User:TheLongConn/Necropolis: Bestiary

A list of the various new entities one will find in Azjol'Nerub in User:TheLongConn/World of Warcraft: Necropolis.

=Denizens of Azjol'Nerub=

Khepri
The khepri have only recently appeared in the underworld, but they have made themselves quite at home. Resembling lithe, bipedal, beetle-like humanoids, the khepri first rose out of unexplored caverns in the Khep'seti Wilds, hence their name. They have since spread across Azjol'Nerub, crafting villages and temples from bone and chitin. The khepri tend to make other creatures uncomfortable; they are jittery, unpredictable, and have a tendency to talk to themselves. They dress themselves in cloth made of insect wings, dyed with bioluminescent spores. Their masks are carved from chitin and shaped vaguely like insect heads, with an odd minimalist quality. Equally bizarre are their religious practices; the khepri express belief in thousands of indecipherable and conflicting gods, often with overlapping spheres of influences, incoherent names, and confusing rituals. Sometimes a khepri will spend a day honoring a specific deity and the next day claim to have never heard of them. Some gods are shared between khepri villages while others are not. Rituals are of great importance to the khepri, and they spend a lot of effort crafting shrines and temples, as well as making pilgrimages between them.

What is most bizarre is what happens to a khepri if they do not engage in spiritual practices. Their sanity begins to crumble, their bodies charged with shadowy energy, and they begin practicing what can only be described as worship of the Old Gods, speaking the horrible Shath'yar tongue. It has been speculate that the khepri were once a nerubian experiment, examining the effect of the hive mind on their own bodies and minds. The khepri may be attempting to quell their ritualistic instincts by substituting worship of other deities.

Whether or not the deities they worship are real is up for debate. The khepri priests can call upon shamanistic and even druidic powers, shapeshifting into vicious insect beasts. Golems and animated effigies are built from chitin and sinew, shaped in the form of one of their countless gods. Given that khepri seem to be able to shape void energy instinctively, it is possible that they are reaching into the space of pure potential to bring their own deities into creation through belief.

Khepri villages are concentrated in the Khep'seti Wilds but common throughout Azjol'Nerub. How friendly they are to outsiders depends on the village, as well as their mood at that moment.

Grayslate Dwarves
The Winterskorn War utterly decimated the earthen of Dun Valdr and the survivors were scattered across ancient Kalimdor. As giants and vrykul stood victorious on the crushed remnants of their cities, a wicked plague swept through the underworld. Called the Blackrot, this wicked fog darkened the caverns and dissolved the tremendous works of the Titans. As the darkness ate away at Dun Valdr, the few remaining earthen thought to preserve themselves within ensorcelled machinery in the depths of their cities, hoping to awaken to a better world. Little did the earthen know, they carried a different contagion within themselves, the Curse of Flesh, which transformed their bodies over the millennia from stone to flesh.

Unlike the earthen of Uldaman, whose awakened from their hibernation over 2500 years ago, the earthen of Dun Valdr only awoke within the last 100 years. They, too, had been transformed into dwarves, although they have some unique differences compared to their Uldaman brethren. Their skin ranges from gray to silver, with iridescent qualities, and retains a stone-like toughness. Their eyes glow with a bright golden color and their hair possesses metallic colors, from copper to silver to bronze. In the time of confusion following their awakening, a leader rose up to guide them. He took the name Grayslate, and this became the name for all dwarves who followed him.

Culturally, the Grayslate differ dramatically from southern dwarves, as well as their neighbors on the surface, the Frostborn. A huge difference is the fact that the Grayslate do not hold their Titan creators in reverence; at best, they mock them, and at worst, they scorn them. Continual exposure to the Blackrot had transformed Dun Valdr into a dangerous place, and in the beginning, the Grayslate were young, confused, and defenseless. The great machines and foundries that supported the earthen thousands of years ago had become corrupted, birthing malformed marble golems that vomited black oil. The early, lean years for the Grayslate were a constant battle against the rotten machines of the Titans. The Grayslate see pride as a vice; to put yourself on a pedestal only gives you a higher place to fall from. The Titans are the epitome of pride and hubris, their great world-spanning machines now neglected and corrupted. Now they are gone, and it is their "children" that have to live in the mess they've created.

