Kraken

Quack...quack...Ke-e-e-en?

— Supposed name origins

Among sea monsters, none are as well-known as the feared kraken. It is interesting because certain monsters (details in the appendix) are actually much more common, and often more prone to attack than krakens are. Still, there is something unnatural to it - "normal" monsters usually kill you with claws and teeth, not tentacles. No wonder their name comes from a surviror's madman ravings.
According to my research, there were thousands of reported sightings of krakens throughout history. Most of them rather uneventful, if you can call that a giant squid the size of a ship swimming by. Then again, most of the less fortunate sailors probably did not live long enough to actually report their encounters. As for how many krakens there are - definitely dozens, maybe hundreds that we saw. It is rather hard to distinquish them at distance, and krakens do not usually carry any sort of identification documents you know. The best scholars can do is go off krakens' approximate size, or scars from past fights for certain notable individuals.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Now this is an interesting one. Krakens are mainly found in the New World and generally stay away from places with the strong Gracious Wind, the way most monsters do. However, it seems that for krakens such behaviour is not merely a preference but directly tied to their growth rate. Several krakens have been known to grow very fast in the regions inhabited by sorcerers, while the ones roaming the shores of Ordonia generally stay the same size. In my opinion, this makes more sense than the anecdotal evidence that krakens grow in size by consuming human souls.
Even the smallest kraken seen had tentacles several meters long, while the largest ones are easily dozens of meters long. Takes them decades to mature though, or perhaps even centuries - no one has ever since a kraken die of old age, after all. Helps novel writers devise all sorts of plots about them (krakens, not writers) being some sort of artificial weapon created by the New World's sorcerers in order to hamper our advance.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

You do not use krakens. Krakens use you.