Mystbeasts and Magical Infusion

Notes on mystbeasts

Long ago, man believed that the powers of the myst and magic was only harboured by the sentient and wise. That the posibility of magic being harnessed by sources outside of their power was nothing but foolishness and crazy talk.
Nowadays we know far better, and that the denizens of the animal kingdom is just as prone to magical talent as any man and elf. Sometimes even more powerfull than so, as the limits of what reality holds seem less present to the non-consequental brains of once mindless beasts. These creatures that have been infused with raw magic has come to be sloppily named Mystbeasts due to their essence having been warped around the essence of the magics which serve their instincts.
When first the mystbeast came to be discovered, naturally it drew the attention of naturalists. scientists and big game hunters from all of the worlds furthers reaches. From old [Morkadia] before the kingdom fell to the Darkelves, they formed the still strong going Mysthunters guild which serve to figure out the origins and ways to deal with these unorthodox creatures.
So far, it has become widely known that most mystbeasts are a product of creatures which have suffered prolonged contact with Essentia Crystals and thus been influxed with an infusion of their potent magics. Now, most animals have likely suffered some form of exposure to the crystals as they are naturally found everywhere in the wild, and rarely even in the midsts of civilization at times. Thus we are not talking weeks of exposure but months and years of such.
The effects are not permanent either, and some creatures that get but a taste of magic may not even turn into a mystbeast but rather harness a single spell for a shorter duration of time. Much like how runes work.
The real concern comes when said animal doesn't stop hungering for magic, or flee in fear from it which comes natural to most. It may happen that the creature instead seek out to draw from the crystals, thus fueling their own essence with that of the myst. Naturally, not every mystbeast that exist is a great concern, though still important to study due magical science. A science from which we've learned that different animals and crystals have such vast different potential outcomes that it point to a near unlimited amount of different creatures.
Thus, as we'd require many a thousands of years to note down every creature, with possibilities of several new popping up or going extinct with each day due to natural selection, the guild resorted to classify types rather than races and breeds. The well known being Beta and Alpha mystbeasts.

Beta

The beta mystbeast, in contrary to it's name isn't necessarily any lesser than the alpha. What differs the two is that beta mystbeasts are far less dangerous due to a docile nature, or sometimes even possessive of a magically evolved intelligents that isn't far off our own, such is the case of the Quirrk that can easily fend off any alpha with technology and combined forces.
In short the basic explanation of an alpha is a mystbeast which either communicates normally, wont attack unless provoked or can be tamed. An example of this would be familiars which may be a cat or dog purposefully charged with essentia crystals to aid it's companion scholar. Though familiars are more fit detailed by the mystic's guild rather than the mysthunters.

Alpha

Unlike the beta, the alpha is much more aggressive and seems to share a megalomanic mindset which would make many a dark sorcerers from our own realms blush. Still, most alpha's don't harbour much threat against the likes of civilizaton, and can often be dealt with alone by a competent knight, mystician or gunfighter. The real problems and reason as to why they are cathegorized a step above beta's in the foodchain is due to their predatory nature.
They don't only die in heaps and piles by countless factions and people that have good reasons to purge them from their lands, but also tend to breed like rabbits and can cause all manners of hell before being put down. Simply speaking, a normal wolf that plagues the countryside will eventually be put down. Even if a successfull hunter, the normal wolf will still not be able to cause as much damage as one with the capability of burning down the barn, rather than just steal the cows.

Omega

The Omega, are mystbeasts so great that their type need always be spelled in capital not to misstake it for some code or name of an old operation.
The Omega can easily be fully applied by the megalomania of an alpha, the intelligence and sentient form of a beta, and the powers of a god.
One can only immagine on their own, the terror should the beasts and animals in our woods suddenly strike with the coordination of a trained army, with the ruthlessness of hungry predators. Due to their numbers likely being no more than countable on fingers and toes, spanning the whole world, these titanic beings are the only ones which are named and documented (as well as we can document them) due to their threat grand enough to strike fear in empires.
As if they were not bad enough on their own, the Omega are also potent in channeling Animo-Ex-Taurus rites and can easily transform any follower into an avatar of their own form. They do this with a potency that outrivals even the godess of nature herself, though with the catch that they can only transform man into the beastman or taurus that they themselves originally came from.
To fight back against these threats, the most important factor would be to starve them from essentia crystals which feed their power. (Due to the further amounts of magical energy they can drain, the more powerful they might grow). Secondly, man and muscle are not enough and the beasts should only be faced with powerfull binding magics, siegeweaponry and machinery or the specialized tools and skills of our mysthunters guild.
It should also be stated, that most Omega that have become strong enough have achieved a similar immortality as the Divinebloods. That being, even though they are slain the Omega's essence have become so mystified that their souls rather pass on the weakened form to the myst, rather than outright die, which means they can be brought back to the living realms should one gather enough power to reform them. Thankfully this resurrection always bring the creatures back to square zero though, which renders them far more easy to banish than their empowered states.

Type

Metaphysical, Elemental