The Strange Meadows

Around the Onyx Mountains live peculiar, hybrid creatures, rumoured to have been created by rogue alchemists, on a series of fields now called the "Strange Meadows" by the neighboring people.
== History ==
South of Gilgemash and east of the Ettin-Range, there is a strip of land, traditionally called Sidarí. It’s an area with frequent winds, blowing from the sea to the mountains, and its proximity to the Onyx Mountains makes it have plenty of diverse landscapes. However, grassy prairies and meadows abound in this area, with plenty of flowers and shrubs. The areas at the outskirts of the mountains are filled with pines, oaks and chestnuts. Rains are gentle and occasionally some breeze from the mountains might bring some small amounts of snow to the forests. Its natural qualities make it a land perfect for agriculture and husbandry, and over the years attracted many different farmers. The land became covered in small rural towns, mostly humans coming from Gilgemash, with the occasional zidazzi hive popping up. These lands would eventually become a gilgemashi province, though due to internal politicking and court intrigues, it never became anything more than a rural backwater province. This suited the population of the Sidarí province well enough, since they adopted very cloistered ways, becoming self-reliant from the rest of the nation. Without a singular big city to coordinate the towns, the small towns limited themselves to gather the produce and send it to the capital, in exchanged to be left alone.
This situation was not as idyllic as one may think. Over the decades, Gilgemash’s contact with the Sidarí province became more and more strained. The world slowly changed, leaving the customs and conventions of Gilgemash behind, and the sidarians noticed it. The occasional levies to fight in the borders as well as to fight the many civil conflicts Gilgemash suffered throughout the years strained the relations with the capital. Around 1.659 ABE, the King of Gilgemash, counseled by the political faction in control at the time, received a petition from a sect of moon elves in search for home. The Ta’lunasir had been wandering the lands of southern Giantstep for many centuries now, travelling around the world studying the pattersns of the moon. The astromancer faction at the time, in the middle of a political struggle with an alchemist faction that was trying to take over, saw the moon-elves, traditionally predisposed to astromancy, as potential allies in case of an open conflict. As such, they convinced the king to invite the Ta’lunasir to settle in the southern provinces of Gilgemash. They quickly establish themselves in the area, and many of them reached the province of Sidarí.
The Ta’lunasir and the local sidarians bonded pretty quickly. Many of the moon-elves who preferred a more nomadic way of life found the green meadows of Sidarí and its many small towns perfect for their purposes, studying the stars by night and working in the fields as seasonal farmers. Meanwhile, the sidarians enjoyed the arrival of these people from far away lands, since new customers for local businesses and more hands for the harvest are always welcome. And since the moon-elves mostly kept to themselves, they fit the mood of the sidarians just fine, so there was little tension between them. However, the alchemist faction saw the expansion of the moon elves as a threat to their projects, and began trying to expand their influence in the south as well. The southern provinces became a political battleground between the alchemists and the astromancers. In the Sidarí province, many alchemist set up schools of alchemy to try to gain influence in the area, trying to subtly push against the moon-elves’ astromantic ways.
Many alchemical groups and students from Gilgemash went to the new schools, and this influx of people greatly disturbed the local sidarians. Unlike the moon-elves, who didn’t interfere in the lives of the locals and were all around cordial neighbors, the alchemists were there with political intentions. They kept pushing many of the towns to support and fund their cause, promising more affluence and political power for the sidarian towns, which backfired completely. The sidarians were fine paying their taxes in produce and be left alone, and the presence of the alchemists was interrupting their way of life. They didn’t want power in the capital, if anything they wanted to be more independent, and the constant intrusion of would-be politicians and schemers in the sidarian towns cause quite a lot of friction. Worse still, many of the alchemical students coming originated from families with deep political connections: sons of nobility, rich merchants, people living around the scribes, administration or the priesthood… All of these people were used to a cosmopolitan life, and being sent to the rural backwater that was the Sidarí provinces irked many of them. They were generally rude and walked over the peasantry, increasing the tensions with the local population. The retinues around them didn’t help matters, being as troublesome for the sidarians as the highborn they served.
As the years passed and tensions with the alchemist faction rose, the more the sidarians bonded with the ta’lunasir. While they didn’t care about their alchemical ways, the clear rejection the alchemists showed against the moon elves made the sidarians more protective about their neighbors. This, in turn, made the alchemist faction think the astromancers were gaining ground in the region (when, in reality, the astromancers had no interest in Sidarí, preferring to focus their efforts in areas richer and politically more important), and they responding with doubling their efforts to push alchemy within the population. This vicious cycle became even worse by the attitude of the alchemical schools and many alchemists having settled in sidarian lands. Sidarí was, after all, a backwater, a remote and rather unimportant place of the kingdom, relevant in its agricultural produce. As such, the watchful eye of the law was not as strict in Sidarí as in other, more “civilized” places. This meant that many of the legal restrictions alchemists have around their crafts were not really punished there, as there was no one really taking notes. As such, all kinds of illegal alchemical stuff became common in the region, from drug making to production of fake gold. In particular, chimeric production became popular in the region.
