Greater Horrors
   
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Description
Greater horrors are not dragons, but a type of Shade-touched fauna that periodically emerges from a nightmare realm alongside waking Sornieth. They have their genesis in the souls of dragons that die in their eggs, having never formed a magical connection with an elemental deity. New horrors may form spontaneously in this fashion, or be fissioned from an existing horror. Within their native realm, they feed primarily on the fears and anxieties of Sornieth's inhabitants, though they are not averse to devouring the mind and intellect of unwary sleepers.
While born of the lost souls of dragons, most horrors themselves are not sapient, only able to mimic the behavior of conscious beings. A small number of horrors, however, can rise true consciousness, though they must encounter a sapient being sojourning within the nightmare realm itself to achieve their full potential. Even non-sapient horrors can give a very good impression of consciousness to an unwary observer, however--they speak and act much as a thinking being would, though they are driven by instinct to evoke terror so that they can feed on it.
Each horror has a Name, corresponding to the particular fear it feeds on. These can be broad (Failure, Loss, Death) or narrow (Mirrors, Clowns, Bees); the broader the fear, the larger and more developed the horror.
Mages of any flight with a taste for nightmare magic can call greater horrors forth to do their bidding, though the mindless variety dissolve into loose magic shortly after being summoned. Sapient horrors may persist on Sornieth indefinitely, and often use their powers of mimicry and mental suasion to make homes for themselves among dragon clans.
Greater horrors in their native shapes are enormous, eel-like monstrosities with dinner-plate eyes and tooth-studded maws. They are made of innumerable, blunt suckerless tentacles wound together, and are nearly weightless with a distinctly gooey consistency. The most common color in the visible spectrum is a dead, lightless black, though species that can perceive infrared or ultraviolet spectra will see horrors covered with innumerable intricate, unique patterns. They are apt mimics of general shapes, but can't change their colors or conceal their tentacular make-up. Greater horrors on Sornieth adopt the shapes of serpentine dragons, with greater or lesser success.
Lore
A dragon egg laid outside the territory of the eleven elemental gods will not hatch: without their magic, soul never knits to body and the embryo inside withers and dies. Without an anchor, the little waiting spark of Mind that might one day have become a person slips away through the cracks in reality. Most are eaten by the pneumavores that lurk in the hungry Void outside, but a few--lucky or clever or both--survive and grow up to become predators themselves. Shade-touched, these lost souls lurk in the dreams and nightmares of dragonkind, feeding on their fears and growing fat.
The largest of them are the greater horrors, dream-beasts without an identity beyond their Names--the specific terror they draw strength from. Most horrors are little more than beasts, unconscious and unaware of the minds around them, though they ably ape the manner and speech of dragons they meet while dreaming. The larger they are, the more they resemble thinking beings, though the veneer of intelligence lies only skin-deep over a terrible animal cunning. Sleeping dragons caught and seduced by a wandering horror might never wake again, trapped beyond saving in their own nightmares--or worse, awaken possessed, without dreams or mind or reasoning of their own.
Terrifying as they might be, horrors dissolve if they can be lured into the waking world. Without flesh or consciousness, they hold no constant shape and melt away like fog in the sunlight. A very few, though, have that vital spark of self-regard that can blossom into true sapience with the right encouragement. These rare horrors are a match for any dragon in intellect and can survive outside the dream-world, but they're often socially crippled and terribly, terribly lonely.
Made of nightmare-stuff woven together, a horror in its native shape is a serpentine nightmare of tendrils and eyes and teeth. Able mimics, they can adapt any form they choose, though never so convincingly as to fool anyone: their telltale coloration can't be disguised, nor can the innumerable tiny tentacles making up their corporeal forms. Neither do many bother to hide their unnatural fangs; given their preference to resemble more anguine breeds of dragons, this often leads to distressingly toothy faes and coatls with maws of razors.
While an individual horror might favor the traits of one sex or another--or neither, or both--they are by nature sexless creatures. Within their native realm, they only "mate" to share memories and substance one with another, and reinforce social bonds. New horrors are formed by fission from an existing horror whose Name has grown too large, or when a recently lost soul becomes large enough to take on a Name of its own. In the waking world, embodied horrors can combine their substance to produce offspring with traits of both parents, though the process only has the vaguest resemblance to ordinary draconic mating. With the proper flesh-shaping magic from plague or nature, horrors can even interbreed with dragons, producing horrorkin that are equally comfortable in the dream or the waking.
