User:GoldenYak/Void Bestiary
UNDER CONSTRUCTION related to the Into the Void Expansion Concept.
Creatures of the Voidlands
Races
Dengar
The dengar are a race native to the worldshard of the Algol Expanse. One of the last surviving sentient races from Algol, the dengar warred centuries ago to preserve the last remnants of their world from insectile invaders that attacked them from Algol's nearby sister-world, Yuggol. The dengar continue to survive on the Algol Expanse, carving out an existence among the ice planes and frosty peaks. Their natural thick, furry hides protect them from the intense cold, and their formidable claws allow them to carve apart ice, stone, and flesh with equal ease. Though ferocious when provoked, the dengar are largely a peaceful race. Only a handful of tribes have been driven to savagery and violence, most influenced by a dark, lingering evil within the frigid depths of Algol's deepest chasms - the last echo of the power that broke their world long ago.
Zeezil
The zeezil are a primitive race of creatures native to Algol. They are regarded largely as vermin and practically sub-sentience. The zeezil resemble small furry creatures with two arms and six legs on a long, sinuous body which they can curl into a ball to roll rapidly down hills. Zeezil are scavengers and will filch food and supplies from unwary travelers. They typically run when any real resistance is brought against them, and burrow into soft snow to avoid pursuit.
Rakai
The leonine rakai are native to the worldshard of Rakari. Long ago, the tribes of the rakai battled alongside the other denizens of their world against an invasion by a malevolent Old God and its insectoid aqir creations. The people of Rakari successfully repelled the invasion of the Old God before it could become fully entrenched in their world, driving the great beast back into the stars and slaughtering most of its creations. The rakai returned to their tribal existence, not knowing that surviving servants of the Old God had burrowed into the inner depths of their world, plotting its destruction. The rakai endure on the worldshard of Rakari, following the old ways of hunting and praying to spirits and wild gods. Soon however, change must come to their way of life, if they are to survive the coming of the Void.
Myrmec
Insectoid fiends that infest the deep canyons of underground hollows of Rakari. These creatures are a strain of the malevolent aqir race, born from the Old God who invaded the world of Rakari. Resembling ant-like beings, the myrmec also have a similar society to the eusocial insect species - most of the myrmec are infertile females, while only a handful are hulking, sub-sentient males. They are ruled over by a supreme queen, who spawns her multitudes of children to carry out the will of their deities. The myrmec were abandoned on Rakari after their Old God creator, a being known to them as He Who Shapes, was repulsed by Rakari's denizens. They have never stopped working towards the ruin of all who dwell in Rakari, believing that one day He Who Shapes will return to them.
Evidence of the ancient ruins built on Algol suggests that their long dead insectoid builders were the same variety of aqir as the myrmec, with virtually identical structures located in the depths of both worlds.
Ghanti
The ghanti are not native to any world. They were created long ago by the Titans, forged from stone drifting in the Great Dark Beyond and infused with elemental energies to bring them to life. They were assigned to assist the constellar as recorders and observers over the worlds that the Titans shaped. The ghanti were given vast capacity for memory, turning them into living informational storage mediums. The ghanti who served constellar Nodensius watched over a world that long ago was swallowed by the Void. The denizens of that world had turned to the worship of dark powers, but Nodensius had stayed his hand from bringing Reorigination - the constellar had long watched the people of the world and remembered a time when they were good, and he trusted that they would turn away from evil in the end. Sadly, Nodensius' trust was misplaced, and the world fell to the Void. As penance, Nodenius wandered the Void with his ghanti, recording all they encountered and cataloguing the various worldshard fragments that survived in the dark depths. They eventually chose the worldshard of Rakari as their base of operations, where the ghanti grew their Grove of Whispers, a garden-forest that also acted as a living repository for their collective knowledge. Nodensius fell into apathy shortly after settling on Rakari, but the ghanti continue their function to watch and record. Secretly they hope that one day they will find the means to rouse their master from his despair, and that their long penance in the Void will come to an end, that they may once again sail between the stars on their stone wings and observe worlds of abundant life and light.
