Monsters

The term monster is somewhat fluid and applies both broadly (in the sense of being a catch-all term for a variety of creatures which may not actually be related to each other in any way other than being viewed as monstrous) and variably (in that there is a cultural - and even personal - component to the term 'monstrous' and that one person's monster may simply be another person's magical beast). It is, however, the appropriate taxonomic term to apply to broad swathes of creatures present in the world of Ahren and on Wisteria specifically, in part because it is a ready term familiar to players of the RPG systems the setting is at least partially designed to interact with. As we'll likely see, this may occasionally lead to some creatures that are sentient or sapient being labelled as monsters by reason of familiarity of the association. It is obviously important to treat such instances cautiously. As a glaring example, many other RPG systems would refer to the Orcs and Minotaur (who both have nations and cultures important to the Lordless Lands) simply as "monsters". In general this practice is avoided; especially in instances where many sapient or sentient creatures form a culture they should be listed on the sapients article instead.

Types of Monsters

In general, monsters can be organized into broad types:

• Magical Beasts, being creatures quite close to familiar animal species but with special properties.
  • A subset of these are Tyranomorphs such as Dire Rooks or Hearth Lions.
• The Undead is a particularly broad category that can be broken down into subcategories, or aspects. Unfortunately, many undead belong to two or more subcategories.
  • Corporeal Undead are undead which have a physical body, usually the body that was present in-life.
  • Incorporeal Undead are undead who influence the material world (see: Cosmology) without necessarily being present in it, such as ghosts.
  • Unnatural Undead are undead who have become undead without outside influence, as a result of supernatural causes.
  • Artificial Undead are undead who became so due to the direct influence of some other sentient creature, such as the undead servants of a master of the Via Lemurae.
• The Aberrant are a similarly broad category of creatures which are alive in some senses but which don't necessarily follow the normal plans of life on Ahren.
  • This includes some artifically-created creatures like the Gravenlings and other magical experiments
  • This also includes some "naturally occuring" creatures such as those that spawn deep in the formlessness of the Depths.
• Draconic creatures like the Sea Drakes of the Bay of Dragons.
• Constructs are a category that will be broadly familiar to many RPG players and broadly exists to cover the case of creatures that are not and never were alive, but which exist and act upon the world, such as the Secondborn.
• Fairy creatures exist under the influence of the Great Fae and can be thought of as special outsiders native to the Dreaming.
• Planetessimals, being creatures native to planes other than Ahren. The term is drawn from an Ars Magica terminology in-world and is a blanket category that not all cultures would actually recognize as being a blanket, instead naming specific terms for creatures from the specific planes other than Ahren, e.g devils from Hell and demons from The Abyss, etc etc.