Leshen

When wandering off the beaten path in Omnia, it pays to remember that you’re in unfamiliar territory. Monsters such as the Leshen take advantage of this, disguising itself as a bush bearing plump red berries, ready to eat. Be wary, though, as those who wander into this trap are often shredded in the throat of the beast, and those who escape with some berries find that such a treat are highly toxic.

## Habitat

Leshen can be spotted on the continents of Minaar and Verloren, but are unable to thrive in a place as cold as the Heithmark. Because of the recent encroaching civilization, Leshen may prove a veritable threat to farmers on the outskirts of cities like New Ivy Port, Verendell, and the Trinitarium, where they hide amongst crops and feed on cattle and the occasional unlucky workhand.

The Marigold Forest and Jinxian wilds are known for hiding an abundance of Leshen, as the environment allows them to thrive most out of anywhere in the known world. Despite this, however, Leshen are not the top of the food chain in these two areas, even if they have a wide variety of nutrition to choose from.

Ashen Leshen prefer environments that are rich with dry tinder that burns easily, and are thus more common in the Hearthlands, the outskirts of the Bogonian Wastes, and dry regions of Jinxia. Telling signs of the hunting grounds of an Ashen Leshen are scorched soil and burned husks of plantlife, as well as a thin layer of ash covering the ground.

## Behavior

These faux flora are solitary ambush predators, preferring to hide and burrow under the earth. It’s highly unusual to find several Leshen in the same place, as they do not mate for life or raise their young. In fact, they may eat saplings if they’re hungry enough. Leshen aren’t exactly known for their sense of empathy… if they even have any.

While Leshen cannot be found within city walls, they make themselves veritable threats to farmhands and their livestock. Monster hunters are frequently called in to dispose of the beasts, lest they turn the habitat into overgrown swaths that are even harder to get rid of. These monsters have a nasty habit of manipulating the environment to their whims, turning neatly cut crops into a miniature jungle with an ecosystem to boot. When left to its own devices for years, a Leshen will turn the heart of the dense verdure into one massive central pit, where all of its main tunnels will branch out from. Every network of Leshen tunnels is unique to the individual monster, much like how every snowflake is unique to itself, resulting in the oldest of Leshen creating underground systems that would drive even the Talamh mad.

When on the hunt or in combat, Leshen use the magic stored within their cores to manipulate and grow the plants around them at a rapid rate, ensnaring, crushing, and even stabbing through their prey. They are also known to create burrows at terrifying speed, which proves a difficult measure to counteract when their opponent cannot do the same to breach the safety of the ground. Usually, when a Leshen burrows in a fight, it will not burrow very deep; its pattern of movement can be tracked by feeling and seeing disturbances in the ground.

## Physiology

While rural farmers and common folk believe that Leshen are borne of wrathful plantlife after settlements were built, this isn’t exactly the case. For many, many years it was never exactly known how Leshen came to be, or how they reproduce. In the year 995, though, it was recently discovered that Leshen reproduce through planting their core, or their “heart”, into soil with the right conditions. From the heart grows one or several new Leshen after the original dies, ready to eat its husk to grow strong enough to face the outside world. The magic stored in Leshen hearts is suspected to be the same as or similar to that of the Agria, hence some of their appearances and behavior matching one another, but nothing has been confirmed.

A Leshen’s heart is the sole organ of its being, containing all the energy and magic necessary to hold its body together. Because the heart is located within its heavily fortified ribcage, a Leshen can survive without a head for quite a while, and even grow a new one after it has been severed. These hardy monsters incorporate their environment and existing plantlife into their bodies, making it easy to tell where they come from and how old they are. This incorporation allows them to heal themselves much faster than other organic creatures, meaning hunters and adventurers must not let them get away when they attempt to escape.

Sometimes, Leshen won’t just try to merge plantlife into their bodies. It’s been recorded several times that some have a particular malicious streak, preferring to hold human eyes in their throats or rotting limbs in the crevices between the roots and vines that make up their bodies. It isn’t exactly known just how smart Leshen are, only that they are smart enough to employ rudimentary tactics and understand fear.

When a Leshen surfaces from the ground in order to snatch its prey, its most discerning feature hidden within the bush upon its head is on full display. Within its throat are several rows of teeth lining the inside in a spiral motion, attached to moving roots that spin at such a speed that allows the Leshen to shred whatever poor creature it has swallowed. When a Leshen loses one or many teeth, it discards the root the teeth are attached to and grows a new one. After it is done with its meal, the bush closes again to hide its maw with a combination of leaves and hallucinogenic red berries easily confused for their edible counterpart.

While it is unconfirmed just how a Leshen digests its food, the two most popular theories are that either the heart absorbs organic matter through contact, or the Leshen holds corpses in its ribcage and allows them to decompose naturally. Either way, it is known that when a creature is eaten by a Leshen, it becomes trapped within the roots that make up its ribs.