Their attacks is always an attempt at complete extermination: a small village or outpost or tribe is targeted, with the intent of killing all sentient life inside. Their arrogance is unrivaled - they truely believe that are the pinnacle of creation, and that all other life is inferior and therefore not worth continuing. Animal and plant life is not as offensive to them as intelligent life. They will work with other species, but only as commanders and only for a short time - they have every intention of eventually exterminating their allies as well, with few exceptions. (See relations)

Society: Despite what one would expect, Noctid's enjoy a variety of persuits - art, music, science, alchemy are all under their purview, and although undeniably alien their creations hold a strange beauty. While every single Noctid is a soldier first and formost, all also have a secondary pursit in a different area. If encountering a Noctid, admiring one of their works is a way to avoid extermination for a time. However, their culture is homogenous - any Noctid that rebels against the prime idea of their supremecy is viewed as insane and confined to a demiplane they call the Asylum. Their primary building material is the same resin they use to form their shells, and they exclusively build their cities underground to avoid the damage of the sunlight.

One thing that sets them apart from most is their science - using strange properties of various substances, Noctids devise a variety of weapons that they can build into their shells. While they have no aptitude for either magic or psionics, their weapons fire energies that can more than make up for those lacks, and their shells (especially considering the relatively small creature contained within) protect them from most harm and can be speedily healed so long as the creature inside has a sufficent reserve of resin built up.

Variants The only Variants of Noctids are the different shapes they give their resin shells - inside, each Noctid is uniform and, in their eyes, perfect.

Relations While their above desire to exterminate all inferior life is difficult for most relations, there are some Noctids find more bearable than others. The fact that goblins, orcs, and other muscled brutes will serve the Noctim after a sufficent display of force pleases them. They will also work with humanoids not aware of their ultimate goal if it serves their ends - and some abominable cults that actively seek the Noctid goal of destruction. Some creatures are deemed less inferior than others - especially various Aberrations and Dragons, both of whom have powers the Noctids respect and intellects that they can admire. Such creatures are still inferior, but a new train of noctid thought is that such creatures may be allowed to continue to exist, so long as they acknowledge their inferiority, for how can beings be supreme if there is nothing to be supreme in relation to?

Other: Noctid resin and their weapons dissolves in sunlight fairly rapidly - when exposed directly, it dissolves at a rate of one inch per minute.

[ooc]I freely admit to these creatures base inspiration, but wonder if anyone can guess what it was. ;) one billion internet points to anyone who can.[/ooc]

[Seraph]

The noctids are crazy awesome!  I want to steal this one too!

As to their inspiration, I don't know, but the way their shells dissolve in sunlight reminds me of Drow equipment.  The cruelty in their "kill everything" mentality would fit with that, but otherwise they seem very different.  Though I also am thinking of the aliens in Independence Day, since those too were tiny weak things in a scary shell. 

[Xathan]

Not quite, though both those fit. I'll give other people a chance to guess before I tell. Glad you're liking!

[Xathan]

Gtulyp

Description: The horrific being that stands before you resembles a humanoid in only the basest sense. Sinister and graceful, it wears pale leather garments that leave its hands and feet exposed, each one resembling a starfish with a circular mouth like a lamprey at the center. Its head is oddly human despite the pale red flesh, though its eyes rest above a face otherwise devoid of features.

[ooc]I'm not one hundred percent happy with the description here - I'm obviously attempting to invoke the Illithids with this, but not sure how to.[/ooc]

Compared by some to other creatures that infest a humanoid body, the gtulyp most encounter is after it has infested a host - a wickedly intelligent being born of a horrific process. The gtulyp in its natural form is no more attractive: it resembles a human heart with suction-coated tentacles emerging from where the arteries and veins would enter. To become the creature above, the Gtulyp must enter a host - typically through the mouth - at which point it slithers through the creatures body and replaces its heart, transforming it into the monstrosity above.

Habitat Gtulyps prefer dark environments, but as intelligent beings can be found virtually anywhere. However, they burn easily in sunlight and therefore prefer to avoid it as much as possible. Their favored haunts are the deepest caverns of the world for long term settlements, but individual gtulyps often return to the surface to raid for food.

Behavior Gtulyps are vampiric in nature in that they drink the blood of living beings as their primary food source. The similarities between them and other vampiric creatures ends there, however. Aberrant creatures that escaped the wrath of an angered being by putting their souls entirely into their hearts and making the organs ambulatory, Gtulyps are creatures of extreme intellect but unlike their obvious analogies, the ceremorphs, are prone to bursts of emotion and irrationality. A gtulyp will retain enough control to avoid endangering a long term plan, but will fly into a fit of rage or passion with enough provocation - and with their alien intellects, it's impossible for most beings to comprehend what might provoke one. A gtulyp may remain cooly collected after a century long plan is foiled, and then later become murderously angry upon seeing a displeasing formation of rocks. These fits of uncontrolled emotion can last for weeks - some sages theorize the gtulyp is even more enraged by it's failure to control its emotions which perpetuates it, though none know for sure.

Society Gtulyps tend to stick to small groups - three or four dozen at most - since the demands of their hunger keep them from growing too large. Gtulyps have a twisted sense of loyalty to their group, never taking an action that actively betrays it but allowing members of its group to die to inaction. These groups are tended by humanoid thralls whos skin constantly seems to squirm - when a gtulyp feeds, it implants its parasitic larva in the food, allowing them to control the creatures body while the mind remains unimpeded. Those thralls are only fed off of in dire emergencies - if too many larva enter a single host, they merge and a new gtulyp emerges from the thralls chest, increasing the food demands of a single cluster while removing a valuable tool.

Gtulyps, as a group, have a singular goal: relearn what their old forms were and reattain them so they may conqure the world. In the meantime, they prey on humanoids and find new hosts while expermenting with an elder form of arcane magic, Blood Magic, which some gtulyps have taken to calling "sanguinics" to mock their foes, the ceremorphs.

Variants The process of creating a fully grown gtulyp merely requires a being with a heart that is shaped like a humanoid and is not too small, so a gtulyp can form from in any vertibrate with a mammilan chambered heart as small as human child but no larger than an ogre. However, while they do have a great deal of ability to influence the hosts body's musculature, they cannot shape bones, so prefer hosts that have structures suitable for manipulating tools.

Relations Gtulyps form relations rarely, their propensity for feeding on sentient beings preventing them from doing so. They do require the blood of sentient beings, the more emotional the better - part of the sustinance comes from the proverbial "fire in the blood." They can work with other beings if need be, and are most likely to maintain relationships with Reptilian beings that are exothermic - their blood tastes "spoiled." A few beings they revile above all others: Vampires, true vampires, are rival predators and happen to be a delicacy as well. (A gtulyps blood would be nauseating for a vampire) and Mind Flayers are in every sense the gtulyp's opposite in addition to being competitors for food, thralls, and territory. The Mind Flayers, for their part, seem to find gtulyps offensive - especially given their lack of a typical nervous system makes them resiliant to psionic effects, and the fact that the functional brain is located within the chest cavity makes them difficult to feed on.

Other

[ooc]The intention here was a bit to parady both "sexy vampires" and Mind Flayers with the same creature, and I'm hoping I retained enough horror in how they work where it's a parady that provokes a shudder, not a groan or a laugh. Also, some day I'll make a creature that isn't a nightmare given flesh...probably.[/ooc]

[Xathan]

Se Tari

Description From the waist up, the creature before you is a hauntingly beautiful humanoid, free of any defects. Precious gems are strategically embedded in its skin in a number just on the edge of being gaudy but managing not to cross that line by a narrow margin. As your eyes drift down its body, however, you discover both its legs have been severed midway down the thigh, the remainder of each replaced with a four clawed steel apatures like the legs a crab. From those limbs extends a brace that supports the being's back.

Habitat: The modern Se Tari's island city can be located whereever fits best for how they are being used, but a tropical or at least lush island is advised.

Behavior: Devoted to pleasure, the Se Tari constantly seek new ways to enjoy life. Their spider-legs support their entire body so they need not exert themselves, but can be folded into legs that function as other humanoids - though still looking like pincers - should they desire to do so.

Se Tari see pleasure as an end in and of itself, and see happiness as a divine gift and not something to be sought. The only pleasures worth mentioning are the pleasures of the body, which the Se Tari freely indulge in - satisfaction beyond satiation is irrelivant. The Se Tari are not evil. Their behavior is a culturally and biologically ingraned idea of "do what thou wilt so long as it please thee," with the understanding that reducing the pleasure of another being is to be avoided.

Physically, they exert themselves little, using fleshgrafted creatures - blends of construct and animal - for tasks. Their physical form is maintanied by magic - slight constant fleshgrafting on themselves so they can enjoy their hedonistic lifestyle while still appearing pleasing to look upon.

Society:

The Se Tari, the survivors of an empire that extends back into antiquity - perhaps even the first humanoid empire. The histories do not record what beings they once were - if they were related to any modern humanoids - but over time their empire spread across a dozen planes and even had holdings in realms celestial or infernal. Yet they did not succumb to the crulety of other great empires. Set Phodri, the greatest Set of the Empire, codified the first rules of war, and Set Datir, the Peacemaker, established a legislative body that governed each province of the empire by their own customers. They made peace with the elves, brought orcish hordes to heel and taught them industry, coaxed the dwarves back into the sun. But all empires must end, and the Se Tari were no exception.

What exactly caused the collapse has been lost to history, referenced only cryptically in texts of antiquity as, alternatively, the Elder Madness, The Watchers of Stars, and The Craniphages. It's unclear if this was one cause or several, but whatever it was caused the Se Tari to implode in the most sudden and violent dissolution of an empire recorded by history - in five years, it went from being a shining beacon of humanoid achievement that spanned across worlds to ruins that have since been buried by antiquity and a single, small continent from which the Se Tari once ruled.

Admist the wonders of their empire, the Se Tari wondered what had gone wrong...and then made the decision that would make them into the beings we know today. It was decided they had been punished by the gods for their efforts - that, by failing to enjoy the riches the gods had seen fit to grant them as rewards for working to create such an empire, they had offened them and were brought low for it.

Thus were born the beings known today, bound to lives of hedonism and decadence using the technomagic of a long fallen empire to live a life of pleasure born out of what they saw as divine punishment. For millenia they were entirely isolated from the rest of the world, completely stagnant, since they wanted at first for the worlds to forget their empire utterly so the gods would know they understood their punishment and later because they were so wrapped in their pleasures they saw no need to leave.

Recently, however, a few have ventured out into the world and brought back horrifying news: the races toil and labor, as the gods intended, but their labors do not bring them any closer to the Divine Life of Pleasure. It is clear to the Se Tari what is happening - their previous punishment also had the entire world laboring without recieving the pleasures they once enjoyed under the Se Tari empire - and problem that can only be fixed by reconstructing that empire.

Variants: The variants of the Se Tari are really just in the arrangement of gems on their bodies (always real precious stones imbued with powerful magic) and their skin color, which falls within human range of "Very pale pink" to "Very dark brown," but always has the same flawlessness to it. (The gems chosen - and their settings - are used to compliment skin tone and hair and eye color.)

Relations: (TO COME LATER)

Other

[ooc]It always confused me why being with acess to advanced magic/technology who were supposed to be the prime of decadence would replace the parts of their body below the waist. I've always felt there is something below the waist that hedonists would have at least some use for. I hope the description portrayed accurately - the beings are always upright, but the limbs do all the effort. and support their body. What isn't mentioned here is exactly what weapons the Se Tari are making for their planned conquest of everything so pleasure can reign - those will come as later entries. ;)[/ooc]

[Xathan]

Before I go spitting out more monster manual entries (I've got some semi-write ups for multiple, including some that aren't on that list), I was wondering if anyone had questions, suggestions for improvement, random thoughts, etc about any of the existing monsters. Don't want to bury everyone in a sea of monsters.


Well, actually, I do. But well designed monsters. :P

[Seraph]

With the Se Tari, I am seeing Fiyero from Wicked crossed with Dr. Loveless from the Wild Wild West Movie.  As far as potential overlords go, at least they are relatively benevolent in intention.  I mean, hedonism might not be especially efficient at taking care of people, but a desire for everyone to experience pleasure is certainly better than desiring pain.

I've been liking this so far; all the creepy monsters and horrors.  I notice that some of them make mention of typical "fantasy" races, or specifically "D&D" races like the Mind Flayers, but I think that they would fit equally well in a more "Sci-fi" setting.  In a sci-fi setting, some of the weirder ones would fit because they are less "human" than most sci-fi aliens.  The Noctids for instance: their bizarre shells of that flexible pseudo-obsidian CAN look humanoid, but can just as easily become feline for running or climbing, or birdlike for flight--so they might just as easily take much stranger forms, and be really unsettling but totally sensible. 

 

[Xathan]

Thanks a ton! And the Se Tari's inspiration was actually, now that I picture it, probably subconciously influenced a bit by Dr. Loveless - although I did let them keep about half their thighs. And you got the intent exactly - I wanted them to be potential world dominators with creepy overtones, but not full on Evil Overlords (TM) either. How bad they are actually depends on the setting you drop them into - in a points of light setting where the various humanoid races are at war constantly, a bunch of creepy individuals who want to make sure everyone can enjoy life to it's fullest and then beyond really are hard to oppose. ;)

And my tendancy towards the wierd and Aberrant do mean these creatures all work just as well for Sci-Fi. I've been on a fantasy kick lately, largely thanks to Steerpike's Underdeep game*, which is why I've been mentioning the standard fantasy races, but I'm considering putting an "Adaptation" section on these creatures for suggestions for steampunk, sci-fi, cyberpunk, and other assorted genres.

I'm really glad you've been liking them! I have some more ideas that I'm tinkering with and hope to have up in the next few days as I get them cleaned up - and I really need to keep editing that first post with ideas as they come to me so people can see what I'm working on. Thanks for the continued support!

Also, thought I'd let everyone know that if you want to adapt these creatures and use them in your setting, feel free - if I come up with something I want to keep to myself, I'll mark it as such, but otherwise these are open for grabs so long as I get a lil bit of credit - I'm vain enough to request that. :P

*Seriously, if any of these appeared in Underdeep or even another game that I wasn't playing in, I'd probably burst everyone's eardrums with my squee of joy. :P

　

[Seraph]

Also, thought I'd let everyone know that if you want to adapt these creatures and use them in your setting, feel free - if I come up with something I want to keep to myself, I'll mark it as such, but otherwise these are open for grabs so long as I get a lil bit of credit - I'm vain enough to request that. :P

I might just take you up on that, and adapt these to Infernal Devices.  The Hudg and the Gtulyp are especially fitting, and the Noctids wouldn't be out of place either.