Arcadian Beasts of the Wood

These elusive beasts mostly inhabit the vast woodland of Woodbury Forest. Some, however take to smaller forests and groves throughout Calabria.

After Sir Edwin Landseer

The White Hart is believed to be an aberrant member of the red deer family. Seen only once every few generations, this enormous male is a ghostly figure, and it said to be able to outrun an arrow in flight. The sight of the Hart is said to inspire courage against odds. Legends tell of tides of battle that were turned when the White Hart appeared. Eating the heart of the creature on the eve of battle is said to assure victory. The droppings of the Hart are highly valued by alchemists.

The Golden Hind is counterpart to the White Hart. She bears antlers of pure gold, and is said to appear to star crossed lovers. A trinket of golden antlers is a symbol of forbidden love.

Barbara Longhi

The Unicorn is a solitary beast, in all the ages of Calabria seldom seen beyond the borders of Woodbury Forest. It is said that there is only one Unicorn at any given moment in time, and it can foretell the hour of its death. Knowing this, it mates only once in its lifetime, and a newborn Unicorn comes into the world as its sire draws its last breath. The unicorn foal is born to a mare which has been marked by the Unicorn during a full moon. Legend tells of one such mare that was captured to lure a Unicorn to its death, and resulted in the birth of a Unicorn in captivity. The young Unicorn was set free when it seemed it would surely die in absence of its freedom, resulting in perhaps the extinction of the creature entirely.

The Unicorn horn is prized as proof against poison, and is highly valued by those with numerous enemies.

Viktor Vasnetsov

The Calabrian Wolfhound is an enormous lupine with an affinity towards humans. Various tales tell of Wolfhounds raising human babies lost in the woods, fending off creatures of the Monstrous Races, and even carrying humans on their backs away from danger. Various attempts to tame such creatures inevitably fail, as the Wolfhound is fiercely independent, and could never be mistaken for a "pet".

Arcadian Beasts of the Air

Arcadian beasts are elusive creatures, typically displaying uncanny awareness of human intention. While most are wild beyond any hope of taming, there are notable exceptions.

Francis Blackwell Mayer

The Gryphons of Calabria make their homes in high peaks of the Iron Hills. These bright minded and inquisitive creatures are ferocious hunters, and enjoy pursuing prey trough the winding valleys and thin woodlands of the mountain range. They prefer feet footed or deft winged targets, and therefore pay little heed to herd animals. Their diet consists mostly of wyrms, deer, horse, mountain lion, wolf, eagle, and salmon. Being normally day hunters, their interaction with nocturnal creatures such as wyverns is rare, yet such aerial combat is a spectacle to behold.

The Clan of the Gryphon have the Gryphon as their totem, and elite members of the clan called the Gryphonym each form a lifelong bond with a Gryphon. Such Gryphons allow the Gryphonym to use them as mounts. The Gryphonym have a treaty with the merchant guilds of Calabria, and serve as messengers and couriers in times of national emergency. A Gryphonym rider is stationed at each of the main cities of Calabria, where they serve for 30 days before being replaced by one of their kinsmen.

The Gryphon is protected by bounty in Calabria, with any harm to a Gryphon usually resulting in death by public hanging or decapitation. Possession of even a single Gryphon feather is a punishable offense.

Gustav Moreau

The Pegasus is a rare winged beast resembling a horse. Legend tells that the original Pegasus was a unique immortal that bred with the common horse, spawning an entire race of creatures. The Pegasus haunts isolated valleys among the Iron Hills, typically making its home in cave openings in sheer cliff walls.
The bone of the Pegasus is highly prized by Alchemists for its lightweight yet durable nature.

Pegasus, the being after which the race of creatures is named, is rumored to yet live on an island in the seas beyond Calabria. Some say he lives among the Elves, and cherishes their company.

Arnold Böcklin

The Wyvern is a fearsome nocturnal beast, with bat like wings. Wyverns typically haunt the mountains of the Iron and Silver Hills, but have been known to descend into the low lying hills of Freehold. They feast upon timid creatures such as deer, and have a particular taste for herd animals. Wyverns have been known to be tamed by Hobgoblins and other fearsome creatures and used as mounts.

Arcadian Simians

Arcadian creatures are solitary or belong to small groups, and seldom engage with man. They fall into two main categories, Simians and Beasts.

Simians are called so, seeming in ways similar to humans, yet alien. They often have upper torsos of resembling humans, with lower bodies of beasts. They build no structures, yet they may excel in craft and art. Among them are Centaurs, Satyrs, Nymphs, and Sphinxes. They make their beds in natural environments or in the abandoned ruins of man.

