Telemachus' new races ideas

1) DARREL SUPERGIANT MANTICORES

Height: 300 to 500 feet (head to ground).

Threat: Safed.

Diet: Giant dridders, giant nagas, harpies, fairies.

Appearance: Darrel supergiant manticores are a chimerical species with head and thorax of a human bishounen that has felinoid features, fused with the body of a lion, large coriaceous bat-type wings and a long segmented tail coated chitin ended in a snake's head. Their full-body (except for "snake-head" chitinous tail) is covered with a fine fur showing purple marks and patternings that gleam whenever they use their paranatural powers and abilities. Presumably hermaphrodites, with androgynous sex. All of them have a long hair shaped lion's mane, big curved horns, feline ears, golden eyes, three rows of huge sharpened teeth, as well as large retractable claws (capable of tear to pieces granite and quartzite rocks).

Magic: All the Darrel supergiant manticores are very powerful mages focused on fire, wind, earth and/or light Magic. It's worth mentioning that they're immune to elements fire and earth, in addition to being resistant to the wind and lightning Magic, whereas any elemental attack of water causes the desired effect (water is their physical and mystical weakness). Some say that darkness elemental powers can affect them greatly. Otherwise, their skin have proven beat off fairy magic (poor fairies!).

Temperament: Darrel supergiant manticores are an introverted and isolacionist race. Except to hunt a number of great sized preys (and predators!) they almost never interacting with the other life-forms in Felarya, not even seem interested in that (Olympian indifference?). Funnily, Cyrus Abrahams of Earth refers at them as "Zen super-beasts", using an analogy with Zen-Buddhism of planet Earth to make funny joke. By the way, a manticore has ability to detect the gigantic auric field of another manticore if he is next, so they distance from each other voluntarily. Nobody had ever seen two of them together.

Origin: Darrel supergiant manticores aren't a race of Felaryan indigenous sentient beings. They arrived in this chaotic "dimensional pocket" only very recently (a few years ago) coming from another plane of existence, another universe or dimension. The biologist Shaul Darrel surmises that, originally, they weren't so disproportionately great creatures, but substantially smaller than Felaryan top predators. When they were rematerialized in this dimension (after being transformed in an unstable semi-material form of existence, for a short time, in dimensional flows of Lydus?), the interaction between both the plans of existence and/or unknown magical energy levels could have produced physical effects that exarcebated gigantism in their bodies. However, this is only a weak theory, without any evidence to support it. Nobody knows exactly how or why they came into existence.

Also called "The Overlords" by some cults, Darrel supergiant manticores are a extremely rare individuals, almost legendary, mythical beings. Only a dozen of individuals were sighted, scattered on all Felarya, since then to this day, although nobody know the exact number of them (having them appear out of nowhere mysteriously, then vanish mysteriously); they aren't well known, poorly understood and, sometimes, targets of contradictry rumors. Although they have dragon wings, nobody ever saw them using it to fly. Hence there has been a few speculations for how the supergiant manticores move get around: Cyrus Abrahams speaks about "time-space travel", passing through "the fifth dimension"; Shaul Darrel has assumed that supergiant manticores are "semimaterial beings", with an "extension into a hyperdimension", so they can "flying" in the "between" (a hypothetical neutral energy level where situated "between" here and there, where nothing exist), and so they are capable of "interdimensional magic of teleportation" almost instantly.

"Voice of God": Their voices cover a peculiarly vast scale, going from melodic and beautiful legendary "Manticore song" to deafening thundering roar that echoes for several kilometers around (and there is who says that manticores sing to attarct their preys). For those few humans and nekos had the privilege of hearding such sounds, in either case, it was "the voice of God" (or "of the gods").

Hunting territory: Be that as may, when they were transformed into super-beasts to get Felarya, Darrel supergiant manticores also modified their diet. They scattered and carved the world up into vast "hunting territories", and so they start hunting some of the biggest Felaryan native predators. Each manticore is a voracious predators that hunts alone and never intrudes someone else's hunting territory. Actually they're solitary creatures, the "ultimate predators", hunting and eating from packs of kensha beasts to giant dridders, giant nagas, harpies and fairies, which are their favorite preys. However, they don't hunt sphinxes, neither storm manticores, which puzzle some persons. Mermaids, aquatic nagas and sea slug girls, on the other hand, are out of their menu too, because Darrel supergiant manticores sidestep as much as possible oceans, seas, lakes, rivers (and the Chordoni waterfalls!). Apparently, they loathe liquid water by instinct. It's assumed that ancestors' manticore evolved on a planet with extremely arid and semi-arid lands, but little water on its surface. Therefore, Darrel supergiant manticores rarely had contact with any liquid surfaces.

