PD Fauna

Public Domain Fauna. I've been read ing some OLD scifi lately, and, well, I thought I would post a few creatures here that might fit (edited, of course). I know the whole "no copyrighted material" thing, but all that I post here is public domain and free for public use in any fashion. So, here's a couple from A Martian Oddyssey, by Stanley Weinbaum (sidenote: READ IT).

Phantom Beasts. Danger level: Moderate

General description: Creatures that dwell... pretty much wherever the hell they want. They tend to live underground, leaving their burrows to feed. They feed on pretty much anything higher than an insect, who can be affected by their "lure".

Their lure is a psychic ability to project in the victim's mind a picture or living image of the thing they most desire in place of thier own abhorrent forms. The effect seems very realistic, and most human-sized prey travelling alone will fall to it. The effect also seems to dull the senses, so the victim doesn't realize it's an illusion, even if they normally would be smart enough to see through it.

In form, they are equally plant and animal- they have vine-like tendrils to catch their prey once they come close, and quite alot of them. It isn't easy to see the head in them, which is little more than a hiddeous maw of teeth.

Methods of retardent: Shoot the bastards. It's not hard, once you realize that your mother probably wouldn't be wandering around the wilderness alone, and that Fido would be dead already in the jungle. However, one affected might not realize this immediately when nearing it- again, it is rather numbing to the average mind. So, travel in a group. If someone else starts running towards something queer that only you would be interested in, it's probably a Beast.

Some think that, like quite a few illusionary monsters, it is a Felaryan native species, but this is a misconception. They came from a desert planet, apparently.

The Palace of Heaven and Hell Critical: There are distant rumors that the Beasts can occur in large groups. Nobody can give a specific example of one, though, as it is dubious that any would survive it if they saw it. Rumor has it, their power of numbing as well as illusion is bolstered greatly in groups, so that none who sees it may resist its pull.

It is said that the group would display the victim's every desire, pure and vile, all at once in one great area. Every little slice of man's subconcious wants laid before him in living color and detail, all his ideals and wanton evils... Hence the name. The place is legendary, as, again, nobody can say honestly that they had seen it and lived. Even giants would be ripped apart by so many, even though they are adapted to kill creatures their own size. If real, it is a place even a great demon would fear to tread...

The Thoth (I had to put them here. They're just so darn... I dunno. And that's their appeal.)

General description: Low

An intelligent race of plant/animal hybrids. At first glance, they seem a bit like a great wading or running bird, as tall as a man. Closer inspection reveals that this is untrue: A Thoth is birlike mostly due to its long, sharp beak on the small head, atop its long, thin neck. But the beak is flexible, actually. Then there is the body- a bit slight, but not skinny- with spindly, talon-tipped arms coming out of it. These are weaker than a man's arms. After that, the legs: About as thick as golf clubs, and ending in splayed claws, like a bird's. It's body and head is coved in featherlike hair.

They feed as do plants- through a root (the beak), which they plant firmly into the ground, with the body above and the creature looking like a bush. Also noteable is their lower body strength, which is more than considerable. While their arms are weak, their legs can propel their light bodies a full 120 feet laterally with a single leap! More on the usefulness of that trait later.

It should be stated that their brains are in their bodies, as apposed to the head.

Social and intellectual: They are very easy-going and strange people. The Thoth are a race with very few enemies, and also, strangely, few predators. This can be blamed on their place of origin and their duality of nature, respectively. They are easy-going and generally amiable with other races because they were formed on a planet with harsher conditions than on earth. They didn't need to fight over resources, but rather, had to work in perfect unison to obtain them. Thus, they are peaceful and non-aggressive towards other intelligent life forms. More on that later.

They are also not usually seen as food, for the simple reason that they, well, taste bad. Really bad. Like, half-rotted squirrel thrown in a blender with fresh sewage and saurkraut bad. This is probably because they are part plant and part animal: Herbivores taste the meat, carnivores taste the plants, and omnivores taste a terribly mixed combination of the two. Even if one likes the taste, they are not very filling, and can leap 20 times their own size in a single bound, as well as being highly intelligent... Humans are more common, slower, and less tricky to boot. The main cause for trouble is dumb herbivores like the Mumansis, which unthinkingly munch on them as they feed and sleep beak-down.

Their society has no real structure: All know what they need to do and do it. Being as curious as any other race, though, they have their adventurers and explorers, though.

As stated, they are highly intelligent, though many races find them difficult to understand... see below.

Relationships and communication: Almost no races really hate the Thoth. No reason to: they are usually either agreeable or keep to themselves. They live in a variety of areas, though in very small villages, and rarely are disturbed, though when they are, they don't seem to mind.

Fairies are rather taken by them. They are a real oddity to them, and pose no threat. Their antics can sometimes be entertaining, as well. The Thoth, for all their amiability, are rather excitable. The Dryads seems to understand them better than most, and can carry on more meaningful conversations with them than most races. Humans, on the other hand, find them as a whole to rather eerie...