The Grayslate instead put great importance on their ancient ancestors, the earthen. While it is considered wrong to boast of one's own accomplishments, it is right to commend the skills of others. Unlike the Uldaman dwarves, the Grayslate were not completely amnesic following their awakening; some remembered their old history and skills, while others learned from the remains of earthen cities around them. They taught themselves how to forge, how to use magic, and eventually how to combine the two to create powerful enchanted weapons. The old earthen cities of Dun Valdr were slowly being rebuilt.

Having come a long way in their short 100 years, the Grayslate are now at an impasse. The spider-folk have become expansionist and meddle with necromancy. Dun Valdr groans beneath them, the great machines clogging with rot and refuse. New creatures arrive in the underworld with each passing day and some of them look strikingly similar to themselves.

Technology-wise, the Grayslate eschew complicated machinery in favor of magic and enchantment. Machines in Dun Valdr tend to become corrupted by the Blackrot, and they carry a bit of a social stigma, as well. While enchanted stone is also vulnerable to corruption, it is generally regarded as safer. The Grayslate rival the Dark Iron in magical talents, both innate and crafted, and their greatest leaders include talented sorcerers and runecasters.

Zhar
Not much is known about the zhar, and what is known makes little sense. Reading the records of the most ancient civilizations in the underworld, from the nerubians to the earthen to the tol'vir, the zhar have always been there, lurking in the waterways of Lethae. They show no interest in expanding their borders and are cordial with visitors, but if an unwanted force invades their lands, they strike with a relentless, cold fury. What's worse is no one truly knows how many times Lethae has been invaded, as the zhar shape memory as easily as a dwarf shapes stone.

The zhar exhibit multiple forms, but the most common is that of a crustacean-like organism whose lower half is a leech-like tail, similar to the serpentine naga. Their upper halves are covered with a thick carapace, decorated with swirling designs like those of deep sea shells and fossils. Whether or not this is crafted armor, a natural shell, or both, is unknown. Their heads are elongated and crab-like, ending in two slender pincers, and from the bottom of their mouths dangle an array of glowing, feathery fronds. They are amphibious, equally at home in water as they are on land. Other zhar forms seem to favor one body plan over the other; the hulking brutes used as muscle are more crustacean-like, while the spell casters resemble sinewy leeches.

When speaking with a zhar, you may be surprised at how easily they communicate. For such monstrous appearances, they are rather well-spoken and polite. This is not an accident. Zhar are able to learn new languages in days and can mimic body language, cadence, slang, and social customs instinctually. They have the ability to connect with new peoples and cultures at a frightening pace.

The reason for this is the zhar's unique relationship with thought and memory. The zhar are able magically shape memory, drawing it out of their targets and capturing it, often with the use of the strange Lethaen water as a ritual focus. These memories fuel their spellcraft and can even be used to create physical objects. However, zhar primarily do nothing with their captured memories, preferring to store them in immense vaults across Lethae. Many of these lie within their fossilstone cities that extend below the waters of the great Black Lake, decorated with ammolite and pearl.

What's truly unnerving is that the zhar do not appear malicious in any way, at least the vast majority of them. The zhar prefer bargaining, trading the use of their abilities for a small portion of their customer's thoughts. Sometimes they take away the sting of bad memories, or they may forge an enchanted item out of their experiences. The zhar appear to be content just making deals with other sapient races and storing away their memories. They have done this for millennia. The xenophobic nerubians have tried many times to obtain their secrets, either offering them untold volumes of information or directly invading Lethae, but these have never succeeded. Many nerubian kings simply forbid entering Lethae, but desperate people always find their way through.