The “path of flesh”, one of the main branches of alchemy, deals with the transformation and transmutation of organic elements. It is usually done as a form of medical treatment, to produce medicine or to alter the properties of certain organic materials. It has even been use to create certain crops and cattle resistant to certain diseases, or being able to prosper in certain environments. Going beyond that, however, is usually a great taboo, since it risks creating something that the alchemist cannot control, and have the potential of destroying the natural balance of the region. But since there was little vigilance from the royal authorities (and many who were had been bought by the alchemical faction and looked the other way when asked) and there were many young alchemists willing to push the boundaries and experiment beyond what was technically allowed, many alchemists began pushing further and further into what they could create. It began as a hobby within students; young alchemists would try to create the strangest creature, competing between them to see who could fleshcraft the weirdest being. These would be single specimens, and wouldn’t really last long. However, it soon became obvious that some of these creatures had the potential of great commercial value. The alchemists began creating stable populations of these beasts, hidden from the general populous to not cause concern. This grew from a couple of small species to hundreds of different new animals, and along their number, their size grew as well. Soon, big alchemical behemoths were being created and released in areas where they would not cause much fuzz, to be then caught by poachers and contrabandists and sold in far away markets. Over time, this became harder and harder to hide, since runaway specimens began thriving in the wild.
It soon became apparent, even for the capital, that something was amiss in the province of Sidarí. The local authorities had been denouncing the alchemists to the royal court for years now, but the massive influx of strange encounters with creatures unheard of, many of them resulting in the deaths of locals, was what finally brought the attention of the king to Sidarí. The monarch ordered a thorough investigation of what was happening, and in a very few short span of time, the whole ordeal was found. The astromantic faction pushed hard against their rivals, seeing an opportunity to see them wiped out from the political scene. In a panic, and trying to erase the evidence of their misdeeds, many freed the animals to free themselves from responsibility. This led to a deluge: hundreds of different species being released at once. The land became infested by a wave of alchemical life. The local towns began fortifying themselves to protect their homes from the wild beasts. In the capital, heads began rolling as many of the master alchemists responsible were condemned and executed, many more alchemists run away before the law could get to them. The gilgemashi army was sent to the land to pacify it, but soon enough another problem arose: the arrival of the ettin.
The ettin were a race of giant-spawn who had been expelled from Gilgemash many centuries ago. They resided in the Onyx Mountains, alongside their cousin race, the mokdregians, and some insectoid races. While the ettin frequently came down the mountains to raid the local populations, the arrival of thousands of different new species caught the attention of many ettin clans. Soon enough, hundreds of them were going to Sidarí to hunt down this wonderful prey, and they saw this as a boon from their gifts from their forbearers. Horrified of having to fight both the beasts and the ettin invasions at the same time, many units of the gilgemashi refused to enter the province. The upheaval in the capital and the chaos in Sidarí made the king’s advisors recommend abandoning the province to its fate, since the gains of recovering the region were dwarfed by the potential costs. They also took the chance to accuse the alchemical faction of being the cause of this disaster, finally driving them to political irrelevance. The astromantic faction did not have much time to enjoy their victory, however, since they would have problems soon enough in the other provinces where the ta’lunasir had established themselves.
During a couple of years, Sidarí became a lawless land, where safety couldn’t be guaranteed beyond the borders of one’s town. The sudden disturbance in the ecosystem made many of the creatures search for food and/or safety in human occupied settlements. The towns and schools created by alchemists ended up as ruins, burnt down and abandoned, overrun by animal attacks. The arrival of the ettin, however, did not cause as much harm as many expected. The ettin, seeing the new prey at their disposal, ignored the weak and boring humans, and thus contact between the sidarians and the ettin was surprisingly peaceful. Better still, the arrival of the ettin brought other races from the Onyx Mountains, like the bombus and the mozadizz, which helped the locals recover. The bombus helped the sidarian towns reinforce their walls with high quality wax, and the mozadizz helped keep communications between certain towns, too surrounded by wild alchemical fauna for land travel to be safe. After the initial years, however, the environment quickly recovered some sense of normalcy. Many of the species that couldn’t survive in the wild became extinct, and the extensive competition meant that many of the ones that could disappeared anyway due to limited resources. After the deluge of alchemical wildlife stopped, many species still remained, but the land became safe enough for people to begin living in relative safety. It also helped that the land became very popular for adventurers and hunters, helping control the population of some of the biggest and most dangerous of the alchemical species. From that point on, the region of Sidarí began becoming known around the world as the “Strange Meadows”.
== Society and culture ==
The people from Sidarí have traditionally been very isolationists, not out of a hate of the outside, but for the simple love for a simple life. The dozens of different rural towns scattered throughout the steppes spend their days working the fields, taking care of their cattle and overall enjoying a modest but honest existence. Their rudimentary economy and way of life was suddenly shook by the flood of alchemical creatures infesting the region. The years right after the release were quite hard, with many of the farmlands having to be abandoned due to the arrival of monstrous entities. Many herders lost their cattle, and had to assume tremendous losses. The only reason starvation was not widespread or catastrophic was, ironically, due to the alchemical creatures themselves, since hunting prey was immensely abundant. The locals had to quickly learn which species were edible and which ones weren’t, and also which species were more useful alive than eaten. Over time, the land recovered some sense of normalcy. Slowly but surely, the sidarians took back their farmlands, and the herds recovered their previous numbers. The sidarians managed to go back to normalcy, or as much normalcy as they could.