Not all humans, of course. Some have managed to befriend them. Although the mindset of the two peoples are close enough to allow some communication and real friendship, they have serious difficulty understanding each other. Fairies, you can talk to (if not eaten) for a full 15 minutes before running onto a major gap in reasoning. Thoth, however, just plain think differently. Despite the "translation" effect of Felarya, when a Thoth and human are talking, sometimes they say something that sounds like random gibberish. This is because the alien said something that just doesn't exist in the human mind and never can. It happens often.

Same goes the other way, though on average, a Thoth will figure out the meaning before the human (the average Thoth is about 20-40 IQ points higher than the average man). Say the word, "muffle" to a Thoth and he will give you a quizzical stare. Or "internal reproduction", though they just find that a curiousity and not an imperceptibility, as they reproduce through budding.

They do have writing, though. However, nobody, Fairy, Human, Tiny, Naga, or anything else has the foggiest idea of how to read it. It's just... strange. Thoth have tried to tutor some outsiders in writing, but to no avail- their minds are too different to fully understand, without the natural translation effect of Felarya. Even with it, their speech seems broken and odd to humans. without it, translation of the written word is simply impossible.

Also, they appear to heed no boundaries between species. Rather, they see the individual as HIUYAOLJN:LSuyiaugjoiaseghlaekjg;oihkaj;doiw- case in point. Nobody knows just what they think on that point, as the human and general humanoid mind simply cannot conceptualize it.

Magic: No magic, usually. Some have learned, but these are rare, and usually Wild magic subtypes.

Notes: They are impossible to truly understand, but only on the level of thought. They have souls which pass to an afterlife as any other does on Felarya.

Also, they seem to lack the feeling of greed. This isn't a mark of "purity" on their part; it's like saying, a man can't lick his elbow. It's not that they are above it, they were just conditioned by biological fact to not be able to feel it. They can understand it though... they understand man better than man understands them, it seems.



And that's it. I TAKE NO CREDIT, I'M NOT A THIEF. This is Wienbaum's stuff. But it's for public use, so... yeah. I think it fits, or at least the Phantom Beast. The Thoth, I think we have enough sentient races, though we don't have any with a truly foriegn mindset. The Fairies don't count; they have funkiy logic and morals, but that's it. So, in that way the Thoth might fit in as different and unique, but I don't know...

Introducing, the WUB!!

From "Beyond Lies the Wub", by some public domain author. I claim no credit.

Biology: Averaging about 200-500 pounds of raw fat, the Wub aren't the healthiest-looking creatures. They are pink, furry, and look like rotund, enormous pigs, that can stand (or rather sit) upright. Their faces are particularly boar-like and more tan than the rest of their bodies. They are slow, and ponderous, and have long, monkey-like tails. No sefl-defensive capabilities, save for one... mentioned later.

Personality: The Wub are, for all their bulk, rather friendly creatures. Fully sentient, and probably far smarter than humans, they are in general polite and philosophical. They are omnivorous, but usually unable to catch meaty prey, and stick to plants. They enjoy little more than a large meal and a good discussion, not unlike many creatures, but unlike most, they prefer to have it in that order.

Abilities: This is what makes Wubkind unique- and also provides their defense. They can be mighty spellcasters, to be sure, favoring learning new things and very intuitive, but many know nothing about magic. The real ability is psionics; they are intensely psychic. They have no psychokinesis, of course, but they have unparalleled mental ability.

When Wub first arrived in Felarya, they died in droves for their delicious taste, and ease of catching. Soon, the Fairies and other intelligent creatures found out that eating a Wub actually makes you a whole lot smarter! Or so was thought at first. Soon they noticed that it wasn't just a matter of intelligence; their friends who had had one seemed to change their entire manner. They ate humans, nekos, and others as an emergency measure, rather than a treat, and seemed loathe to do so even then. Their vocabularies widened, suddenly and strangely. They took new pleasure in things as simple as flying, and in bad cases, just talking.

The chilling conclusion that many (correctly) came to was that this was no longer the friend they knew, but something utterly different. For the Wub have the ability to, in a pinch, transfer their minds and consciousnesses into another creature through eye contact. The bodies of the Wub fell limp in the predator's hands after the transfer, so it isn't really a switch, per se, they just go in and take over. This isn't too horrible; it's just that nobody knows what happens to the original soul in the body when it happens. The possibility that it is simply crushed by the weight of the greater psychic presence was too much; it passed through the intelligent races that eating a Wub was beyond dangerous, and their burdens lessened from sentient predators.

They can also stun a creature, animal or sentient, with a mental shock-wave in a pinch, giving them some protection from beasts, as well.

Trivia: Should be noted that while they don't eat other creatures, those in the bodies of past assailants loved the taste of their own bodies. Weird.