As events unfold in Azjol'Nerub, you uncover the truth about the zhar. They are the spawn of an immense wyrm that lies at the bottom of the Black Lake of Lethae, a being out of time and place. This wyrm once swam in the endless Plane of Dreams, feeding on the mindscapes of unknowable cosmic beings. Then, it was cast out, falling into the womb of the earth. The wyrm had become a dull, witless creature, for it no longer could access the vast dreams of the ancients. Its last action was to create the zhar, avatars of its will. The zhar have spent millennia gathering the thoughts and memories of other sapient creatures so that they may rekindle the mind of the wyrm; they wish for it to remember its name and return home.

To that end, the zhar have remained in Lethae, tending to the lake and its waters, granted power by the wyrm. In isolation, the zhar are little more than beasts. In proximity to sapient life, however, the zhar become nourished and intelligent. They have little reason to extend their borders, as all they wish is to revive their god-like progenitor. However, recent upheavals have struck fear into this mysterious people. The slaughter of the nerubians a decade ago vastly depleted their supply of fresh memory, reverting them back to their bestial instincts; who knows what the Zhar will do to prevent that from happening again?

Talphant
Talphants are stout mammalian creatures, resembling a cross between a mole and a lumbering bear. Their forelimbs are elongated, thick as a tree trunk, and end in long, sharp claws. Expert diggers, talphants can effortlessly claw through stone and dirt. From their noses hang a dozen tentacle-like feelers, a specialized sensory organ for detecting vibrations within the earth. Do not be fooled by their slow gait, as they are relentless when roused, and have been known to stalk prey for miles underneath the ground. Talphants are commonly hunted as a source of meat in Azjol'Nerub. The Grayslate dwarves tame them as pets and mounts, as do a number of reckless and bored Ironforge archaeologists.

Can be tamed by hunters as members of the Burrower exotic family.

Calcilisk
A vicious combination of reptilian and insectile features, calcilisks are voracious and clever predators. Their bodies are quadrupedal and vaguely wolf-like, albeit covered in boney, metallic armor plating. Their skulls have a wide, hardened crest like the head of a hammerhead shark and their mouths are full of serrated teeth. Lithe, fast, and stealthy, these armored beasts strike from the shadows but are no strangers to drawn-out brawls, punching straight through flesh with their skull crest. Their fearsome image has cultivated quite a mythology in the underworld; the khepri have at least a few gods related to the calcilisk, and the Grayslate rite of hunting ends with tracking one down and slaying it.

Calcilisk can be tamed by hunters as members of the Stone Hound family.

Aurox
The aurox is an oxen-like creature originally created by the earthen. Crafted from enchanted stone as beasts of burden, they were left free to wander the underworld following the Winterskorn War and the fall of Dun Valdr. The Curse of Flesh affected their stony bodies just like the earthen, transforming them into meat, bone, and gristle. The aurox still possess a rocky hide, and the Grayslate have begun breeding them for even stronger stone pelts. Canny grazers, they can feed off everything from moss to certain types of rock. The most unique aspect of the aurox is their horns, which were originally designed to be shaped by the earthen to perform particular tasks; everything from digging in the soil to carving out caverns to ramming down the doors of Jotunn fortresses. Even though their bodies are mostly flesh now, their horns can still be shaped through magic with no harm to the beast. Doorward cooks consider their meat to be good eating but their milk has a sandy texture.

Aurox can be tamed by hunters as members of the Oxen family.

Cloakray
Cloakrays are flying manta-ray creatures native to the caverns of Azjol'Nerub. Superficially similar to the mana rays of Argus, cloakrays fly by producing a lighter-than-air gas that makes them buoyant in the air, and they propel themselves by flapping their billowy, sail-like wings. They are at home amongst the rocky stalactites of cavern ceilings, often pressed flat against the stone where they are naturally camouflaged. Upon spotting prey, they drop themselves down like a stone, either dive-bombing them or swishing past while they deliver a venomous sting. Some cloakrays in the Khep'seti Wilds are bioluminescent through the ingestion of spores, and they use their colorations to produce dazzling light shows to disorient their prey. Leather made from their skin used to fetch a high price in the old kingdom of Azjol'Nerub.