The sidarians nowadays have adapted to the alchemical creations that roam their lands. While at first, their first response was to take them down, they eventually became aware of the value of some of them. One of the first creatures that was domesticated for their purposes was the silk pigs. The silk pigs were one of the first species that was known by the locals, considerably before the release of the other animals. It was apparently a gift from some alchemists to the local towns, trying to convince them of the advantages of alchemy and win them to their side. This animal was at first seem as an abomination, a creature so bulky, slow and unable to defend itself that it would attract all sorts of dangers to the herders that decided to take care of it. However, it proved to be quite an effective farm animal. Silk pigs could eat practically anything, they fatten quite fast and their production of silk was much appreciated during the days when the sheep’s’ numbers were dwindling, and thus the production of wool for winter clothes was in danger. Silk pigs were also much more intelligent than sheep, and with a sharper sense of smell, and were able to detect the arrival of danger much sooner. After this, the sidarians began learning about the other species that now roamed the land. The ravedaries were quickly domesticated and adopted as beasts of burden as well, and they now are a common sight on any sidarian town, alongside horses, donkeys and mules. Many other creatures were adopted and now form part of common life in Sidarí.
This doesn’t mean that all creatures have adapted to their new way of life. Some alchemical beasts were too dangerous to be left around, and the towns organized hunting parties to kill them and stop them from hurting their charges. In this, they had the surprising help of the ettin, the giant-spawn from the mountains. While the sidarians and the ettin had had tensions in the past (ettin used to steal sheep from the herders), the ettin now were much more focused on the alchemical beasts than just the sheep. Many ettin tribes went down to the meadows to hunt the biggest and most dangerous of the monsters, and many believe this saved many towns, since the ettin took the brunt of the damage and kept the biggest animals under control. Many ettin allied themselves with the sidarian hunting parties: the sidarians would track down the beasts or serve as bait, and then the ettin would wrestle the creatures to death. The ettin would gain a great trophy to brag about back in their tribe, and the sidarians would slowly, but surely, clean up the lands from the more dangerous beasts. Many towns still has a skull pile in their town square or plaza, given to them by some ettin tribes as part of the hunt’s share. A gruesome sight for many outsiders, but a sign of friendship between the ettin and the locals.
While the biggest and most dangerous critters were either killed by the ettin and the sidarians or died due to competition for the resources, this doesn’t mean the meadows are a completely safe place. Many alchemical beasts still roam the land, and they can react quite aggressively at the sight of humans, but in general, the majority of the big beasts will try to at least stay away from human settlements. The hives of zidazzi and bombus are in more danger, since the presence of honey attracts many critters, but overall, their reinforced wax walls are strong enough to keep the animals at bay. Shepherds who roam the plains have to be careful not to fall in a spider goat trap, and once one of those is discovered, it is quickly taken down by the town’s hunter guild. Since the release of the alchemical beasts, hunting has become a much more common activity in the meadows, and each town organizes its hunting parties to react quickly against any dangerous sight spotted near humans. These hunting parties also help the zidazzi and the bombus when requested, though they have their own hunting programs as well. For a region as isolated as the Strange Meadows, it has a surprising amount of gunpowder weapons. Many hunters have bought these weapons, as well as the formula for gunpowder production, to kill quickly some of the most resilient beasts. Hunters have also purchased the service of mozadizz crossbowmen to search the lands and harass the critters from the skies, though their thieving ways keep the sidarians from establishing better relations with the mothmen.
Since their de facto independence from Gilgemash, the sidarians have changed quite a lot. The arrival of many traders, hunters and adventurers from the outside have shaken off the anachronistic ways of the gilgemashi. While these new visitors do not usually stay for long, their stories and tales from the outside are greatly appreciated, and that has caused the introduction of different forms of art, architecture and technology. Many sidarian towns have become important centers of trade, offering some of the cheapest silk that can be produced in the world. The success of silk pigs in the silk trade has caused many nations to put tariffs to imports of pig silk’s silk, least their own silk production go under. Many traders are trying to obtain enough silk pigs to create stable populations outside of Sidarí, but the sidarians have resisted doing so, knowing the value of their cattle. Many poachers from the outside will hunt down some critters for foreign collections, pets or for circus fights. This has turned sidarian fares very colorful affairs, with many traders from all around the world trying to get strange and unusual animals, pelts, skeletons, zidazzi and bombus honeys or silk rolls. The lands also attract many naturalists and artists, who come here to record the lives and behaviors of the strange creatures living in the meadows.
The sidarians have adapted many customs from the ta’lunasir. Since the release of the alchemical beasts, the ta’lunasir had to find refuge inside of the walls of the human towns. Ever since then, the moon-elves began living more closely with the local sidarians. Many astromantic customs, like the exploration of the night sky and the celebration of moon festivities, have been adopted by the sidarians.
== Creatures ==
The ecosystem of Sinarí has been drastically changed by the release of the alchemical beasts. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of different species, of all sizes and behaviors, were suddenly released on the land. Some of the species released died soon after, being taken down by the bigger and more aggressive creatures. Some disappeared due to them not having enough numbers to keep a stable population. And some were driven back to extinction by the hunter parties, seen as too dangerous to be left alive. However, centuries after the original release, many species still roam the land, having become part of the natural environment. This has made the land a bizarre mix of chimerical creatures, as those seem to be the most stable animals.
This has not left the previous existing population intact. The Greybeard Horse, a species of wild horse native from the Sinarí region, is believed to be practically extinct, and only certain specimens still exist in the pens of noble gilgemashi. The Blackspot Bear, a frequent sight before the alchemical release, is now confined to the Onyx Mountains, though nowadays they seem to be recovering, coming back more and more to the meadows. Many species of plants that had been devoured by the alchemical wildlife are plentiful again nowadays. The efforts of many zidazzi and bombus to keep the flower fields intact and protected from predators seem to have paid off, as many of the species of flowers and fruit trees survived the years of chaos and instability.
