Completed Researching The Legendary Monsters of Mizahar I

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 37th of Winter, 522 A.V.

The guests were all fed for the day, dishes were cleaned, and Tazrae had let the day slip into evening. Everyone was off doing something and no one was about lingering. She was glad for that, actually, for it gave her some time to study the book she borrowed from Talia’s library. She’d dropped by the Mercantile earlier that day and had picked up a blank book.

She wanted to take notes to have her own reference because the book she borrowed, she’d have to give back soon. And, truth be told, the old tome didn’t deserve to be out here next to the sea in the wet and damp and salt air. Something about the library protected the books there, while everything else rotted away.

Tazrae had set up on the deck facing the sea with a large drink, her writing supplies, and the two books. One she would read from and the other book she’d take notes in for her own personal use. She wasn’t sure she was going to copy the book word for word, but Taz was sure she was going to pull the most important things out.

She uncapped her ink, got her blotter ready, and dipped a quill wiping off the excess on the rim of the ink jar. Then she opened her blank book and opened “Legendary Creatures Of Mizahar”. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. But Tazrae had good instincts, and just in case what was happening to Syka wasn’t divine, maybe something in here could help with the curses.

The first page of the book was a standard introduction, indicating that anything not considered part of a recognized race on Mizahar was for the books purpose considered a ‘monster’. The defining feature seemed to be that any sort of powerful creature that didn’t form a culture or was so alien to any type of culture known to Mizahar. Taz noted that down, indicating as well that monsters – with a few exceptions – were considered dangerous and hostile to the people of her world.

The book went into extreme detail as to why something became monstrous, leaving out any intelligence factor whatsoever. And as she read along, she realized that monsters were both highly intelligent and mindless entities of power according to the tome. She made this notation as well, then hit the brief history page. There, she found something utterly shocking. The book claimed that when humans first arrived on the shores of Mizahar, the whole place was populated with monsters. And that it took them many years to clear out safe space and fully occupy the lands.

Taz had to pause there before copying that into her now-not-blank book. She’d always thought humans had been in these lands forever. But according to this tome they were settlers just like the Sykans. Taz made a note in her book then, right in the copied lines… “Where did we all come from if we aren’t originally from here?” She asked herself, knowing that was a good question for Talia when she returned the book.

Pausing to pull from her writing supplies, she returned with a blank piece of paper and titled it… “Questions for Talia”. The first one, of course, was already in her notes. She copied it onto the paper, and set the paper aside. Maybe by the time she was ready to return the book, Talia would be recharged enough and willing to answer some of them.

[Tazrae]

The history section went into the natural course of the relationship between humans and monsters. It started with humans being in a survival situation in a world full of monsters at every corner to a fairly safe environment with monsters gradually becoming less and less prominent until they were at the point of being hazards for people that unexpectedly and infrequently stumbled upon them or traveled to new lands off main pathways.

Some of the monsters became so rare that they were only putting in appearances in fables and fairytales. Taz made a note then, on Talia’s question page, to ask for a book of fairytales that contained monsters. There might be more truth in them, she decided, than fiction. Taking notes on this section, Tazrae finally moved on to the classification of monsters.

She paused there, checked the date, and discovered that this was definitely a pre-Valterrian book and would need more information added because she knew for a fact that stories told of monster’s spawning from the Valterrian itself. That might be something to ask Mathias about. He’d be a good resource on Monsters that came after the fact.

So she took out another sheet of paper and headed it with the title “Questions for Mathias” in which she noted immediately below the header… “What sort of monsters did the Valterrian spawn?”. From there she used a conch sell to weigh down the two lists of questions for Talia and Mathias, and went back to her study of the text.

Monsters it seemed, could be classified into a few categories. Some though, the text cautioned, were so extremely out there in terms of behavior or appearance, that they didn’t fit into classifications. That ‘unclassified’ group was potentially the most dangerous of all because nothing was usually known about them and they didn’t fit into other categories.

The first type of monsters were called Relics. Taz took furious notes, pausing only to brush hair out of her face for the fifth time and finally rising to retrieve a bit of leather to make a messy bun out of her hair with. Then she took another deep literature dive and got back to learning. Relics, it seemed, were leftovers from when Mizahar was colonized. There it was again… the fact that humans weren’t native to Mizahar. The book seemed to indicate they were the first people here, but not where they came from nor what was already here in terms of races.

Relics were older than almost all the known races and among the most powerful. Mankind had been well invested in making them extinct to the fact they were incredibly rare now. Relics are alien in nature to humans. Their bodies, minds, and souls have very little in common with the life well known to Mizahar. It is thought relics do not age.