Cloakrays can be tamed by hunters as members of the Ray family.

Ferrovore
The bane of miners and metallurgists, the ferrovore is an immense crocodilian reptile native to caverns of Azjol'Nerub. While perfectly capable of living off flesh, the ferrovore has a particular taste for metal, burrowing its way into the earth to devour rich ore veins. Rather undiscriminating in their eating habits, the beasts are perfectly happy gorging on anvils, armored soldiers, and steam tanks, using harsh acids to dissolve the material. They also possess the unique ability to modify magnetic fields, drawing all metal in the surrounding area into their open jaws. Any excess ingested metal is secreted onto its hide to produce strong, and rather beautiful, armored scales. Ferrovores are a particular nuisance in Dun Valdr, especially to the local Jotunn whose iron strongholds are little more than a buffet for the beasts.

Ferrovores can be tamed by hunters as a particularly striking specimen of the Scalehide family.

Darkmantle
A truly bizarre beast of the underworld, the darkmantle is a flying, predatory squid. Native to the waterways of Lethae but not uncommon in other areas, the darkmantle flies by producing a buoyant gas within its body, hovering near cavern ceilings. It propels itself through the use of a membrane spread between its tentacles, which it flaps in an undulating motion. Darkmantles are known to camouflage themselves as stalagmites and stalactites, letting prey draw close before they strike. Their tentacles are lined with sharp hooks, which it uses to pull prey into their embrace, suffocating them with their bulk. Some varieties are poisonous while others can deliver a venomous sting. The drogbar slaughterers of Blackwater have an ongoing contest of who can bring the largest darkmantle in. Some of their bounties arrive with previous hunters in their stomachs.

Darkmantles can be tamed by hunters as members of the new Squid family.

Ohm
The lord of insects, the Ohm is a living tank made of chitin and carapace. Resembling an enlarged pill-bug, the Ohm's entire body is covered by thick armor, even shielding the numerous pairs of legs the scurry underneath it. A dozen unblinking eyes cover its front half, glowing with a bright, orange light. A spray of sharpened pedipalps sprout underneath the eyes, dicing up mud and fungal matter that will then be shoveled into its maw. These dextrous appendages are just as useful for fighting off predators who dimly believe they can down this beast. The Ohm meanders through the fungal forests of the Khep'seti wilds, either chewing its own path or swimming in the algae-filled rivers. For such a massive beast, the ohm is surprisingly intelligent, seemingly communicating with the wild spirits of the underworld, as well as sapient creatures capable of bonding with them. While they will defend themselves from predators, they fly into a rage when outsiders disturb the wilds, relentlessly pursuing invaders. This does not include most khepri, whose mythology, though often indecipherable, places great spiritual import on the ohm and their wisdom. Their cast-off shells are used as homes and shrines, while some even deign to live in khepri villages, festooned with ritual ornaments and armor.

Ohm can be tamed by hunters as members of the Carapid family, which includes krolusks and gorm.

Imago
While the ohm are feared but respected in khepri mythology, the imago are feared and reviled. A slender, armored, mantis-like predator, the imago stands at eight feet tall or greater, every inch of its carapace sharpened like a knife. It walks on two legs, while four scythe-tipped upper limbs slice apart prey at multiple angles. They stalk the Khep'seti Wilds, capable of clearing entire groves of game before returning to their dens. They are among the only creatures capable of killing an ohm, but they must rely on their cunning to pin down the immense beast and rip apart its vulnerable underbelly. Nerubian hunters who brought an imago carcass back to Khep'set for the feasts would be rewarded handsomely, while any khepri lucky enough to bring one down could arm an entire village with its scythe-arms and bladed carapace. Imago have a complicated lifecycle, beginning as minute larvae, proceeding through multiple instars before emerging as an adult. The adults can continue to molt as they age, becoming truly gargantuan in size.

Imago are capable of being tamed by hunters as a member of the new Scytheclaw family, which includes such vicious insects as imago and assassin beetles.