Many alchemical species have begun to exit the confines of the Strange Meadows, expanding to other regions. The wild jungles that cover Chakobsa and the lands of the Jeraxih are seeing more and more stable populations of invasive alchemical beasts. However, the ecosystem of the rainforests seems to be more capable of resisting the arrival of these new creatures, since their predators and flora is considerably more aggressive, not to mention the hunters from the jungles receive with glee the arrival of some of these critters. A particularly notorious example is the arrival of populations of Great Pincering Squids to the Great Salt Lake, all the way in the lands of the Gökmavi. This is particularly noteworthy in that the Khaganate and the Strange Meadows have no common border, and the Great Pincering Squid is a mostly aquatic creature. It seems unreasonable that a group big enough to sustain a stable population crossed Gilgemash and established itself in the lake, so many believe the presence of Great Pincering Squids there is the result of human action.
=== Spider Goats ===
Spider goats are hunters twice the size of an adult man. They prey on horses, cattle and any other big prey they can get their limbs on. Due to their big size and not particularly fast speed, this goat spiders have evolved into great ambush predators, using the environment to their advantage. They'll hide in mountain ranges and chase their prey, making them fall into gorges filled with spider web, trapping them and allowing the spider goats to slowly eat them. Those spider goats that prefer hunting in the valleys or in the plains take a different strategy, digging holes in the ground and hiding them in web and dirt, and waiting for unsuspecting victims to fall and be unable to get out. 
=== Ravedaries ===
The Ravedaries are a particularly enjoyed prey for the spider goats. This animals travel the lands at the skirts of the Onyx Mountains in family groups of 20-50 members. Their high intelligence and endurance makes them excellent mounts and beasts of burden, but unlike regular camels or dromedaries, they are very picky eaters, and they are thus a very bad fit for travelling in deserts of any kind.
=== Lemmites ===
Lemmites are also a known prey to the spider goats, but their general small size (around the size of a small dog) and underground lifestyle makes them difficult to catch in the open. They are frequently caught when they burrow right into the spider goats' traps and get caught, but otherwise their lives are very far appart. Lemmites are big generalists, eating everything that's organic, though they mostly feed on underground mushrooms and truffles. Their slow speeds and blindness make them easy pickings for any surface predator, even those below half their size. Their colonies can house hundreds of individuals, though they usually limit themselves to around a hundred, unless there's a big increase in the food available. There's only a breeding couple, both male and female being twice the size of a regular worker and barely able to move, giving birth to sterile workers. Their underground way of life has seen them expand their territories to the deserts to the south, since the effects of the harsh desert are mitigated by an underground life.
=== Owlintisses ===
Owlintisses are small flying creatures, so small that one adult male could fit within the palm of a human, and with room to spare. Despite their fierce appeareance and warning noises they do when feeling threatened, Owlintisses are purely frugivores, using their frontal claws to grab strawberries and other small wild fruits growing around the Onyx Mountains. Once a year, Owlintisses abandon their solitary lifestyle to fly in massive flocks, doing elaborate flights and dances to find a mate.
=== Digging Tauros ===
Digging Tauros are hulking creatures that roam the lands south of the Onyx Mountains, grazing all day to mantain their massive bodies, the height twice that of an adult man. Despite their fierce appeareance, they are gentle giants, generally tolerating the presence of herders and their charges, and other herbivores. However, their peaceful nature ends whenever they detect a predator or a rival digging tauros infringing on their territory. Then they engage in brutal clashes, using their massive horns and powerful claws. This fights end up badly for the loser, geting gored and slashed mercilessly, generally dying in the process despite their tough skin and muscle. Their claws are not used only for fighting, they use them to dig for rare minerals, since their diet needs high amounts of salt. They've been often seen licking rocks to get enough of this food, it being one of the main reasons for a digging tauros to infringe into another one's territory.
=== Great Pincering Squid ===
The Great Pincering Squid lives in the depths of the Great Salt Lake, north of the Onyx Mountains. It is an immense creature, nearly five times the size of a man. It is a voracious predator of the deep, feeding on fish and carcasses that sink in the unusually deep lake. However, due to their immense size and frequent food scarcity in the depths, they attack animals that drink at the borders of the lake, or at the birds resting at the surface. It is one of the few beings that can reliably take down a Digging Tauros, since its pincers can deal with the horns, and once the prey is trapped, the Squid can just drag it into the depths, where it will drown. Due to their size, there are very few Great Pincering Squids, but their activity is enough to make the local populations try to actively hunt them down, since the attacks to the fishing ships are common enough to warrant massive hunting campaigns [after] one of them is spotted.
=== Silk Pigs ===
The Silk Pigs are strange creatures, even for the area. At first glance, the physiognomy of this animal would make any naturalist wonder how it can survive in the wild. Their long and fat bodies clash with their small, tiny legs, barely able to hold its weight. Combined with their elongated bodies, it makes them unable to run, walk, or even turn at any kind of reasonable speed, to the point of spider goats being able to just walk straight up to them, pick one and drag it to their hideout with very little problem. However, they are very gregarious animals, and their ability to feed off of everything combined to creating great amounts of silk makes them unvaluable for the herders and farmers of the land. The sheer amount of silk they can spew combined with a very low mainteneance cost mean that they are an incredibly valuable resource for the local economy, and thus protected by the local farmers. It is very doubtful that the Silk Pigs could survive in the wild without any human help.
