monster bestiary
Order: Cervidae Vacuus — Class: Phantom Fauna
A towering ungulate whose body is not flesh but absence — looking through it reveals not the landscape behind but a different landscape entirely, one that does not exist. It walks the boundary forests at dusk, and those who follow it find themselves in places that were never mapped. The antlers branch into impossible geometries that cast shadows pointing toward the observer regardless of the light source.
Danger Rating: Extreme — Do not make eye contact. Do not follow.
Order: Annelida Scriptorium — Class: Manuscript Parasite
Lives between the pages of unfinished manuscripts, feeding on abandoned sentences and deleted paragraphs. Its body is composed of dried ink, and it excretes new text — nonsensical, prophetic, or deeply personal to whoever finds it. A fully grown specimen can consume an entire novel in three days, leaving behind a completely different story in the same binding.
Danger Rating: Moderate — Quarantine infected manuscripts immediately.
Order: Lepidoptera Sonoris — Class: Acoustic Predator
Its wings produce no visible pattern — instead, they emit frequencies. When it lands on glass, the glass resonates and shatters. When it lands on stone, the stone hums. When it lands on a sleeping person, they hear a bell tolling in their dreams and wake unable to remember their own name for exactly one hour. The wing-eyes are not decorative; they see into the auditory cortex.
Danger Rating: High — Wear acoustic dampeners when approaching specimens.