One of the historical accounts including Jorthwacs that | 
find most interesting is the Battle of Koor. For several 
years, a war had been raging as the Mabish sprites 
attempted to drive the invading Koorish gnomes out of 
their territories. The wizard Kland granted the sprites a 
boon by increasing their size, so that they might fight on 
equal footing with the gnomish forces. However, during 
their charge, the sprites' Jorthwacs also increased in 
size. After overrunning the gnomish forces on the field of 
battle, the sprites were able to use the newfound leaping 
strength of their jorthwacs to breach the gnomes 
secluded mountain stronghold of Koor, forcing peace 
and bringing the gnomes under their rule. 


+ Kirafr Door Shards 


Approximately two-hundred years ago, in the Second 
Dwarven Empire of the North, King Kirthic IV 
commissioned a massive treasury to be constructed 
within Mount Kirafr in order to house the kingdom's 
supply of gold. On the southeastern face of the 
mountain, an enormous door to the treasury was placed 
in the cliff face. This door was enchanted to only 
recognize and allow members of the royal court into the 
treasury. Unfortunately, King Kirthic and his builder had 
not anticipated the battering rams and catapults of the 
Northern Giants. 


While the Kirafr Door was shattered, its many fragments 


retained parts of its enchantment. Each shard took on its 
own personality and name. The shards are capable of 
projecting their thoughts into the mind of their holder, 
usually in the form of images, songs, tales, and 
conversation. The shards can also communicate with 
each other if they are in close enough proximity, and two 
holders which are close enough together can hold a 
conversation of thoughts through their shards. 


Following the breaking of the Door, the Kirafr Shards 
were collected and dispersed throughout the Fantastic 
Lands. In many places, they were cut, polished, and sold 
as exotic jewelry.In other places, the shards were 
treasured for their eccentric and curious personalities, 
and were used by artists as muses of inspiration. | 
myself carried a Kirafr Shard companion named Hathhud 
with me on a necklace for several years. 


+ The Lighting-struck Titan 


It is a mercy to all of the Fantastic Lands that the 
Lightning-Struck Titan only awakens with the passing of 
Vamaroff's Storm every three-hundred years, in the 
Southern Jagged Mountains of Kor. 


The beast resembles a beetle or hermit crab with a 
dragon's head, covered in a goliath pyramid of stone and 
dirt that accumulates over its three-hundred year 
slumbers. A huge, crumbling, spiraling tower resides on 
its back, built by the same sorcerer whom the storm that 
awakens the beast is named after. 


Vamaroff came to the Fantastic Lands two thousand 
ago, in a search to build a place where he could practice 
and perfect his art of weather spells. The Jagged 
Mountains proved ideal to him, with their isolation and 
formidable appearance. He began to construct his tower 
at the plateau of the highest mountain he could find. It 
would take him fifteen years to complete; as soon as the 
final brick was placed, he began to call forth a 
thunderstorm more powerful than any the mountains had 


seen. The lightning surged from the spire of Vamaroff's 
tower to the base and below, each strike, stirring the 
beast he had built his tower upon. 


With earthshaking might, the Titan stretched its legs and 
rose, a thousand-foot goliath that bellowed as the storm 
caused it pain while at the same time restoring it to life. 
The Lightning-Struck Titan began to move once more, 
eating huge chunks of earth and stone from the cliffsides 
with its toothed maw. And all the while, the storm raged 
above its back, following the Titan as it lumbered through 
the Jagged Mountains; Vamaroff himself perished as his 
tower collapsed with each step the giant took. 


The dragons sought at once to try and stop the beast, or 
at the very least impede it, but the Titan was impervious 
to all magic. It was an ancient, long-forgotten creature, a 
force of nature, and it seemed its rampage would destroy 
all of the Fantastic Lands. 


Finally, a group of Mages led by the Sorceress named 
Talia arrived. They cast a spell that created the Great 
Winds to drive the Storm away from the Lightning-Struck 
Titan, and the beast began to slow as the energy gained 
from the storm disappeared. It managed to return to its 
resting place before falling asleep once again, and the 
lands it razed fell silent. 


Talia and her group were hailed as heroes and they 
turned their efforts to restoring the damage done by the 
Titan. Afterwards, they would guard the Jagged 
Mountains until their deaths, continuing to strengthen the 
enchantment that kept Vamaroff's Storm and the 
Lightning-Struck Titan apart. 


However, the two are bound to meet again; Vamaroff's 
Storm returns every three hundred years from its 
banishment in the Howling Sands to reawaken the beast 
below. The last time the Titan awoke was a hundred and 
eighty-seven years ago. | fear the day when we must 
once again prepare for the worst. 


