Manor Maidservant
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Succubus)
Description: A particularly insidious variant of the voidsent which occupies the fourth and fifth rungs of the voidal hierarchy, signifying a high rank in the minds of the realm’s scholars. This may be due to their noteworthy intellect, but it should be noted that the voidal hierarchy is a construct of our realm and does not hold authority over the void’s inhabitants own perceptions of their home. Succubi such as these operate by possessing the corpses of spoken women, and can occasionally be observed as taking on certain personality traits of their deceased hosts, which is unusual even amongst the voidsent. These specimens, specifically, are inhabiting the corpses of the maids of Amandine and House Dartancours.
Capabilities: These lesser succubi were observed by those who stormed the manor as being able to emit large waves of voidal power described as a ‘dark mist’ which not only damaged the victim’s body with its entropic power, but also disrupted one’s mind is a white-hot terror. They were also capable of inflicting their ‘cold caress’ onto foes, which consisted of some kind of lingering corruption that damaged the physical form, perhaps by setting off some kind of chain-reaction of entropy.
Carpet Stain
Taxonomy: Wavekin (Slug)
Description: The giant slugs of Eorzea are nuisances on a grand scale due to the oozing secretions that coat their flesh, which have been observed as acidic enough to eat away even stone on some occasions. This has earned them a reputation amongst the inhabitants of the Aldenard, and they are often killed on sight or trapped using ale, which attracts them. These specimens have doubtless made their way into the manor in the wake of the manor’s staff being rendered null by Amandine. Should the Wood Wailers not control their numbers, this ancient manor will soon be damaged by their presence, a tragedy to Gridanian history.
Attic Bat
Taxonomy: Cloudkin (Bat)
Description: Bats reside within the dark places of the world, roosting in caves and other secluded locales. It is common knowledge that they are nocturnal creatures, but more dedicated research by the scholars of the realm has uncovered that they are capable of feats of extremely keen hearing and a technique called echolocation. Although most bats feed on insects and fruit, folklore has long held that some of them instead feed on blood. These specimens have obviously made their roost in the attic of the manor.
Capabilities: Much to the chagrin of this author, it was discovered by the research team that these particular bats are fully capable of the blood-draining abilities ascribed to them by folklore.
Divan Mold
Taxonomy: Seedkin (Funguar)
Description: Funguar such as these are considered delicacies in Eorzea for their surpassing texture and taste, although this author struggles to believe it can stand up to the humble yet utilitarian function of the archon loaf. Funguar are widespread across the world, but thrive mostly in forests and moist caves. These particular funguar likely sprung from the moldering furniture of the manor, judging by their name, drawn from divans, a form a low couch.
Manor Claviger
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Succubus)
Description: The adventurers that cleansed the manor reported encountering this dread creature, a particularly powerful succubus that inhabited the corpse of the manor’s unfortunate claviger. A claviger is a key-keeper of an estate or organization, and the title can also be taken to mean a guard or warden. In this case the individual likely acted as the guard captain of the manor.
Capabilities: According to those who fought her, the claviger was capable of the ‘dark mist’ ability displayed by the rest of the manor’s succubus, as well as further powers. These included infusing her blade with a baleful entropy and assaulting a foe with it, which coupled with her outwardly beautiful aspect led to the technique being named ‘sweet steel’ by those adventurers that dodged its fatal caress. The greater succubus was also capable of using voidal power to marshal fire, perhaps by influencing the polarity of latent fire aether in the air and awakening an entropy within it that caused it to flare wildly.
Manor Servitor
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Wight)
Description: Dangerous creatures typically believed animated by dark sorcery, wights are skeletal undead spoken possessed by an enduring hatred of the living. These wights were likely the corpses of House Dartancours’ servants, animated by the vile magics of the corrupt lady and her inner circle.
Capabilities: Wights are commonly capable of marshalling the dark aethers possessing their wretched forms and imbuing it into their blades for a strike commonly named the ‘hell slash’ by terrified peasantry. This is in reference to a common myth that the wights are ruled by some grand entity of the Seven Hells, a supposition that has no theological basis.
Corpsefly
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Swarm)
Description: Thick clouds of aggressive insects, this behavior is fairly common across flying insects on Hydaelyn. Corpse flies individually are fairly common flies that feed upon carrion.
Manor Steward
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Wight)
Description: A much more powerful wight than those encountered previously within Haukke by the adventurers, this being was apparently animated from the steward of Haukke Manor’s corpse. Stewards are, of course, the managers are estates and would have likely run the mundane goings-on of the Dartancours holdings. When the research team found his remains, a golden crown rested atop his head. Perhaps this was bestowed by Amandine in her madness, or as a jest by the imps of the manor.
Capabilities: The steward was apparently capable of the standard ‘hell slash’ of wight folklore, as well as of drawing in some form of energy from those around it to harm them and restore it, named ‘soul drain’ somewhat prosaically by the adventurers who fought the creature, although it likely drained aether instead.
