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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jun 30, 2020 20:51:12 GMT -5
The old thread contains some notes that are better off left out; this updated monster guide is for the new canon and takes into account discussion that has taken place since the original writing
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jun 30, 2020 20:58:10 GMT -5
ZOMBIES
Colloquially known as the living dead, zombies are quite literally, walking corpses.
Zombies come in two types; the Solanum-infected kind and the voodoo kind.
SOLANUM ZOMBIE:
The archetypal zombie, they are walking corpses in every sense. The virus Solanum infects the individual by destroying the frontal lobe of the brain and replacing it with a parasite-like organ that continues to control the host body after the person has died.
They are in many ways, the perfect warrior. They show absolutely no fear, they are always on the offensive, and they will destroy themselves to stop their target. They feel no pain, and crave human flesh. Yet mysteriously, they do not need to eat for nutrition, as their bodies are dead throughout, including the digestive system. It seems that they only eat flesh as a means to spread the infection.
While zombie bites are the primary means of spreading infection, they are by no means the only one. Any instance involving the transfer of contaminated fluids to healthy ones can and will cause infection. It is 100 percent communicable and 100 percent fatal, that is the danger of Solanum.
Fortunately, the virus is not found in nature, and it is not waterborne or airborne.
Zombies can take much punishment; they can have limbs cut off and still fight. They do not heal, but will keep going until they are stopped. There is only one way to stop a zombie: destroy the brain.
Because zombie bodies are dead, they are also sterile; they are incapable of reproduction, only infection of healthy humans creates zombies.
Although "brave" Zombies have next to no intelligence; they have no sense of former self and they cannot employ logic. All they do is walk, attack, and eat. Research has found their intelligence to be lower than insects. They are also very slow... only walking about a step and a half every second. But they do not stop, at all. They require no rest, but will destroy themselves to get to their targets.
They are incapable of learning; attempts to make them learn have all failed. They are quite simply, hardwired to do only one thing: kill and consume.
Also- the virus only reanimates humans; all other species, put simply, die.
In the Colormen history, though the concept of viruses was not known until later on, they were among the first to recognize the danger of zombies and determined that they were too dangerous to exist; a horde left unchecked could destroy the world in the worst case scenario. On Ordos, there were three known "solanum outbreaks" as they are retroactively called; all stopped by the Colormen. A successful campaign by the Colormen that even lasted among the good ones during the dark era lead to the purging of almost all zombies from the lands they could access; combined with the efforts of other groups, zombies have ceased to exist, save for some small cases in remote parts of the world. They are so dangerous even on Elbaf they are not welcome.
VOODOO ZOMBIES:
Technically speaking, they are not truly "dead" in the sense of a reanimated corpse. Rather, they are humans that have been exposed to a specific kind of powder that destroys all higher brain functions. In a nutshell, the person enters a death-like coma, the lack of oxygen causes brain damage and the resulting zombie is essentially a slave. Unlike Solanum zombies though, they are capable of thought (though limited), they can feel pain, can communicate, they show emotion and can be controlled. They are only created by voodoo priests and the reaction of the magic community as a whole to them is mixed. The consensus among the majority though, is that those who create voodoo zombies are terrible people, considering their practice to be in violation of the Founder's Law.
Colormen have almost never encountered them in their history, so there is little first-hand information available on them.
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jun 30, 2020 21:02:08 GMT -5
WEREWOLVES:
Considered by many to be "the monster within" when it comes to humans, werewolves are the result of a curse.
Colormen research into the origin of werewolves has yielded little results; however the nature of the werewolf itself is well understood.
For most days of the year, werewolves are normal people, with some even living among normal people. But once the full moon goes up, an uncontrollable transformation takes place. The human level intelligence is replaced by a "beast level" intelligence, and the resulting, painful, transformation makes the being stronger, faster, possess increased stamina, etc. During the werewolf state, the human mind more or less is asleep; they are not conscious of their actions nor do they have control over their werewolf bodies. They prey on humans as both a food source and to spread the curse. All it takes is a bite, or a deep gash to spread the curse. Research into them seems to indicate that the werewolf curse is not spread through reproduction; but there are unconfirmed rumors of pregnant women being bitten by werewolves and their unborn children inheriting the curse upon birth.
Killing a werewolf is straightforward, but dangerous. They are not weak to religious artifacts, but they are to silver. Ancestrally, silver blades were used to kill them, and with the advent of gunpowder, silver bullets were developed by the Colormen in secret.
However, once the werewolf is dead, the job is not done. the head must subsequently be cut off and the whole body burned; otherwise three days later it will return to life as a werewolf zombie.
In Colormen history, they were among the first to recognize the werewolf threat, and sought to combat it, thus resulting in them developing methods and tactics that allowed them to fight the curse. Every full moon, traps were set to lure werewolves to specific areas... then once cornered, the Colormen used Silver to finish them off.
Interestingly, there were also hundreds of recorded cases of humans coming to the Colormen asking (sometimes begging) to be killed, because they knew they were werewolves and did not want to hurt anyone anymore.
The Colormen efforts proved successful, and the last living werewolves were observed in 1620.
There were unconfirmed rumors that some werewolves, when transformed, actually managed to retain their human mind and intelligence. Based on the records in Colormen Archives, this does not appear to be true.
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jun 30, 2020 21:04:18 GMT -5
MINOTAUR
The legend of the Minotaur is known all to well among the Colormen. Legend tells of a king who angered a god, and as punishment the god made the king's wife breed with a steer, resulting in a horrifying creature that had the head of a bull and the body of a man.
The Minotaur ate human flesh, and was a beast, showing no human level intelligence. It was sealed into a labyrinth, and every few years sacrifices were sent into it so the Minotaur could feed.
It was slain by a man named Theseus, who used a special sword to kill the Minotaur, and a ball of string given to him in order to navigate his way out of the labyrinth, allowing the other sacrifices to live as well.
Given there was only one, the Colormen have no history with them. Reports that other Minotaurs existed went unconfirmed, and were probably only rumors, given how the first one came to be
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