Anatu hatched from the egg of an Echidna mother and is as of yet the only known cerberus in existence. She has the lower body of a short- and dark-furred hound and a humanoid upper body. She possesses three heads which float in the vicinity of her neck but can be fully removed by pulling hard enough. She also sports tufts of longer fur around her forearms, legs, and where her upper humanoid form meets her lower hound form. Her heads and upper body resemble those of a hellhound. Her lower body is heavily muscled with the thighs of her hind legs being twice the thickness of an average man’s. Anatu also sports a long prehensile tail topped by red glowing spikes and ending in a similarly luminous hard and pointy tip. Her body and tail are each about two and a half meters in length, and she stands about three meters tall counting her floating heads. Anatu appears to have no talent for the magical arts whatsoever, though whether that will be a defining characteristic of her kind remains to be seen… if she is able to propagate.
The designation “cerberus” was given to Anatu by her father, who likened her to a legendary Earth creature who guarded the gates of a mythical underworld. Spurred on by her father’s stories, Anatu has developed a fascination with guarding gates and thresholds since her childhood, and so she became part of Alnor’s city guard. Her triumph lasted only for a short time, as she was never assigned to guard any gates at all due to her propensity to allow none to pass. In annoyance at how her superiors squandered her great talent for guarding gates she departed Alnor when she turned 25 in search of a passage or gate worthy of her watchful vigilance. She briefly guarded the Turl Pass, a popular travel route between Amarante and Teremir, but was evicted after many complaints by merchants and other travelers who had been barred from passing through. Not one to be discouraged, Anatu set out once more and finally found an abandoned keep in poor repair. With such ferocity did she guard the gate that none dared attempt to enter.
Each of Anatu’s three heads has a distinct personality. The middle head is called Anatu-Alpha, has the greatest control of their shared body, and is the most opinionated of the three. Some might describe her as a bit simple-minded and impulsive. The head to the right is called Anatu-Mu and enjoys the second highest degree of control over their shared body. Anatu-Mu is intensely curious and, when no one stops her, will heap a barrage of questions onto anyone who knows anything about a subject that garners her interest. Anatu-Omega, the final head, is someone who thinks before she acts. She is both the most intelligent of the three and the one with the least control over their shared body. She often acts as counselor to the other two and tries to convince them of her preferred course of action rather than taking it herself.
Even though the three have quite distinct personalities they share a strong territorial instinct and playfulness. In spite of her rather imposing appearance that obvious playfulness was also the reason she was simply evicted from the Turl Pass without further consequences. Curiously, the three heads are able to change position, which they do often, yet the middle head will always display the personality of Anatu-Alpha and so on. Their father suspected that perhaps the three heads' distinct personalities may be another one of their games, but no one has ever managed to confirm whether this is true.
Though the three Anatus quite enjoy guarding their keep they can’t help but wonder how long it will take for a man to stumble upon it. Anatu-Omega has already talked her sisters into a plan to convince the man to “cross their threshold” in exchange for crossing the threshold of their keep. Anatu-Mu has proposed asking Lord Amarante for help in obtaining a mate since she would surely help ensure the future of cerberus-kind. Anatu-Alpha was almost convinced until Anatu-Omega argued that no self-respecting guardian of the underworld (abandoned keep) would lower herself to beg for a man to keep her company.
Leprechauns are a type of succubus that are always found wearing heavily green-themed articles of clothing, which typically includes suits, dresses, hats, and even shoes. They normally have bright ginger hair and are usually of short stature. A leprechaun is never seen far away from a large iron pot or cauldron filled to the brim with gold coins. They are famous for using their wealth to playfully tempt men into partaking in games, bets, or contests with the promise of sharing some of their gold as a reward. Leprechauns take great pleasure in coming up with ridiculous challenges.
Since their physical and sensory abilities aren't much greater than those of the average human man they avoid being overpowered and having their gold simply stolen through their ability to phase both themselves and their collection of gold in and out of reality at will; effectively being able to teleport short distances in rapid succession lets them avoid any would-be thieves. To facilitate the games and bets they challenge men to they can temporarily turn gold coins in their collections into almost any kind of non-magical items they want and simply turn them back when the game is done. They are also skilled with illusion magic.
When a leprechaun sees a man who strikes her fancy she places herself in his path and waits for him to “accidentally” happen upon her. She might create the illusion of a rainbow to help guide him if the man happens to miss her. When the man sees her she will usually sit waiting for him atop her pot of gold. Once their eyes meet she'll playfully invite him over, and soon after start trying to cheerfully tempt him into playing a game or making a bet with the prize for winning usually being some of her gold and the cost of losing normally being agreeing to indulge her carnal desires. The contests are innocent if bizarre at first, but as they continue the challenges gradually become more perverse. The leprechaun’s succubus nature slowly leaks through, both parties getting more aroused with each passing game or bet, until finally the man loses from lack of ability… or lack of effort. The contest ends with the pair surging in on each other to drown one another in ecstasy.
