#this one too will be in the Éphéméride some day

[fleshwizard]

The Loch Ness Monster (Scottish Gaelic: Uilebheist Loch Nis), affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protruding from the water. (...) In a 1979 article, California biologist Dennis Power and geographer Donald Johnson claimed that the "surgeon's photograph" was the top of the head, extended trunk and flared nostrils of a swimming elephant photographed elsewhere and claimed to be from Loch Ness. In 2006, palaeontologist and artist Neil Clark suggested that travelling circuses might have allowed elephants to bathe in the loch; the trunk could be the perceived head and neck, with the head and back the perceived humps.

#text from wikipedia #this one too will be in the Éphéméride some day #Loch Ness #nessie #folklore #cryptozoology #hoax #Scotland #Supernatural in Scotland #crayon #illustration #chimera #monster #bestiary #creature design

[thecreaturecodex]

Rompo

Image © Éphéméride des Chimères, accessed @chimeride​  here

[The rompo is a monster with a lot of problems. The Wikipedia page features an original description that does not match the only source it gives, The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures. That book doesn’t give itemized sources, only a very short “selected bibliography”. My girlfriend, who’s brilliant, was able to track the original source to A Description of Three Hundred Animals, an Enlightenment-era transition between bestiary and natural history. That original (?) rompo is pretty clearly a hyena, maybe with a bit of honey badger mixed in, even if their illustration looks more like a Killer Shrew.]

Rompo CR 3 CE Undead This quadrupedal beast has flat clawed feet, rounded ears and a short head with powerful jaws. Its body is clearly decaying, starting to come apart in places.

A rompo is a bestial creature created when a scavenging animal feeds too often and too richly on the corpses of the undead. Slowly, the scavenger is poisoned by the influence of negative energy and dies, only to be resurrected as an undead creature itself. A rompo is obsessed with the absurdity of its own existence, and they view their continued survival as a grotesque joke. They lurk in graveyards and battlefields, feeding on corpses, mourners and caretakers with impunity. They are messy and incomplete feeders, often leaving bits and pieces in grotesque tableaus for others to find.

Although they are silent when stalking prey or trying to avoid detection, a rompo rarely shuts up once combat is joined. They combine mad laughter with cruel observations and mean spirited jokes that few creatures besides the dead would find funny. Their laughs are laden with profane energy, and they empower nearby undead creatures. A rompo is usually a straightforward combatant, although they do enjoy biting multiple foes and then stalking them for days on end to see which ones succumb to the rotting disease they are laden with.

Some rompos travel alone, but in areas where the undead are common, whole packs of beasts may transform into rompos and hunt together. Most rompos were once hyenas in life, but some may have been canines, badgers, bears or even crocodiles. It takes a skilled eye to decipher the origins of a rompo, as their undead nature warps their forms into a chimeric shape with elements of all of these creatures and more besides. Skeletons and zombies may follow a rompo around, craving the energy of its crypt cackle, and the undead beast typically leaves these creatures be. Some rompos associate with gnolls, ghouls or both.

Rompo  CR 3 XP 800 CE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +6, scent Defense AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural) hp 32 (5d8+10) Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +5 Immune undead traits; Resist cold 10, electricity 10 Offense Speed 40 ft., burrow 10 ft. Melee bite +5 (1d6+2 plus disease), 2 claws +5 (1d4+2) Special Attacks crypt cackle (14 rounds/day) Statistics Str 14, Dex 15, Con -, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 14 Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 17 (21 vs. trip) Feats Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack Skills Acrobatics +5 (+9 when jumping), Climb +7, Perception +6, Perform (comedy) +5, Stealth +7, Survival +4 (+8 when tracking by scent); Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent Languages Common Ecology Environment any land Organization solitary, pair or pack (3-12) Treasure incidental Ecology Crypt Cackle (Su) As a standard action, a rompo can begin to laugh shrilly, empowering undead. All undead that can hear the cackle, including the rompo, gain a +1 profane bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws.  A rompo can maintain the cackle as a free action. It can cackle for a number of rounds equal to the bardic music of a bard of its Hit Dice. This is an audible effect. Disease (Ex) Slimy doom; bite—contact; save Fort DC 14; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; damage 1d4 Con damage, target must succeed a second Fort save or 1 point of damage is drain instead; cure 2 consecutive saves.

#rompo #hyena #pseudoscience #pathfinder 1e #creature development

[chimeride]

You ever thought on using plant or fungal parts for your chimeras? Not that i'm criticizing, i love your pseudo vegetal ones but i'm genuinely curious. Stones too, i believe these could beautifully substitute shells and carapaces. Remember the pokemon crustle, for example?

Hi ! I thought about it, and it was already suggested to me, but it would break one of the fundamental rules of the concept. Which raises the question : why this strict rule ?

First reason: there are two things I like to draw above all else: animals, and small lines in black pen. I draw other things sometimes (illustrations, plants, architecture ..), I have tried a lot of technique (watercolor, vector, pixel art ..), but if there are two things that will never tire me it’s animals and small lines !! Second reason : the possibilities would be so vast that I could not cover them properly, which would be frustrating for me. Elementals, cyborgs, constructs, everything would be possible but then it would no longer be the Éphéméride des Chimères.

In fact, these constraints force me to be creative and to invent more original monsters. For example #247 was a suggestion where I had to make a pyramid walking on all fours : after thinking a lot I did a half chrysalis on turtle legs and I think the final design was more creative than what I could have done without these constraints.

However to overcome the lack of plants, fungi and minerals I have several solutions :

some chimeras look like plants whereas they are aggregated animals, tagged #pseudophyta (#202 but there are more to come)

some forms of animal life are quite different from what we see every day, to be as abstract and relevant as plants in terms of design : I think of cnidarians (#125, #245), corals (#295) and sponges (#19, #98, #169)

I draw only the organic parts but we can imagine that mineral parts can be grafted to chimeras while I do not draw them here. For example if I draw Hellboy one day, he will have two normal arms and whole horns because the arm was added after his birth (it wont really be Hellboy, and it will imply that there are other demons with similar appearance but not mutilated)

Finally, I have always try to leave space for your imagination to invent stories and powers around my monsters. I even said once that some chimeras could control the plants (cf. the phytokinetic pocket monsters). At this point we can imagine everything: symbiosis, stones added after birth, telekinesis … It wont be drawn in the Éphéméride, but it can be drawn apart by anyone who wants to !

In short, I think I’ll stick to animals, but I should go further with the concepts exposed here. If I have time this summer I planned to do some illustrations featuring some chimeras, and free to do the same if you want ! 

Sorry for the long post :) And don’t hesitate to ask questions !

#ask #james-silvercat #chimera #ars chimera #pseudophyta