=== Kangwhalls ===
Kangwhalls are big herbivores who travel in packs, usually near other species' herds. They feed on both fruits growing on the highest trees (which they reach by jumping and spearing it with their nose horn) or by diggind the ground for mushrooms and truffles underground (using their paws and nose horn to dig up). They are a very confrontational species, with members of the same herd fighting using their paws and powerful tail. However, this fights will only include the nose horn if they are very serious, as in a challenge for dominion of the herd. Otherwise, fighting is just part of keeping the social structure. Their young spends a full year after birth in their mother's pouch, and only then will the horn grow. Male horns are considerably longer than the females', which will take a spiral pattern in comparison to the males' segmented pattern.
=== Tongue Beetles ===
Tongue Beetles are small, insect-like creatures, that feed off of small flying bugs, such as mosquitoes and flies. They live in the backs of the much bigger herbivores living in the land, hunting the parasites they have around. Their excellent reflexes and eyesight, combined with a prensile tongue, makes them unable to rack up enourmus amounts of bugs eaten every day.
=== Venom Babooms ===
Venom Babooms are pack predators, using the tall grass and the cover of trees to jump into unsuspecting prey. Due to their small size and slow speed, they need to ambush and poison their pray, waiting for the strong paralysing venom to take their prey down. However, due to their small size, animals that could resist the venom, like spider goats and digging tauros, can easily wreack any pack of venom babooms. They are also carrion eaters, feeding on whatever carcasses they can find.
=== Pippy Rabbits ===
Pippy Rabbits are small creatures that roam the land in great numbers, usually living in burrows to protect themselves from bigger predators. When they feel threatened, they inflate their neck pouch to look bigger, but this seldom works, and thus they are forced to run away.
=== Cheebrah ===
The Cheebrah is an elusive creature in the Strange Meadows. A very shy herbivore , they live in isolation and very far apart from each other. They are extraordinarily fast creatures, able to escape pretty much every predator in the region. However, due to their extreme isolated nature, the chances of one to reproduce are quite rare, and thus the population of Cheebrahs is much lower than one would expect. Due to the beauty and immense value of their fur, it is wildly chased after prey for hunters in the region. Many have also tried to domesticate them, with no success.
=== Batorpion ===
Batorpionsare small critters that hunt small prey during the night. They are blind, but have an incredible hearing, and they will detect the smallest vibrations. They then slowly approach their prey (mostly insects, birds and small rodents) and will capture them by using their pincers and venom stings. However, they are not particularly fast, and thus they will sleep during the day, diggind themselves into the ground until nighttime arrives.
=== Dolphebra ===
Dolphebras are highly intelligent creatures that live in packs of 20-50 individuals. They are omnivores that will eat anything from grass, fruit to small animals, although they haven't been shown any particular predatory behaviour, prefering instead scavanging for carcasses or animals that don't require great hunting efforts. They communicate by creating a complex language of sounds, some of them reaching a spectrum below what humans and other predators can listen. This helps them watch over for potential threats, being able to escape quickly if there's danger around. They have been seen using pack tactics to raid some local farms, which forces the locals to breed dogs with specially strong sense of hearing to try and hear them coming during the night.
=== Beetlebear ===
Bettlebears are solitary creatures that hunt in the meadows. They will move long distances in search of pray, and will eat anything that they can find. Since their size makes stealth difficult, bettlebears will only hunt big prey when there's a considerable chance of success, but most of the time they will eat frut, dig in the ground for lemmites and fish in the lakes and rivers with their great pincers. Those pincers are strong enough to break bone, and they are used to incapacitate their victims in one strike, preventing them from running. Local farmers and shepherds organise a hunting party every time one of this animals is located, since their strength and ferocity makes them very difficult to take down individually, although luckilly they don't seem to see humans as prey. Bettlebears are also very sensitive to high temperatures, and thus they will search deep caves and hybernate during the hottest months of summer.
=== Waselfish ===
Waselfish are gregarious creatures around the size of chickens. They fly in great numbers searching for prey insects, mostly located in swamps and lakes. Waselfish will use their front arms to move the top of the trees and the grass around bodies of water to force insects to move and flee, while other waselfish catch them. They are an integral part of the local ecosystem, since they reproduce in great numbers and lay their eggs underwater, forming part of the diet of many species. However, consumption of the adult Waselfish is not recommended, since they apparently have developed a horrible taste to dissuade predators, although that rarely works in the wild.
=== Snailotamus ===
Snailotamus are massive herbivores that spend most of their time grazing the underwater grass and algae that grows near lakes and rivers. They are extremely passive creatures, due to their big size, low speed and low intelligence. However, their incredible biting strength and tough shell makes predators very weary of attacking them. The Snailotamus' slime is used by the local populations to deter predators and to make certain kinds of glue. The locals usually sell the Snailotamus slime for cosmetic uses to foreign traders, though its actual effects are not really clear.
