Rare Monsters

  The makara is an aquatic chimera originating in Hindu mythology, but also found in Buddhism. It's legend is known in many countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and all over South East Asia. The name makara means water monster in Sanskrit. The legend of the makara is very old, as images of it date back to the Vedic era (1500 BCE). The Makara's appearance is extremely varied. At it's most basic the makara is a chimera of mammal in the front and a water living creature in the back. The most common combinations are an elephant or stag head with a crocodile, fish or whale body. The makara may also have a peacock's tail on occasion. Older depictions of the makara had even more animals mixed in, in addition to the ones listed above it could also have boar's tusks, lion's paws and mouse's ears. The makara symbolized the might and power of water, such as floods, rapids and tides. It also represented the dangerous animals that lived in water, especially cr...

 The grootslang is a monster, or possibly two monsters, from South Africa. The word grootslang literally means 'big snake' in Afrikaans. The first type of grootslang is purely mythical in nature and comes from the creation myths of pre-Christian stories, specifically those of the Zulu people. When the gods finished creating the land of the Earth they started creating the various creatures that would live on it. They made an entire species of grootslangs. These beings were a hybrid of snake an elephant, having the grace and agility of snakes, and the cunning and strength of elephants together in one being. This being their very first creation, the gods were inexperienced and didn't know how powerful they could make a creature before it was dangerous. When they made other animals the grootslangs would hunt them all down and kill them before they could get established. So the gods rounded the grootslangs up and pulled each one apart into two separate animals, a snake and an el...