Rare Monsters

  The guivre or vouivre is a confusing dragon with many different descriptions. Both names came from the Latin vipera, and both are mythologized versions of the snake. It’s unclear if the two versions are two different dragons or interpretations of one. They’re both certainly regional variations of each other. And both have a wide range of regional variations within the use of the same name. It’s even unclear if the legends about this creature are meant to refer to a species of dragon, or one individual. Most often guivre is used like a species of monster, while vouivre is treated as an individual, yet sources still use them interchangeably. The appearance of this beast also varies widely, from a winged serpentine dragon, to a wingless serpentine dragon, to even things like a giant bird, will-o-wisp like fire balls and streaks of fire flying across the sky. The most detailed description, which is usually applied to the vouivre, is that of a wyvern like dragon, with a single ey...

  Graoully is a dragon from Metz, France. It is most often depicted as a rather standard wyvern, although in the castle Haut-Koenigsbourg there’s a Graoully statue with four legs. I’ve based my art on the effigy that hangs over Taison Street. The name Graoully comes from the old Germanic word graulich, which means horrible or monstrous, and is the origins of the English word gruesome. Legend has it that back in the 3 rd century Saint Cl é ment was travelling around Gaul Christianizing the population. When he came to Metz he found everyone hiding in their homes, afraid to come out. One of the locals told Saint Cl é ment that a dragon named Graoully lived in the local Roman amphitheatre, along side a horde of serpents, and would routinely come out to terrorize the townsfolk. The townsfolk warned Saint Cl é ment that the serpents in the amphitheatre were so venomous they made the air toxic so nothing could survive near them, but Saint Cl é ment was not deterred. He went to the...

  The Bete Ro was a dragon from La Rochelle in France. It was said to live specifically at Pointe de Raux, hillside jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by cliffs. The actual appearance of the dragon is left vague. It’s said to have wings, and a long reptilian tail, and live in the water, occasionally venturing onto land to attack the nearby settlements. An old worn down image of a beast carved into Church Sainte-Radegonde of Talmont was pointed to as the beast of Ro, however this is actually the lion of Ezekiel. It was said that the bete Ro would attack ships and villages up and down the coast. It was as smart as a humans and possessing a cruel cunning that allowed it to set ambushes for ships and shepherds alike. Eventually seven heroes travelled from across the sea to slay the dragon. They shot the bete Ro with seven arrows, two in its ears, two in its eyes, two in its nostrils and one in its throat. Once the beast was cut off from all its senses the seven heroes...

   Campe was a primordial monster and guardian of Tartarus in Greek mythology. She appears in the Titanomachy. Campe’s name means twisting or crooked one. She was known as the nymph of Tartarus. Campe is described as one of the more confusing monsters from Greek mythology. She had the qualities of several other monsters mixed together. Campe had the head and torso of a human woman, albeit covered in reptilian scales. She had snakes for hair like Medusa. She had eagles talons for hands and wings as black as the night, alternatively wings like the sphinx. Her hips were wreathed in the heads of animals, similar to Scylla, but instead of dogs it was an assembly of every fearsome and vicious animal possible. She had snakes for legs like Echidna, specifically it was said Campe had one hundred snakes for legs. Finally Campe had a scorpions tail, which she held high over her head. It’s unknown if she was supposed to be beautiful apart from her monstrous features or a hideous hag. ...

  The pyraustra, also known as the pyrallis was a fiery dragon like insect from Greek and Roman mythology. It is tiny, somewhere between the size of a gnat and a house fly. It had fiery colours, and a glowing bulb on the end of its tail. It also only had four legs in spite of being insect like, but believing insects had only four legs was a pretty common thing in ancient times. Pyraustras are born directly from fire. They must stay within the heat of the fire or die. Within the fire’s range pyraustraus fly about chaotically, mostly moving upward until they are out of range of the fire and then puff out of existence. The pyraustra were primarily found in the copper smelting furnaces of Cyprus. It’s wildly believed today that the legend of the pyraustra was misinterpretations of sparks or embers flying away from the fire. How dragony the pyraustra was has been called into question, as the only reference to it being dragon like comes from a modern source, Inventorum Naturum ...