Name That Mamono: Allie
Allie sports wavy blonde hair instead of the more typical ginger curls. She's fond of wearing a green leather coat over a silk green dress with a green hat with optional green underwear (if she's cold). Allie also makes the effort of using her illusion magic to make her pot look green whenever she converses with someone.
An atypical passion of hers is absorbing as much popular fictional media as she can. Allie greatly enjoys spending her free time either reading novels or using teleportation magic to sneak into theatres to secretly watch popular plays. She makes a habit of speaking in quotes to the men she meets; she delights in their confusion when they don't understand what she's doing but adores it when they do understand and join in. Another hobby she loves to partake in is learning and singing different shanties from travelers and sailors from across the world -- she turns her gold coins into different instruments to help in her performance of said songs.
When she meets a man that strikes her fancy she'll often test him by quoting her favourite books and plays. If he knows where the quotes came from she'll invite him to a night together and gladly use her coins to make their time together more comfortable. This can be anything from turning her gold coins into instruments to aid in her singing for him to turning them into a tent to shield them from the elements and even turning them into a mattress, blanket, and pillows for when the time comes to indulge each other in carnal pleasure.
The mirage is a subspecies of elf that has adapted to the harsh wasteland sands of the deep desert. They tend to have dark hair and eyes, dark, tawny skin, and long pointed ears. Mirage elves are often confused with dark elves and are commonly called dune elves or dusk elves. While they still have a sense of superiority when compared to humans the mirage elves are not ones to look down on their fellow organisms within the desert; rather they take on the role of protectors to those who get lost or otherwise stranded within the sand wastes.
Despite being a subspecies of elf the mirage possess neither the hawk-like-gaze nor the gift for archery of which the forest elves are so renowned. Their eyes are darker in color to better protect against the scorching rays of the sun in the deep desert. Rather than archery the dune elves are said to possess martial prowess to rival lizardmen…. though getting one to fight fair has been challenge enough that no one has been able to prove such claims. Mirages also have a higher percentage of water stored in their bodies when compared to the average human, and they lose less water overall through sweat or moisture in their breath; the water conservation rate remains at about 80% when fully covered from the sun. This allows them to take the long treks needed to travel within the great sand seas without needing to stop as often to find water. Their heat resistance is much higher than a human’s due to the higher water content, and they can deal with higher temperatures for longer.
Mirage elves are masters of illusion. They can become shimmering phantoms in the distance of one's view, appearing as nothing but heatwaves on the endless dune horizons that change and shift as the dune elves get closer. They have an innate sense of nature and the surroundings they find themselves in and can use their illusions and the natural flows of nature to appear to vanish into thin air, swaying with the wind and drifting sand to evade prying eyes. Their mirages work best at a distance and can be controlled to pull someone’s gaze away from the caster’s true position or lure them in. These dancing displays make it easy for a mirage to guide people out of the desert or bring them to oases or rivers to drink their fill without being seen.
Should a mirage find someone that catches her fancy she will take pride in leading them out of the sands and into a more habitable place for them, closer to water and away from the deep wastes of sand and stone. In such cases she may show images of herself -- or even truly reveal herself -- to guide the traveler in the right direction. She might even offer water -- a sacred rite by mirage elves’ tribal law -- to ensure that her charge makes it safely to a civilized location. She will vanish just before reaching said civilization, leaving a kiss or some other sign of affection, while the traveler makes the rest of the way into town. Once within, the thoughts of his savior swirl within his mind and the mirages encroach; he will see his savior in an alleyway here, a window there, or within a crowd. These burning images grow more provocative with time, and push the traveler back out into the sands to find her once more.
Once the traveler retraces his steps he will find the visions growing ever closer, within arm’s reach yet intangible, leaving traces, touches, and whispered words of desire across his flesh and mind and guiding him onward to where she is. Once discovered the mirage might be surprised that her charge has returned, but she will accept the traveler into her encampment with open arms and provide a tent for shelter against the desert heat and warmth of body and soul for shelter against the freezing nights.
Unlike the haughty and aggressive dark elves or the submissive forest elves dune elves fall somewhere in the middle. Most have matronly and protective natures and will share everything they have with their chosen companion, be it items or their very bodies. Most are gentle guides in the arts of procreation, but they have an absolute policy that no moisture can be wasted, so they will ensure that not a drop of spirit energy gets lost in the process. This practice has given them a reputation for voraciousness due to their attempts to stem the flow of moisture from either of their bodies.
A mirage’s role as a guide will often be forgotten once she acquires a mate. She will instead focus on traversing the desert and keeping them both safe until they find a location to settle down in, more often than not falling in with oasis tribes, tent cities, or the nomad tribes of the deep desert, where they explore and live freely without the Lords’ control.
