Monsters

There are many monsters that exist in the universe of *A Trip Through the Wormhole*, and this page exists to document all of these monsters, their properties, and their level of danger. There are info boxes beside every write-up on the creatures, and they detail the following.

Appearance - a general description of what the creature looks like, including height and relative appearance.

Body Colour - details the colours that their bodies showcase as it is not detailed in appearance.

Properties - lists off the properties the creature showcases without getting into its attack or defence mechanisms.

Abilities - lists off all of the tactics the creature is able to use when attacking prey or defending itself.

Native to - gives a list of the areas where the creature is found most often. or is believed to be native to.

Danger rating - gives a rating of danger based off of the power level rating system, subtracting the last two levels for obvious reasons.

## An Article for the Defence Against Monsters

Publication Date: August 13, 2058, The Stonemill Regional Magazine.

The best defence against monsters is that of knowledge, and the following will contain detailed descriptions of known monsters that you may face, and how dangerous they are. It is not recommended you attempt to fight any of these, as most of then are quite dangerous. This article uses the Updated Rating of Danger to the Self as published by The Royona Global Protection Agency, omitting the last two levels of threat to create less confusion. Known locations of habitats of monsters are listed, uncommon locations of sightings are left out.

## Angel

### Appearance

Pandorian or coronian with large wings, emits light

### Body Color

varies widely case-by-case, wings and hair are multicolored

### Properties

emits light from their bodies, can regenerate damage to their bodies, hard to kill.

### Abilities

can fly with wings. Can summon a weapon of choice.

### Danger Rating

9

Angels are rare beings made up of souls which tend to take on appearances similar to pandorians or coronians. Angels are typically made up of a large collection of souls, and thus are rare to see. Only one has been officially documented and is the source of all the information we have on them. The minimum amount of souls to create one angel is 180, and they must be extracted using a particular spell to create a typical angel, but it seems that there is the existence of another type of angel, although less is known about that type, only that is referred to as an Inferno Angel.

Angels are peculiar creatures as they are made of an unknown organic material. Their skin feels like skin and their innards are identical to that of their primary form, meaning that they need to eat, sleep, drink, and remove waste. Although they glow as if made of light, they are presumed to be made of the same material as their forms appear as. Their bodies seem to be more resilient than what they appear as, and they posses a regenerative ability, although they are not invulnerable, and are able to die.

The colours of their body vary from angel to angel. Their skin colour is often different vibrant colours along with their clothes. The clothing they wear is what the primary soul was wearing when they died, and although they can change their clothes if they want, only the clothes they were formed in have the flowing effect and holes in the back for their wings, as well as being a lot stronger. Even if it is just a t-shirt, their clothes seem to be effective armour against many attacks, although it is not impenetrable.

They have many instincts which give them extra defence in battle, one being that being attacked in certain places summons floating weapons around them. It's always instant and consistent, blows to the same general area cause the same type of weapon to appear in the same area.

## Queaphine

### Appearance

pandorian with distorted features, generally appear similar to existing pandorians.

### Body Color

identical to pandorian/coronian/human body colors.

### Properties

Tends to have similar properties to pandorians, with added supernatural abilities

### Abilities

Can shapeshift, although this ability is limited. Can psychologically manipulate prey. They emit various noises and often speak in strange voices.

### Danger Rating

8/10

Qheaphines (key-pines), or simply phines for short are humanoid or coronian-like creatures who behave similarly to stalkers. They appear similar to pandorians or coronians, depending on which they choose to take after, but they have strangely distorted features and seem to be able to shape shift on some level. This shape-shifting ability is quite limited, and they can only temporarily take on other forms form for so long before they revert. In their normal forms, there are still distortions present such as eyes being slightly too big or far apart, or body parts being slightly misplaced.

They have the ability to shape-shift into a form representing the true fear their victim has, seemingly tapping into their victims thoughts to be able to do this. The connection between phines and their victims is as strong as it is mysterious. They can get into the head of their prey and they use their knowledge of all of the fears and trauma their victims have went through to mentally torture them.

They stalk their prey in the shadows and over the course of weeks, they imitate their voice, mannerisms, walking pattern, and even thought process. They put a lot of work into imitating their prey as perfectly as possible, and they are very often confused for the people they are imitating, which is one of their tactics. They employ multiple tactics to mentally weaken their prey mentally, one of these being to act as them and change others perceptions of themselves. Sometimes it's flattering, sometimes it's harmful. Another tactic is more supernatural, and that is to somehow get inside of their thoughts after a certain point. They wear away at their prey and wait for the perfect time to strike. They will appear multiple times to them as a mirror image of themselves and then disappear, another effective tactic to confuse their prey.

