Miran's Magnificient Monster Manual

[Togetak]

Interlude: Occultic Monstrosities

In all previous chapters I have endeavoured to give you, my dear reader, the most comprehensive look into the wilds of Esshar ever committed to paper. To this end I have scrambled everywhere from the wild jungles, the blaring deserts- from the highest mountain peaks, to the lowest depths of the earth. Throughout all this time, I have spoken from the purest love within my heart for each of these strange and wonderful beasts, I have followed and admired them with joy welling up deep within me.

 

With this passage, I cannot do the same.

 

Within the natural order, there is a certain cycle to things- the hare eats the grass, the wolf eats the hare, and (should another beast not eat the wolf in turn) it eventually returns to the soil and nourishes the hare’s meal. This applies not just to the most basal of mundane creature, but every creature- magimal, plant and even man (or woman! And those beyond).

 

The prefix of “natural” before order, as the keen eyes readers may have already gathered, does imply this is not universal. 

I have spoken before of the Daemon cruelly mutated by exposure to Occultic energies, but they are not the only beasts intertwined with such dark powers. Sentient practitioners of the Occult arts leech from the cycle I have just described, they devour the mana from others to prolong their lives and empower themselves, they hoard it and drain their surroundings dry.

 

While anyone with half a functioning mind knows such indulgences are inherently self destructive, both upon a personal level (You cannot exist as a creature of destruction to yourself and those around you and expect to maintain healthy relationships with others) and upon a physical level (as your own abilities are liable to tear yourself apart, let alone the nature in your surroundings)- there are still damnable fools who follow the dark calls, and endeavour to destroy themselves in such a way that will bring the most collateral damage possible.

 

To this end, we finally come to the beasts they burden our world with.

 

Banshees, Spirits, and creatures of Voodoo.

 

 

As one with the common sense not bring upon myself a guillotine of my own making, my knowledge of these creatures is particularly limited. These are creatures of undeath, souls (if, really, they can be called as such) torn from a place between worlds and given form by the sacrifice of others.

 

Sentient, in as much as a living force of nature can be, these beasts are born from Occultists striking a bargain with the creatures, before tearing them from their prisons and into the world of the living.

 

I have borne witness to only one of these creatures, although I have seen the destruction a number more have enacted upon the world. WIthin the town of Moonfall- a once thriving home of the Druidic arts, those with an appreciation of nature rivalling my own, fallen to an occultic rot from their own inaction- I witnessed a powerful occultist bring the creature into our world.

 

A ripple in reality itself proceeded the beast’s birth. First was a whirlpool of life ripped from human sacrifices, that grew in strength until it began to pull on the surroundings with the force of gale-wind, tearing plants and woodland creatures from their hiding spots and devouring what little essence they stored. When the beast drew close, scratching at the hole that had been ripped for it, it began to tear at the mana within the bodies of those around- non-magi were killed as their mana circuits were drained completely, while magi could do little but grip themselves and attempt to hold on.

 

When the monster had claimed itself enough power, the corpses of man and beast alike that littered the area knitted themselves together into sinew and flesh. The mana-rich bones of Moonfall’s ancestors were torn from the ground, integrated into the colossal beast, before it was finally complete.

 

In my life, I have never witnessed such evil as to summon this beast, nor the raw dark powers it possessed.

 

I have seen little more of the beast summoned before me that night. Like the weaker kin summoned before it, it tore through the countryside and killed all those who sat within its path, devoured like those present at its summoning. I hope, within the deepest parts of my being, that it has somehow died. That it has killed and eaten until- as is the fate of those who created it- it could withstand no more and tore itself apart.

 

Should you, dear reader, ever hear of such a creature being summoned… I can offer no true advice beyond cowardice. Abominations, they are creatures that should not be, and yet are empowered such that there are none who can stop them.

 

They are by nature temporary beasts, sustained only by the bloodshed and dark hearts that birthed them. They will tear apart anything before them, even turning on their own creators should the fancy strike them, before falling to pieces.

 

Still, there is hope. While occultic energy is inherently self destructive and temporary…even it cannot permanently destroy the nature order. While much of the energy torn away by these beasts, or the occultic wielders that create them, is lost forever- once removed, they can do no more harm, and the scars they leave will heal.

 

This is true for all Occult- whether it be a hulking beast, a wicked user, or even the energies within someone truly capable of healthy repentance, turning away from the dark powers.

 

Once peace is reached, natural beauty will always shine through.