Boggruk
Boggruk are a race that is both plant and animal, bearing attributes of both. Muscle that is both flesh and plant-matter, blood that is also sap. Native to the lost world of Phylarc, many broods of boggruk survive within the verdant marshlands called the Netherglades. Boggruk are highly attuned to the forces of nature, and have a deep connection with the forest that they dwell within. This sensitivity to the ways of nature make them highly effective defenders of the marsh, as they can instinctively sense when their home is distressed and what the source of it is. Recently however, this sensitivity has been turned against them as a fel poison has begun to pollute their home, tainting several broods of boggruk and turning them into vicious beasts.
Beasts
Wurm Hydra
Some of the most ferocious creatures in the universe are the great wurm hydra of Algol. These shaggy, multi-headed beasts roam the froze plains of the Algol Expanse, feeding on every living creature they come across. Some hydra grow to immense size and lair beneath the surface, using their acidic saliva to melt tunnels through the ice so their heads can prey upon creatures that stray close to their lair.
Voidray
A variety of nether ray, a form of life originally native to the Twisting Nether. Composed of flesh and blood but adapted to the magical currents of the Nether, some of these creatures strayed into the dark depths of the Void. Highly adaptable, these beasts eventually gained the ability to survive and even thrive in the Void. They often infest fragments of worlds lost to the Void.
Duskwing Dragonkin
Not true dragons, the Duskwing drakes nevertheless take on forms similar to such creatures. Bearing a closer relation to elemental dragons, these beasts are born of the energy of the Void. Through contact with the material reality and its arcane laws, the Duskwing gained bodies of flesh and blood, though still made of underlying Void energy.
Kurokin
Flying predators born of the Void. While the living creatures of the material universe are made of flesh and blood matter, the underlying structure of all matter, all elemental energy, is Light and Void. The collision of these two forces produced all other substances in existence. Recently, entities of physical matter born purely of an underlying essence of Void have begun to spread throughout the Voidlands from the worldshard of Bysmault, where the Void holds full sway. Kurokin resemble enormous birds of prey, sleek and terrible, filled with a hunger to devour and destroy anything that carries a trace of Light. Some mortals theorize that these Void-born predators are born based on what the Void Lords believe ordinary material creatures look like.
Zhagoom
Void giraffes. 'nuff said.
Constructs
Ethereal Sentinel
The ethereals have traveled to many worlds since they were driven from their homeworld K'aresh. Since then, their various factions have bought, bartered, salvaged, and in some cases outright stolen artifacts and technology from races across the cosmos. This has resulted in the ethereals making great advances in the field of arcane-technology - machinery powered by magic. One of the fruits of ethereal arcano-tech are the Sentinels, mighty constructs of metal with blood of spellcraft and arcane force. The ethereals have employed these constructs to protect their capitol city of Or'Damaz, and have begun producing more sentinels to battle the forces of the Void while in the field. The ethereals have also begun conspiring together with the various races of Azeroth to further improve their sentinels, with engineering from dwarves, gnomes, goblins, and forsaken, and the spellcraft of elves and men.
Mekkanoi
The Mekkanoi are mechanical constructs, built by an unknown race that was consumed by the Void. While their builders were ultimately totally destroyed by the Void, the Mekkanoi endured and still remain inhabiting the realm of Nachitar. The Mekkanoi exist in two distinct variant types - the Autons and the Omeganauts. Both were created to fight a war on behalf of their makers, but fell to warring amongst themselves after their creators disappeared. The Omeganauts hold themselves superior to other forms of intelligence and seek to dominate, while the Autons believe freedom is the right of every sentient being.
Elemental / Undead
The Ashen
The ashen were once a living race from the world of Vegathis. A terrible cataclysm they unwittingly unleashed upon themselves destroyed the entire race and saturated Vegathis with necromantic energy, causing all the fallen vegathi to rise again as undead - the ashen. Retaining their mortal intelligence, the ashen are tainted with hatred for all living things. They command a mastery over the elemental force of flame, and use it to purge the living wherever they find it. The ashen resemble charred humanoid corpses, their skin blackened, dry, and burnt, still smouldering within with elemental energies.