Although encounters are not common, they are still very dangerous and it is important to know what is happening and how to stop it from escalating. There have been two cases where people came in to report seeing a clone of themself, and they asked about it and eventually came to a research team. The progression was documented twice a week, but as the patients started seeing the research team the activity seemed to increase. They reported tiredness, strange scars, vivid dreams and hallucinations, illusions, hearing strange sounds, and seeing clones of themselves. After a certain point, both patients stopped showing up and it turned out they had died. According to records of phine encounters, nobody has survived an assault from a phine once they've been targeted, however phines are not invincible and can and have been killed.

Because they have a similar makeup to whatever form they take, they are limited by the weaknesses of those forms. Phines have been seen to take on both pandorian and coronian forms, and they have been seen eating and drinking, so starvation or dehydration are possible options for killing them. The tried and true trapping method generally works on creatures who can starve such as stalkers and splitters, and for phines, it's no different, however it should be a last resort method. Although the form they take when they do not have a host is unknown, it is nearly certain to be similar to a pandorian judging by them turning into a different pandorian just before death, presumed to be their birth form. They can be decapitated, shot, stabbed, or killed by any other means you would normally kill a pandorian or coronian which makes then rather easy to deal with, however being sure you're killing the phine can be hard.

Phines take on the form of their host as they go about their lives, working jobs for money and buying food and such. It is unknown how they gain the personal information about their victims, but it can be presumed it is from the mental connection they posses with their victims, gained through unknown means. It takes a phine about three to five months to complete its process of learning their prey, tormenting them and then killing them. It is known that it takes exactly five weeks for them to learn everything about their prey, the information gathered from a phine just before it was killed. A lot of the known information on phines were extorted from their dying breaths. Most of the time phines were killed they were found before they could start their assault on their chosen victim, and the other portion of the times they were killed after killing their prey.

Although they are easy to kill, spotting them is hard and winning the battle would require a lot of skill. They are tough foes and although they can be killed easily, one would have to face a very dangerous monster. They may have access to weapons, but when it comes to physical strength, they have a lot of power. When they engage in combat with their prey, they often shape-shift into a form that would horrify them and lower their changes to fight back. Once the victim is dead, they revert back to their previous forms and hold that form until they choose a new victim, where they will hold this new form as they learn their victim before they launch their assault. When engaged in combat outside of their prey, they have been seen on multiple occasions taking on a form similar to a stalker, where they use their arms as tendrils to attack and form a large maw in the centre of their chest. Although they may look stronger in their form, shape-shifting does not grant them more or less strength and they are limited by their normal form.

## Shadow

### Appearance

tall coronian-like being made of shadows, 7-9 ft tall. Small eyes similarly to stalkers and splitters. They tend to wear cloaks made of shadow, appearance and clothes may vary

### Body Color

black all over, white eyes, and white light on the inside of their mouths. Tongues are blood red.

### Properties

Made of shadows and thus can materialize easily and float around.Friendly and tend to be helpful to people. Tall and have large muscles, similarly to stalkers.

### Abilities

Can materialize from shadows. Occasionally phases through walls. They attack with claws and have a lot of strength. They can float around and can maneuver around easily. They can play recorded songs perfectly through their mouths like radios. Can make the surrounding area very dark and reduce the visibility of their prey (only at night)

### Native to

Rosedell, Stonemill, generally above 66 degrees North.

### Danger Rating

8 / 10

Shadows are friendly creatures made out of pure shadow, similarly to stalkers, however while stalkers are hostile, shadows are friendly and tend to show their intelligence more often. Shadows are tall, black creatures made out of pure shadow, similarly to stalkers. Due to their similarities, they are often grouped together with stalkers, however there are a lot of differences which are very crucial to knowing and dealing with the both of them.

The most important difference is in risk. Although Shadows have been measured at a level of 8, they have a minimal risk factor. Due to them being generally friendly towards people, if they are attacked they can be quite dangerous, although they only attack if provoked, unlike stalkers. Part of this risk difference between the two shadow beings is that stalkers have a higher danger rating. Generally, shadows and stalkers do not encounter each other but if they do, the shadow will attack the stalker unprovoked. Often times monsters will attack each other unprovoked.

One of their abilities is the ability to materialise and float, which is given to them as being shadows. It is not often that they float though, and they cannot materialise other objects from shadows like stalkers do, only being able to materialise clothes from their bodies if they choose. They often materialise clothes for themselves and these tend to be cloaks to make then appear more shadowy. They are able to change the colour of their clothes if they choose as well.

Shadows prefer to stay in abandoned places, and they typically stay there for a reason. Similarly to angels and possibly stalkers as well they are made up of multiple souls, although unlike angels, it's typically fewer souls ingrained. From information gathered from shadows who were willing to share it, it is known that the typical shadow is only made up of 2-12 souls. The average amount of souls that makes up a shadow is 4, using information gathered from a survey involving 36 different shadows.

