Browse the Grimoire

Creature Roe Deer A small, watchful red-brown deer of the forest edge, with a white rump-flash and a short V-shaped antler that drops every winter.

Creature Red Deer The great red deer of the open moor, russet coat in summer, iron-grey in winter, crowned with a broad palmate antler that the old world measured by the beam.

Creature Ring-Build Kraken A trench leviathan of the deep, 91.44 m of tentacle and madness, who builds the ring and keeps the high coil, the coil's solitary, territorial, and most certain hand.

Creature Rapid-Learning Erudite The tall, lean, deliberate shape of the scriptorium, with a face that is almost a question, and a pair of pale silver-grey eyes that hold the new page a moment longer than a page should be held. It learns the skill in a day the way a human learns it in a season, and the learning is not a choice.

Creature Presence-Carry Dragon Kin The heavy-jawed line of the moor — broad through the shoulder, the fine scale-patch deep umber along the spine, the whole of it reading as one word that does not need to be finished, because the room already knows it is being said.

Creature Prismatic Dragons Rare hybrid dragons born of two or more elemental dragon bloodlines. Each carries the power of multiple elements — and, in the oldest telling, the power of several gods, and can grow to a size the eye does not measure. The first prismatic dragon broke the coast; since then they are forbidden.

Creature Pearl-Carry Merfolk A scaled, finned reef-kin of the living coral city who carries the throne's pearls and keeps the low spires, the throne's quick, clannish, and most certain hand.

Creature Peak Gryphon A lion-fleshed, eagle-winged guardian of the single sheer peak, whose silence is broken only by the oath and the word.

Creature Pattern-Sight Erudite The tall, lean, deliberate shape of the scriptorium, with a face that is almost a question, and a pair of pale silver-grey eyes that read the pattern before the page is turned. It sees the shape of the answer a day before the ink is dry, and the seeing is not a choice.

Creature Plane-Walk Elemental The shape of the element itself — a river given shoulders and a slow, deliberate turn, a deep sea-green column with a face that is only a suggestion. It crosses the Veil the way a river crosses a border, without asking, and the crossing is not a choice.

Creature Oath-Weight Minotaur A horned, labyrinthine keeper of the black-stone maze who weighs the oath and keeps the high corridors, the labyrinth's clannish, social, and most certain hand.

Creature Orchard-Tender Half-Elf A long-eared, short-lived middle-kin who tends the border's orchards and the two harvests, a little elf and a little human and all patience.

Creature Oath-Weaver Halfling A small, root-cellared halfling of the green hills who weaves the old oaths and keeps them, the hill's patient, remembering, and most certain voice.

Creature Mire-Bear A sleek black bear of the bogs and cold streams, with a cat-like face, short claws, and a paddling stroke that keeps it under the dark water.

Creature Mire-Read Bugbear A hulking, club-jawed swamp-ambusher of the mire who reads the standing water by sound and shadow and treats the dry land as a place to avoid.

Creature Name-Carry Vampire The lean, quick shape of the debt-line — thin through the jaw, the fang long and certain, the whole of it built to carry the debt across the crypt and to spend a bite the size of a whisper on the stranger who is worth the name.

Creature Moan-Carry Wraith The lean, quick shape of the moor — thin through the jaw, the shade long, the whole of it built to carry the moan across the moor and to spend a soul the size of a whisper on the stranger who is worth the shade.

Creature Mirror-Sense Kelpie A horse-shaped, water-bound reader of the mirror-still bog who senses the mirror and keeps the mirror-rings, the bog's solitary, cunning, and most certain lure.

Creature Melt-Carry Ooze The low, wide, wet shape — heavier through the back than the edge, the amber running deep and unbroken, the whole of it built to hold the melt and give it back across the pool, reading as one word that has already been said.

Creature Marsh-Toad The copper-eyed toad of the deep marsh — 30 cm of patience that the ogres keep for the drip, and that the drip keeps for them.

Creature Memory-Sense Siren A vocal, grey-plumed coast-kin of the broken cliffs who senses the memory and keeps the low cliffs, the coast's patient, exact, and most certain voice.

Creature Leave-Carry Selkie A seal-bodied, skin-keeping watcher of the cold coast who carries the shore's leaves and keeps the low shore, the shore's quick, clannish, and most certain hand.

Creature Litter-Sense Chimera A three-parted beast of the mosaic crags — lion-front, goat-mid, serpent-tail — who senses the litter and keeps the brood, the crag's pack, territorial, and most certain mouth.

Creature Innate-Speaker Demon The heavy, low, slightly-too-broad shape of the pit, built dense and low with a network of fine, pale red veins at the temples that glow when a dark word is spoken. It speaks its dark magic without preparation, with its hands, at any time, and the speaking is the whole of the bargain.

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By Mark

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