Hunting with the tail: Instead of a scorpion sting like the other known manticores species, Darrel supergiant manticores have a chitinous segmented tail ended by a "snake's head" that bites the prey injecting type a paralysing neurotoxin by fangs. So, the immobilised but alive preys are catched by the manticore's front paws (used as "hands" whenever necessary) and swallowed immediately. (NOTE: Such supergiant manticores have three nerve centers, three brains, the main in the humanoid head and the secundary brains in the lumbar region.) Fairies can escape shrinking themselves to the human-sized, or smaller (although become vulnerable victims for eventual human fairy hunters nearby!).

Objects of worship: Darrel supergiant manticores don't eat humans, nekos, elves or any human-sized creature. This along with the fact they hunt and eat the carnivorous predators at the top of the Felaryan food chain induced certains groups of humans and nekos to venerate the supergiant manticores as protective gods ("The Overlords"). Actually, however, they simply aren't interested in any living things smaller than a kensha beast. Otherwise, nobody knows their real motivations, they're mysterious and feared, rarely seen.

OBS.: Thanks for EdgedWeaponAgain by his suggestions.

Let me take this one.

Trying to create an over-predator, Telemachus? Understandable. There are some of those, after all, and they're fun enough, like them lovely leviathans and kraken caelias. The "mystery" aspect to them is actually quite refreshing, though I'd personally have started with something else than an overpredator sphinx race.

However... I'd like to know why should we take the word of "Cyrus Abrahams", and what's the point of singing their praises by calling them zen superbeasts if they're so indifferent. Who is Shaul Duate, by the way? Why Duate?


BTW, the threat is supposed to be measured for humans.

EDIT: And now to illustrate, you can also edit your own posts to add further information without the need for doubleposts. On the same vein, using [justify] doesn't work that way. That's how you START the part to be justified. You close it with the same tag, plus a slash on the left.

The former content was deleted, but I can't do cross off the post.

Excuse me, Stabs, my English is bad, so I will try to reply your questions, slowly.

First, I'm as much as ignorant, I don't know what is "doubleposts". So, I will make mistakes, sorry.

I didn't know about "other Felaryan over-predators", kraken and alike (Felarya forum is VERY big!). In reality, I created the "Duate supergiant manticores" simply because I was unimaginative! On the other hand, I didn't want only to create "more one" predator species, because exist several of them which hunt and eat human-sized sentient beings. Moreover, I like manticores, so I thought if there was a sentient especies that hunt and eat nagas, fairies, harpies and alike as they hunt and eat hte humans, nekos and elves. And they would be a withdrawn, mysterious species, type "the Felaryan UFOs", which few persons had seen or hearded.

Shaul Duate would be the Felaryan human biologist scholar who discovered and gave the name at Duate supergiant manticore, a few years ago. Only a character (a "walk-on" type) that I created by reference. "Duate", by the way, is a corruption of "Duarte", my own surname. But it isn't any self-insertion, by no means!

Cyrus Abrahams, on the contrary, will be a very important character who I aspire to put as the main character, the protagonist for my first Felarya story soon. He's a Terran cabalist and scientist (and a "unversalist") from the beginning of the 21º century, and he know how travelling between the worlds (such as those characters of H. P. Lovecraft). "Zen super-beasts" is a funny reference at apparent illogical and introspective indifference that supergiant manticores showing-off.

Well, I hope have answered at your questions, for the time being. (I'm sorry, but now I need going to dine, my mother is impatient!)

¡Well, it's time for a bilingual post, Telemachus! But don't get used to it, dude.

A doublepost is when the same user posts twice in a row. You can avoid them using the EDIT button to alter your post and keep writing it.

Over-predators, such as the kraken caelia or leviathan mermaid, are buggers out to nom our charismatic megaphauna. Anyway, if you wanted to make a manticore for it to be mysterious, you'd have to write less, not more. The less we know, the better for the mystery. About Duate, I do not recommend that. I don't even.

And Cyrus Abraham, on the other hand, the less you say about Earth, better for everyone. Gimme some mystery if you wanna pull a Lovecraft. Make him from Celaeno, the plains of Kadath, Untervaltz in Vega, but don't leave it at Earth. It doesn't work that way, I'm not an earthling and neither are you.

Ah, dinner, that eternal confabulation that always cuts us off in the best of everything we do...

"Se Hablo Español":

Well, I maked the necessary changes in my former posts about "New race ideas". I hope it is compliance.

Now, Cyrus Abrahams (with "s" at the end of his surname, as "Roberts" of Julia Roberts) and Marcel Laukenickas of Alpha Centauri (another character of mine, a human native of the third planet of Centauran system, 25º century) are characters that I created (and registered my copyright) five or six years ago, for my SF stories. They have their own fictitious biographies. Abrahams is earthling because he was inspired by the Lovecraft characters as Randolph Carter and Walter Gilman, both of them earthlings from Boston, Massachussetts. (However, my character Cyrus Abrahams ISN'T a North-American of Boston, he is a "world citizen", but that's a different story.) On other hand, Prof. Abrahams can have his reasons to conceal his Terran origins, when he is in other worlds. Everything will depend on the situation...