+ Monoliths to Heaven 


In the flat Southeastern Plains of Xianoo, a group of 
creatures live in a group that grows by a mere one 
member at the beginning of each year: The Monoliths to 
Heaven. 


Each Monolith is less flesh and more stone. Made of 
obsidian, they are shaped like a rugged ellipse, with a 
singular large hole running through the top portion like a 
downwards staring eye. Two spindly legs jut out then fall 
to the ground from the center of the Monolith, legs that 
look like they would never be able to support a creature 
of a Monolith's mass. However the Monolith’ deep 
magical ties with the stars allow them to stand for the 
long walk they must undertake every new year. 


Monoliths travel between two locations, and two 
locations only. One is the site of a meteor, a crater that 
spans a thousand feet wide. The other is tomb for Giang 
the Magician, the Monoliths' creator. Known for his near 
eccentric obsession with the stars, Giang frequently 
ventured to the Xianoo Plains with stargazing gear, 
constantly looking for what he claimed to be the 
Heavenly Planet. Such a planet is vaguely described in 
old Xianoo texts, but only as a folktale, a legend. 
However, until his dying breath, Giang believed the 
Heavenly Planet to be more than just a myth, and so 
created the Monoliths to carry out his work when he 
himself could no longer achieve his dream. 


Until the week before the new year, the Monoliths 
remained buried in a ring around Giang's tomb. During 
this time the holes in their bodies create various patterns 
as the sun rises and sets. 


Once eve falls on the week before the new year, the 
Monoliths rise from their slumber one by one. And it is 
during this time one can see Giang's determination to 
ascend to the Heavenly Planet. 


The tallest current Monolith towers a staggering six 
hundred feet in the air. Each following Monolith is fifty 
feet shorter, for a total of a dozen. As the sky darkens, 
the Monoliths begin a slow fifty mile walk to the crater 
site, with only the starlight to guide them; as they walk in 
descending order, they almost look like the stairs of a 
Giant's castle. 


On the dawn of the new year, when they have gathered 
in the center of the crater, the birth of a new Monolith 
begins. Still in their descending order, the light of the 
new sun shines through the holes of the Monoliths to the 
ground, illuminating the spot where a new member will 
rise from the ground, born from the fragments of the 
meteor that struck the Fantastic Lands two thousand 
years ago. This new member will become the new tallest 
Monolith, the next stepping stone to Giang's fabled 
world; once the new Monolith takes its place at the front 
of the line, the stone giants begin their walk back to the 
grave of their master, where they bury themselves once 
again until the next year. 


+ Notepeople 


In all my travels throughout this Fantastic World, the 
Notepeople that live in the Eastern Plains of Darius stand 
out as the most unique and wondrous creatures. 


Living music. Created two hundred years ago when a 
sorceress called Elianna sought to create enchanted 
musical instruments capable of producing the most 
beautiful sounds ever heard. Instead, she created the 
Notepeople. As the spell intended to make a symphony 
progressed, the ink and notes inscribed on the 
enchantment papers quite literally flew off the parchment 
and began to coalesce in a swirl of sound and symbols. 
They took on the shape of their creator, creating the first 
Notewoman. 


Elianna would grow old, but the Notewoman continued to 
stay with her, forever playing music when her creator 


desired it. Elianna would create dozens more of its kind 
before she died at an age of a hundred and fifty-two 
years. The Notepeople themselves would carry her body 
away into the plains they now inhabit; the sound that the 
harp reeds and grasses make while blowing in the wind 
greatly appeals to their kind. 


The Notepeople today are just as, if not more, talented in 
magic and music. They delight in having visitors to 
entertain, oftentimes taking whoever comes across them 
by the hand and bringing them to its friends. It is rather 
odd to be touched by a noteman. The notes and lines 
that make up their bodies are nearly flat, working 
together to make a three dimensional form. Yet they feel 
cool, almost like thin delicate paper. They can shift their 
bodies into whatever form they please. I've even seen 
Notepeople exchange and mix their music to produce 
sounds that they could not accomplish on their own. 


Notepeople have a special affinity for the Starlight Moths 
that provide lights to the Plains in the night. Being inky 
black themselves, Notepeople will often try to capture the 
Starlight Moths within their bodies to make themselves 
visible for nightly performances. It was during such a 
performance that | was able to witness the Notepeople 
for the first time on a warm summer evening. With the 
harp reeds and grass humming softly along with the 
music of the Notepeople, it will be an experience | will 
never forget. 


