Field Guide to Monsters of the World

2006-09-18T15:53:00.000-06:00

Sciopod
The one-legged vegans of Ethiopia

Filled with descriptions of fantastic creatures, some of which were even accurate, the travelers’ tales of the Middle Ages also piqued readers’ interest with accounts of the strange races of men that lived beyond the known reaches of Europe. Giants and dwarves dwelled in the unknown lands of Asia and Africa along with one-eyed cyclopes, headless people with faces on their chests, people with ears so huge they served as cloaks and countless tribes of beast-people. Among all these weird deviations from standard-issue humanity were the Sciopods, a peaceful race of one-legged men and women.

First described in AD 77 by the elder Pliny in his masterpiece, Historia Naturalis, their name is Latin for ‘shade-foot.’ Also known as Monoscelans or “monopods,” these humanoids featured in stories told by Medieval writers such as Thomas de Mandeville, and they regularly appeared in illustrated religious texts, bestiaries and maps of the world. Their native region is often stated as Ethiopia, though they’ve been reported as far off as Libya, and they’re known for their habit of reclining at midday and using their single huge foot as a parasol against the blazing sun. As they keep cool in the shade, the sun bakes their soles into hard, black leather.

Tough soles aren't a drawback, though, as the Sciopods' feet are subject to a lot of punishment as they hop around the countryside. Being one-footed doesn’t slow them down, either. A Sciopod's leg is enormously powerful, and the long hops it makes can propel it faster than a horse and rider, and almost as fast as gazelles. That strong leg and hardened foot is useful in combat, too; a Sciopod’s kick can kill an armored man or break through a brick wall.
Travelers don’t have to worry about being chased down and kicked to death by these people, though; unlike some of the more savage humanoids, the Sciopods are entirely non-violent except as a last resort in self-defense. Not only are they vegetarian, but they don’t even kill plants. Instead, the Sciopods get all their nourishment from the aroma of the living fruit-plants they all carry. Should a Sciopod’s plant die or be taken from him, the powerful but delicate one-legged man will perish soon after.

MONSTER NOTE: As with so many of the so-called “monstrous races,” it has been hundreds of years since a credible sighting of a Sciopod has been reported. Whether they’ve been pushed back into the wilderness by “normal” humans or driven into extinction is unknown. One can only hope that, somewhere in an untouched region of North Africa, these strange but gentle people that live on the sweet smell of fresh fruit survive in peace.

2006-06-20T19:34:00.000-06:00

Kelpie
Demonic water-horse of Scotland

When the creeks and rivers of the rugged Scottish landscape are flooding, moving cross-country can be slow and frustrating for a traveler on foot. Miles of distance and hours of travel can be added by the search for an intact bridge or crossable ford. So you can imagine the temptation when one comes across a docile and accommodating horse, already bridled, grazing by the riverside. Simply hop up on his back and let the him carry you across, right?

Well, maybe if you were foolish, or a stranger to those parts. A wise Scotsman would walk widely out of his way to avoid that sleek black pony. Anybody mounting up would more than likely receive, instead of a dry crossing, a hideous death by drowning under the claws and hooves of the dark kelpie, one of the most feared and formidable of fresh-water monsters. Known in Gaelic as each uisge, or water-horse, the kelpie is an utterly evil and vicious faerie, a sadistic creature that takes great pleasure in the suffering of its victims.

Though it may appear as a horse, or even as a beautiful young human, the kelpie is not a true shapeshifter. Instead it casts an illusion, or glamour, to fool mortal eyes. This illusion can be seen through by various magical means, or by people with the gift of so-called “second sight.” Its true form is a kind of hideous two-legged horse-thing, a twisted parody of human and horse with shaggy midnight hair and wild mane and tail that flow and whirl like rushing black water. Where a stallion’s forelegs would be are two strong gnarled arms that end in wicked three-fingered claws. Its mouth is filled with sharp fangs rather than the blunt teeth of a horse, and its eyes burn with hate.

Escaping from a kelpie once you’ve been snared is quite impossible: any part of the body that touches the vile thing will be stuck fast until the water-horse has thoroughly enjoyed your death and has released you to drift off down the river. There are legends of people of great virtue or resourcefulness overcoming the kelpie to claim its bridle -- a magical object of unspecified powers -- but unless you’re a saint or a hero your best bet is to stay well away from any suspiciously handy horses in the Highlands.