Assassin Beetle
An unassuming but deadly insect of the Khep'seti Wilds, the assassin beetle lives up to its name. Capable of growing up to fifteen feet long, this creature stalks its prey through the fungal undergrowth in a sinuous, compact form. Upon ambushing its prey, the assassin beetle opens its shell to reveal multiple combat limbs, each one uniquely suited for a particular attack. Some limbs are equipped with slashing talons to disembowel prey, while others are heavy with chitin and designed to crush armor. Some are more unique, from spinning bone drills to poisonous stingers. The khepri are known to breed their own assassin beetles, using them as mounts or war beasts.

Assassin beetles can be tamed by hunters as a member of the new Scytheclaw family, which includes such vicious insects as imago and assassin beetles.

Lithwing
Cousins to shale spiders and gyreworms, lithwings are avian creatures of elemental earth. Like their fellows, they are composed of individual pieces of crystal and stone arranged in an ever-moving pattern, with no physical connection between them. Their wingspan is huge, with each wing bristling with sharpened gemstone feathers, which the beast can launch with incredible force. They show a greater variety of body forms compared to shale spiders and gyreworms; some have four wings, some have heads like rotating, concentric rings (similar to gyreworms), while others have an immense, crystalline beak that spins like a drill head. The variety of colors and gemstones is equally wide. A single, undamaged Lithwing has enough raw material to set up a jeweler for months; it's too bad that the lithwing doesn't give itself up without a fight.

Lithwings reproduce by gestating a perfect crystal within their abdomens, which they eventually lay like an egg, nestling it within a protected nest. Eventually, the crystalline egg breaks apart into many fragments, which combine with nearby stone to arrange themselves into a tiny, lithwing hatchling.

Although lithwings are technically elementals, they are classified as beasts and can be tamed by hunters as members of the Shale Beasts family.

Marble Watcher
Dun Valdr was once the capital of the earthen, whose works shaped the very foundation of Azeroth. In ancient times, it was supported by the greatest titanic engines, and tended to by giants of marble, alabaster, and ivory. Now, these paragons of order have succumbed to the Blackrot, their perfect forms mutating and dissolving into black oil. The great marble watchers and golems now lurk amongst Dun Valdr's corrupted foundries, their pale skin shattered, mouths vomiting oil.

Some marble watchers may yet remain uncorrupted, but they are few and far between. The corrupted watchers show all manner of deterioration; some are intact but stained with oil, while others are pitted with smoking, acid-burned holes. Some are missing half a face or an entire limb, replacing by a tendril of greasy fluid. There are a number that appear with such regularity that the Grayslate dwarves have begun recording them.
 * Marble Demagogue: Demagogues are gigantic, hunched marble statues with two weeping, humanoid heads. Often found leading groups of other statues, they appear to act as some form of leadership. (Based on the Ettin skeleton)
 * Marble Choir: Choirs are broad marble statues with a large, howling face emerging from their shoulders, ringed by dozens of tiny, malformed faces that gnash their teeth at the air. Oil runs in rivulets down their forms as they sing songs of entropy and rot.
 * Other forms of marble statues include the physically-imposing marble golems, the human-sized marble constructs, and shattered fragments of broken statues, typically crawling hands.

Grotesque
The grotesque is one of the most horrifying abominations to emerge from the stinking pits of the Cenotaph in Dun Valdr. It resembles an enormous spider, if the head and thorax were replaced with an immense, weeping marble head. From this head sprout eight arachnid limbs, each ending in a humanoid hand. Black oil flows freely from its eyes and down the corner of its mouth. Grotesques are unleashed when the titanic engines are threatened, skittering out of the darkness into the ranks of the invaders.

Stain
When blackrot corruption reaches critical mass, marble golems dissolve into stains. They superficially resemble haunts, fleshbeasts, and elementals, a writhing collection of black oil studded with marble fragments. The Grayslate dwarves regularly go on "disinfection patrols", scouring their cities of stains before the blackrot is able to take root once more. (Based on the haunt and Unbound elemental skeletons)