Horrors within the realm of dream have ice-white or shade-black eyes. Those outside it gradually take on colors consonant with the dominant magic of the clan they reside with, a last vestige of the ties they should have had to the deities. Due to their natures, they are most comfortable with plague, ice, and shadow clans.
Lore and Subspecies by PlagueHeart
Subspecies Standards
Breeds: Spiral, Fae, Coatl, Imperial, Mirror, Bogsneak, Wildclaw
Colors:
Primary: gloom through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, wine;
Secondary: gloom through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, wine;
Tertiary: antique through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, or wine for anything but opal, smoke, spines, stained, or smirch
- Opal: gloom through shadow, sapphire, abyss, phthalo, hunter, sanguine, blood, wine
- Smoke, Spines, and Ghost: any color permissible
- Stained: "darker" colors, e.g., grey-mulberry, nightshade-eggplant, indigo-blue, overcast-azure, thicket-camo, swamp-green, spring-goldenrod, slate-soil, chocolate-maroon, raspberry-mauve. breeder discretion is advised; colors outside these ranges might work if they don't make the dragon too pale.
- Smirch: gloom-wisteria, navy, overcast-azure, thicket-forest, murk, slate-soil, chocolate-tomato, crimson-berry, wine
Genes:
Primary: iridescent, ripple, poison, jupiter, metallic, python, pinstripe
Secondary: shimmer, current, toxin, saturn, alloy, morph, trail
Tertiary: underbelly, glimmer, crackle, smoke, spines, stained, thylacine, opal, smirch, ghost
Flights: Any permitted; ice, plague, shadow preferred
Greater horrors are not dragons, but a type of Shade-touched fauna that periodically emerges from a nightmare realm alongside waking Sornieth. They have their genesis in the souls of dragons that die in their eggs, having never formed a magical connection with an elemental deity. New horrors may form spontaneously in this fashion, or be fissioned from an existing horror. Within their native realm, they feed primarily on the fears and anxieties of Sornieth's inhabitants, though they are not averse to devouring the mind and intellect of unwary sleepers.
While born of the lost souls of dragons, most horrors themselves are not sapient, only able to mimic the behavior of conscious beings. A small number of horrors, however, can rise true consciousness, though they must encounter a sapient being sojourning within the nightmare realm itself to achieve their full potential. Even non-sapient horrors can give a very good impression of consciousness to an unwary observer, however--they speak and act much as a thinking being would, though they are driven by instinct to evoke terror so that they can feed on it.
Each horror has a Name, corresponding to the particular fear it feeds on. These can be broad (Failure, Loss, Death) or narrow (Mirrors, Clowns, Bees); the broader the fear, the larger and more developed the horror.
Mages of any flight with a taste for nightmare magic can call greater horrors forth to do their bidding, though the mindless variety dissolve into loose magic shortly after being summoned. Sapient horrors may persist on Sornieth indefinitely, and often use their powers of mimicry and mental suasion to make homes for themselves among dragon clans.
Greater horrors in their native shapes are enormous, eel-like monstrosities with dinner-plate eyes and tooth-studded maws. They are made of innumerable, blunt suckerless tentacles wound together, and are nearly weightless with a distinctly gooey consistency. The most common color in the visible spectrum is a dead, lightless black, though species that can perceive infrared or ultraviolet spectra will see horrors covered with innumerable intricate, unique patterns. They are apt mimics of general shapes, but can't change their colors or conceal their tentacular make-up. Greater horrors on Sornieth adopt the shapes of serpentine dragons, with greater or lesser success.
Lore
A dragon egg laid outside the territory of the eleven elemental gods will not hatch: without their magic, soul never knits to body and the embryo inside withers and dies. Without an anchor, the little waiting spark of Mind that might one day have become a person slips away through the cracks in reality. Most are eaten by the pneumavores that lurk in the hungry Void outside, but a few--lucky or clever or both--survive and grow up to become predators themselves. Shade-touched, these lost souls lurk in the dreams and nightmares of dragonkind, feeding on their fears and growing fat.
The largest of them are the greater horrors, dream-beasts without an identity beyond their Names--the specific terror they draw strength from. Most horrors are little more than beasts, unconscious and unaware of the minds around them, though they ably ape the manner and speech of dragons they meet while dreaming. The larger they are, the more they resemble thinking beings, though the veneer of intelligence lies only skin-deep over a terrible animal cunning. Sleeping dragons caught and seduced by a wandering horror might never wake again, trapped beyond saving in their own nightmares--or worse, awaken possessed, without dreams or mind or reasoning of their own.