Voidsent Elemental
The corruptive nature of the Void seeps into all things, twisting them towards entropy and chaos. The elemental energy of the material universe is no exception. Elementals that become exposed to high quantities of Void energy transform into Voidsent - beings devoted to the annihilation of their respective elemental force rather than the spread of it. Voidsent fire elementals seek to consume and thus extinguish all flame, Voidsent earth elementals desire to break apart and destroy all stone, rock, and land. Once every trace of their elemental force has been expunged, the Voidsent turn upon themselves. Such is the devouring nature of the Void, reducing all things to nothing.
Gladegrown
Elemental giants of nature, these mighty creatures have bodies composed of vinegrowth, mud, woodrot, and other detritus of the swamp. Their bodies are veritable furnaces of life energy, representing the capacity of nature to recycle dead plant life to give rise to new growth - where the Gladegrown walk, plants spring to life in their footsteps. The Gladegrown dwell within the Netherglades, protecting the abundant wildlife from the ravages of the Void. Recently, a fel pollution has tainted regions of the Netherglades, and some of the Gladegrown are beginning to grow more hostile as a result.
The Gog
Dreadful entities born from the black blood of an Old God known in fearful whispers across the cosmos as the Butcher of Worlds. The Gog are attracted to the bloodlust of other sentient beings, bubbling up from beneath the ground in the presence of battle and bloodshed. The presence of the Gog serves to drive nearby beings to ever greater heights of savagery, causing even the most noble and stalwart of souls to commit brutal atrocities. The immense carcass of the Butcher lies buried in the worldshard of Nachitar, bleeding out his hateful essence into the earth and giving rise to numerous manifestations of the Gog. Though similar to the phenomenon of the Sha on Azeroth caused by the death of Y'Shaarj, the Gog do not appear nearly as numerous, nor have they manifested in as great a variety, and there are no sign of manifestations as powerful or insidious as the seven Prime Sha. Some have speculated that the Butcher was simply not as powerful as Y'Shaarj, while others have suggested the more worrying prospect that the full force of the Old God's power has yet to be unleashed.
Giants
Void Giant
The largest known manifestations of the Void, the immense Void Giants storm across the Voidlands like mountains of darkness. Despite their vast size, the Void Giants are composed of dark energy that is at once intangible and solid, wavering between the two states as the giant attacks. One instant a colossal fist of solid darkness tears apart structures and fortifications, and the next the fiend is as intangible as a fog, drifting around all counter-attacks.
Darkstone Giant
The great giants of Nachitar, sons of the elemental lord of earth Stratagor. Composed of the dark black stone of the mountains of Nachitar, these gentle giants are an imposing and frightful sight, but are stalwart guardians of goodness and order, recalling the peaceful ages of their world when the elements were in balance. Darkstone Giants are highly resistant to Void energies, and possess the ability to discorporate Void entities on contact - a single stamp of a might foot can banish a host of Voidwalkers. Unfortunately, this very property of their stone bodies has made them a target of the Burning Legion, who covets their stone as a valuable building material for their Infernals.
Infernal Colossus
The dread Infernals are feared on worlds throughout the cosmos as the brutal shock troops of the Burning Legion. But as the Legion begins to suffer defeat on battlefield after battlefield, the demon army is beginning to realize that it needs to improve its ancient tactics. To this end, the cunning nathrezim have commanded their slave-brethren, the tothrezim, to design a larger, more powerful demon-construct - the Infernal Colossus. Reinforced with voidstone harvested from the Voidlands, these giant fiends are but the first of a new generation of demonic weapons to be unleashed upon the universe.
Voidborn
Void Reaver
Void reavers are a form of Void manifestation similar to voidwalkers. Reavers resemble an even more monstrous and distorted form of Void entity, with long spindly insectile limbs of solidified shadow. While void reavers loathe beings of the light like all creatures of the Void, they are especially chaotic and ferocious in battle, and will gladly tear themselves to pieces on enemy weapons for the chance to deal a lethal blow to a mortal.
