#Occult Bestiary

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplaying Races 15: Munavri

(art by Catilus on DeviantArt)

On Monday we looked at the caligni, and now it’s time to look at one final example of Azlanti survivors that were changed by their exodus. However, unlike many such survivors, the muavri were not corrupted or degenerated by the transformation, and are a rare bastion of good and righteousness in the often cutthroat world that is the Darklands.

Descended from Azlanti sailors that were ambushed and abducted by the alghollthu in the wake of Earthfall, they were dragged down into the depths along the Braid, a supernatural waterspout that connects the Arcadian Ocean of the surface to the Sightless Sea in the Orv layer of the Darklands below.

Though no doubt the alghollthu had sinister plans for these abductees, perhaps planning on turning them into something similar to the azarketi gillmen, these Azlanti escaped and made use of their skill as sailors to ply the dark ocean aboard violet-sailed vessels made from carved ivory, where they settled on floating islands of a strange, jade-like substance.

This jade is highly psychically reactive, which made it unbearable for the alghollthu and many of their minions to approach, making it a sanctuary for these survivors. Over the generations, they adapted to the darkness and constant psychic power around them, becoming powerful and canny mystics in their own right as they prove a nearly inassailable nuisance to drow, alghollthu, urdefhans, and other villainous cultures in the depths.

Munavri look mostly human of Azlanti ethnicity, but their skin and hair is bleached of all color, making them seem at first glance to be albino. What’s more, their eyes radiate light from their natural psychic power. They typically wear jade armor chipped form the very gemstones they reside on, as well as leathers tanned from subterranean beasts.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the munavri represent the best of response to hardship a society can have, forging close-knit communities that are there for each other and treat each other like family beyond the bonds of blood, and forgoing brutality for carefully organized resolution of conflicts between their own. They also typically worship the various empyreal lords, with three spiritual leaders, each representing the empyreal lords of a particular celestial clade. Meanwhile, large family units are led by a protector-marshal that governs in the best interest of their people. That’s not to say that there are not dissenters or no room for individuality, but they often do focus on community first and foremost. Additionally, they treat friendly outsiders very well, and are eager to hear about the world outside their lightless nautical realm, especially the surface world.

As beings descended directly from the incredibly hale and brilliant Azlanti, the Munavri boast superior minds and bodies (particularly agility) with the exception of their strength, which is on the weaker side.

They also possess exceptionally long-ranged night-sight as well.

This, however, is coupled with a sensitivity to bright light.

Imbued with psychic magic, munavri have a knack for reading the psychic echoes on objects in particular, gleaning information from them.

They are able to take this even further, however, by reading the memories of how the object was used, allowing them to use unfamiliar weapons and tools with a surprising level of competence for a short while.

Like many Darklands residents, they also possess a bit of innate spell resistance as well, making them hard to affect with hostile magic.

Their psychic abilities also grant them telepathy, though it is limited to communication with other munavri only.

With having a positive bonus to every single stat except for strength, munavri characters can literally excel at any class or archetype combination, even strength-based stuff like barbarians with a little work. Which… will give a lot of GMs pause, and I can imagine many straight-up banning the ancestry outright because of that, or at least restricting it to games where everyone is playing something similarly powerful or higher-level games where such traits are less of an issue. If you do get to play one, consider that nautical options are appropriate for their life on a sunless sea, as well as various classes and archetypes that grant psychic magic as well. But again, they can excel in pretty much any field, so feel free to pick any class combination you like!

[fleshwizard]

𝔄𝔯𝔰 𝔊𝔬𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔞

[chimeride]

𝔊𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱 𝔓𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔅𝔲𝔢𝔯

"He appeareth in Sagittary, and that is his shape when the Sun is there. He teaches Philosophy, both Moral and Natural, and the Logic Art, and also the Virtues of all Herbs and Plants. He healeth all distempers in man, and giveth good Familiars. He governeth 50 Legions of Spirits."

Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King

[rosieandthemoon]

bringing my boyfriend home to meet the parents (think they’ll notice he’s a demon? 👀)

[benlongoria]

The big guy himself, the Blind Idiot God, also known as the Ur God and the Creator. From his throne he mindlessly sacrifices his own flesh to give life to all manner of mortals and immortals. • | | | | #myth #mythology #occult #occultart #supernatural #horror #horrorart #horrorfiction #books #bookart #bookillustration #illustration #pendrawing #creature #creatures #creatureconcept #scary #monsters #monsterart #bestiary #lovecraftian #necronomicon #grimoire #fantasy #cosmichorror (at Stone Oak) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoC0XJAO8gw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[johndnormal]

Just started digital art thought I make another bestiary page

[cavegirlpoems]

Hello, new follower here! I saw you mentioned you worked on several RPGs, may I ask what those were? I'm always looking to find new cool RPGs!

OK so, off the top of my head: TTRPGs: -Wolfpacks & Winter Snow (osr weird fantasy paleolithic with too much historical research) -Dungeon Bitches (PbtA dyke-punk dungeon-horror full of sex and body horror) -Esoteric Enterprises (osr modern-day occult gangsters/urban exploration) -Haunt/Hearts (romantic lyric game about a lesbian ghost) -The Yellow Curtain (experimental metafiction King In Yellow/RevStar) -Deep Morphean Transmissions (dreamscape conspiricy noir surrealism in a setting kept secret from the players ooc) Modules/Settings/Adventures: The Gardens Of Ynn (whimsical fantasy in a ruined extradimensional garden, procedurally generated osr) The Stygian Library (whimsical fantasy in a haunted extradimensional library, procedurally generated osr) Dead Girls In Sarkash Forest (feminine horror with tragically undead protagonists, mork borg for riot grrls) Wounded Hungry & Forgotten (a mini bestiary for Dungeon Bitches) Black Lung (Dungeon Bitches in the industrial revolution, again with too much historical resarch: out any day now i promise) Wargames: The Dolorous Stroke (experimental detailed skirmish game based on medieval romances with knights going on quests) Black Death Walking (narrative campaign skirmish game set in the 15th century with zombies and satan) Currently In Progress (in various stages of done, titles subject to change, may or may not actually get finished): Black Death Rising (osr religious horror with zombies, fascists and satan all trying to kill you, same setting as Black Death Walking) The Bleeding Gullet (a body-horror OSR setting in a giant mutant-filled chasm that makes you violently ill if you try to leave it) In The Black Cloister (experimental solo wargame where you explore a ruined nunnery/vinyard full of weird monsters) Sunset Seas (nautical osr adventure where you sail around exploring various increasingly weird islands on the edge of the world)

[witnesstheabsurd]

[ Between Sky and Earth - Between the petrified cities of The Earth, the base reality, and the caustic, blinding freedom of The Sky, the virtual reality, the cyberspace absolute that governs all existence. Between Sky and Earth, a thousand heavens are at war. ]

ANNOUNCING THE KICKSTARTER FOR MY NEXT ARTBOOK!

CLICK HERE

My name is Francine Bridge - also known online as Witnesstheabsurd. I've worked as a freelance illustrator in the games, music and fashion industries, most recently having worked as Art Director on the upcoming "Slave Zero X" . I've also published two artbooks - the Occult Supergiant Primer and Ars Goetia, both of which were funded via Kickstarter. It's been several years since my last, and i'm excited to announce my next self-published artbook - "One Thousand Heavens: A Cyberspace Bestiary".

It's planned to be an 80-page artbook featuring paintings of cyberspace Avatars and the Pilots that control them - an assortment of monsters and cyberpunk weirdos battling for control over the Throne, a mysterious entity that will permit one Pilot to become God and redefine existence. I'm launching a new Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for printing a 300 copy run and also funding the completion of the book itself!

Backers will be able to reserve one of these copies for themselves in physical and PDF format - after the KS ends, they will never be sold at this price again, and only a limited number will be printed for this first run! Shipping anywhere in the world!

Tumblr was where I got my start and everything I have flowed from the support I received on this site - it means so much to be here again, able to share my work with you all. To anyone who chooses to pledge, to share, or even look at this art i've made - thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.