Name That Mamono: Nameera al-Tabet
Nameera is a dune elf of slight stature, standing at 5' 2” (157 cm), with bright blue eyes and a sheaf of white hair as a result of the ritual that initiated her into the priesthood. She is an imposing presence nonetheless with a sharp gaze and the aura of magic around her. She acts as the priestess of her oasis tribe, and as such has never taken leave to find a mate until now. Her apprentice has reached the point where Nameera can loosen up a bit and enjoy the finer things in life, so she is devoting her free time to hunting down a proper mate who will be worthy of her time and affection.
Cross a doppelganger’s skill with false appearances with a phantom’s flair for the dramatic and you have a noppera-bo (NAW-purr-ah-BOH). These rare ghostly mamono are a nuisance -- or rarely, an actual menace -- to the travelers who are their usual prey. Though she poses little physical danger a noppera-bo might mask the presence of or drive her victims into a more serious hazard. This is unfortunate, as noppera-bo aren’t usually malicious… but a girl has to eat.
A noppera-bo in her natural form resembles a human woman except for having no facial features, but most of the time she will appear to others in a disguise. Noppera-bo have the ability to create false faces; they can manifest eyes, noses, and mouths in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. They are also able to change their skin color, hair style and color, and clothing -- noppera-bo go naked at all times, and any clothing they seem to be wearing is actually part of their bodies -- and can make minor adjustments to their size. It’s easy for a noppera-bo to create features for a generic face, but impersonating a specific person takes more effort. A noppera-bo has limited ability to scan the minds of people in her immediate vicinity in order to improve her acting performance; she can tailor her voice, mannerisms, and costume to conform to viewers’ expectations or blend in with a crowd. As ghosts noppera-bo can pass through solid objects or allow objects to pass through them, but they can be solid when they wish to be.
Like all mamono noppera-bo are able to feed on spirit energy, but they also need emotional energy. They frequent isolated areas and use their shapeshifting powers to appear harmless. When a traveler happens by the noppera-bo will put on a performance to draw that person closer -- pretending to be injured or lost is a common tactic. Once the mark is close the noppera-bo will reveal her true face (or rather, lack thereof) or assume a fearsome visage in order to scare the victim and feed on the resulting fear. The stronger the fear the more nourishment the noppera-bo derives from it; a good startle will sate a noppera-bo’s hunger for a day or two, while a full-on panic will keep her going for a fortnight, and that’s from a single person. More victims provide more fear for the faceless ghost to feed on. As a ghost a noppera-bo can’t starve to death because she’s already dead, but the hungrier she is the harder it is to remain solid. A starving noppera-bo is completely incorporeal.
There are a rare few noppera-bo who have learned to feed on emotions other than fear. Some follow armies to feast on the rage of battle. Others are traveling players who draw sustenance from the joy that a performance evokes from an audience. Most common are those who work in brothels -- usually as support staff rather than prostitutes -- to gain access to a steady diet of desire. But even those noppera-bo who learn to feed on other emotions retain the ability to derive nourishment from fear. They simply find other emotions more flavorful.
For a noppera-bo finding a human spouse -- husband or wife, they’re not picky -- is all about feelings. Those with a taste for emotions other than fear are attracted to people who feel those emotions deeply. Noppera-bo who feed on wrath are drawn to people with anger issues, for example, while those who feed on desire like humans with particularly strong sex drives. It’s different for noppera-bo who mainly feed on fear, however; for them it’s people they can’t scare whom they find irresistible. If a noppera-bo fails to scare a human on their first encounter she will become fascinated with that person and begin to stalk them. She will make multiple future attempts to scare her crush, and if she fails her obsession will turn into infatuation and she’ll begin wooing her target instead. She will flirt and cajole and offer sexual favors for as long as it takes for her target to give in (it’s not as if her biological clock is ticking…). If her beloved accepts her the noppera-bo gains the ability to feed on her sweetheart’s affection for her; whoever said you can’t live on love never met a married noppera-bo.
Name That Mamono: Kuranko (koo-RAHN-ko)
Plenty of people know Kuranko, just not by that name. She makes a circuit of a dozen villages disguised as an entertainer to feed on her audiences’ enjoyment. She uses three different false identities, each with a different act -- dancer, juggler, and storyteller. Kuranko likes her joy spiced with a little fear, however, so her dancing and juggling include lots of death-defying stunts while her oration features plenty of ghost stories (some of which she is a character in). She has been on the road for over 600 years and is happy with her life, but she’d really like a husband or wife to share it with. The problem is, with two emotions she feeds on Kuranko has two requirements to fulfill. So far all the humans she has met whose joy is strong enough to interest her have been spineless cowards, while the only humans she has met who are sufficiently fearless have been unbearably grouchy -- or worse, depressed. When she finally does find a spouse Kuranko says that person is in for a treat; this faceless girl has been studying “marital arts,” and she makes a point of practicing every night. So far no one has had the heart to tell her that really getting good at that stuff requires a partner.
tygertygerAug 11, 2023 9:58 PM
"When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling