Cryptids of the Archipelago

An overview of unconfirmed creatures

Many are the unconfirmed sightings, stories and supposed evidence of weird and sometimes terrifying creatures across the islands of Haan.
Some can probably be attributed to monstrous inventions made by people to scare children and the gullible, others by perfectly explainable phenomena twisted by creative minds, while some seem to actually point to an existing undiscovered creature that just remains to be pinpointed.

Unconfirmed New Species

The mega raptor of the clay valley

The north half of the Red Crest Islands is mostly occupied by streaks of red mountains with valleys of red clay.
Gigantic footprints of a raptor or bird-like creature have been found dried into the clay of the northernmost area, closer to small forests.
There are no creatures known to inhabit the island that would be claimed to have made them, so locals claim they have been created by a massive raptorial or avian creature, with stories ranging between a hopist-like mega bird to a bipedal hirschmall, though most assume a gigantic version of a wild Lyraik.
Researchers stipulate that the footprints may actually be extremely old and hardened into the soil and correspond to some extinct creature that once used to roam the island.

Savage Gigantolyraiks

There is an extremely small group of people that can be counted as survivors of capture by the inhabitants of the Savage Isles. Even fewer managed to escape being enslaved by the Daltaelians and return to the Trade Isles and would talk about their experience.
These rare accounts talk about settlements with a mixed population of societarians and giant, intelligent lyraik-people capable of communicating with the societarian natives.
These giant raptors were described as wearing jewellery adorning their body and were noted to appear socially superior to the societarians. They would also resort to more brutal practices against the prisoners than the societarian savages.
While there is no reason to not believe the recollections of survivors, there is also no proof of the existence of these people besides these narrations, so they are considered to be yet unconfirmed.

A savage giaganto-lyraik as pictured by a survivor

Scurries: the societoids of the mountains

An illustration of the societarian-like folk of the mountains

A popular folk tale from the people of Karte Island talk about the southern area of the island's mountain range being inhabited by a weird species of societarian-like creatures.
These creatures, commonly known as "Scurries", are said to be about the size and shape of a societarian, with bone-white uncovered skin, similar to that of a hirschmall. They stand on flat feet like some furry phenotypes, and like the females of that subspecies, some individuals are said to have grown breasts in their chest. They have no tail whatsoever. They are said to look black from the waist down, either due to the use of ragged black clothing or due to bulky fur.
Their heads are quite oval, and their face is said to be shaped like that of an adult tetsu.
Scurries are said to be silent and elusive, gaining them their name as they would supposedly scurry back into their caves as soon as they are detected.
Due to the shape of their faces and to them supposedly living in the mountains, some people say these creatures are the horrible result of crossing a societarian with a tetsu.

Retrieved Remains

The Land-Coils of Ruh

The inhabitants of a coastal town in Ruh Island claim that their forests may be teeming with a species of creature that they call the "Land-coils", known only by the corpses and skeletons found in patches of grass or in between the trees of the forest.
The creature seems to lack legs or hips and to be quite big, ranging between a meter to five meters long. It is presumed to either be a giant worm that lives in the forest's soil or a slithering creature that manages to "swim" between the trees without legs.

Dariga by Naelín

Biologists claim that the bones are just remnants of very young darigas, but there is no explanation as to how did the bodies end up inland, why only very young individuals were found, or why would several corpses of them be present only in that area.

Misplaced, Revived or Exceptional Specimens

Minnaed, the Pactual Idradelta

Idradelta by Naelin

A farmer of the small town of Apharens in Dhalmain Island claimed to possess an idradelta, named "Minnaed", able to communicate in the language of pacts.
The pactual idradelta was said to have been treated to a life of luxury and to have died of old age, not before siring many babies.

The story of the pactual idradelta brought some modest amount of tourism to the town, where the farmer keeps a display with the taxidermied remains of Minnaed and a coop with the supposed heir of the original pactual idradelta, that he will show "communicating" for a fee. The owner says the descendants show superior intelligence and preserve some of Minnaed's abilities, and that he is breeding this line to create a race of intelligent birds.
While his family and some neighbours swear by the abilities of Minnaed, critics say the story about the creature started being spread only after his death, and that the descendants' abilities are merely taught tricks and not innate communication skills.

Mjellics of Point Tamerlac

Once a symbol of Larea's exotic wildlife, the Lilac Mjellic is now considered extinct in the wild, as its population was destroyed by overhunting and the introduction of lyraiks and khoms to the island. Between 10 and 30 individuals are kept in private collections, but the efforts to breed them fail more often than they succeed.
Through the recent years, a few folk claim to have seen creatures resembling the lilac mjellic on the west coast of West Larea, close to the town of Point Tamerlac. However, none of these sightings were confirmed by experts, and the inhabitants of the town deny these claims categorically.