+ Ocean Sippers 


It was while visiting to the fishing ports of the South that | 
learned of the wondrous Ocean Sippers. The suntanned 
fishermen | spoke to had encountered the almost daily 
on their voyages, and had collected several objects of 
study. Among these were several sketches, pellets, and 
even an injured specimen that they had taken aboard. 


At first glance, a Sipper looks to be some kind of large, 
iridescent bird, similar in appearance to a pigeon. On 


closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that, in 
place of feathers, the creature is covered in a material 
with a blend of traits of feathers and scales. Like scales, 
pieces of the material have the texture of the scales of a 
fish, and are firmly connected to the body. However, the 
shape of the pieces are more similar to the feathers one 
would see in any other sea bird, and even resemble 
down in some places. 


Sippers are capable of breathing in both air and 
freshwater, and spend most of their time as part of a 
flock in a large bubble of water which drifts high above 
the Iridescent Sea. This bubble follows the course of 
schools of small fish or prawns. At night, the Sippers dive 
from their bubble to the surface of the ocean, where they 
skim off and swallow a layer of prey and seawater before 
returning to their abode. The combination of seawater 
and food is then processed in their guts, until they 
regurgitate it as freshwater and a small pellet composed 
of salt and the remains of their prey. The water is added 
to their bubble to compensate for evaporation, while the 
pellet is tossed down toward the ocean below. 
Fishermen will often collect the pellets, either for their 
supply of iridescent salt or in order to sell them to tourists 
at the ports. 


+ Polydanes 


Among some of the most curious forms of life in the 
Fantastic Lands are the Polydanes. Polydanes can be 
found all throughout the world, though they are 
especially concentrated in the western cities, and in 
places populated by large groups of other races. In their 
true forms, Polydanes are roughly the same size and 
shape as a human, but they have a second set of arms 
and a blank, smoothed-over face. Their bodies appeared 
to be composed of various colors of clay in a marbled 
pattern. 


Polydanes are able to stretch and mold and reshape 
their bodies at will, and can take on the properties of 


other materials, such as stone or flesh. On occasion, 
Polydanes will take the form of an inanimate object, 
though more often they emulate another race before 
mingling with other members of that race. At other times, 
Polydanes will take whimsical or nonsensical forms for 
their own or others amusement. 


Polydanes are capable of reproduction in two ways; the 
first is through reproduction with another individual, 
Polydane or otherwise, and the second is through a 
single Polydane individual dividing into two distinct 
individuals. In addition, Polydanes' bodies do not age 
naturally, and damage from physical attacks against 
them is not lasting. In most cases, a species which can 
multiply without aging or being killed would overtake and 
crowd out their environment, but such is not the case for 
Polydanes. Though their bodies are long-lived and 
impervious, their spirits still age, and often pass on after 
a hundred or so years. Once their spirit is gone, the 
Polydane's body will revert to its natural, clay-like form 
and will begin to dry, dying completely once it is fully dry. 
If a Sapient individual encounters the body before it is 
fully dry, they can will their consciousness into the empty 
husk, leaving their old form behind and beginning life 
anew as a Polydane. 


+ Quirbblers 


There is still much debate over the nature of Quirbblers. 
Some profess that they are collections of very communal 
spirits. Others claim that they are merely a novel 
variation of Atomite. 


Quirbblers are often found in the various woods on the 
Northern Cliffs. From a distance, they appear as 
shimmering patterns along the surface of trees. 
However, should a traveler pass by them, the Quirbbler 
will remove themselves from the tree and appear in front 
of the traveler as a swirling pillar of light. The Quirbbler 
will refuse to move out of the way until the traveler has 
beaten them in some challenge, usually in the form of a 


riddle or game of chance. Should the traveler win this 
challenge, the Quirbbler will allow them to travel on. 
Should the traveler fail, however, the Quirbbler will enter 
through the traveler's mouth and take command of the 
traveler. The Quirbbler-possessed individual will then 
make their way back to a village, town or city, where they 
will take part in feasts, festivals, and other merriments. 


Individuals who are possessed by Quirbblers can be 
identified both by their eccentric and celebratory 
behavior, and by the swirls of light that can be seen in 
their eyes. Quirbblers may leave of their own accord 
after celebrating for several days, but they can also be 
coaxed out by placing meats, cheeses, tarts, and spiced 
wine just out of the reach of a possessed individual. 
Individuals who have been possessed by a Quirbbler are 
often no worse-for-the-wear, aside from exhaustion and 
embarrassing stories accumulated from their excessive 
partying.