Afflictive Eostage

## Appearance

Afflictive Eostage is a lot larger than Sacred Eostage. This subspecies has similar colors but accents the more dirty-white pelt with darker scales which reach from grey to black in some areas. Thin, black lines cover its body, growing broader on the sides of the torso, yet the lines seem to move, making it difficult to make out a definitive pattern. The Hooves are solid black and the coloration extends to its feet growing lighter going upwards to a light grey torso with dark red area on the chest with black patterns. The Fanged Wyvern's tail is dark grey but reveals a red spot underneath, typical for the species. The back is covered in white fur which has grey tips. The neck of Afflictive Eostage is red, lighter on the front and darker on the backside. Further up at the head the coloration gets mixed with several black spots on the side and on the top of its head. The auricles are black while the insides are red. The antler has black and white sections entwining in each other with red lines, the form is more similar to the Eostage rather than the Sacred Eostage.

## Habitat and Ecology

Afflictice Eostage are found in almost any inland area though rarely in excessively hot, cold and/or dry areas. The monster needs vegetation to feed on but sometimes gets lost searching for food in unsuitable landscapes. It seems to have a preference for Dragonfell Berries. Confirmed reports state areas, this subspecies inhabits frequently, which include Unseen Boscage, Bamboo Grove, Mountain Side, Moor, Thunderstorm Valley, Orkan Hills and Dark Hain.

This subspecies of Eostage, the male counterpart to Sacred Eostage, counting as Variant to it, is usually a quite timid monster which avoids humans noticably. Because of its body size it has few predators and keeps distance to any possible threat. Most of the time this monster searches for food going from one place to another. Individuals of the same species are usually ignored outside the mating season.

Afflictive Eostage has both the aether element and the dragon element which it ingested by eating certain fruits and dragonfell berries in the Dark Hain, where juveniles live. The combination of both makes them very powerful, heaving them up to a threat level of small Elder Dragons. The Fanged Wyvern is able to fend off monsters of the same level but usually avoids them due to its docile nature.

Weirdly, Afflictive Eostage can go on a rampage without warning. This seems to happen collectively to all members of this subspecies in a single area. If this happens, the Fanged Wyverns attack everything that moves on sight, destroy vegetation, damage buildings and even rock walls and uproot or straight up break trees. In those rampages the rage and the dragon element it uses may consume the monster from the inside which can lead to damages to the body and even death, but this happens quite rarely. Other causes of death include fighting monsters of the same caliber and getting buried by a landslide or collapsing building. The cause for this behavior is unknown but recent studies found connections to the rampages and hunters, that killed either a Sacred Eostage or a White Eost, causing Afflictive Eostage to retaliate in blind rage without knowing the reason or cause. Furthermore researchers assume that the connection between the two counterparts of this Eostage subspecies is the aether element but it's still a mystery why usually only one or two areas are affected by this and how this connection works concretely.

Afflictive Eostage live outside the Sacred Woods and rarely in the Dark Hain after they become big enough to leave the herd. But in mating season the Fanged Wyverns come back to their birth place. Before they enter the Sagnum Woods, where the females live, they battle each other on a nearby meadow. The fights are pretty rough and sometimes end deadly and only few of the males get to mate with a female. To determine a winner they rush at their opponents and hit their antlers against each other. Because of its dragon and aether elemental energy, if an antler hits the body of the opponent it may leave wounds, sometimes fatal ones, but usually the fight ends before this happens. This is also the reason why Afflictive Eostage's antlers are often less intact in comparison to those of Sacred Eostage. Even though this risk exists, as males are more common than their counterpart, the few casualties can be coped with. After the mating is done the males leave the females to live outside the forest until the next mating season.

The same tribes that associate Sacred Eostage with good fortune and consider it a holy being, have the complete opposite assessment towards Afflictive Eostage, it being a bad omen, a harbinger of havoc and a sign of general misfortune. This is probably due to the fits of rage that overtake the monsters suddenly who frequently ran on a rampage inside villages and small towns turning parts of it into ruins. As the Fanged Wyverns avoid humans they are usually only seen rampaging giving them a reputation of a wrathful beast. Beyond this on account of the further distribution of Afflictive Eostage, other human settlements regard it the same way even without knowing of its counterpart in the Sagnum Woods. Thus it is seen as a bad omen even sighting this monster.

The guild rarely give out quests to hunt this monster outside of the times it rampages and those are usually authorized when the population of them is too high. It seems hunters have found a way to cause the Fanged Wyvern to rage and hunt White Eosts and Sacred Eostage for this goal. Because of the bad reputation Afflictive Eostage has, the guild struggles to keep hunters from going after them even without quests. This may be the reason for its evasive behavior towards threats like hunters.

