Beasts¶
"Hunger is the primary control for their population, leaving them desperately hungry most of the time." — of the ratlings of the Drakkani Wastes (S469)
The mundane, dire and monstrous animals of Terrun, gathered here by habitat because none of them has yet earned a page of its own. Many of the larger beasts are Faeborn, creatures whose "physical forms are tied to Fae energy" without being true Fae (S279), and several were made or bred by a god: the Elder Goddess Gaea is "Mother to most ordinary flora and fauna" (S372), Cordia made the yeti (S429), and the orcish Earth-Heart bred the dinosaurs (S449). Entries move to their own page when they reach three paragraphs.
Wolves and the cold¶
Dire wolves are counted among the Faeborn with dragons, titans, gnomes, goblins and trolls: "Ethereal beings with a Fae connection", with souls of their own, who thrive in their natural demesne and struggle outside it (S279). The Fae mantle of the dire wolf, as a Riftborn totemic monk wears it, gives the hunter's gifts of the pack: a bonus against prey already engaged by another, a nose for scent, resistance to cold and susceptibility to fire (S002).
Winter wolves hold pack territories in the high mountain passes (S328). A pack of nine under their alpha Raksjaw followed the devil Hal'Gamesh in the icy Hollow at Harwith (S138); their Hollowed kin, the Brumal Wargs, are described under Hollow Creatures.
Wargs and worgs are the riding beasts of the plains orcs. Worgs are listed among the simple animal forms that are often Aphits, the short-lived expressions of Fae energy (S279). The Krag'Durn Stonesplitters train their wargs "to join in melee" and "to rear and kick during combat", and raise worg pups the size of a pony, "450 lbs" at the Huo'rak stage (S360, S359); a hunting party of thirty orcs rode wargs out of the Feldrak lands, and "very large" warg footprints mark the canyon mouth of Angorath (S361, S328).
Fire wolves, the elemental dire wolves of the Drakkani Wastes, are described under Elementals.
Yeti were created by Cordia, Mistress of Frost, alongside the Frost Giants (S429, S372). In the high pass above Dru'Bazan a yeti is "the protector of the vale" who "will target corrupted to stop the corruption from spreading. Will watch the group and wait for corrupted to be alone... then attack"; it leaves markers, a sheep skull, and its kind "guard the cursed hold". A yeti cave holds a trophy hall of "Bones, Skulls embedded in ice, hanging from icicles", fresh meat, and a baby yeti five feet tall hiding behind an ogre skull; at the end of an icicle hung the Heart of Winter, which turned the baby to ice (S328). The Dire Yeti Shalul guarded the abyssal lair of Hal'Gamesh (S138), and War Yeti such as Grallt march with the orc clans of Wolfsmaw and Dragoneye (S194, S193); one yeti travelled with the Sancturi party and ate for two (S199).
Other beasts of the snows met in play: frost hares and snow owls used as scouts, the Greater Snow Owl Bloodmantle, "white with red" (S138); a six-hundred-pound giant snow leopard, an ambush predator that tracked the trappers who killed its mate; bighorn sheep, wolverine, ermine and snowshoe rabbit as game (S328).
Plains, hills and the deep south¶
Dire lions are cavalry mounts of the Urok'gar Confederation: heavy cavalry is "a group of lion riders with a ground drake rider in the lead", light cavalry a pair of lion riders, and the orcs "commonly ride Rock Trolls, Iron Drakes and Dire Lions" (S057, S059). Their ranchers drive bison, sheep, cattle and rock lizards (S057).
The great animals of Moarte and Pherox are listed in the Compendium: boar and razorback boars, buffalo, cattle, elephants, elk, gazelle, giraffes, goats, horses, hyena, mammoth, monkeys, sheep and wolves. Two are marked as aggressive toward humanoids: the sabre tiger and the giant scorpion (S372, S429).
Death dogs, a pair of them transformed, fought beside the Eldritch knight Malo in Pemeril (S183). The hellhounds, hellboars and hellcats of the Demonlands are demonic forms, not beasts, and are described under Demonic Forms.
The Underdark¶
Grell keep colonies in the great limestone caverns of the Underdark, their presence read from scat alongside that of large cave bats (S167). Quaggoths, "humanoid bear 8ft tall", live tribally near the fungal nests; the quaggoth Ingoh "ruled the lower halls of the Cursed Dwarven Hold, a small colony of 80 or so goblins" (S328).
Giant rhinobeetles live below the Warrens of Proturas, held back by "an old dwarven gate that stops them from coming up to the Warrens in force"; the Stone Syndicate raids to capture them for the Pale Pit (S061). Clicker beasts are three-tentacled things of the dead forest of Angorath that pull the unwary under, "Noisy at night, Quiet during the day" (S328). The moleworm is "a large burrowing earth-snake/earthworm with corrosive acid for blood, paralytic venom and an appetite for blood", loosed in the Warrens by the White Hand to undermine the other gangs (S028). The orcs of the Drakkani Wastes field kruthik riders (S469).
Rats. Ratlings, were-rats and giant rats "infest some of the old lava tubes and scavenge anything they can. Hunger is the primary control for their population, leaving them desperately hungry most of the time. They prefer to operate at night" (S469); giant deep rats leave their sign in collapsed caverns (S167). The plague rats of the tomb of Malathar the Pestilent were "the first to awaken" of his servants, undead giant rats carrying his magical plague into Banbridge (S047, S058); a rat swarm has its stat block in the ARCS Bestiary.1 The demon-plaguebringer Kosh-Tuul was later known as "God of Rats" and reforms among them (S359).