Void Hound
A fiendish relative of the monstrous void terrors, these creatures are manifestations of the Void taking on physical form, with flesh and blood formed of the stuff of the Void itself. Though smaller in size than void terrors, they are no less ferocious. Void hounds that stray into Legion-occupied realms frequently come into conflict with native felstalkers.
Void Witch
Manifestations of the Void that are granted diabolical sorcerous powers. These monstrous crones weave magical spells that wreak havoc and ruin among the ranks of the Void's enemies.
Demon
Vethrezim
Related to the nathrezim and tothrezim races, the vethrezim are a brutish demon race that act as the enforcers and guards of nathrezim strongholds. They are often called Dreadknights or Dreadguard. They resemble hulking nathrezim, though their wings are strangely crooked and inverted, with their wing phalanges pointed up instead of down. Vethrezim also sprout horns from their heads, but they typically cut these horns down to flat stumps as a shown of deference to their nathrezim overlords. Vethrezim rarely act as soldier in Legion assaults, and instead are used to protect nathrezim holdings on worlds within the Twisting Nether. Small armies of vethrezim defend the fiery citadels of the Dreadlords against any trespass.
Anarchaon
Demons of stone and fire, anarchaons resemble huge burning giants with skeletal bodies of blackened stone. The origins of these demons is a mystery - some say they were a mortal race who infused their souls into shells of stone using fel magicks, part of a selfish bid for immortality. Others say they are an ancient form of intelligent infernal, granted intelligence through some lost occult process. The truth is lost to history, and the anarchaons themselves neither know nor care how they came to be. It is enough that they exist, and that the universe is filled with things to destroy. The most noteworthy member of this species that has menaced the people of Azeroth was Hakkar the Houndmaster, an anarchaon adept at the training of felhounds.
Ered'Draug
Seemingly related to the ered'ruin, these fiendish demons are even more vicious and brutal than their brethren. Fel magic has twisted them into creatures of mindless destructive force, rendering them little more than animals, though with the capacity for violence and malice that is typical of the demon races. Virtually incapable of speech, the ered'draug are often herded into battle by lesser demons or ridden as mounts.
Hatelord
A variety of annihilan, related to the Pitlords. These creatures represent a rare, aberrant transformation of the Pitlord's life cycle. Battles between annihilan are not rare occurances, but they seldom result in death - annihilan revel in destruction, but value their own lives quite highly, and also recognize the value of their fellows. A defeated annihilan simply becomes a valuable subordinate of the victor, who is typically wise enough not to squander the immense potential of even the lowest ranking annihilan.
However, in some cases a dispute is too great to be settled in anything other than blood. These battles are fought in the Twisting Nether, where death means a final end to demon existence. When a Pitlord strikes down his rival, the annihilan's rage and bloodlust can overwhelms him, driving him to absorb the fel energies of the defeated Pitlord into himself, even going so far as to drink the fel-tainted blood of his opponent. Consuming the full essence of another Pitlord can monstrously magnify the powers of an annihilan - the Pitlord Mannoroth consumed the essence of an unprecedented nine rivals over the course of his existence - but there is a danger that the Pitlord cannot control the immense power. Most fail, and detonate in furious blasts of fel energy, often destroying whatever world the duel took place on.
On rare cases when a Pitlord is able to survive but lacks the focus and will to properly absorb the energies, they undergo a transformation. Their wings split and crack and tear themselves from the annihlan's back as their bodies swell with power and their skin splits, pouring out blazing red flames. Their flesh turns an angry red, black horns erupt from their body, and they finally go utterly mad, losing their reason and becoming consumed with a lust for destruction. When an annihilan transforms into this state, they become known as a Hatelord, and are forcibly restrained by their saner kin, bound in nether-forged shackles and entombed in great black caskets. When the forces of the Legion march to war, these black caskets are carried into the fiercest fighting and unlocked, unleashing the Hatelords upon the enemy. Such instances are rare, for the Hatelords once unleashed are all but impossible to recapture, and can often wreak just as much damage on the Legion's forces as their foes.
Gallery
Undine.