Tsukumogami are a type of yokai from Japan. These are ordinary objects that have gained souls through some means. Usually this happened because the object was very old. It was believed that after a 100 years an object would receive a soul, making it conscious and giving it the ability to transform into a being who could interact with the world. Usually these objects would continue to behave themselves and not show off these abilities if they continued to be used and cherished by their owners. It was very old objects that were thrown away or abandoned that would start turning into creatures and misbehaving. They could do anything from pulling silly and annoying pranks to being actual threats. When an old object was broken and had to be discarded a small ceremony was held by the household to appease its spirit, and old objects in working order were not thrown away if it could be avoided. Cherishing old objects was part of the concept of mottainai, the desire to not be wasteful. Anoth...

  The nian is a mythical beast from China. It is associated with the lunar new year. It’s full name nian shou means year beast, although the name is usually shortened to just nian. The nian looks like a giant lion with a single horn in the middle of its forehead. It has monstrous fangs or tusks. The niam is huge, the size of a house or larger. The legend says that each year on new years the people of a remote village would hide away in their homes in fear. The nian would come out of the ocean or the mountains, depending on where the village was said to be, and devour everything, animals, people, etc. So the people would lock their doors, hide away inside and not make a sound, for fear the nian would find them. One day an old beggar wandered into town on the evening of new years. He saw everyone running away, turning out their lights and locking their doors. He went around knocking on doors, asking for a place to stay, but no one would answer him. At one house and old ...

   The gudiao is a monster from China, featured in The Classic Of Mountains And Seas . It resembles a giant eagle or maybe a more gryphon like beast, as it’s sometimes described as having panther qualities too. One thing that is consistent is that the gudiao always has a single horn on its head. Often, its depicted with a bright green head as well. The gudiao was said to live on Mount Luwu, where there is very little plant life, but bountiful amounts of mineral resources, like gold and precious stones. The gudiao would prowl this mountain looking for prey. It would eat almost any animal, but it especially favoured human flesh. It’s call sounds like a baby crying, which it would use to lure people within range. Sources https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Gudiao https://chinese-mythology.com/en/wiki/gu-diao/ https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:RUBENHC/Creatures_and_Beings_of_China_Folklore_and_Lower_Mythology#List_of_creatures

  The yale was a goat or antelope from medieval bestiaries and heraldry. Its name might comes from the Hebrew word yael, meaning ibex, or the Greek word eilo, meaning to roll or swing. It’s also known as the eale and the centicore The Yale’s most notable feature is its large horns, which it can swing around to point forward or back at will. It was believed the forward pointing horns were used as an offensive attack, while the horns pointing backwards were better for defence. Being able to switch between the two made the yale unparalleled in combat. In addition to this the yale also had boar like tusks. It was also huge, being comparable in size to a hippopotamus. The yale first appeared in the writings of Pliny the Elder. Here, and in medieval bestiaries the yale is described as a stocky bull like animals with black fur. It was likely based on misinterpretations of a cape buffalo. Over time the yale morphed into a more goat or antelope like animal. It also gained a yell...

  Here are three unicorns from China that feel oddly western. They lack the scales and other traits that make the qilin seam more exotic. The bo is a hybrid creature and the least unicorn like of the three. The bo looks like a unicorn with the paws and fangs of a tiger. It has a white body and black tail. The bo is entirely carnivorous, and hunts leopards and tigers. It primarily lives on Mount Winding Centre where jade and metals are plentiful, according to The Classic Of Mountains and Seas. It was also said to live on the steppes of Mongolia and some isolated islands in the North Sea. It was said the bo could be tamed with some difficulty and doing so would protect you against harm during times of war. The bo was said to be a just and honourable animal. It’s call is the sound of rolling drums. Out of the three the boma has the least information available. Like the bo, it also comes from The Classic Of Mountains And Seas . The boma has a white coat, and ox’s tail and a si...

   The questing beast is a hybrid monster from Arthurian Legend. It’s also known as the Beast Glatisant, which is related to the french word glapissant, which means yelping or barking. In the Vulgate and earlier cycles describe a creature with the head of a lamb which is white, the legs of a dog which are black and the body of a fox which is red. In the post-Vulgate cycles the questing beast takes on a more familiar form of having the head of a snake, the front body of a leopard, the back half of its body of a lion, and the feet of a deer. The sound of barking dogs constantly issues from the questing beast’s belly, causing it to constantly flee from hunting dogs it can never escape, hence both its names. Even within this later description there’s a large amount of variation. In the Vulgate Estoire Del Saint Graal , the questing beast appears briefly at the beginning of the story, guiding a narrating character to the book containing the story of Arthur, making this ve...

