Nether Nix
Taxonomy: Wavekin (Gigantoad)
Description: Colossal toads coated in slippery mucous and with a gaze capable of shaking even the most steadfast of warriors, gigantoads are fearsome beasts. These ones were likely corrupted and emboldened by the goldbile of the Vale, making them otherworldy, or of the nether.
Capabilities: These amphibians were apparently capable of using their considerable bulk to bludgeon their foes in a ‘labored leap’ as well as emitting large amounts of toxin. This substance specifically has a ‘vasoconstrictor’ effect, involving reducing blood flow.
Etymology Notes: Nix, also known as neck or nixies are german water spirits that drown humans. This likely speaks to the dangers of these creatures in Eorzea.
Eftstool
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.
Etymology Notes: Efts are a kind of newt, and the term is often used to apply to toads, salamanders and the efts of the sahagin in FFXIV, so it may be that they’re named in relation to one of these, perhaps the gigantoads of the Vale.
The Lily of the Vale
Taxonomy: Seedkin (Flying Trap)
Description: Deeply predatory seedkin, flying traps rely on the use of their brightly colored petals to lure in prey which is then stuck to these petals by a secreted adhesive, and drained of nutrients by the plant’s roots. They are also capable of more direct combat, however.
Capabilities: The saplings fight primarily by spitting seeds as if they were projectiles at high speed, though they can bite.
Etymology Notes: The name of these creatures is a reference to the Lily of the Valley plant.
Vale Wasps
Taxonomy: Wavekin (Jellyfish)
Description: Unusual creatures, dissection has demonstrated that the Jellyfish is capable of a crude form of flight by expelling gas from its body. The tendrils of a jellyfish contain potent stinging barbs which can disable their foe.
Etymology Notes: Wasp is a term used to apply to jellyfish in real life, likely due to their stinging abilities, namely the box jellyfish, also known as the sea wasp.
The Locksmith
Taxonomy: Seedkin (Ochu)
Description: Ochu originate in Aldenard, the continent on which Eorzea exists, and are some of the landmass’ foremost predatory plants. Their favored prey is small animals and insects, which they bludgeon after luring them in with sweet scents. The ochu will then digest the living yet comatose creatures over a number of hours.
Capabilities: This fearsome ochu was able to unleash its huge tendrils at full speed, if the bruises of the adventurers who slew it were anything to judge by. This was referred to by those that survived it as feeling like a ‘hundred lashings’. The creature was also fully adjusted to its goldbile surroundings, capable of catapulting orbs of ‘gold dust’, dried goldbile power, at a foe, as well as inflicting the terrible ‘gold lung’ disease, resulting from severe damage from goldbile, cured by morbol fruits, perhaps due to the creatures evolving to thrive in goldbile.
Etymology Notes: The Locksmith’s name is merely a reference to the monetary and security theming of the Vale, namely they are the Locksmith of the Lock region.
The Morbols
Taxonomy: Seedkin (Morbol)
Description: Morbols are heinously aggressive predators, using noxious toxins and muscular tentacles to subdue and maim its prey before swallowing them and holding them in place with sharp barbs in their throat which dig into the flesh, allowing the morbol to digest their still living prey. Aurum Vale had the infinitely dubious honor of boasting perhaps the highest diversity of morbol kind in Eorzea. It was a breeding ground for the creatures, and so plenty of morbol seedlings, their juvenile kind, were found there, freshly hatched from late-stage morbol fruit. Adult morbol of the vale, named goldvines due to the mutations of the goldbile they had sustained, were also found. Finally, the Miser’s Mistress was the apex predator of the Vale. Known for her size and potency, the Mistress was ever-hungry for her meals.
Capabilities: Adult morbol are almost all capable of unleashing their foul breath, a combination of corrupted air and earth aether with natural poisons in a famously ‘bad breath’ technique. In the Vale this is further exacerbated by the morbols use of the goldbile to supplement their own toxins. They were also capable of using their muscular tendrils to crush their foes in a ‘vine probe’. The foul mistress was capable of unleashing the barbs from her throat upon a foe and quite literally bleeding them dry while they fought.
Etymology Notes: The Miser’s Mistress was named after the miser, personification of the Vale’s deadly greed.
The Diremites
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Diremite)
Description: Creatures with a strict social hierarchy not unlike an ant, diremites live in nomadic colonies that devour all the food in an area and then move on. The diremite and banemites of the colony were found in the Vale. A plain diremite is a male of the colony, devoted to its defense, and the banemites are the egg-laying females.
Capabilities: The diremites of the Vale were capable of using their poisoned tails in a ‘deadly thrust’. Their banemite superiors were quite capable of emitting high-pressure jets of silk in a ‘silkscreen’ bludgeoning attack.
Vale 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.
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.
The Coincounter
Taxonomy: Spoken (Cyclops)
Description: Beastfolk native to the mountains of Abalathia’s Spine, known for their dim wit and ease with which they may be manipulated, cyclops are nonetheless fiercely physically powerful. The Coincounter earned its name by the ferocious jealousy with which its guards its domain.
Capabilities: The adventurers who slew the Coincounter could rarely be stopped from talking about the ‘glower’ of the beast, in which it channeled lightning aether through its eyes as if they were magical circles. It was also capable of unleashing this same energy in a wide arc, prompting an elderly adventurer to quip that the beast’s wroth was ‘in the eye of the beholder’. It was also capable of using its massively powerful arms in swings and swipes said to have the force of ‘100 tonze’ though this was surely hyperbole.
Poisoned Peasant
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Ghost)
Description: Despite folklore to the contrary, ghosts are actually fully corporeal creatures, solid to the touch. They are typically said to be bound to the mortal world due to an unfinished purpose of some form. These creatures were those peasants who, driven by the poverty of their lives, strove to make their fortunes in the Vale and tragically died in the process via goldbile exposure.
Capabilities: These ghostly creatures were apparently capable of marshalling the negative emotions retained within their form and loosing it on their foes in a wave of ‘malice’ that not only damages their foes, but also forces them into brief silence, stemming magic.
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