The reason they tend to stay in abandoned places and typically the upper 66 ° North is unknown, and judging by the results of the shadow survey which involved a total of 40 shadows, they simply have an affinity for dark, quiet, and cold places. They are common in both Stonemill and Rosedell, and are typically seen in forests or abandoned places. This predictable nature made gathering information for the shadow survey rather easy, and it was made even easier by the fact that shadows are generally quite cooperative, unlike most other monsters who either cannot speak, or can speak but are too dangerous or unpredictable to safely conduct a survey on.

Due to their nature, shadows can vary quite differently in appearance, partially due to their souls being a large part of their appearance and personality. Similarly to splitters, appearance is variable and they can take on appearances of multiple different species of coronian, but unlike splitters, shadows can change appearance, although there is a set amount of appearances they may take on, dictated by the souls they are made up of. There is a brief delay between changing form, something that does not effect similar beings that can change their shape, giving them a disadvantage in that part, however they are quite strong on their own. Another perk shadow beings have access to is limiting the visibility of their prey. Although it only works at night, the lowered visibility and darker area makes it a lot harder for their prey to run, but it can also have the unintended side effect of breaking the element of surprise. If the enemy knows what's going on, they can easily prepare themselves.

Unlike most other shape-shifting creatures, their strength is not variable and it does not change between form changes. If one changes to a smaller form, they still have all the strength they would have normally. Another perk they have is that their strength is dictated by their strongest form. Typically, this is their normal form but if they have a form with a larger build, then their strength will be dictated of that. No matter what form they take, they have claws that they can use as a weapon, said claws being extendable at the knuckle. The claws are white when extended but occasionally are stained with blood, as due to the claws not being able to only be extended on one hand, there is no way to clean them effectively without outside help.

There are not many weaknesses that shadows have, but due to their nature their weaknesses have not been thoroughly studied. It is known that cutting off the appendages of shadow beings is useless, even the head as they can easily reform. Shadow beings seem to have a core and some type of brain, which makes these spots the targets. Similarly to stalkers, their cores are where their hearts would be and their brains are behind their eyes. For this, it is recommended that if one is in an engagement with a shadow that they aim for these areas. Like any creature with a weak spot, the utmost precision is required as one small mistake may cause in one's death. Starvation is not a valid tactic as unlike stalkers, shadows do not seem to need to eat, although similarly to stalkers, they do get exhausted fairly easily.

## Splitter

### Appearance

tall coronian cloaked in shadow, large white eyes, faint lines along face and chest. 8-11 ft. tall. appearances may vary

### Properties

body is similar to a coronian being warm and fluffy to the touch, but can change into a thick, goo-like material at will

### Abilities

can separate its face and chest possibly to scare its prey, generally are quite strong

### Native to

Ironhall, Stonemill, anywhere where there are dense forests

### Danger Rating

7 / 10

Splitters are tall creatures, appearing similarly to shadows in their tall, hulking appearance, however splitters are not made of shadow like shadows or stalkers, though their abilities make them very similar to them. Splitters can be either hostile or friendly, but they tend to be aggressive, especially towards more typically compassionate monsters like angels and shadows.

Their bodies are completely black all over, taking on an appearance similar to that of stalkers and shadows, however they look more animalistic than stalkers. Similarly to the shadow beings, splitters seem to be very intelligent and are proven to be capable of speech, but it is not often that they talk and it is even less often that they will show their intelligence. They tend to act like wild animals similar to wendigos.

They share another key similarity with wendigos, and that is being able to split their face apart. It is believed that this is to scare their prey, but could also be used in a similar way to wendigos in how they use this tactic to be able to bite down harder. It is unknown what is behind their face or chest, but it is believed to be something really awful if they use that to scare prey. It has been presumed that there is a large mouth behind these areas, which would make sense as to why nobody who has seen them has lived to tell the tale.

Splitters are known to be native to many places in Ironhall and Stonemill, although they have been seen elsewhere where there is thick forests that may give them shelter. They are commonly found in the more untamed and forested areas of Ironhall, occasionally slipping into the streets for food. They are known to hunt medium-sized animals and have been observed to be omnivores and are known to be ravenous. If they cannot find a suitable amount of food, they will go looking for larger prey. It is not uncommon for splitters to enter city limits looking for food, but luckily there are defensive measures.

Due to their bodies having strange properties, weak points are limited, however going for the mouth and eyes are the best strategy. They are vulnerable in this area, a strike to the eyes being more lethal than to the maw. It is not recommended to try and cut off body parts unless they aim for the neck. Decapitating them can be difficult though, so it is not recommended. Another possible solution is to encase them in a hard container and get them to go inside of it. This process is best utilised if one cannot directly kill the beast, as this will at least subdue it.