  The hyakume is a yokai from Japan. It’s name means one hundred eyes. The hyakume is roughly human shaped, but made out of flabby flesh lumps. It had a hundred eyes poking out from under the flesh flaps all over its body. It’s also about the size of a fat human. The hyakume looks somewhat similar to the nuppeppo, which is another yokai made of flabby flesh roughly in the shape of a human. Although the nuppeppo doesn’t have any eyes. Hyakumes live in abandoned places, usually temples or large houses. They live alone and shy away from interacting with any other being. They also come out only at night as the sunlight hurts their eyes. Hyakumes are not aggressive and just want to be left alone. However they will defend their home from intruders and thieves. Each night the hyakume will remove one of its eyes and send it out to patrol its territory for intruders. The eye floats around on its own like a will-o-wisp fireball. If the eye spots anyone it will attach itself to the...

  Iku Turso is a war god, a giant and a sea monster from Finnish Mythology. He is a character who I’ve occasionally heard referred to as the Finnish Cthulhu. He’s almost certainly a composite character, with similarly named gods and monsters being condensed into one character over time. He has many epithets. The name Iku Turso means the eternal giant. He’s also known as The Bearded One, The One Who Stands on the Brink, the Ox of Death, The Thousand Headed, The Thousand Horned. One of his alternate names, Meritursas, is today one of the Finnish names for the common octopus. Iku Turso is able to take on multiple forms, one being that of a giant dressed in warrior’s armour, another that of a sea monster. In sea monster form his appearance is variable and unclear. He’s described as having a slimy beard of tentacles, walrus tusks, and horns or antlers. However it’s unclear if this form is bestial or humanoid. Iku Turso was fathered by the god of old age. He burst out of his m...

   In ancient Greece cetus referred to sea monsters in general, as well as whales, as they didn’t see a difference between the two, and it was seen as the ocean equivalent of the draikon, or dragon. While cetus was thought of as a type of monster, rather than an individual, there are two myths about notable individual cetus, the Trojan cetus, which was killed by Heracles, and the Ethiopian cetus, which was killed by Perseus. There were two main ways the cetus was depicted. One was as a bulky sea beast with the head of a boar and the tail of a whale, sometimes with paws. Another was a more serpentine creature, with the head of a greyhound, and it’s long serpent tail ending in a whale fluke. Even though there are two major cetus myths, both appearances were equally associated with both myths interchangeably, rather than each being a specific monster. The Trojan Cetus was sent by Poseidon to torment King Laomedon. Laomedon had asked Poseidon to build the walls of Troy f...

  The Aksar is an apocalyptic beast from Arabian mythology, where it’s also known as Dabbat al-Ard, or Beast of the Earth. The Aksar was a chimeric beast with parts from many animals. It had the head of a bull, eyes of a pig, ears of an elephant, antlers of a stag, neck of an ostrich, shoulders of a lion, hips of a leopard, tail of a ram and legs of a camel. Most scholars think this assemblage of animals is meant to just be freaky for the sake of freaky, to get across the idea of ‘monstrousness’, although I think it’s the result of someone explaining a giraffe to another person who’s never seen one before, and many more additions made in repetition. The aksar is said to be a stunning 30 meters tall too. The Aksar would take part in the destruction of the world at the end of time. It would wield Moses’s staff and Solomon’s ring, using them to separate believers from non-believers. Before this, while Moses was on Mount Sinai God brought the Aksar out from its sanctuary to ...

  The marool is a sea monster from the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It’s a mythological interpretation of a monk fish. In addition to the monk fish’s already strange appearance, the marool has a multitude of eyes on its head and a fiery crest in place of a back fin. The marool is about the size of a dolphin, which is larger than a real monk fish, but still not that big for a sea monster. The marool takes great pleasure in watching ships sink and sailors drown. It stirs up the sea and causes a glowing sea foam known as mareel. The marool also sings during storms and sea swells. It’s voice in haunting and causes fear. Sources https://britishfantasysociety.org/10-fearsome-foes-from-scottish-folklore/ https://abookofcreatures.com/2016/03/04/marool/