Manticores
Overview
When the chimeras spawned by Phorcys and Ceto in Ogygia invaded Ithara, the aether seeping from the earth halted the assimilation abilities of their children into a highly specialized variation. Now severed from their sea titan ancestors, manticores are not nearly as prolific as Ogygian chimeras, but are no less horrifying of an invader.Manticores are grotesque hybrids of scorpion, lion, porcupine, and bat. Their flexible tails are tipped with a venomous stinger and lined with spikes they can fling at their prey and instantly regrow, and their powerful claws and broad wings allow them to traverse a wide variety of landscapes. While they lack a chimera’s massive variation, manticores more than make up for it with intelligence: they can learn languages, skills, and even spells. Manticore lairs have been found equipped with aetheromechanical technology (presumably stolen, though this is under debate by some scholars), and more powerful manticores even have servants and vassals under their employ.
A manticore can learn to understand languages, but it does not have the capacity for speech. However, when a manticore eats a sapient creature, its face manifests among the manticore’s mane and the manticore can use it to speak with the creature’s voice in any language the manticore has learned. The manticore does not exclusively use these faces to communicate; the voice of a familiar person crying out for help is a powerful lure to other creatures, and stories abound of people being drawn into the desert one by one by the cries of their families until their village is as silent and still as a graveyard. It is currently unconfirmed if a manticore also gains the knowledge and memory of the people it devours, but some have reported that the voices they hear say things only their original owners would have known.
by Srutis
Content
Details
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
60 years
Average Height
8 feet
Average Length
16 feet
Geographic Distribution
by douzen