The strange properties their bodies are capable of limited shapeshifting. These properties consist of making some parts of their body sharper or harder to use like blades, as well as being to grow or shrink parts of their body or their entire body at will, however testing has revealed that these abilities have limitations, and shrinking or growing tend to be quite exhausting for them, and they only tend to do it in extreme situations if their own natural brute strength can't get them out of a situation.

Experiments have been done on them, but very few have been conducted due to the danger. These experiments have concluded that while splitters are quite strong and intelligent, if put into a strong enough box that will hold if they attempt to break out, they will not succeeded. Even simple nails on a wooden box is enough to keep them out, but wood is not recommended, Special steel boxes have been made for this exact purpose, with reinforced sides and lids that lock tight so they are not able to be opened from the inside. They utilise a set of locks that snap tight into place, and they lock in a specific way so that attempts to kick the door open from the underside will not move the locks.

## Stalker

### Appearance

humanoid made of shadow with small, piercing eyes.

### Body Color

black all over, white eyes and white on the inside of their mouths

### Properties

made of shadow and thus get all the benefits that brings. Very hostile and merciless.

### Abilities

They can materialize their bodies and anything else from their shadows. They seem to be able to eat almost anything. Can make the surrounding area very dark and reduce the visibility of their prey (only at night)

### Native to

Stonemill, Ironhall, generally below 66 ° South.

### Danger Rating

9 / 10

Stalkers are hostile creatures, made of pure shadow. They have many similarities to shadows, but confusing the two can be a fatal mistake. Stalkers are humanoid creatures made of shadow. They are black all over with the exception of their eyes, their teeth, and the inside of their throats. Their and eyes emits white light, similarly to shadows. Stalkers also have a second mouth that can open out of their stomachs which also emits white light and reportedly has portal properties, however the properties of their second mouth are not truly known as only two people have seen its second mouth up close and lived to tell the tale.

There are a fair amount of aspects of stalkers which only few have seen, but all of these are well regarded as fact due to their nature. Stalkers have been known to be carnivorous and tend to focus on larger prey, although due to this they do not need to eat often. Although they do not need to eat often, when they do, they can eat almost anything. They have been observed many times from afar to utilise their second maw to fully swallow prey, but this makes the portal theory shaky.

The two people who started the portal theory, at different points in time and completely separately from each other said that they were swallowed by a stalker, but they were not eaten. It is possible that their stomachs have the ability to act as portals, however it is clear to see that they eat and digest creatures. The survivors described seeing a portal-like formation before being swallowed, and in footage of stalkers eating which were recorded on high-zoom lenses shows only white light emitting from their second mouths, and it is clear that the blue and gold portals they described are not always present. There is some evidence to suggest that they can somehow gain energy from sending prey through portals, although this is not known, and it could be just another way to torture their prey. The location was never disclosed by either of the two who have been sent there, but it seems to be an awful place based off of the little amount of information they have let slip.

Stalkers pose a very high risk not only for their large second mouths, but also for the fact that they can conjure up any weapon from shadows. Stalkers have been observed to conjure a myriad of weapons from their mass of shadows, but they seem to prefer a particular set. They often draw swords and knives from the shadows around them and use them against their prey. They also conjure up restraints to hold their prey in place. They enjoy torturing their prey and this makes it a lot easier for them to do so. They create tentacle-like appendages to wrap their prey up and have been known to throw them around. Stalkers are very destructive creatures, but they are also very persistent. If their prey manages to get away, they won't stop hunting the same prey even if it becomes very dangerous and a waste of time and energy.

They are native to Stonemill and Ironhall, and any country below 66 ° South. It is unknown why shadows and stalkers have very specific latitude and country preferences, even though they only prefer to stay in specific areas in each. Stalkers typically live in forested areas and underground areas, wherever they can get somewhat easy access to large prey. They tend to live near city limits and prefer large cities. They live all around Rosedell, Stonemill, and Ironhall, some of the most populated countries which gives them a lot of prey to go after. They have never been seen eating coronians, so it is unknown if they have some kind of alliance with them, or that it is just more rare to see.

Although stalkers are tough foes, if you know how to fight them, they are not too difficult to take on. Just like shadows, they get exhausted fairly easily, so wearing one down is not too difficult. Removing appendages is not recommended as they can regrow severed limbs, but if one aims for their core, they will be destroyed in one hit. Aiming for the heart and the eyes are your only option, and precision is key. If you are unable to get close to one, then wearing it out and luring it into a small spot is a possible solution. As long as the box is fully sealed so that no light can enter, the stalker cannot escape. Because they need to eat unlike shadows, this will kill them, although it may take a while. They can go a while without food, but typically when they hunt they are about a week from dying of starvation. They do not seem to need to drink to survive though.