In times past they existed in infrequent colonies and small communities. But being hunted almost to extinction, most relics these days are just one-of-a-kind creatures or last of their kind. Relics have been known to use magic and djed, but its execution comes off dangerous, reckless, or just flat out strange.

[Tazrae]

The interesting thing about the book’s perspective, thought Tazrae, was that it portrayed Relics from their perspective, meaning to the Relics, humans were an invasive species, invaders, and utterly evil that were trespassing on the lands the Relic traditionally occupied. Taz could understand that. Syka was a prime example of an invasion. They were claiming jungle for themselves. And right now they were just a blip on a map and nothing noteworthy, but she had no idea how fast that would last. Pavena seemed to be huge, with its airships and djedport. Was that what the past looked like? Had they fallen so far because of the Valterrian?

Taz shook her head. It was a new way of thinking to her, but one she appreciated. And it resonated with her Caiyha Mark in so many ways.

Pausing to stretch, Taz looked up and had to half smile. The lounge had come from Garden Beach looking for her and the bright yellow female had climbed up onto the deck and stretched out in the speckled sunlight that only touched the wood because the sun was creeping towards the horizon. Two more bodies lay entwined in the sand and sawgrass a bit towards the beach. Scarlet and green… Bree was back. And the big red male was half curled around her. Her eyes traced the line of Bree’s back to where her belly swelled. Taz blinked and realized the Ixam was going to lay soon. Bree still had no idea who Tazrae was, and missed her friend terribly.

But each and every approach Taz had tried had failed to get the Ixam to see her how the other Ixam saw her… and remembered her. Bree was firmly in the sentient department. And now Taz would have to watch to see if she could find where Bree laid her eggs and bring them back to what Taz was referring to the nursery. There was a chance… a slight chance… her offspring would be sentient. And if they were, Taz didn’t want them raised feral but by the hands of humans.

Shaking her head, the Innkeeper ran her hand down her flat stomach and paused. Taz knew now was not the time for children, but she still thought of it and secretly wanted them. She wanted a big family, if she was completely honest with herself. And that desire had nothing to do with Innkeeping or legacy or even djedline power. Any one of the human males here would give her a child or two if she asked them. Taz was certain of it. What she wanted was a family that wouldn’t manipulate her, or want her for something other than family things. She wanted something of her own to protect, to grow, to nurture.

It might have even been a little bit about control. She couldn’t control her own family and how horrible their actions were. But she could teach children, especially her own, to be better.

[Tazrae]

Spring was hitting her hard, far harder than spring had hit her before. And each time she took her Ixam shape, all the males had noted she’d not bred or laid eggs. If she had, her scent would have changed and they’d have been better with her. But as it was, they were aggressive, sexual, and Taz knew she’d caused more than one fight among them.

The juvenile males had all but vanished from Garden Beach, thoroughly put in their place by all the breeding adult prime males. The scarlet one Bree was with was one of the best. But there was an indigo and a violet one that was just as fierce. They had their own harem though. And while Taz didn’t quite understand the dynamic, the big lounge that lived at Garden Beach broke into smaller family lounges this time of year.

By the end of spring, they’d be back gathered up in mixed company… all the eggs laid and all the breeding done. She had no desire to lay Ixam eggs and parent Ixam hatchlings that were hers by blood. Besides, for something like that to even work, she’d have to take Ixam shape and stay in it the whole time. Instinctually she knew the transformations back and forth wouldn’t be good for Ixam eggs or human children if they even survived.

Sighing, Taz went back to her book.

Relics had high intelligence, though the book noted that none of them had totally understood by empaths or people that could dreamwalk or do other things to understand more of their lives and perspectives. They were just that alien. There were two examples of Relics in the book, and Taz eagerly wanted to read what they were.

The first were Rozacapotl. The word was hard for Taz to say and she struggled over it multiple times before she continued making notes on them. It was a fascinating thing. Very rare, with a high threat level, Rozacapotl had a fluid body that looked like a moving mass of color. They could metamorphizes into sharp edged forms that would blend into their surroundings. Their camouflage was so perfect it put creatures like chameleons to shame. They were reportedly beautiful, vibrant, and extremely aggressive. They would hide, trick their targets into coming closer, and then they would shred them with sharp blades of color.

Sharp blades of color? What in the world did that mean? Taz thought about that for a while, and couldn’t even remotely picture it. The only other thing the book talked about was that the author felt the motivations were territorial, even though there could be no true certainty about it. The word Rozacapotl even meant colored by death. It was good to know, Taz noted, because if she ever saw something that distinctly beautiful, she’d stay away… forewarned was forearmed. And it was safe to say this sort of creature wasn’t what was plaguing Syka.

The second creature that was listed as an example of a Relic was a Qamur.