We are always there for you!

First off, I love the name! "Supergiant manticores" sound awesome, the kind of name that would strike fear into the hearts of any giant predators.

The concept is pretty great too. I love the idea of mysterious gigantic overpredators that no-one knows much about.

But, if I could make a few suggestions, I wouldn't have an exact number. Instead, having them appear out of nowhere mysteriously, then vanish mysteriously. Play up the mystery more - have a few explanations for how they move get around, like time travel, dimensional magic, etc. Don't give them genders - instead of male or female, just have a single androgynous sex.

Finally, don't use your characters too much. While I'm sure their very good, but they might not fit in too well in the Felaryaverse. If you do reference them, don't have it so readers need to know who they are before reading the description; a piece needs to be able to stand on its own. Also, don't use Earth. People don't tend to use it, if only to prevent real world issues leaking into stories. Flame wars lie that way.

OK, your suggestion has been registered. I'm going to work on that.

2) GRAY WITCHES

Gray witches/warlocks are a subspecies of humanity who is naturally adept at magic; it's resulting of the exposure of their ancestors (archmages?) to powerful Wild Magic in ancient ages. Thus they experienced magic mutations that became hereditary. They are born with inherent ability to use magic - Innate Magic - , canalizing the omnipresent spiritual and mystical energies. Magic is into their genes, their heart, their soul, only needing to learn to use it. For them, there is no such thing as "black magic" or "white magic", neither difference, because "all magic is grayish". But the race isn't a homogeneous group. Some clans are specialty in wild magic, others in primordial magic, or even rule-based magic, alchemy and artifact magic. There are also warlock subraces: summoners, phytomages (plant-based magic, control of fast-growing plants for battle), elementalists (dividided in "castes": fire, water, air, earth, darkness, light), metamorphists or changelings (metamorphic magic, change of form), temporalists (chronal magic), dimensionalists (creation of dimensional portals/dimensional warps). The members of a small clan, Sangou, ultimately became "technomancers" or "technomages". But all of them have a spiritual connection with nature, like the nature connection of the elves and the fairies.

"Bearers of the  Flame": All the gray witches/warlocks recognize one another (like knows like), although they don't know each other personally, because all of them porting the inextiguishable magic ethereal flame, or "witch flame" (invisible for the human eyes, but visible for the witch clairvoyance) fluttering on top of their heads; this "witch flame" is given to them in the moment of their birth (as alike as the baptism or circumcision human rites), and it accompany them to the death. Consequently, it will be wellnigh impossible for any human to be passed by a gray witch or a gray warlock.

"Defensive racism": Gray witches and warlocks exist in Felarya and in several other worlds, alternative universes. They are an introverted race that don't encourage any contact with humans or another races, living grouped into closed patriarchal or matriarchal clans (with their clanic dialects), and they disapprove of mixed or interracial marriages. They also maintain their own schools of witchcraft and wizardry (separated from Ps'isol Magiocrats and other non-witch magists). Physically, they are identical at female and male humans. Nevertheless, gray witches are famous and desired for their beauty and sensuality - ageless females just like elves and fairies. Some witches disguise their youth and beauty through the use of a talisman of spell sealing, becoming ugly, deformed shrews to escape sexual harassment of the human males.

Nature as habitat: Most their tribes on Felarya live in the recess of the forests, including in the enchanted and dense jungle of the Fairy Kingdom where few humans dare to go.

Tinies in menu: Because of the influence excercised by contact with fairies and other magic predator races, some Felaryan gray witches also became predators, hunting and eating tinie races: tomthumbs, neeras, ariformids, efrii. (It's believed also that witches and warlocks use shinking magic to shrink humans and eat them!)

Locomotion in air: Traditionally, Gray Witches/Warlocks frequently travel (flying) by conjuring eagle or dragon wings, or using pine tree branches from Elifga Valley or broomsticks (symbolizing the Holy Tree branches) infused with air elementals. However, any inanimated object - a chair, a copper bath, a cage or a car - can become a flying vehicle as long as it's infused with an air elemental. However, the ones of the subrace dimensionalist prefer open a dimensional portal to spend from a site to another in zero time.

"Nobody likes witches": in the limits between the human beings and the magic beings, Gray witches/warlocks are a racial minority that is seen as a "dangerous intrusion", a "damned race" by most of the humans, in the most of the human worlds - and the most of Felaryan cultures aren't exception. For many peoples, gray witches aren't trusted, they are "friends of the fairies" (many witches tribes maintain peaceful, friendly relations wiht fairy tribes, with whom they learnt the feared "fairy magic"), "demon lovers", "priestesses/priests of the Devil", "propagators of the evil forces". Their relations with the feared supernatural creatures make this worse. Their history is the history of a race that have been hated, hostilized, excluded and persecuted by the most of humans, in Felarya and other worlds.