LINK HERE

[highrook]

Stories as jigsaws and Games as notebooks

The world and lore of Highrook is rarely presented in linear exposition. In fact most of the writing in the game is peripheral to progress. You can complete the game without even reading the majority of the texts available. I am a huge fan of cosmic horror fiction, rpg sourcebooks, wikis, board games and graphic novels. All of these forms share the frameworks of fragmented fiction. The story and world is delivered through occult scraps, unearthed pages, scribbled notes and scattered imagery.

This way of organising and revealing information really appeals to me as both a reader and a player. It avoids locking the participant into long inescapable sequences of exposition or cutscenes. Instead it allows a different mode of engagement. You can read as much or as little as you feel at the moment, and return later - to revisit fragments and find new revelations or locate missing pieces.

This structure even mirrors the action in cosmic horror tales, where protagonists assemble obscure source material and attempts to piece together a timeline. Juggling fragments might seem stressful for some people, but if there is no time pressure or ‘single true text’ then the experience can actually be quite relaxing.

It's like putting together a jigsaw, you can tackle it at your own pace, apply your focus in different places until the whole picture emerges. You might concentrate on the edges, assemble islands of shared colour, or work one subsection at a time. It's the same reason I love wikis or RPG bestiaries, they are all ways to assemble a world that builds by aggregation not instruction, it's a workshop not a lecture. This kind of assembly also provides space for the reader to include their own ideas, there is more leeway for interpretation and creative engagement with the material. 

Or maybe its just avoidance?… not being confident enough to commit to direct exposition, but I’ve never enjoyed rollercoaster fiction, or on-rails games. As much as Half-life was a masterpiece of its time I feel that it led to an overwhelming rise of set-piece game design (at least for a while). The zones of the Southern Reach or Stalker, or the melancholy landscapes of Fumito Ueda are more my style… places that I feel would exist without my attention or interactions. Places where the story happens in a way that is more topological than hierarchical.

Of course this can make organising content a nightmare! I already have hundreds of separate cards in my game, with descriptions of everything from an old trowel to a broken heart. But wrangling all these items and notes into shape is a game in itself and something I can attack from different angles depending on my mood or the time of day. There's a few months yet before it will all be tied up, but I can feel it slowly coming together.

[thydungeongal]

We all know you love Rolemaster's tables. But is there any other games tables that you also like ?

has some hella good tables for character creation. It sadly doesn't utilize them for gameplay, but the ones provided for character creation are among the best in the hobby. It makes creating a weird mutant animal so much fun.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by @anim-ttrpgs has some cool tables for monsters hunting for food! It's perfect for generative content and emergent narrative, because monsters feeding on humans is a very important part of the gameplay and supposed to have no easy moral choices, and the tables not only provide lots of surprise, they force players to really think about where their character would draw the line morally.

I also really like the various tables from Esoteric Enterprises by @cavegirlpoems! Esoteric Enterprises is an urban fantasy OSR game about playing people involved in the occult underground and it has some absolutely fantastic tables for generating content in the underground.

Finally, not a game, but I love the tables in Monster Overhaul. It's my favorite RPG bestiary by far. There are encounter tables as well as tables for putting new twists on monsters! It's cool!

[thecreaturecodex]

Skelm, Soul

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[Hey! A new monster! I am feeling a bit more rested and rejuvenated after my long hiatus. I'm still only planning on releasing one or two new monsters a week, but I feel much more motivated to write now, and think I've worked out why my block has been what it is.

The soul skelm is the last and most powerful of the skelms in PF2e's Bestiary 3, and I like that it has a similar ability to the weakest, the street skelm. I wonder if all four of them had a "X Strike" ability at some point in development. I added some more spell-like abilities to play into their "bullying the dead" flavor text.]

Skelm, Soul CR 10 LE Outsider (native) This humanoid male has translucent gray skin and a rack of antlers. His face is contorted into an expression of mock agony and terror.

