Rare Monsters

   The Ziz is a giant bird from Jewish mythology. It also appeared in earlier versions of the bible, but has since been edited out. The Ziz was one of the archetypal animals, like the Leviathan and Behemoth. As Leviathan was the king of the sea creatures and Behemoth the king of the beasts, Ziz was king of the birds. The Ziz was said to look like a gryphon. Its exact appearance beyond that is left vague, other than its great size, which is discussed in two stories. One story said there were some sailors who saw a giant bird standing in the water when they were out at sea. The water was only ankle deep on the bird, and it was so massive its head towered into the heavens. The sailors assumed the water must be shallow there where the bird stood, so they planned on bringing their ship ashore and swim in the water. God called out to the sailors and told them, “Do not stop there. That bird is the mighty Ziz, who towers above all beings. The water there is so deep once a carp...

  The raiju was a yokai from Japanese mythology that represented lightning strikes. It was once one of the most well known and feared yokais. Today it's lost much of its hold over the minds of people and is now confined to fantasy. Raijus were rarely seen and their appearance was highly variable from region to region. They could be any sort of predatory animal that occurred in Japan, such as wolves, weasels, cats, tanukies, and some animals which were not native, such as large jungle cats. The most common form Raijus took was that of a badger or civet. Some variations of the raiju were more fanciful, such as being a chimera of different animals, or having multiple limbs, such as having two tails or two sets of back legs. Regardless of appearance, raijus were always wrapped in lightning as they travelled to Earth. They had strong claws that could rip apart trees and tear holes in buildings. They could also set fire to anything they touched. Raijus were the pets of the storm god R...

  Falak is a gigantic snake from Arabian legend. It's larger than the whole world combined. Falak resides in the abyss, the seventh and final level of hell. The other levels of hell are held in its mouth. In Arabian mythology the world is carried on the back of an angel, who stands on the celestial bull Kuyuta, who in turn stands on the whale (not dragon) Bahamut. Bahamut in turn swims in the celestial ocean, which are the surface waters leading to the abyss. Falak desperately wants to reach up out of the abyss and devour all these other beings and the whole world. It's only the fear of God's punishment that stops Falak from doing so. God also gave Falak the other six levels of hell to hold to keep it busy and not focused on destroying the world.  

  Denglong, also known as Wangtianhou, Chaotianhou and Hou, is a chimeric beast from Chinese mythology. It's sometimes considered a dragon and other times its own type of creature. Denglong has the qualities of several other animals: antlers of a deer, a camel's head, cat ears, shrimp eyes, a donkey's mouth, lion's mane, snake neck, sea serpent's belly, carp scales, eagle's talons and tiger's back legs. Incidentally, this list of features is very similar for Chinese dragons, who are often similarly described as having the features of many common animal. Denglong said to be one of the sons of the dragon emperor, although I didn't see it listed when researching the nine sons before. Yet Denglong looks very similar to Chaofeng's beast form and there may be some confusion between them, similar to how cockatrice and basilisk are used interchangeably in European mythology. Denglong is said to be the most powerful of beasts. And is capable of fighting and ...

  Tiangou is a celestial canine from Chinese mythology. He is usually associated with eating the sun or moon during eclipses but has many more roles than this. Tiangou's name means celestial dog. In his best known interpretations Tiangou is a giant black dog surrounded by flame. The most famous story about Tiangou is when he ate the moon in pursuit of Change'E. HouYi the legendary archer hero was given an elixir of immortal for his many great deeds. However his wife Chang'E drank the elixir before he could. For this the gods imprisoned Chang'E on the moon. They did this by making Chang'E so light that she floated up to the moon and couldn't step on the Earth. As Chang'E was floating away HouYi's dog licked up some of the immortal elixir that had been spilled on the ground. The dog grew in size to be larger than the heavenly bodies. It pursued Chang'E, trying to get the rest of the immortality elixir through her. The dog eventually ate the whole moon ...