Guiseppe Maria Crespi

Centaurs are perhaps the most likely to engage with man. Stories are still told of the days before The Shattering, in which the  Centaurs of Calabria united with man in a war against the monstrous races. Place names honoring the sacrifice of the noble Centaurs remain throughout Calabria. Carr Peak, which lies between Merchant's Republic and Freehold and through which the Via Imperium winds, features the largest monument in Calabria to a Centaur warrior.

There are numerous legends of Centaurs mentoring human youths in the ways of archery, poetry, and music.

Arnold Böcklin

Satyrs are timid creatures which relish the simple joys of sensual delight. They are famed for frolicking with nymphs of the wood (Dryads), and being lovers of music and dance. An encounter with a Satyr may result in good or ill, as they are temperamental beings, and are easily offended.

John William Waterhouse

Nymphs are female creatures aligned with nature. They include the Dryads of the Trees, Oreads of Mountains, Naiads of the Streams, Aurae of the Winds, and the Lampades, bearers of Flame.

Many a sad song and story tell of ill-fated romances between mortals and Nymphs.

Gustave Moreau

The Sphinx is perhaps the most cunning of all creatures, and rarest of the Simians. They are famed for their knowledge of the histories of men, as well as their grasp of logic, puzzles, and riddles. They are fierce creatures, with little patience for the arrogance and ignorance men.

 They inhabit remote ruins, where legend says they may reconstruct the daily deeds of an entire city merely by studying the shards of pottery and refuse left behind.

The Restless Undead

Edward Henry Corbould

Restless Undead are incorporeal entities that once lived natural lives. Though their bodies have perished, their spirits linger on, unable or unwilling to leave the world of the living. They vary in their ability to manifest physically, and to affect the world around them. They include ghosts, poltergeists, wights, and wraiths. These spirits are typically tied to a specific landmark or geographical area. They may sometimes be summoned from beyond the grave against their will.

Francis Danby

Ghosts are the most common of these spirits. Their physical manifestations are the weakest, yet they can exude a strong emotional presence. These apparitions often appear in sites where tumultuous events have occurred, and may try to communicate to the living through subtle clues. There may be strong feelings of sadness or joy, unusual fragrances, or the occasional object left out of place. They can appear in dreams, and in rare situations communicate through psychic mediums. They tend to appear near to the place they died.

Gustave Moreau

Poltergeists have discovered how to physically interact with our world, and are capable of manipulating objects. Often they are harmless, and simply resent their homes being altered by newcomers. Sometimes they display ritualistic or obsessive habit that they exhibited in life. On occasion they can be quite dangerous, or even deadly. They are most often associated with a specific dwelling where they spent the most meaningful period of their lives.

Howard Pyle

Wights are tomb spirits. They tend to appear in cultures where it is custom to bury the dead with valuable possessions they held in life. They refuse to part with the material goods which they covet, and can be quite capable of manifesting physically and defending their domain. They may also be able to affect the mind of those who enter their tombs. They are seldom seen far from their burial place.

Harry Clarke

Wraiths are truly terrifying creatures capable of wandering the countryside. They are ethereal and can pass through the smallest crack, yet capable of physical manifestation. They are often shrouded, cloaked, or hooded, forming the shape of the living, yet being empty within their garb, save for their glowing eyes. They cling to power they once knew in life. Ancient stories of terrifying wraiths, mounted and armed, capable of speech, are told in fireside tales.

The Cursed Undead

The cursed undead are corporeal beings. Common to all is the presence of their life force beyond the grave. These cursed beings include vampires, ghouls, revenants, mummies, and litches. Often, such creatures have done great evil during their lives, and are doomed to existence in a state that is neither life nor death. On rare occasions, tormented souls willingly choose such a fate. Disposing of the cursed undead requires destroying the object which contains their life force.

Antoine Wiertz

Vampires feast on the blood of the living. They can not bear the light of day, and must return to the earth of their homeland by dawn. They can be killed by destroying their heart.

Peter Paul Rubens

Ghouls are horrific beings which consume the decaying corpses of the dead. They haunt graveyards, battlefields, and sites of plague and famine. Their ravenous nature does not limit their appetite to the deceased, and will prey on the weak within their reach. Their heads must be severed to kill them.

Carlos Schwabe

Revenants are the decaying remains of individuals who are cursed through their own malice. Destined to walk the earth until their vengeance is appeased, they torment the living with accusations and threats. They prolong the torture of their victims as long as possible. Their life force is attached to an object which they held dearly in life.

Hubert Robert

Individuals can be cursed through ritual, their bodies prepared through mummification to withstand the ravages of time. A hellish imprisonment worse than death awaits these unfortunate souls, doomed to their fate for eons while all that remains of the world they knew crumbles around their tombs. Their life force is reputed to be contained in organs which were removed.

