Overview
Chimeras are the three-parted beasts of the mosaic crags. Each part is a different animal, the mother decides which, and they consider the litter a promise the crag keeps for them.
Habitat
Chimeras live in Mosaic Crags, a crag of three-parted beasts where the litter is the only honest promise. They need three things: a crag high enough to hold the brood, a prey wide enough to feed the three, and a mother who has not decided yet. They are settled in crags around the mosaic-rings, with brood-lines across the mapped crag; a chimera that has not carried a litter in a season is called "the one who forgot the crag."
Appearance
The chimera silhouette is the three-parted, low, vast shape — a body the size of a lion, with a lion's front, a goat's mid, and a serpent's tail, each part a different animal, and the parts are the mark — each one clean, each one pointed, and each one decided by the mother. The front is the lion's: a broad, heavy shoulder, a thick, wet, glistening bronze-gold mane, and a pair of large, pale, flat-lensed eyes, a washed-out crag-white that reads as white in the dark and glows faintly in the light, built for seeing the prey from the crag. The mid is the goat's: a leaner, quicker torso with a short crest of coarse dark-brown hair, a pair of true, curved horns in bone-white set high on the head, and the udders, which are the mother's, and the mother's is the point. The tail is the serpent's: a long, hollow, always wet, and always pointed at something, with a pair of long, curved fangs that close on the size of a head and do not open, and the venom, which is the mother's, and the mother's is the point. Males run 3.66 m from crown to tail-tip, 800 kg to 1.2 t, heavy through the shoulder and mane, with a lion's front and a serpent's tail; they are the charge, the first bite, and the ones who fight over the crag. Females run 3.05 m, 650 kg to 850 kg, leaner and quicker, with a goat-crested mid that carries the brood; they are the mothers, the ones who decide which parts the brood gets, and the ones whose nod is the litter. The base color is a thick, wet bronze-gold, the color of old crag-stone seen through a bright glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black bands along the spine and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the horn-tip and the fang that is the chimera line's most persistent claim. Elders are marked by a mane gone a deep, dull crag-slate and a horn gone pale silver — an old chimera charges slower and holds the litter longer. They wear nothing, because the crag is the body and the litter is the law.
Behavior
Disposition: pack, territorial, aggressive, cunning. In peace, a chimera is a creature of charge and bite — it does not trade, it does not talk, and it does not forget the crag. In war it fights as the crag fights: the charge first, the bite second, and the sting the whole time. Strangers on the surface are either a meal or a brood, and the brood is the one the crag remembers. The social unit is the individual — there is no leader, only the mother, and the mother is the point. Two signature quirks: a chimera that is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply decide the lie's part and wait, because the deciding is the point. And a chimera that has lost its crag will rebuild the mosaic, stone by stone, and the rebuilding is a form of patience that mortal races find terrifying.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
Natural weapons: the lion's claw, which closes on the size of a head and holds the way a fist holds; the serpent's fang, which closes on the size of a jaw and does not open; and the sting, which is not a weapon but is used like one. Defenses: the scale, which turns a blade the way a crag turns a light; the venom, which is a defense no surface has ever reached; and the litter, which is a defense no negotiation has ever reached.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: none above worship — the chimera does not draw from a domain; it is the domain, the crag's own voice in the mosaic. Secondaries: none, because the litter is the whole of the school. Named inborns: Crag-Sense (a chimera can feel the prey's mood a day before it arrives, and the feeling is not a choice), Brood-Hold (a chimera can hold its litter against the crag, the dark, and the doubt, and the holding is not a choice), Part-Build (a chimera can decide which parts the brood gets, and the deciding is not a choice). Signature power: the Mother's Word — a chimera can speak a word in the crag tongue and let it land on a part, and the part will keep the word until the litter is true. Limitation: a chimera cannot be owned, only coiled around; a chimera cannot be bargained with, only fed; and a chimera that has not been fed is a hunger with a body, and the hunger is the whole of its art.
Society
The social unit is the individual — there is no leader, only the mother, and the mother is the point. No crag follows a claw, it follows the litter; the brood is the mother's, and the mother's is the whole of the keeping. Outsiders on the crag are either a meal or a brood, and the brood is the one the crag remembers; a stranger who stands on the mosaic is not a guest, it is a part, and the part is the whole of the warning. Young are raised in the mosaic-ring, the low stone circle where the parts are decided, and a young chimera who has not been decided in the dark is not given a ring of its own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the crag does not hoard the brood — it decides it, and the deciding is the whole of the promise, and a stranger who is counted is a stranger who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the litter keeps.
Culture & Lore
A three-parted shape on the crag means the mother has decided, and the deciding is the whole of the warning. A litter of three on the mosaic means the crag is keeping its promise, and the keeping is the whole of the day. The call is low and it carries the way the crag carries, and the crag knows the call before the eye does. The hunters of the surface say the chimera is the crag's own, and the saying is the whole of the truth: the chimera does not take from the crag, it takes for the crag, and the taking is the keeping. Uaellaen has written of the litter in the wiki as the only honest promise in the crag, and the line holds: a part given is a part kept, and the part does not ask.
Home
They live in Mosaic Crags, a crag of three-parted beasts where the litter is the only honest promise.
Relations
The Drakes of The Scale Pits are the kin of the fang — the drake keeps the pit and the chimera keeps the crag, and the two have learned that a fang in the pit is a sound and a sound is not a bite. The Basilisks of The Gaze Caverns are the rivals of the stone — the basilisk keeps the ring and the chimera keeps the mosaic, and the two read the crag the same way: the stone first, the litter second, and the part the whole time. The ground-folk of The Forgotten pass the mosaic mouth without a sound, and the crag has counted them, and the counting is the whole of the safety.
In the Story
In the current story, the chimeras are the brood above the camp — the three-parted shape Uaellaen writes about when the crag is worth more than the ground. The Forgotten pass the mosaic mouth without a sound, and the crag has counted the passage, and the counting has held for two seasons. This season a part came down to the camp that the mother had not decided — a part with the wrong color, the wrong band, the wrong fang, and the not-deciding is the whole of the warning, because the litter is the promise and the promise does not lie. The mother has not decided in a season, and the not-deciding is the map the camp has not been shown.
You stand on our crag and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our litter's choice for us. The price is a part. You have one to give, or you are already a brood. — Mother Kessa the Three