Beasts of Antiquity

[Callistus 989]

 

 

 

“This kind, ser, we call the Volka; in which womenfolk conceive themselves wolves. In Auvergne, they call them Ganipote.”

-Consultant Jean-René to a foreign duke on the subject of affliction, 1693

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“Verily, there remain very few beasts in present compiled bestiary, of both the fictional and existent, that are as wont in invoking such fear and striking as much terror in the hearts of hunters and stouts to the degrees to which Vukodlak, or the Varg so terribly and consistently manages in spite of his dying populace. Partly with their numbers having been whittled down to the point of near (or absolute) extinction, their hordes forcibly driven away beyond the borders of their natural habitats, and partly for the difficulty with which their lesser counterparts come to couple. 

 

The Ganipote, or Volka however, resembling much more a wolf than a man, is of no such variation; for she treads on all fours, hunts and thirsts for children just as the wolf, and breeds ably, to a set extent, with other mutts of the forest; a distinction that sets her apart from other beastfolk, and makes the identification of their kind a matter of far greater difficulty. 

 

In our admittedly failed excursion to track and retrieve evidence proving of Ganipote’s existence, traces left were indeed numerous enough; and although she may have gone extinct, as have many regal draconic species in the past, the Ganipote, much like her cousins, left her lasting mark in the antiquities of Man; having trodden southern snows, ridden the outskirts of old and now-battered Orenian cities, and howled amongst shepherd’s most unfortunate herds; whose entrails they fell on and tore without the slightest reprieve. A vicious beast, no doubt, but one that, over time, folks of later generations will come to treasure for its simplistic primitivity and, even later, mourn its extinction. 

 

And still, we would be too rash and ill-learnt to so easily conclude that it has posolutely gone extinct! For, if God wills, it could still roam the Sutican woods, preying on the minds of elves (to which we may safely attribute their imbecility and dullness of mind), ranging Arcasian hills or even be found howling its starve to the cold winter breeze.”

- Anonymous Author

[Parker 390]

Reading over, shivers and trembling fingers.

[dard 756]

A remnant member of the Outerhaven initiative begins to ready his sword and torch at the mere mention of wolf-men.

[Vermy 1484]

 

[Jentos 9425]

Screaming, running. Streaming flames, cascading inferno in his wake. The man howled in utter pain, his frame twisted beyond human. “Sighard.” The thing asked. “Sighard where are you? Sighard.” Feremyr wept ash, dancing from Hell to Hell.