Viktor Vasnetsov

Litches are the desiccated bodies of individuals transformed by powerful arcane magic. Tales tell of powerful Necromancers, who chose to bind their spirits to their bodies even after death. Others tell of kings, betrayed by their Viziers and cursed to an abominable existence. Litches are powerful beings, and cling to the things they loved in life. Their life force is often contained in a gem or crystal.

The Enchanted Undead

Enchanted Undead are bodies inhabited by summoned spirits. They include, but are not limited to, Zombies, Skeletons, Mandrakes, Homunculi, and Golems. Incorporeal spirits incapable of feeling are ever eager to walk the earth in physical form.

John Dixon

Zombies are formed by banishing the identity (called Ba by the Nomads across the Sea of Hope) from a living being, forming an empty vessel for a spirit to enter. This vessel still contains the spark of life.. the Ka, into which a lesser spirit may enter. In such a transformation, the person appears to die, and may even be buried. However, time is of the essence, as the sorcerer must soon recover the body, and finish the summoning of the possessing spirit. Zombies breathe, must eat and drink, and can be destroyed by natural means. Tales are told of Sorcerers who use such Zombies as servants and slaves.

It is said those with the knowledge may in some cases banish the possessing spirit, and return the Ba. In such cases, the victim is unlikely to remain un-scarred from the experience.

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus

The corpses of the dead may be re-animated by by summoning spirits as well. Even when bodies have decayed beyond structural integrity, enchantments fuse sinew and bone. These entities may be placed to guard over tombs or ancient ruins. Rare is the sorcerer bold enough to be seen in the company of such aberrations.

Unknown

The Mandrake is a plant particularly suited to the possession of spirits. With the proper incantations, a miniature "man" can be cultivated via the Mandrake root, and imparted with consciousness.

Unknown

More ambitious is the creation of a Homunculus. Requiring 40 weeks of tedious care, this body can be grown by an Alchemist of exceeding skill. This small "man" is then ready to be inhabited by a summoned spirit.

Unknown

Most ambitious of all is the creation of a Golem. Through the use of clay, wood, stone, or other materials, a statue is created. The statue is brought to "life" through the summoning of a powerful spirit. This Golem may be employed to guard ancient sites, cities, and strongholds. Woe to the summoner who fails to control one of these mighty beings.

Thieves of Calabria

In all ages, in all places, theft is present. However, there are times and places where thievery is raised to an art form. Such a place is Calbaria, 1300 years after The Shattering.

Hieronymus Bosch

The cities of Calabria are home to sly pickpockets, ever on the lookout for unsuspecting residents and newcomers.
Many a traveller has left Pitkin with a lighter purse, without ever having spent a single coin.

Artist Unknown

Body snatching is all to common, as necromancy and other dark deeds require the corpses of the freshly dead.

Sidney Sime

The gallows are an ever tempting source for bodies among thieves.
Remains of murderers are particularly potent components for fetishes and potions.

Caspar David Friedrich

Ancient burial sites are tempting lures.  Such places lace fireside tales of forgotten treasure.

Sidney Sime

Yet when those tales turn to untold wealth that would make the greatest merchants of Calabria envious, it is the lairs of dark creatures that hold the attention of thieves, and lure them to their doom.

N.C. Wyeth

No matter how many fail to return, or have the gruesome nature of their deaths retold in hushed voices, ever are there venturesome souls, eager to try their luck and skill against the odds.

Merchants of Calabria

Since the days of The Shattering, old structures of power have been rethought. In the Merchant's Republic and the Confederacy of Traders, the Merchant class has replaced feudal lordship. Property ownership extends to even the lowliest peasants, or yeomen; farmers have smallholdings, craftsmen own their own shops and tools, and hunters and trappers are free to seek game in the wild woods. Only in Oregate do the old ways still stand strong, with lip service given to freedom, yet the lands controlled to various degrees of rigid rule from generation to generation by one Merchant King or another. Each of the three regions host a trade union, to which all guilds belong.

Louis John Rhead

It is the leaders of these unions who are the de-facto rulers of the regions, chartering laws, imposing taxes, and placing restrictions upon the general populace. The upper leaders of these unions assume the title of Merchant Baron. Those who hold such titles wield great power and influence, and their business ties are deep and strong, if not always transparent.

A Council of Barons governs the larger cities, while smaller towns might be ruled over by a single Baron. All relationships are reduced to taxation, percentage of profits, and competition.

Many Barons indulge in extravagant public displays of wealth to dampen the spirit of the masses. However, all is not always as it seems, for many a Baron has leveraged loans and dubious business gambles to support their excessive lifestyles.