2006-05-16T09:51:00.000-06:00

Golem
Mystical creature of clay

A man-shaped thing of clay, huge and heavy, its forehead marked with holy words, plods mutely with thudding footsteps, carrying out its creator’s orders. This is the golem, animated by the power of kabbalah, the arcane and ancient Jewish mysticism. Whether animated for a specific purpose or simply as an exercise of mystical ability, the creation of a golem is one of the most difficult and dangerous feats a kabbalist can undertake.

Methods for creating golem vary, and many of details remain rightly hidden from the uninitiated, but all involve a period of intense meditation upon the secrets hidden within the holy letters of the Divine Name of God. This meditation is quite hazardous -- one mistake and the would-be golem creator could be annihilated by the cosmic power he’s manipulating. Typically, the golem will have a power word -- usually emet, “truth” -- engraved in the clay of its forehead. This engraving is the final seal in the animating process, the “on” switch that activates the golem.

The activated golem is a purely robotic creature, a mystical machine. It has no soul, and therefore no will of its own. It is, in all but the rarest of cases, unable to speak. It receives its orders either verbally or through a magical slip of paper placed under its tongue, and it carries out its instructions to the letter. The quality and refinement of the golem depends on the spiritual perfection of its creator but, because the power of true creation belongs to God and not to man, all are imperfect and must eventually be destroyed or deactivated before they run out of control.

Physically destroying one of these animated statues is almost impossible -- their heavy clay bodies resist almost any injury. The easiest method, if the golem hasn’t become violent, is to remove the mystic scroll from under its tongue or to deactivate the power word on its forehead. Smudging away the first letter, aleph, from the word emet, for example, leaves the word met (“death”) and destroys the golem.

Though the secrets of golem creation have largely been lost, a few of the indestructible creatures linger in the world. Strange clay statues should always be approached with appropriate caution.

MONSTER NOTE: History's most famous golem was created by Rabbi Judah Loew in the late 16th century to protect the persecuted Jews of Prague. Loew’s golem eventually had to be deactivated after it became dangerous, but a statue near the entrance to Prague’s old Jewish sector commemorates the famous mystical guardian.

2006-02-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

Encantado
Dolphin-man of the Amazon River

It’s festival time on the Amazon River; the handsome young stranger in the spotless white linen suit glides through the noise and music of the party with liquid grace. The girls can’t take their eyes off him, but he seems to have eyes for one girl only. They dance the night away, and sometime shortly before midnight they slip from the festivities for a walk along the river. Neither the girl nor the mysterious young man is ever seen again. The next morning, a pair of shoes and a discarded party dress will be found on the riverbank. The old folks will turn to each other and whisper: “Encantado.”

The encantado -- Portuguese for “enchanted ones” -- are river-dwelling spirits who can take either human form or the form of a boto, the bizarre long-beaked freshwater dolphins of the Amazon. In human form they are pale-skinned and graceful, dressed usually in bright clothes in an old-fashioned style. Their transformation is never fully complete, however: an encantado will always have a bald spot on the top of its head where its dolphin blowhole remains. For this reason, the encantado always keeps his head covered, usually with a broad-brimmed straw hat. The encantado is better at assuming its dolphin form, though strange boto with flippers ending in human hands have been reported.

The encantado are curious about human society, and they are particularly fond of festivals and parties where they can enjoy music and dancing. It is not unheard-of for an enchanted one to dwell on land long-term, making a living as a musician. This fascination with people shows its dark side when a lovestruck encantado abducts a human girl back to its home in the underwater city called the Encante. Most of these girls never return from this mystic place, and those that somehow escape their abductors are never quite right in the head. Many return pregnant; this happens often enough that it’s common in some areas for any child whose father is unknown to be called a “child of the boto.”

The encantado have great powers of hypnosis and suggestion, and will place victims under their spell before taking them away. It is of critical importance to keep the victim away from the river, using restraints if necessary; they will be drawn to the water, pulled irresistibly by the power of the encantado. To break the spell, a medicine man or wise woman must cast a magical powder -- a mixture of manioc flour and dried crushed chile peppers works well -- over the water where the encantado is known to appear. This powder will usually break the spell and drive the creature away, and any gifts it may have given the victim, such as jewelry or fine clothes, will revert to their true forms: rotting leaves and other river trash.