"As free as the wind": Daughters of the Wind are a nomad tribe of beautiful, ageless and savage, black-haired warrioress witches (most of this witches have black hair and purple or violet eyes) that can fly with summoned two great eagle wings, or multiple pairs of raven wings, being also excellent and feared archers - their magic explosive arrows (which explode, fire and full burn as white phosphorus) never miss their victims. They're skilled in air and wind magic, including spells to summon twisters, storms and air elementals. Daughters of Wind are good, virtuous and helpful persons by nature, although also are ferocious in combat as a swarm of wasps, and even harpies afraid them. Daughters of Wind are ruled by a witch-queen, who is elected by all the others witches meeting in a council. They're a exclusively matriarchal society, except one time by year, when they choose their male mates from among warlocks from other tribes and clans of the race. They also have their representatives to mediate between the Daughters of the Wind and all other gray witches/warlocks in the "Great Coven".

3) PSYCHOLOGISTS

Psychologists are a human subspecies that suffered mutations and became meta-humans endowed with psionic powers. Physically they are virtually identical at human beings - beautiful, very athletic and slim men and women - , except by the color of their skin: blue-greenish (turquoise) colour skin. They are non-technological culture (men, women and children don't use clothes), although extremely evolved race in psychic terms, with vast knowledge about psychology and conscientiology, besides psionic abilities such as empathy, telepathy and telekinesis, hypnosis, psychometrics, psionic suggestion (including induce pain), psychic permutation, mental projection and astral projection.

Anarchic network: They are scattered in numerous small clans or live lonely, with a nomadic lifestyle, but all of them are interconnected by a type of "psionic network" or "telepathic internet" that cover great distances instantly, with the speed of thinking. Their modus vivendi is an anarchic individualism.

Brain Anatomy: the pineal of the psychologists is two times bigger (double-sized) than its human counterpart; and the psychologist brain have also another "parapsych-gland" that is pea-sized and is situated in the cerebellum (two times larger than the human cerebellum). Both the brain hemispheres are operating in unison, interconnected by infundibulum. All of them are ambidextrous. All of them are born with natural ability to control or suppress dolour.

Vegetarian Diet: The most of the psychologists are lacto-ovo vegetarians, but some of them are exclusively vegetarians. In every way, they're forbidden from eating human food, or a meal prepared by humans, or even that was touched by any human; furthermore, psychologists should not eat, make their meals in the presence of humans. (It's their deep-seated conviction that humans have negative vibrations that influence all around them.) This caused the human belief whereby psychologists never eat! (However, some more powerful psychologists are capable of dispense with food or water for at least several decades, because of their perfect physical, mental and spiritual self-control.)

Dream Lords: Psychologists have psionic ability for overhang in their "psicossoma" ("astral body") or even their "mentalsoma" ("mental body") and invade the minds and dreams of the sentient beings, humans or another. The world of the dreams is their domain. Acting as succubi or incubi spirits, psychologists can even manipulate or even kill someone by means of dreams.

Feared race: The "Dream Lords", or "Dreamies", are very feared in Felarya as sorcerers, as much for humans as for non-human sentient beings. Many mages avoid to pick a quarrel with this race of psionic mutants that is able to kill by means of dreams. Even the most Felaryan giant predators aren't immune at their psionic powers - after all, such demihuman beings have also thoughts, feelings, emotions, fears, dreams, which the psychologists can probe, invade, handle and haunt, causing the madness. Some human governments employ psychologists to invade the minds and dreams of their opponents, in order to kill or manipulate them. Other psychologists prefer to use their psionic powers and abilities protecting humans against attacks into oneiric sphere - through any type of retribution, of course. ("Our weapons are weapons of the spirit", it's they say.)

Astral voyage: Psychologists frequently travel using astral projection instead levitation, unlike Gray witches (however, isn't magical energies, but through ones mind).

Exoprojection: Psychologists often using conscience projection ("astral projection") to voyage out of Felarya and visit other worlds, planets and even other universes or parallel dimensions (including some Heaven realms, there are been rumours). They reached the extremely dangerous "Mage Univeses" (pantheistic Universe-Gods), and too the terrifying dark locas of the Primordials (anti-life "beings"), beyond all universes of the Multiverse.

Although descended from human mutant ancestors, neither Psychologists nor Gray Witches see themselves as "humans"; they don't see themselves as members of the human race - and they aren't considered humans by nobody. Neither by the true humans nor by another sapient races. Most witches and warlocks just feel resentment and hatred for their human cousins; and most Psychologists only feel indifference for them.