=== Skunky Beetles ===
Stunky Beetles are small creatures, around the size of small dogs. They are very skittish herbivores, and will scare easily if an unidentified creature gets close to them while they are eating or searching for food. To defend themselves, Skunky beetles are able to produce a wide array of chemicals within their bodies, ranging from incredibly smelly liquids to stronger acids that could blind any creature if it enters in contact with their eyes. This chemicals are wildly valued by farmers and herders in the area, since they are very effective predator deterents. Skunky beetles are not domestic, however, so many locals will attract Skunky beetles with food and then make loud noises with pots and pans from afar, to scare the Skunky beetle to spray their lands with predator repellent and then leave.
=== Roach Roachers ===
Roach Roachers were designed to be pest controlls. They are the size of a small cat, but their snouts contain a very long prehensile tongue, able to fit in narrow spaces. Their insectoid legs and legs make them able to fly and to stick to the walls, giving them a great range of action. They are quite tame and easy to domesticate as well, so many have trained them to clean up termite or ant infestations. It usually finds a home in the rural towns, where pest control is quite important, and they can cover what cats cannot (roachers cover for insect plagues, cats cover for rat plagues). However, roach roachers make quite a lot of noise while eating, and that, combined with their cockroach looks, makes it very unpopular as a pet anywhere else.
=== Bombarabedillo ===
Bombarabedillos are small herbivore creatures who live around fruit trees. They climb apple and peach trees and eat their fruits. While they are in that spot, they can be very vulnerable to predators, so the bombarabedillos can curl into a ball position and fall into the ground. This allows the bombarabedillos to quickly run away from predators. If that doesn’t work, the bombarabedillos can puke a chemical concoction, spraying it everywhere, and causing an immense irritation when in contact. Once the predator is suitable distracted, bombarabedillos will hide in the tall grass or under a rock. Many farmers have to keep a good look for bombarabedillo populations, since they tend to go for crops such as carrots, pumpkins and lettuces as well. Many farm dogs have learned to startle the bombarabedillos from afar by throwing them dirt and barking at them, avoiding their range of their chemical spray. Cats have been known to tire bombarabedillos from afar, and once they are out of spray, they play with the bombarabedillos in ball mode.
=== Spoopus ===
Spoopus are small aquatic creatures that live in ponds and rivers. Being the size of a human hand, the spoopus show an astonishing degree of intelligence for their size. The spoopus are carnivores, eating small fish and frogs at the shore of rivers. However, spoopus aren’t particularly fast swimmers, so instead of chasing after them, the spoopus create underwater webs. This thread tends to float to the surface, so the spoopus will attach the foundation of the thread to rocks at the bottom, and slowly cover a portion of the river with a web. The fish, bugs and frogs that touch it will be instantly glued to it, and will either be immobilized or become to encumbered to flee. The spoopus will then move and bite them, using their melting poison to kill them and drink their fluids, since they don’t have any teeth to bite and chew. To avoid being caught by bigger predators, spoopus can walk on land for certain periods of time, though their movements on land are very sluggish. There have been plenty of registered cases where spoopus will move close to human settlements, and then act in a way that could be described as “cute” so that the people feed them. Many believe this behavior has been learned by watching dogs or cats, or by experimenting around fishermen near their hunting grounds. There have even been cases where spoopus have become domestic pets. However, touching a spoopus when the rings on their skin are glowing blue is dangerous, since that means they are ready to jump and attack, and spoopus’ bites are quite painful due to their flesh-melting poison.
=== Jellyspooker ===
Jellyspookers are some of the most dangerous creatures in the rivers of the region. They are the size of a duck, with gelatinous and translucent bodies, mostly composed of water, with many tentacles with stingers on them. Their head is slightly darker, with jaws full of teeth and a luminescent organ on their forehead. Their method of hunting is just swim around the bottom of the rivers, attracting fish and other creatures with their lantern and eating them. They can eat bigger fish with their mouth while eating the organisms from the bottom, putting them directly into their stomach. Populations of jellyspookers can grow pretty fast, and leave to regions of the river to be depopulated, and as such, fishermen will try to kill them at every opportunity.
=== Hornamantis ===
Hornamantis are small creatures that live at the bottom of rivers and ponds. They are the size of a human thumb, and form big troupes eating any organic matter that falls from above. They also prey on mollusks, breaking their shells with either their beak or their claws. For a creature that small, they show great levels of strength, and are quite capable of breaking the bones of other animals that try to prey on them. They have earned the hate of many fishermen due to them cutting down their fishing lines. Fortunately for them, hornamantis are quite delicious if cooked appropriately. Fishermen have developed traps to catch big groups of them, and bring them to the surface, where due to them being unable to breathe, they will lose most of their strength and be easier to take down.
=== Velvet Turtle ===
Velvet turtles are creatures with a particularly strange body. They have a dense shell that can reach a size of half a meter, and protects the innards and the neck of the elder turtle. However, they are able to compress themselves to an astonishing degree: their neck, full of pseudo-legs, can reach the three meters of length. They use this enormous neck to slowly climb tree trunks or rock walls, eating the fruits and leaves that would be impossible to reach otherwise. However, they are left quite vulnerable when eating, exposing most of their body outside of their shell. If they ever feel threatened, their body is capable of spewing great amounts of slime and gunk in a very short amount of time, choking the predator that tries to bite them. Farmers keep them away from their crops by making them go back to their shells, and then picking them up and moving them far away.