Manor Jester
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Imp)
Description: Low-ranking voidsent of the twelfth rung of the voidal hierarchy, imps are nimble, cunning creatures with a mischievous streak. That this was capable of magics, even minor ones, suggests that it was instead a devilet, eleventh ranked variants of the imp capable of magic. This was, apparently, a particularly prodigious example of an imp and was likely summoned to entertain Amandine or her possessor.
Capabilities: This particular devilet was apparently capable of marshalling attacks around ice, likely by agitating latent ice aether with the entropy typical of the void. This entailed the standard ‘blizzard’ style spell, inflicting damage at range with ice crystals, as well as coating its flesh with ‘ice spikes’ to harm those who touched it.
Manor Sentry
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Ahriman)
Description: Fourth and fifth ranked voidsent, Ahriman are powerful creatures with a prodigious ability for manipulating aether both for propulsion and as a means of attack. Voidsent access our mortal plane by possessing the eyes of animals. This particular creature has been assigned as a guardian of Amandine, though reports suggest that it was also responsible for kidnapping victims of the lady’s mad rituals.
Capabilities: The sentry was apparently capable of channeling aether through its eyeball in a ‘dread gaze’ to paralyze the adventurers attempting to slay it. They were also capable of employing the common aetheric manipulation of the ahriman, namely earth aether in the form of a typical ‘stone’ spell. Finally, the creature was capable of using a technique often mimicked by the blue mages inspired by the Whalaqee tribe of the New World, commonly named ‘Level 5 Petrify’. This technique relies on inflicting an aetheric curse upon the target, which will take advantage of mental weaknesses within the victim and result in petrification if they are too weak to resist.
Attack Hound
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Wolf)
Description: Fearsome pack creatures that roam the forests of Eorzea, wolves such as these were previously more or less harmless towards the spoken races and their holdings. With the cataclysmic aetheric changes of the Seventh Umbral Calamity, however, they have become increasingly aggressive. That the Wood Wailers referred to these creatures as ‘attack hounds’ may imply that they were trained by House Dartancours or enslaved by Amandine, instead of roaming into the manor randomly after its fall.
Capabilities: The bite of these wolves was described as particularly ‘foul’ by the adventurers that cleansed the manor, implying they bore some infectious agents in their maw that further endangered those attacked by them.
Servitor’s Lantern
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Will-o’-the-wisp)
Description: Amongst the simplest of the ashkin, wisps such as these are found in folk tales across the realms as lures leading the lost into further danger. Theories as to their true nature abound, however, and alternate from orbs of burning gas animated by the aether of the corpse they emitted from to the souls of the dead themselves. These creatures are referred to as ‘servitor’s lanterns’ in notes of the last few same members of the sane Dartancours personnel, implying they were slaved to Amandine’s will.
Lady Amandine
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Succubus)
Description: In life Lady Amandine Dartancours was a Gridanian noblewoman of wildwood heritage. Famed for beauty and her vanity in equal measure, the lady lost her mind after the Seventh Umbral Calamity maimed her horribly, restoring to dealing with the foul voidsent in order to restore her beauty. What the adventurers encountered in the manor was not her in any meaningful sense of the word, but instead her corpse occupying by a succubus of particular power that had inherited a number of her personality traits in the process of possession. Hosting notably powerful voidsent requires the original form to have been one of particular power itself, which may imply that in life Amandine was a potent individual in her own right.
Capabilities: Amandine was, apparently, capable of manipulating fire aether to replicate the ‘fire’ spell of common thaumaturgy. The creature was also capable of using the agitating influence of the void upon aspected aether to invoke ‘void fire and thunder’ techniques, as well influencing the fire within the lamps in her room to provoke a perpetual ‘void fire’ effect from them. Reports also indicate that she was capable of emitting the same ‘dark mist’ as her fellow succubi within the manor.
Etymology Notes: The name Amandine is a French one, which is of course one of the main cultural touchstones drawn upon by Gridania, as well as Japan, particularly aspects of the Shinto religion. Amandine is not, however, based on a French figure but instead an infamous Hungarian noblewoman, Elizabeth Bathory. Bathory was a 16th century noblewoman who famously bathed in the blood of murdered young woman as a beauty treatment and was imprisoned for her crimes in a bricked-up room in a relative’s castle for the last few years of her life, fed through a small hole in the bricks.
Lady’s Candle
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Bomb)
Description: Bombs are an interesting example of Voidsent, occupying the eleventh rung of the voidal hierarchy, they are driven to constantly replenish their internal fuel stores and are thus wildly carnivorous. These voidsent were apparently described as the ‘lady’s candles’ by those who escaped the compound before Amandine fully fell, a clear reference to them being exclusively summoned by her.
Leave a Reply