2006-02-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

Unicorn
Magical one-horned forest creature

A glimpsed brightness on a distant hill, a flash of white in the depths of a wood; that is all most people can hope to see of the fabulous unicorn... and even then the odds are long. Elusive and reclusive, this rare magical beast shuns all (well, almost all; see below) contact with coarse, brutish humanity, preferring to stay hidden in deep woodlands.

One place where you can find unicorns in great number is on the coats-of-arms and banners of noble families and royal houses, symbolizing purity and strength. This popular image of the unicorn -- basically a powerful white horse with one golden horn -- is a bit misleading. In reality, unicorns seem to have as much in common with goats as horses. Generally smaller than a horse, the unicorn is bearded and shaggy, sporting tufts of hair at its knees and around its hooves. Western European unicorns are exclusively white, with a long, twisted horn of yellowed ivory, but as one travels farther to the south and east variations in color and shape appear. Some North African unicorns, for example, have been reported as having black and even red coats, and in Russia and the Near East unicorns have been reported with forked horns. By the time the traveler reaches India and east Asia, true unicorns are almost entirely displaced by such local species as the flying k'i-lin.

The most distinctive feature of unicorns is of course their famous horn, which they use for attack and defense. Driven by the unicorn’s powerful muscles, the horn can penetrate even elephant hide easily, and the beast is nimble enough to use its wicked weapon to parry human hunters’ spears and swords. The horn has marvellous medicinal properties, too, which is probably why those hunters are there in the first place. By itself, the beautiful ivory spike can purify toxic water and spoiled food and render anyone holding it immune to all poison and disease, while in powdered form unicorn horn is a key ingredient in countless love potions and elixirs of immortality. Over-hunting for the horn trade is largely responsible for the unicorn’s extreme rarity in all but the most remote corners of Europe.

You might wonder how human poachers manage to corner and kill a lightning-fast beast that can sense danger a mile off. Unfortunately for the unicorn it has, like so many monsters, a well-known weakness for beautiful young maidens. Unlike more vicious creatures, the unicorns don’t mean any harm to the girl, but are drawn hypnotically by her aura of purity. The poor lovestruck creature will walk right up to a maiden set as bait and lay its head in her lap, allowing spearmen to kill it at their leisure. The only thing the hunters have to worry about is the possibility their delicate bait might lure a less gentle creature of the forest before it lures a unicorn...

2006-02-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Nosferatu
Parasite in the shadows

A subhuman monster crawling through the dark, driven by a hunger that will never be satisfied; a parasite skulking on the fringes of society, feeding off the life-force of humanity; a diseased creature whose only true companions are the vermin of the underworld -- the pathetic and depraved nosferatu is the true face of vampirism.

The name nosferatu is ancient, popularized in the 20th century by F. W. Murnau's famous 1922 documentary film of the same name. Each of these creatures was once a vampire of the type we're familiar with through Hollywood monster movies, but countless years of cursed non-life and constant hunger for blood eventually take their toll. The skin of the nosferatu becomes even more pale and unhealthy than it was, taking on a diseased appearance or greenish tinge, and the teeth and fangs become yellowed, snaggled and even more pronounced. Fingernails harden to claws, the ears either become batlike or fall off entirely, and the face becomes sunken and bestial. After long centuries, all that's left of the creature's once-human nature is a shambling, murderous parody of a man. How long the process takes depends on the individual vampire's personality and willpower, but it will eventually overtake all bloodsuckers who manage to avoid extermination by other means.

As creatures of disease and death, these lesser vampires have a very strong bond with rats, insects and other vermin. The power to communicate with and control these animals grows as the nosferatu decays, to the point where a single vampire can be "lord" of an entire city's pest population. As the vampire's intelligence fades, it is replaced by raw animal cunning and great strength -- a cornered nosferatu is an incredibly dangerous opponent.

Luckily for monster-hunters and ordinary citizens, the nosferatu's loss of human willpower means greater vulnerability to the usual anti-vampire weapons. Lesser vampires react with great fear and panic to holy symbols, holy water and garlic. Their aversion to light, in particular, becomes so great that even a powerful flashlight may stun a nosferatu. But don't rely on your high-beams -- a stake through the heart, followed by decapitation and cremation, remains the only way to permanently dispose of the vampire.