Soul skelms are among the most powerful of skelm-kind, and are some sort of occult parallel to night hags. Unlike the more metaphysical connection between night hags and mortal hags, soul skelms are a further transformation, and can form from any kind of skelm. A soul skelm is one that has completely abandoned its original personality and mortality for pure hatred and ambition. Soul skelms are especially feared because their cruelty does not stop when their victims die. A soul skelm continues to bully the souls of their victims, calling them from the grave to interrogate them as to the weaknesses of their friends and loved ones, and using them to invigorate their withered flesh. Soul skelms do not have a natural lifespan; they only die through violence or misfortune, and many of their souls immediately go on to reincarnate as rakshasas, asuras or oni.

Soul skelms enjoy using the undead as tools, and often collect a region’s undead under their banner, using bribes, threats and magic if the first two fail. Soul skelms are even more isolationist and paranoid of their fellow skelms as other varieties are, and rarely associate with them except as part of a plan to get their lesser killed. Soul skelms delight in breaking apart group unity and cohesive tactics, using illusions to separate each of their victims into a solipsistic reverie before picking them off one by one. They prefer spiked chains, whips, or other ostentatious, showy weapons.

Soul Skelm CR 10 XP 9,600 LE Medium outsider (native) Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +17

Defense AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 natural) hp 126 (12d10+60) Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +13; -2 vs. emotion effects DR 10/cold iron; Immune death effects, possession

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee +1 spiked chain +19/+14/+9 (2d4+10/19-20), gore +13 (2d6+3 plus trip) or slam +18 (1d4+6), gore +13 (2d6+6 plus trip) Special Attacks bully the departed (7/day), isolating strike Spell Like Abilities CL 10th, concentration +17 (+21 casting defensively) At will—dimension door, ghost whip, invisibility, silence (DC 19) 3/day—call spirit (DC 22), command undead (DC 19), inflict critical wounds (DC 21) 1/day—entrap spirit (DC 22), greater oeneiric horror (DC 21), mind probe (DC 21), plane shift (self only, Material and Astral Planes only)

Statistics Str 23, Dex 17, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 20, Cha 25 Base Atk +12; CMB +18 (+20 disarm, trip); CMD 32 (34 vs. disarm, trip) Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (spiked chain) (B), Improved Critical (spiked chain) (B), Improved Disarm, Improved Trip Skills Bluff +17, Climb +16, Disguise +17, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (arcana, local, nobility, religion) +10, Perception +17, Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +13, Stealth +13 SQ change shape (Medium male humanoid, alter self), conspicuous combatant, ghostly grasp, skelm traits

Ecology Environment any land or urban Organization solitary Treasure standard (+1 spiked chain, other treasure)

Special Abilities Bully the Departed (Su) As a move action, a soul skelm can call upon the souls of his victims to invigorate himself. Until the end of his next turn, he gains regeneration 15 (force, good), and deals an extra 1d6 points of damage with all his melee attacks. During this time, his melee attacks count as evil for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and regeneration. A soul skelm can use this ability a number of times a day equal to his Charisma modifier. Conspicuous Combatant (Ex) A soul skelm gains Exotic Weapon Proficiency and Improved Critical for one exotic weapon of his choice. Ghostly Grasp (Su) A soul skelm’s natural weapons, and any manufactured weapons he wields, are treated as being ghost touch weapons for the purposes of interacting with incorporeal creatures. Isolating Strike (Su) As a standard action, a soul skelm can exert himself to make a single powerful attack. When he does, he adds an additional damage die of the same type to the attack, and the creature struck must succeed a DC 23 Will save. If they fail, they are invisible, inaudible and otherwise completely imperceptible to their allies for the next 4 rounds, and their allies are likewise invisible, inaudible and completely imperceptible to them. Regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, that creature is immune to that soul skelm’s isolating strike for the next 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma based, and this is an illusion effect. After making this attack, the street skelm is treated as being flat footed until the beginning of its next turn. Skelm Traits (Ex) All skelms gain a +4 racial bonus to Intimidate checks, but a -2 penalty to all saving throws against emotion effects.