[Tazrae]

That word Qamur was noted as meaning ‘to stay’ in ancient tongue. Which made sense when Taz read and noted down the description of what a Qamur was. It was an unusual physical space that had become somewhat self aware. Taz had a hard time wrapping her mind around that. These were things like valleys, canyons, forest glades, oasis’ in the desert, that somehow had grown sentience. What did self-aware spaces act like? The book described them as more like a force or phenomenon than a physical creature.

They seemed to have one driving goal: Preserve their boundaries the way it is, preventing change if possible. They were total counterintuitive. They were a sort of defined space where the laws of nature and the definitions of what was alive was utterly different. They were difficult to study, almost impossible to classify, and hard to understand in terms of needs and motivation. But stepping into their boundaries, things could get incredibly dangerous for the person doing so.

Tazrae took copious notes. She was curious about everything that threatened Pavena before the Valterrian. And to this day she wasn’t sure exactly what one was. However, reading further, she came to understand quickly that no one else really understood them either. Pausing to shake out her cramping hand, Taz then continued… making notes that the best possibility was that sometimes djed in an environment will align on a particular way that comes to resemble the mind of a sentient creature. And while mages have tried multiple times in multiple ways over the eras, Qamur have never been reproduced in a controlled laboratory environment. Taz wasn’t sure what that meant, but she did make a note on it on yet a Talia’s Questions piece of paper to research what a controlled laboratory environment was.

There was far more on the Qamur than on the first death by color creature. It seemed they hated change but contradictory to that expanded slowly if they were left unmolested. Wasn’t that contradictory? The text said to look for them in infamous places and in local legends. That Qamur’s were ominous places, cursed forests, hanging trees, and in old castles and caves no one will live in anymore. People who are intuitive can sense them. Auristics can actually see them… that even some gnosis with the abiltity to detect desires can feel the desires of Qamur’s like they were sentient desires.

The chapter went into the fact that Qamur’s could merge and their mutual desires and needs could merge as well. Luckily, while they could expand unlimitedly, a fact which gave Tazrae an almost nightmareish outlook of the world being taken over by once unnoticed entity… they rarely did this. It was theorized that as their perimeter grows, so do the opportunities for changes and stability. So this creates a stability that keeps a Qamur more or less confined. Taz though of that, and took a moment to look up. The sky was deepening in color, and the offshore wind was changing back to onshore. The sunset would be incredible in a bell or two, she decided.

Taking a few final notes on Qamur’s, Taz added to her notes that Qamur’s didn’t usually develop where people lived. But if one occurred in a city, it might coexist with a household and protect its members from change. But this might not be an enjoyable thing, for any change could set off the Qamur’s anti-change nature… people moving in, moving out, women giving birth, relationships forming, or even the paint color on the walls being changed. Tazrae shook her head, deciding even something like decay or grass growing overly long in a yard might be something one of these things hated. She could see, now, how dangerous these creatures could be when coupled with people. People were change personified.

Fighting Qamur… wasn’t easy either. It seemed it was always counter to whatever the standard was. Taz took more notes, and wrote down examples ranging from creating change in their space to acting and reacting. Permanent destruction wasn’t possible, but fighting them on smaller levels could work wonders in compromising their dispositions. There were examples of battleground Scenarios where violence turned to love could counter the Qamur and vanish it. Taz made more notes on the oddity of the creature and how to think outside the box when dealing with it.

Qamur’s could be broken but not destroyed, and Taz listed carefully all the examples the author knew.

Continued In: Researching Legendary Monsters of Mizahar II

Words: 2851

[Tazrae]

Grading!

Tazrae –

Research +5, Writing +5, Anthropology +5, Planning +1, Psychology +1, HIstory +5, Investigation +5

Monster: Definition; defining feature seemed to be that any sort of powerful creature that didn’t form a culture or was so alien to any type of culture known to Mizahar, Monsters: Can Be Highly Intelligent/Utterly Mindless, Anthropology: Humans Came From Somewhere Else, Anthropology: Human Monster Interaction, Anthropology: Humans Wiping Out Monsters Upon Arrival, Monsters: Becoming More And More Rare, Monsters: Classification Into Categories, Monsters: Relics, Relics: Oldest Known Monsters/Creatures Of Miz, Relics: Used To Have Colonies /Communities, Relics: Modern Day Are One-Of-A-Kinds, Anthropology: Humans Are Invasive Species, Psychology: Pondering Reproducing As An Ixam, Relics: Rozacapotl Mannerisms, Appearance, And Basic Biology, Rozacapotle: How To Kill Them, Relic: Qamur, Qamur: Appearance, Mannerisms, Basic Biology, Qamur: How To Kill Them