=== Erlfish ===
Erlfish are aquatic creatures that live near ponds and rivers. They are great swimmers, hunting down small fish and frogs, but due to their physiology, they are quite vulnerable on land. They have to balance their oversized heads by wobbling around, giving them a very uncoordinated look. They defend themselves by living in great flocks, making a great deal of noise to try to scare away possible predators. However, this tactic does not work with most predators, and thus they will try to jump to the water and swim away. If they are caught on land, they have little chances to defend themselves other than by pecking at their attacker. Local populations tend to hunt them, and some have even begun to farm them.
=== Hunting Mosantis ===
Hunting Mosantis are a agressive herbivores, using their massive height to reach the highest branchest from the trees. Using their claws to grip fruits, they are a very dangerous creature for the local farmers. Luckily for the farmers, they are an elusive species, and their agression tends to be the death of them, especially during mating season, where their agression levels go so high that many end up dying during fights for mates. The color of their bodies changes throughout the year, reaching a pinkish red during the mating season, signaling other creatures from the region to keep their distances.
=== Wranglerdor ===
Wrangledors are small predatory fish, the size of a beetle. They fly around during the night in great numbers, using their light organ to attract insects, to them gobble them up with their oversized mouths. They always move in great numbers, creating complex light patterns in the night sky. During the day, they sleep in areas hidden from possible predators, like atop of trees or in caves. While small and brittle individually, the fact they always fly in great numbers is enough to scare away many predators, as their oversized jaws can still hurt bigger creatures, and a swarm of them is a scary prospect.
=== Hercython ===
Hercythons are underground creatures. Their elongated bodies allow them to enter and move through burrows from lemmites and other digging creatures, in search for roots and tubers. In the case of not being able to find an already made burrow, they will dig one themselves with their horns, though they do prefer saving their energies. To protect themselves from predators, the hercythons coil around the enemy and repeatedly hit it with their heads, both strangling them and bashing them. They hercythons are not that big, though, a meter at most, so they have to be careful when to fight and when to hide.
=== Jellyfly ===
Jellyflies are flying creatures that feed off nectar from flowers. They small size, slow speed and frail complexion would make them very easy prey, if not for the fact they have a very powerful poison. The sting of one of this will cause the wound to become luminescent, creating a burning sensation that brings pain to the victim. While this feeling is not near as painful as other venoms known, it is a very long lasting one, robbing the victim of their ability to sleep. This, combined with the luminescence of the wound, would make it so the predator ends up exhausted due to lack of sleep and marked for other creatures to attack them.
=== Dragonupinus ===
Dragonupinus are small nocturnal creatures, slightly bigger than rats. A cowardly critter, quick to run despite being covered in sharp spikes, they only come out at night, when they search for fresh grass and fruits. Their eyes, occupying much of its head, are capable of seeing danger at long distances, sensing even the heat and movement of possible predators at great lengths.
===Tricebug ===
Tricebugs are alchemical insects the size of a chicken’s hachling. They fly in small flocks of a dozen or so individuals, searching for ripe fruit to eat, and as such they are quite despised by farmers. They are very lousy flyers, and their weight in relation to their wings’ size makes them generate a terrible buzz when moving. They use this sound in conjunction with their horns to intimidate possible predators, darting down and swooping from the sky. However, all in Sidarí know that tricebugs are very cowardly creatures that quickly fly away if they are offered a minimum of resistence. Thus, when hearing their characteristic buzz, many sidarian farmers will pick up paddles and try to swat the flock until it goes away.
===Rattlelolophus===
Rattlelolophus are very strong snake-like alchemical creatures. Measuring about 15 meters of length, they are some of the biggest creatures in Sidarí. However, they are gentle giants, eating grass and other vegetable matter. They move in herd of 10 individuals, travelling around marking their ground everywhere they pass through. While they can slither at very fast speeds, they prefer to move slowly to save energy, using their position close to the ground to hide from predators. They have a great sense of smell and sight, so when one of them detects possible danger, they will rise into an upright position. Their strong muscular abdomens allow them to rise their head almost 8 meters high, serving as a very intimidating display. If that does not work, they will begin to honk to scare away their potential assailants, as well as to warn the rest of the group. If they physically have to defend themselves, they will try to confuse their opponent with as much noise as possible, between honks and the rattling of their tails. If this doesn’t work, however, they will all scatter in different directions, all taking turns to cause as much noise while the rest remain silence, to try to disorient their hunter until it loses them or gives up.
=== Deynoneagle===
Deynoneagles are small pack hunters the size of turkeys. Hunting in groups of 10, they were some of the most dangerous creatures during the initial days of the release of all alchemical creatures in Sidarí. They were particularly vicious against sheep and slow cattle, creating gouging cuts into them and letting them bleed to death, eating as much as possible and running away before the farmers could chase after them (which was easier said than done, considering they were also quite fast). This caused the sidarians to specifically target them as one of the more threatening critters around. However, they quickly discovered that they had a strange custom that limited their numbers considerably. Every time they saw a point high enough from the ground, they would invariably try to climb to the top and jump from it, usually breaking bones and even dying from the impact. This is believed to be a mistake in the process of alchemical creation, possibly having a strong flying instinct, but without any wings whatsoever, they simply try to move their arms while they fall to their doom. Nowadays, their numbers are limited, though they are still quite dangerous to the local economy, and seasonal hunts of deynoneagles are common, driving them deeper and deeper into the mountains. Deynoneagles are also one of the critters that has managed to expand further outside of Sidarí, in particular in the chakobsian jungles, where they hunt goblins and other jungle animals.