[majestativa]

Carrington’s work […] combined Mayan myths with her Celtic heritage, strong interest in alchemy and knowledge of the occult: ‘in everybody, she says, there is an “inner bestiary”’

— Georgiana M. M. Colvile, Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism, (2009)

[fleshwizard]

Welcome, traveler. This is my grimoire where I've been collecting for years observations of the visible world and beyond. You might see drawings of monsters and demons, butterflies and flowers, dragons and wizards, places I've been, cartography, astronomy, artifacts and characters from other worlds. But, as my title suggest, there is also a lot of studies about the human body, from conventional medecine to science fantasy : observations from real life dissection, flesh golems, xenocardiology, microscopic slides, necromancy and anatomical charts.

Other projects are summarized here in this grimoire, but fully extended on other blogs :

The Éphéméride des Chimères (@chimeride) is a bestiary of chimeras, creatures made from animals that currently exist in our world. Started in 2018, it has > 1000 entries alternating between Known Ones (tributes and interpretation of creatures that already exist) and the Unknown (original creations with contributions through suggestions). The simple format allows me to explore infinite designs, to create series inside the serie, and to cover various topics like mythology, mermaids, dragons, cryptids, goblins, paleontology, occultism or giraffes, for example.

@dudukbazaar is a transdimensional shop. Opened in 2024, new items are dropped every Sundays. Some items are related, with places mentionned like Cappenhog or the Organian Reef. Unknown chimeras have been mentionned or sold here as items. Nothing is known about the shop owner.

And here are my medecine projects. They are separated from fantasy, and are written in French (my native language) to be more accurate :

@celluloyd is a collection of ~500 figures and drawings I did between 2015 and 2017 for university. They all have been used in class for embryology, cell biology, histology, and neuroanatomy, and are posted here for free with lots of explanatory text

@celluloscope is a human body atlas with a focus on pathology, made with watercolor and started in 2022. As I am getting further in my course it has better accuracy than celluloyd, but I don't always have the energy to work on it on my free time

You can also find me on Instagram, and I have done a few live drawing sessions on Twitch. You can ask me anything on tumblr here, or by email. All my links are summarized on Linktree. I hope this introduction makes your exploration through my work more easy !

[chimeride]

𝔓𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔖𝔱𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔰

He is a Great and Powerful Prince, appearing in the Shape of a Mighty Raven at first before the Exorcist; but after he taketh the image of a Man. He teacheth the Art of Astronomy, and the Virtues of Herbs and Precious Stones. He governeth 26 Legions of Spirits.

Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King

[macabr3s]

「   🔗   」     STATUS.   ﹕   open. 「   🔗   」     LOCATION.   ﹕   portum  art  museum 「   🔗   」     FEAT.   ﹕   hera  &  your  muse.

         “  it’s  quite  fascinating  ,  isn’t  it  ?  ”  hera  asks  ,  walking  up  from  behind  [  your  muse  ]  .  the  latest  featured  exhibition  at  the  art  museum  may  just  be  her  most  ambitious  one  yet  .  titled  bestiary  :  the  book  of  creatures  ,  she  poured  hours  of  research  to  gather  the  works  of  both  humans  and  supernaturals  alike  .  an  exploration  of  how  each  views  the  occult  .  “  i  suppose  it’s  a  bit  on  the  nose  but  i’ve  always  found  it  interesting  to  see  the  evolution  of  change  as  time  progresses  .  what  do  you  think  ?  ”

[benlongoria]

Monster: Shade “Pete and his captor fell from a sky illuminated by a grinning harvest moon. There, under a dome of calcified gore, was a land teeming with a menagerie of ghostly life. Pallid creatures with the heads of beasts milled about aimlessly. Their bodies, made of dust, were caught in strong gusts of winds. Their strange oblivious lives were snuffed out in an instant. Above the masses that stretched on into the infinite, flew a choir of blue-skinned cherubs. Their manic laughter echoed throughout the land and caused Pete’s teeth to crack.” -Marfa, TX (The Forest Around The Hill) Find a copy here ➡️ https://www.searosspub.com/the-forest-around-the-hill • | | | | #myth #mythology #occult #occultart #supernatural #horror #horrorart #horrorfiction #books #bookart #bookillustration #illustration #pendrawing #creature #creatures #creatureconcept #scary #monsters #monsterart #bestiary #lovecraftian #necronomicon #grimoire #fantasy #cosmichorror (at Stone Oak) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKWXnUOQEu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=