Bats. The screecher bat was the latest of Malathar's servants to wake (S047, S058). An Ekimarra, a lesser vampire bat, "took refuge" in the cave road beneath Kilmarn "during the age of the dark sun and has been hibernating for centuries. It commands 2 Nightwing Bats. Being creatures of Necatus, they will avoid" his faithful; expeditions sent in after it did not return (S163). Nightmare bats and giant cave bats were fought in the same deeps (S163, S199).
Serpents and serpentfolk¶
The Elder God Teneb'Urat is "Associated with snakes, venom and vampirism. Creations include Lamia, Gorgons, Hydra, Naga, Giant Snakes, etc." (S101). In the Fifth Age "Some of his minions have awoken and are seeking to free their master": beneath the Warrens of Proturas, where the White Hand's lair "spills into the Underdark", gather "Gorgons, Quetztls, Naga and other Serpentfolk", under the lamia Lamystra (S028, S061). A gorgon has its stat block in the ARCS Bestiary.2
The Tenebrian Constrictor is the snake-god's hunting beast: "The great black serpent you see before you is a massive creature, measuring 12 feet in length and half a foot in diameter. Its hardened scales are a deep matte black color, with sharp, grey-steel edges that add a menacing touch to its appearance. The serpent's triangular head is equipped with two sharp 6-inch fangs that protrude from the top of its mouth. Its eyes are strikingly bright and black, seemingly possessing an intense focus and intelligence." Its blood is black acid, its bite paralyzes, it senses prey through its skin, and it "prefers to sneak up on helpless victims and strangle them". A pair of them took a dozen people from the Warrens and fed the snake-god's shrine in the lost mines (S062, S063). The Tenebrian Glacial Snake of the far north "Can leave its body in a spirit projection to attack", up to three splinters that weaken the main body until it recalls them with a nova of cold (S328). The Scourged serpents of Arne'Athosia are described under Scourged.
Dinosaurs¶
"In the aftermath of the shattering, a particularly large worldstone fragment slammed into what is now Markhan"; the orcs who came to worship it as the Earth-Heart were overthrown by their own gods, and when the crystal awoke "Guided now by the consciousness of Agrob, it sought revenge against the orcs who had murdered its followers. It bred an army from the beasts of the land, warping them into gargantuan creatures known as dinosaurs. These beasts assaulted the lands of the orcs, forcing them out of central Markhan... Now that the orcs were largely out of reach, the dinosaurs were left to roam and reproduce across central Markhan" (S449, S522).
Earlier accounts¶
The archive histories count dinosaurs among the Titan Races made by the Einar in the Age of Titans, with giants, faeries and the Ventari (S386, S372), and the Nature of Magic lists them among the Elder races born in that age (S208). The Earth-Heart story is the fuller account and the only one that places them in the world.
Horses of the Naher¶
The Naher choose their mounts only from Ghosthorn stock: "white to dark grey with faint spotting", "very quiet/ padded hooves, small horns", living eighty years and more. Every Naher is bound to a foal from the age of three, chooses one horse in a lifetime, and is buried with it (S524).
The Sylvilagus¶
A Sylvilagus named Eweleun is "gatekeeper" of the Vernal Warrens, the realm of Arya into which the goddess cast a Fallen (S031).
Gap
The sources never say what a Sylvilagus is; the name is used only for Eweleun.
Fungus and spore-life¶
Myconids are tentatively the creatures of Yrl'Egoz, the Elder God of Rot ("worms, Myconids?") (S015). Myconid Thralls served the Fungal Giant in the Pits of Turis, "inactive, but feed the Fungal Giant to regenerate", roused to throw darts and spears only at need (S362). Fungal zombies infest the fungal nests of the Underdark (S328), and the lost mines beneath the Warrens hold a fungus farm where failed Tenebrian transformations and worked-to-death slaves are left to rot: "large mushrooms of various colors and sizes: orange ones as large as a person, small yellow ones the size of a cat, and green-blue ones that look like a giant ball on a stalk... several decomposing corpses which lie around the room. They are covered with green stalks and strands growing out, through and across them" (S063). The Fungal Giant itself, a Titan-essence abomination, is on the Titans page.
Mantis and hulk¶
A seven-foot creature with "head of a mantis. 6 arms, 2 spears. Brown plating" haunts the buried Aquitanian complex north of Alghert, where Namakan priests experimented on the Dread until they lost control; it hunts beside an umber hulk and a plague swarmer (S176). The umber hulks and their kin are The Dread.
Peoples the pages have not claimed¶
Several creatures of near-human cunning appear in the sources without a people's page of their own:
- Kuo'Toa occupy the far side of Whitestill lake and its "water-warrens" in the Underdark below Dru'Bazan (S328); the Elder Goddess Seole, Ruler of the Seas, is their mother (S372).
- Tolassovores run the Cutters of Spillwater from a flooded dwarf-hold: "humanoid creatures that live underwater and have fish-like features, including four webbed hands and two very large legs, with gills, scales and a turtle-like ridged plate across their spine. They have a flattened, amphibian-like head, with four bulging eyes... and a mouth full of sharp shark-like teeth." They are "highly intelligent and native eldritch spellcasters", children of an Elder God (Dago'Talass), who once "possessed advanced technology rivaling the Dwarrow", and their young must consume intelligent brains (S028).
- Arachne, "half spider, half human", raid Moarte from the Underdark and have depopulated its south (S372, S429).
- The Chitnites of the Drakkani Wastes are discussed under Araxians; the Lizardkin who overran Duer'Gerrum (S056) are presumably the Lizardfolk.
Gap
No Peoples page claims the Kuo'Toa, Tolassovores or Arachne, and no source gives their society beyond the lines quoted. Rock trolls, ogres and the giants are described under Peoples.