===Steggingstick===
Stegginsticks are alchemical insectoid creatures the size of chicken eggs. They feed off decomposing matter, both of plant and animal origin. Their keen senses allow them to detect rotting matter from miles, and they will congregate in considerable numbers. Once they arrive to a food source, they instinctively move alongside each other, using their back plates and tail spikes to create rows that makes taking them down individually difficult. These are also coated with a very irritating poison, at once causing extreme itch and dizzying the victim. They are also quite crunchy, making chewing them difficult and tedious, hightening the chances of hurting themselves with the poisoned plates. Outside of this, they have little in terms of defenses, so they can often die in the hundreds when they gather in enough numbers. They manage to endure due to their fast reproductive cycles, as they also use these gatherings to mate, keeping their numbers stable. Because of this, they form part of many sidarian critters’ diet.
===Towering Whale===
Towering Whales are an alchemical behemoth believed to have been successfully driven away from Sidarí, though there have been sightings of these in the shores near the Sea of Fog. These creatures were the biggest alchemical entities ever sighted in Sidarí, being 1.5 times the size of mammoths. Because of this size, they were some of the biggest threats during the during the initial days of the release of all alchemical creatures in Sidarí, as their need for food and water outmatched the environment’s ability to replenish it. Despite this, they were gentle giants, eating only plants and river vegetation, though due to their massive size they simply trampled any structure near the rivers they move along. Their need for food and water also made them move towards the sea, with the sidarians having to collaborate with the ta’lunasir authorities to keep damages to a minimum. Once they arrived into the sea, they dove into the depths, as they turned out to prefer a completely underwater lifestyle over living in the surface. However, once every five years, the towering whales come to the shores to lay eggs, occupying many of the beaches of the region. Nowadays, they have been sighted in shores of Gilgemash and the Moonlight Shores, with authorities keeping an eye of them, as they can become quite aggressive if they feel their hatchlings are in danger. Due to their rarity and exotic nature, many hunters try to catch them during the year and a half they spend on the shores feeding their young, which can in turn cause stampedes that threaten the nearby coastal towns.
===Plesiofish===
Pleistofishes are a species of alchemical fish living in the biggest rivers that go across Sidarí. They are the size of salmons, and are some of the faster swimmers in their local ecosystem. They generally use this speed to swim back and forth across the river, searching for insects, larvae and smaller organisms floating around. They are considered a delicacy by local sidarians, as well as the ta’lunasir, and they consider catching them a sign of good fortune. However, these creatures have a keen instinct when it comes to fishers, and if they feel threatened, they will dart as fast as possible, jumping into the air, splashing and/or squirting water to distract their pursuers while they swim away. Because of this, some sidarians put nets above the rivers to try to catch them while in the air. Their scales are also quite valuable as they make for a material very resistant to abrasion.
==Foreign Relations==
The sidarians have preserved their more reclusive ways, but over time, they have mellowed out considerably, due to the constant trade and the arrival of foreign visitors. However, the ties between the sidarians and Gilgemash are all but broken. The decision of Gilgemash not to intervene in the territory after the alchemical release due to political infighting is still a rather sore spot for many sidarians. In their eyes, Gilgemash betrayed them and abandoned after causing the problem, and thus, they want nothing to do with them. The gilgemashi, on their part, they defend they never abandoned the province of sidarí, but rather they gifted it to the ta’lunasir, and thus they were the ones responsible of the chaos at the time. This is obviously seen with scorn by the locals, since the ta’lunasir populations living in Sidarí at the time were affected just as much as the locals. Gilgemash is still a more powerful entity than Sidarí, and thus the sidarí have to be careful how they interact with their former masters. Many gilgemashi criminals, fugitives and exiles cross the Strange Meadows seeking refuge, but they have to be careful crossing the lands. Without the locals’ knowledge of the creatures living in the region, they usually end up as a snack for the wild predators.
The sidarians keep stable relatons with the States of the Moonlight Shore. The moon-elven populations in both sides stay in touch, and there’s frequent travel between the regions, especially during certain dates, celebrating astromantic festivities and ceremonies together. The Moonlight Shores also serve as the main point of contact between Sidarí and the rest of the world, since the Strange Meadows are landlocked. The sidarians and the ta’lunasir have constructed many roads to connect their lands together, though they have to be guarded by the local populations quite frequently, since predators became aware of the trade routes and have been known to attack them. The sidarians also keep good relations with the different races from the Ettin-Range. Their role during the days of chaos is greatly appreciated, and many towns still show with pride their skull towers made out of gifts from ettins. The help from the insectoid species in the mountains is remembered fondly as well, and there is frequent trade between the sidarian towns and the hives of bombus and zidazzi. In recent years, the presence of zidazzi in the region has increased, after many of them had to seek refuge from the attacks of the badgassi.
The sidarians stay away from the Neegus. Whatever magics have resulted in the animated men of wood, they want nothing to do with it. And while the bombus and the zidazzi keep their distance out of a natural instinct of something being deeply wrong, the sidarians and the ta’lunasir stay away due to the tales of bloodshed and brutality coming from the region. The stories of the travelers who visited the land and were attacked by inanimate objects, or the rumors of the dreadful pirate king that rule over the land. The alchemical creatures, however, have no such compunctions, and have begun to cross the border and occupy the region, altering its habitat the same way they did to the lands of Sidarí centuries ago.
Category:Giantstep
Category:Geographic location
Category:Creature