#heraldic beasts
A whole slew of chimeras for your perusal today!
Caretyne: bull + dragon
Demobison: bull + bat
Apres: bull + bear
Chatloup:cat + wolf + goat
Polyger: lion + ram
Falconfish:guess
Seadog: dog + fish
Hippocampus: horse + fish
Stellione: weasel + lizard
Boreyne: wolf + dragon
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Getting close to wrapping up my beasts of heraldry sketch project. Here are some human chimeras as approach the end, most of which will warrant a sketch series of their own down the line:
Centaurs: human/horse hybrid, with a very unique body plan, being basically half of a human being growing up from where the neck would be on a horse. With two sets of lungs, two hearts, and an enormous interconnected digestive system, they’re incredibly hardy chimeras.
Mermaid: human/fish hybrid, not to be confused with undines, which are fairy fish that imitate humans in form. Mermaids have beautiful singing voices and a penchant for dragging land dwelling animals to their deaths.
Harpy: one of MANY varieties of Arepyiai, the catch-all term for human/bird chimeras. Harpies are specifically a fusion of human and “garbage birds” - i.e. birds who have reputations for being annoying, dirty, or otherwise undesirable. Though often dim and boasting remarkably poor hygeine, most harpies are very loyal to those they consider friends and can make valuable allies or servants.
Gorgon: a complicated and dangerous chimera, there are many variations on the gorgon’s recipe, but a human and a venomous serpent must be involved for it to have the iconic ability to turn flesh to stone with its gaze. The original gorgons were a mix of human, basilisk, viper, dragon, eagle, and boar, though there are many other variations with different ingredients.
Melusine: a mixture of human and sea serpent, this chimera can actually hide its bestial side via illusion magic, though the glamour fades whenever it enters water.
Minocane: a spaniel with a human baby’s face. Real talk: I don’t know what European noble decided THIS was the monster he wanted on his family’s heraldry, that THIS is what needed to be on his flags, his royal seal, the shields and banners of all his knights, etc., but whoever he was, he was a bona fide freak. Truly unhinged. George R. R. Martin sat down and tried to think of what a true sicko would put on his heraldry and came up with a flayed man, and this proves he was a hack because the real fucking maniacs flew a goddamn minocane on their flag.
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VERY close to the end of my list of heraldic beasts. Let’s go over this batch of misfits:
Crapard: a very large toad. Able to eat a horse whole large.
Emmet:an ant the size of a pony.
Bonnacon: a magical bovine. Some species breathe fire from their nostrils. Others expel it from, well, their other end.
Nebek: a strange trunked beast the size of a large hound. Omnivorous and voracious.
Lubolf: a magical hippo, and one of the most dangerous herbivores on Midgaheim.
Phoenix: arcane birds who are masters of fire, wind, and oddly enough, water magic. When a phoenix dies, its body combusts into magic flames that reforge its remains into an egg, which soon hatches into a new phoenix.
Phenex: aka the false phoenix, these birds sport the exact same magic powers as phoenixes, despite being distant relatives at best. It’s very confusing to the average human citizen of Midgaheim, who is likely only to read about these birds in bestiaries rather than seeing them in person - and made all the more confusing by a THIRD family of fire magic using birds, the aptly named Firebirds of Ruslovak, who also sport some similar powers as the phoenix and phenex. It is said Phenexes can be found on the continent to Midgaheim’s East, where they are known by a different name.
Cameleopard: a strange creature that, to the untrained eye, looks vaguely like a camel with a leopard’s coloration. Many have tried to make mounts of these strange, long-necked hooved animals, only to be bucked off to their doom thanks to the immense height of the beasts. They may have inspired the creation of the Questing Beast, a chimera that has many similarities to a cameleopard when they are poorly described by a person who has only heard of them from bestiaries.
Rukh: aka the kreutzet, the cornu, the hraesvelg, the bariuchne, or simply the very large eagle. There are several species of immense eagle around Midgaheim, with many names as well, but it seems bestiary writers have settled on rukh as the catch-all name, which is itself a loan word taken from the continent to Midgaheim’s South East.
Tytron: a goat with an extra pair of ram-like horns.
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