Ibex
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Antelope)
Description: Speedy, herbivorous creatures, antelopes are common beastkin in Eorzea and beyond, communicating with sways of their tail. These ibex must have been orphaned from their natural habitats by the frigid cold of the Calamity, leading to them taking shelter in the glacier.
Etymology Notes: Ibex are a real species of goat native to Africa, southern Europe and certain parts of Asia.
Snowcloak Goobbue
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Goobbue)
Description: Huge, physically powerful creatures, Goobbue such as these play host to moss and lichen which they cultivate with water in dry times in exchange for it providing camouflage to the beast. Goobbue are utterly ferocious, seizing their prey in their massive hands and bringing them up to their cavernous, many-fanged maw in hunger. Mosses and lichens can thrive in even the coldest climates, so it makes sense for these creatures to live in Coerthas even after the freeze.
Spriggan Tumbler
Taxonomy: Soulkin (Coblyn)
Description: What exactly a coblyn is differs depending on who you ask. In Gridania the theory is that coblyn are beastkin who graft mineral to their flesh in order to gain a measure of armament. In Ul’dah, the prevailing thought is that they are instead true soulkin, ore that has taken on sentience and the ability to walk in order to propagate… somehow. The Ul’dahn theory is increasingly the one accepted as fact within the halls of Sharlayan. These spriggans may be named both for the cavorting acrobatics of their species and the act of tumbling rocks and gems to smooth them. They seem to hold ice aspected aether crystals instead of ore, which explains their ability to use simple ice magics.
Snowcloak Wolf
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.
White Bear
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Bear)
Description: Typically solitary, peaceful creatures, bears such as these are native to Coerthas, and can be roused into extreme aggression by hunger or provocation. Many a young knight of Ishgard has perished trying to prove themselves by facing a bear.
Ice Bomb
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 bombs seem to somehow have picked up an ice aspect, despite voidsent being largely devoid of aether.
Wandil ☠
Taxonomy: Elemental (Wandil)
Description: A personal creation of Ysale, Wandil is a mighty golem crafted from ice. She also imparted control of the element of ice to the golem, further making him a frightful opponent for even the most stalwart of adventurers.
Etymology Notes: Wandil is a somewhat esoteric ice giant of Anglo-Celtic myth who took great joy in seeing humanity suffer in the cold of winter, and so stole the spring in order to deny the world summer. The gods of Celtic myth were creatures of nature and required the seasons to live, and so they banished Wandil into the stars where his two eyes became the Heavenly Twin stars, Castor and Pollux. In the modern day he is rarely remembered, but sometimes enjoys some spotlight as a Jack Frost-like winter spirit.
Ice Sprite
Taxonomy: Elemental (Sprite)
Description: Essentially a mere conjoining of aether and ideal conditions, a sprite is of no relation to the powerful elementals of the Black Shroud, and are in fact as devoid of reason and sentience as the average weather pattern. Ice sprites are extremely common across Coerthas after the Seventh Umbral Calamity turned it into a frigid wasteland.
Northern Bateleur
Taxonomy: Cloudkin (Vulture)
Description: Vultures are commonly symbols of impurity in cultures due to their reliance on carrion to survive, although they are also fully capable of hunting down a target with their bladed talons and claws.
Etymology Notes: The bateleur is a species of eagle endemic to Africa.
Hrimthurs
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Ogre)
Description: Ogres are immensely strong and similarly immensely stupid voidsent that occupy the ninth rank of the voidal hierarchy. They are often enslaved by more powerful voidsent, or even by talented void mages because of this low intelligence. Perhaps these ogres were brought into the world by the intense loss of life incurred when Snowcloak formed, or were summoned by the heretics.
Etymology Notes: The hrimthurs were frost giants of Norse myth, providing a clear link to the gigantic ogres of Snowcloak, who lived in a icy area and were able to use frost powers.
Yeti ☠
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Yeti)
Description: These beasts are native to Alabathia’s Spine and were kept away from the spoken folk of Eorzea by the warmer climate found down there. When the Calamity struck Coerthas and the forests turned to tundra, however, hordes of the ferociously carnivorous, frost-breathing yeti descended into the realm.
Capabilities: Yeti possess supplies of potent refrigerant in their saliva, so strong that it can turn their breath to an icy-onslaught capable of severely damaging those in its way by freezing water-aspected aether.
Etymology Notes: Yeti are cryptids often linked to the Himalayan mountain range, seen as large, ape-like humanoids who are deeply reclusive and possess a mighty strength.
Hybrid Gator
Taxonomy: Scalekin (Crocodile)
Description: Both furred and scaled, these creatures are able to dwell both in the heat of the deserts, the bitter cold of Abalathia’s Spine and the flow of deep rivers.
Snowclops
Taxonomy: Spoken (Cyclops)
Description: Spoken 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. Coerthas’ proximity to Abalathia’s Spine makes it clear why a cyclops would be found here.
Dove Avis/Chary Harrier
Taxonomy: Spoken (Aevis)
Description: The aevis are figures of horror in Ishgardian folklore, individuals who consume the blood of a dragon and are twisted into freakish, powerful servants of the Horde whose very name means ‘devil who flies’. This is a truth, but further research has illuminated the matter further. When a child of Ishgard, descended from those who fed upon the aether of Ratatoskr’s eye consumes dragon blood it interacts with the power latent in their lineage, turning them into an aevis. This is how the haranguing harriers of the Vigil turned into these creatures when threatened. Those cultists that turned into these creatures were referred to as ‘chary’, a synonym for cautious, perhaps their circumspect, wary nature earned them their place alongside their lady Shiva herself. The aevis were named for doves, likely due to their white-hued hides.
Fenrir ☠
Taxonomy: Beastkin (Hoarhound)
Description: Hoarhounds such as Fenrir, albeit lesser, were once common throughout Coerthas until the city state of Ishgard rose and drove the beasts to near-extinction. With the Calamity making the conditions of the region perfect for them they have begun to emerge from the mountains once more. Fenrir is a particularly impressive beast, and was named by Iceheart for the legendary spirit-hound of the same name.
Capabilities: Understandably, such a mighty hoarhound and servant of Ysale, Fenrir possessed a considerable mastery of ice-aether, flinging ‘icicles’, summoning a great storm of ice so potent it was named a ‘thousand year storm’ and unleashing a ‘heavensward howl’ so named for the wolf reaching towards the sky as it howled, unleashing a gout of ice. The hoarhound also seems to have been associated with celestial matters, particularly the moons, as so many lupine beings are. It was able to conduct a ‘lunar cry’ in which it howled towards the moon, letting loose a grand corona of ice aether capable of freezing a victim whole. Its bite was also nicknamed ‘ecliptic’, named for the plane in which the planet, and its moon, orbit the star.
Etymology Notes: The name Fenrir, of course, has real world origins that can be traced back to the great wolf Fenrir of Norse myth, the son of Loki who is destined to slay the war-god Odin in the apocalypse-scenario of Ragnarok. This patriarch-slaying destiny may be intended, as Ishgard is ruled by a patriarchal theocrat who presides over an eternal war.
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