MONSTER NOTE: The term nosferatu comes from the Greek word nosophoros, meaning "spreader of disease". In the middle ages it was thought (correctly) that vampires carried the dreaded plague.

2006-02-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

Kappa
Polite Japanese Bloodsucker

When the heat and humidity of summer come to the Japanese countryside, it’s not unusual to see people, most often the wise members of the older generations, tossing fresh cucumbers into the rivers and canals that flow near their homes. Look closely at these vegetables, and you might be able to read the names and ages of family members carved into their glossy green surfaces. The offerings are tossed into the water at the start of swimming season in the hope of saving loved ones from the clutches of the dreaded kappa - the crisp veggies are the only food the creatures crave more than human blood.

The amphibious kappa inhabit waterways and lakes all over Japan, lurking beneath the surface in wait for careless swimmers or people strolling alone beside rural canals. Pop-eyed, slimy-skinned and protected by a tortoise-like shell on its back, the kappa’s strangest feature is the shallow reservoir on the top of its head in which it stores the water it needs to survive on dry land. Kappa are amazingly strong despite their child-like size; once they get a victim into the water escape is nearly impossible, and the kappa will greedily draw out the vital fluids through any available orifice.

Though bloodthirsty, the kappa are highly intelligent, and know deep secrets of medicine and healing. They don’t readily share these secrets with humans, of course, but those who somehow gain the upper hand against a kappa may be able to force the slippery little creature to give up a bit of its hidden wisdom. There are reports of survivors of kappa encounters coming away with remarkable skill at setting bones and curing illness.

But how to survive an encounter? First, keep your cool. You probably won’t be able to outrun or outfight a kappa, and you certainly won’t be able to outswim it. Second, remember your manners. A kappa is a refined and cultured creature; if you bow politely it could never be so rude as to not return the gesture. Bending forward, it will spill its precious reservoir of water and lose its strength and power. Helpless, it will be at your mercy. Mercy, then, is exactly what you should show: as with “little folk” all over the world, mistreatment of one kappa may earn you a lifetime of grief from all its people.

Pegasus

2006-02-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

Travelers in the mountains of Greece and Turkey might, if they’re lucky or patient enough, glimpse a white shape flashing through the sky. Definitely not a plane, far larger than a bird but agile as any hawk, it wheels and turns in the clouds. If the fortunate mountaineer can follow it, and if the bright blur feels like coming close enough to be seen properly, an astounding form will be revealed: a powerful body like that of a horse, stronger and more graceful than the finest thoroughbred, a vast pair of wings extending out from just behind the shoulder -- a pegasus.

Historically, Pegasus was the name of one specimen of these beautiful creatures, but that stallion’s legendary deeds were such that his name has been lent to his entire race. It was Pegasus who was the mount of Perseus, the great Greek hero who slew the Gorgon known as Medusa. Long after Perseus had died -- pegasi can live for hundreds of years -- Pegasus was again part of a famous monster hunt. When the Bellerophon was sent to destroy a chimera that was ravaging Corinth, the goddess Athena gave him a magic bridle with which he could tame and ride Pegasus. The hunt was successful, and Bellerophon arrogantly decided he would keep Pegasus for his own and use the winged horse to fly to Olympus, home of the gods. Displeased, Zeus caused Pegasus to be stung by a horse-fly, and the great aerial stallion bucked the hero off to his death.

Aside from the obvious wings pegasi at first glance conform to the shape of extremely large thoroughbred horses, but there are a couple of key differences. First, the chest of a pegasus is much deeper than that of a mundane horse in order to provide a solid anchor for the massive muscles that power its enormous wings. The immensity of the pegasus’ chest gives the graceful creature the appearance of being quite narrow in the abdomen. Second, the tail of the pegasus is almost twice as long, and far more muscular, than that of a terrestrial horse. In flight this great tail acts as a rudder, dragging on the ground when the pegasus is at rest.
Pegasi are quite intelligent, though completely wild and uncivilized, and generally despise and avoid contact with humans. It is impossible to capture and break a pegasus using normal means, though certain magical bridles can snare them. It is thought that the golden bridles worn by some of the each uisge, or kelpies, of the British Isles may work for this purpose. But the frightening prospect of hunting and defeating a kelpie and then finding and breaking a pegasus has kept this idea firmly theoretical.