Smoke Aetherkin
(Elemental)—This is a smoke quasi-elemental that can take humanoid shape dimensions, though still made of smoke. They are aggressive and can perform simple tasks, so wizards sometimes harness them as guards.
Solitary Faerie
(Faerie)—These are brooding, grumpy, and even malignant faeries that live and operate alone. They often are symbiotically attached to a specific place or region, and they usually dress in red. Unless otherwise specified, they are hostile to mortals. This is a wider class of faerie, which includes bocans, red caps, love talkers and others.
Spriggin
(Faerie)—These are the short, domestic commoner elfs who serve noble faeries. Male spriggin are pot-bellied, wizened, hairy and ugly, being about four feet tall; while female spriggins are mortal sized (about five feet tall) and noted for their earthy beauty and lusty appeal. Spriggin serve as peasants, valets, and in whatever capacity their overlords require. They are meticulous, detail orientated, and skilled tailors, equerries and cobblers. Spriggins dress as would human commoners, albeit with finer cut clothing. They have the power of prophecy, size changing, weather binding, plus many other spells. They can be bitter, but more likely to irritate rather than harm humans. It is spriggins who usually are assigned to kidnap mortal children and replace them with changelings at the noble faeries’ behest.
Spunkie
(Faerie)—These are wicked woodland elves that use magic lanterns to lead travelers astray. These faeries are skilled foresters, and they know spells of invisibility, misdirection, silence, and moving without a trace. Spunkies and their motives are not understood—perhaps they act to protect access ways to Faerie, or try to trap travelers in Faerie, or simply misdirect mortals out of spite.
Succubus/Incubus
(Female/Male) (Demon)—These spirits are born of the benighted sky, and are parasitic breeding demons. Succubus breed with men, and drink their life energy, while incubus partake of women. This demon assumes the form most pleasing to its victim, but can only be seen by its chosen lover, for for other witnesses it looks like a skiff of brackish smoke. Demon/human offspring raised on Aarthus become cambions, while those raised in hell become demons. Succubus and incubus can assume corporeal human form, but they can also grow bat wings and fly. This is not the only type of demons that can interbreed with humans, but they are most specialized in it.
Swanmay
(Faerie)—These are good-hearted elf maids who wear swan feather robes and may transform at will into a swan. Swanmays are duo-formed, their swan form being secondary but equally valid. The feather robe is not simply a tradition, but it is practical too—this robe is the only garment that will translate into swan form, so often it is the swanmay’s only alternative to nakedness. Swan mays know the language of swans and birds and they may spiritually become one with nature at will, knowing what nature knows, but losing their own sense of individuality for the duration. Swan mays will never harm a swan and swear lifelong vows of celibacy, chastity and virginity. This makes them distinctly un-faerie-like.
Talex Demon
(Demon)—These are bureaucrat demons, thin and erudite, and serve as clerks in hell. They seem civilized, but their bland countenances hides iron, merciless, hidebound hearts. Talex appear much like other demons, but tall, thin, and erect, and with bone-white complexions. Their wings are small and non-functional, they wear sour, disapproving expressions, and they dress in semi-clerical habits, complete with tonsures. Their weapons are their quills and inkwells, making them profoundly dangerous—their small print can ruin victims forever! They eschew gross, physical confrontation, and prefer magik for self-defense.
Tarasque
(Dragon)—Something of a tortoise-dragon or snapping turtle/dragon hybrid, with a massive, impenetrable, turtle-like carapace over its thick body. This fire-breathing behemoth is big even for dragons, having a shell about 30’ to 36’ long, and twice that from nose to tail tip. It has a lion-like head, six legs, and no wings. It is speechless, and it has high animal intelligence, and virtually impossible to kill. They hibernate for years at a time, and then feed rapaciously, wiping out entire regions before retiring again.
Tatzlwurm
(Dragon)—These are like lindwurms in all ways, but only about four feet, tall, green, with a large crest. These lesser dragons are also less intelligent and more common that full lindwurms. It has low animal intelligence and is speechless.
Telfarri
(Chthonic)—These mysterious creatures from deep antiquity were the first and oldest sentient biological creatures on the planet. No one knows if they are Aarthus natives, or if they swam here from across space time. Telfarri are functionally immortal, being as old as the planet itself (if not older), and aging on the same geological scale as Aarthus itself. They lair in deep, toxic, subterranean vaults and underground seas or lakes. Telfarri bodies and conformation are reminiscent of fat salamanders or iguanas, but they are about 80 to 120 feet long, snout to tail. Their long and paddle-like tails are ideal for swimming. They differ from the lizard template in that they have bulbous, lidless, multifaceted, fly-like eyes. Another delineating factor is their long, prehensile tongues that act frog-like, darting out to snare food at up to triple body length. They are semiaquatic, so telfarri hides are pliable membranes, designed to retain moisture. They use their skin to breathe, and are adapted to life in air, fresh water or salt water. For coloration, they are often multi-hued, with big stretches of unearthly violet, and colors the human eye cannot perceive, lending them a shimmering distortion. These ancient creatures have stubby, five-digit ‘fingers,’ clawless and webbed. They are not good for grasping or fighting, but good for swimming and digging. Telfarri are superhumanly intelligent and have almost unlimited telekinetic power. They have no voice box, and speak no known language, but they are powerful telepaths and adept at making their will known. Communication is not really on the table for them, because it is unknown if they perceive humanity as sentient race. The alien forces often mutate and deform beings that live within a short range of a telfarri lair they radiate. This effect has created the Warped, or Chaos Beasts, each covered elsewhere. The telfarri’s combat abilities are not really important, for none but a god could battle one with any hope of success. Not even the great heroes of Aorlis, all alive, organized, and prepared, could hope to take down a telfarri on his worst day. There are five, and they spend their time sleeping and dreaming unfathomably dark and alien dreams. Gender does not apply to telfarri, for they all lay eggs. Those eggs are deposited in water, and the young telfarri must fend for themselves. New telfarri are unlikely ever to be conceived, for the remaining examples of this race hate each other far too much to procreate.
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