### Interactions with other Monsters

**Predators**:

Because of its size and power, additionally to its usual evasive nature, Afflictive Eostage doesn't have any stronger monsters preying on it, but other monsters of the same power level may be a threat to it. In one of its rampages it may occur that the Fanged Wyvern comes across such a monster and fights them till one of them is unable to fight.

**Symbiosis and other harmonious relationships**:

While Afflictive Eostage is usually a loner, in mating season it may be seen together with its female counterpart Sacred Eostage.

## Abilities

The fighting style of Afflictive Eostage is similar to that of Sacred Eostage but the additional use of dragon element and the use of more devestating attacks when it is enraged make it a lot more dangerous. It seems the aether element is a little weaker in comparison to its female counterpart. Because of its bigger body physical attacks also inflict more damage.

## Attacks

1. **Charge**: Similar to Sacred Eostage, but Afflictive Eostage is less agile than its female counterpart but still faster than the regular Eostage.
2. **Seamless double charge**: Same as Sacred Eostage.
3. **Back kick**: Same as Eostage.
4. **Jumping back kick**: Similar to Sacred Eostage but it can't jump that far yet covers more area with its size.
5. **Side kick**: Identical to Sacred Eostage.
6. **Single foot stomp**: Same as Eostage.
7. **High stomp**: Similar to Sacred Eostage, but Afflictive Eostage can align the direction in which the chunks of earth fly off a little.
8. **Lunge**: Same as Eostage.
9. **Jump over**: Similar to Eostage but the landing causes parts the ground to be flinged in random directions.
10. **High jump body slam**: Similar to Eostage but again flings chunks of earth around it.
11. **Head swing**: Identical to Sacred Eostage.
12. **Head smash**: Same as Eostage.
13. **Head smash combo**: In Rage Mode a regular head smash is usually chained to this combo, while its antlers are in the ground it launches a piece of earth or rock at an opponent.
14. **Upward throw**: Same as Sacred Eostage.
15. **Antler smash**: Similar to that of its female counterpart, but it opens up a single crevice that is broader than the ones of its relatives, the element bursting out is random. In Rage Mode both elements burst out of the ground.
16. **Burst of Element**: While the movements are similar to the burst of aether attack of Sacred Eostage, the distributions of the bursts is different. First dragon element energy bursts out like a fountain in random locations around the monster, after that the aether element shoots out of the ground in a wall around the monster when the monster lifts its head again. In usual quests this ends its Rage Mode, but in quests with a raging individual this may not be the case.
17. **Aether beams**: Identical to Sacred Eostage. Can only be used in areas with sources of light.
18. **Dragon beams**: Unlike the aether beams attack the monster doesn't need a special location to activate this attack. Afflictive Eostage lifts its head a bit and gathers dragon energy in its antlers which visibly darkens. When the antler is covered almost entirely with black it unleashes beams similar to aether beams in dragon element. The Fanged Wyvern has better control in aiming the beams than it does with the aether beams.

## Notes

* The weakness is fire, then dragon.
* In Rage Mode it lifts its tail, the black patterns on its body are more stable and cover a larger area, the colors on its chest glow dully and the red lines on its antlers expand growing darker in color.
* When exhausted the colors on its body become duller and the black patterns fade until they are like shadows on its body. Afflictive Eostage will search for vegetation, especially Dragonfell Berries.
	+ It will fail to use dragon elemental attacks in this state, but aether elemental attack don't seem to be affected.
* Outside of its fits of rage it avoids humans and leaves the area if a hunter stays close to it for too long. Like its relatives, this subspecies only attacks when it gets attacked in its usual state.
* Hunting down White Eosts and/or Sacred Eostage may cause a quest to appear with a raging Afflictive Eostage.
	+ When such a quest appears the Fanged Wyvern will start in Rage Mode but may calm down after some time. Also in this state it attacks any monsters and hunters on sight.
* Interrupting the dragon beams attack causes the Fanged Wyvern to drop a shiny.
* Afflictive Eostage has the same breakable parts as Sacred Eostage.
	+ Breaking its antlers twice will decrease the power of the aether element but seems to strengthen the output of dragon element.

## Materials

Afflictive Eostage Shell, Afflictive Eostage Scale, Afflictive Eostage Pelt, Afflictive Antler (only if broken twice), Eostage Hoof, Eostage Tail (when damaged), Eostage Plate, Misfortune Scale (when chest damaged)