Maria Feodorovna

Beneath the Barons are the Merchant Princes. Having no trade or skill of their own, they deal strictly in the exchange of services, property, and coin. Their business reaches, interests, and holdings, may span several cities or even across the seas. While their tendency to showcase their affluence varies, there are many a Prince who's true wealth is reported to dwarf that of some of the Barons of Calabria. They may travel by land and ship, or hire others into their service to conduct their business. There are few villages without at least one Prince who either makes his home there, or calls on a regular basis.

Jan Steen

While many princes are among the wealthiest people in Calabria, the title is not exclusive to merchants who's success is that esteemed. Many a miserly coin pincher also claims the title of Prince, and calculates the balances of his accounts daily. Rarely to they extend any generosity to those that owe them money. Woe to the craftsman or peddler that forgets to address them as "Prince".

Jean Baptiste Discart

Frederick Arthur Bridgman 

From across the Sea of Hope come dealers in exotic wares. Traveling the countryside are caravans of The Wanderers, who hold their customs close and dear.

Aerston Pieter

John Frederick Herring I

Craftsmen can be providers of both services and wares. Be it Blacksmith, Baker, Miller, Tailor, Cobbler, Cooper, or Hunter, there is hardly a village where they can not be found practicing their trade.

Warriors of Calabria

Many are the faces of the warriors who travel Calabria. From those who trade their services for coin, to knights sworn to ancient oaths, the sword and spear are seldom far from a hand eager to do battle.

N.C. Wyeth

Mercenaries are ever at the employ of merchants eager to protect their business investments. The Confederacy of Traders and Merchant's Republic both boast impressive armies, and many a free merchant has a sellsword or two as his side. However, where loyalty lies only to coin, profit and security can change like the weather. Still, many a trader would  prefer the devil he knows to the one he can't understand, and are just as frightened by the concepts of loyalty and honor as they are of an empty pocket.

N.C. Wyeth

Generation through generation stand the Knights of the Empire, sworn to uphold justice and mercy. Chivalry is their code, and pursing doers of wrong to the ends of the earth is their aim. Woe to the scoundrel who's reputation has reached the ears of such a knight.

N.C. Wyeth

Unconcerned with the petty exploits of men, the rangers of Calabria pursue their own vengence against creatures of darkness. Ever vigilant, they track the wilds and wastes, hunting foes of mankind with every breath they draw.

N.C. Wyeth

Preying upon the unsuspecting, highwaymen lurk at woods edge, and make their beds in the ruins across the countryside. All who carry coin are their prey.

N.C. Wyeth

Unique amont the men of Clabria are the Knights of Oregate. Sworn only to their ruler, they have but one goal; to protect the wealth of their territory. Rare through the ages is the Knight of Oregate who's loyalty has been turned.

Peter Nicolai Arbo

Famed is the might of the warriors of the clans of Calabria.

They are slow to wrath, yet fierce in battle, both man and woman among them. A feast at the table of ravens awaits those who underestimate their prowess.

Gustav Dore

Knud Berglien

From across the Northren sea come men of honor, ever ready for battle, yet willing to die for the sake of their countrymen. From the harsh winter wastes they carve their lives, filling each day with battle or merriment. Rare is their presence is Calabria.

Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant

From beyond the Sea of Hope come warriors of wisdom, unparalleled in learning and art. Seldom are their blades idly drawn.

The Clans of Men of Old

Ever have there been peoples who kept to the Old Ways. With eyes ever watching from the wilderness, they have seen the futility of the feats of man; building ever stronger, taller, and more expansive, only to be crumbled to dust by the whim of the Gods. With steady stride, these watchers continue in their traditions, unruffled by the noise of those who would feign to shape the earth as if it were theirs to mold.

Thomas Cole

N.C. Wyeth

They live in the heights of the mountains, or in the deepness of the wood. They live by calming rivers, or near the crashing shore. And in these places of solitude, they commune with all that is; leaf, wind, and creature of the earth. They derive their strength through root and stone; through crystal spring and summer storm; through winter's fire and the lactation of the ewes.

Nicolaj Albildgaard

Their secrets and their ways are preserved generation through generation with story and song. Not a single word of the Old Tales are written in their hand in the markings of the men of cities; rather, they are carried on blessed tongue, to the fortunate ears of those with the grace to listen patiently.

The earth and the winds listen also to their tales, as do the forests the the beasts of the fields, the flame and murmuring brook.

William Beard 
It has been told that these clans have each a special bond with a totem; a creature of Phanes, lord of all animals. A bond so strong that language is shared between man and beast, and that there are those who can take the form of such an animal at will.

William Beard