Terrifying as they might be, horrors dissolve if they can be lured into the waking world. Without flesh or consciousness, they hold no constant shape and melt away like fog in the sunlight. A very few, though, have that vital spark of self-regard that can blossom into true sapience with the right encouragement. These rare horrors are a match for any dragon in intellect and can survive outside the dream-world, but they're often socially crippled and terribly, terribly lonely.
Made of nightmare-stuff woven together, a horror in its native shape is a serpentine nightmare of tendrils and eyes and teeth. Able mimics, they can adapt any form they choose, though never so convincingly as to fool anyone: their telltale coloration can't be disguised, nor can the innumerable tiny tentacles making up their corporeal forms. Neither do many bother to hide their unnatural fangs; given their preference to resemble more anguine breeds of dragons, this often leads to distressingly toothy faes and coatls with maws of razors.
While an individual horror might favor the traits of one sex or another--or neither, or both--they are by nature sexless creatures. Within their native realm, they only "mate" to share memories and substance one with another, and reinforce social bonds. New horrors are formed by fission from an existing horror whose Name has grown too large, or when a recently lost soul becomes large enough to take on a Name of its own. In the waking world, embodied horrors can combine their substance to produce offspring with traits of both parents, though the process only has the vaguest resemblance to ordinary draconic mating. With the proper flesh-shaping magic from plague or nature, horrors can even interbreed with dragons, producing horrorkin that are equally comfortable in the dream or the waking.
Horrors within the realm of dream have ice-white or shade-black eyes. Those outside it gradually take on colors consonant with the dominant magic of the clan they reside with, a last vestige of the ties they should have had to the deities. Due to their natures, they are most comfortable with plague, ice, and shadow clans.
Lore and Subspecies by PlagueHeart
News & Updates
October 6, 2020 Tzarksra lives! A general update can be found on page 45, but I am currently working on getting things up to date!
June 24, 2018 Greater Horrors are now 200 strong!
June 7, 2018 All eye types are acceptable for Horrors
May 28, 2018 Ghost, Python, Morph, Pinstripe, and Trail are now acceptable genes
November 23, 2017: Repeat names are now allowed
April 15, 2017: Opal has been added
March 7, 2017: Wildclaw and Bogsneak are now acceptable breeds. Thylacine, Metallic and Alloy have been added.
March 6, 2017: Under new ownership! Welcome to the new thread. Our old thread can be found here
October 6, 2020 Tzarksra lives! A general update can be found on page 45, but I am currently working on getting things up to date!
June 24, 2018 Greater Horrors are now 200 strong!
June 7, 2018 All eye types are acceptable for Horrors
May 28, 2018 Ghost, Python, Morph, Pinstripe, and Trail are now acceptable genes
November 23, 2017: Repeat names are now allowed
April 15, 2017: Opal has been added
March 7, 2017: Wildclaw and Bogsneak are now acceptable breeds. Thylacine, Metallic and Alloy have been added.
March 6, 2017: Under new ownership! Welcome to the new thread. Our old thread can be found here
Subspecies Standards
Breeds: Spiral, Fae, Coatl, Imperial, Mirror, Bogsneak, Wildclaw
Colors:
Primary: gloom through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, wine;
Secondary: gloom through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, wine;
Tertiary: antique through blackberry, abyss, hunter, umber, sanguine, or wine for anything but opal, smoke, spines, stained, or smirch
- Opal: gloom through shadow, sapphire, abyss, phthalo, hunter, sanguine, blood, wine
- Smoke, Spines, and Ghost: any color permissible
- Stained: "darker" colors, e.g., grey-mulberry, nightshade-eggplant, indigo-blue, overcast-azure, thicket-camo, swamp-green, spring-goldenrod, slate-soil, chocolate-maroon, raspberry-mauve. breeder discretion is advised; colors outside these ranges might work if they don't make the dragon too pale.
- Smirch: gloom-wisteria, navy, overcast-azure, thicket-forest, murk, slate-soil, chocolate-tomato, crimson-berry, wine
Genes:
Primary: iridescent, ripple, poison, jupiter, metallic, python, pinstripe
Secondary: shimmer, current, toxin, saturn, alloy, morph, trail
Tertiary: underbelly, glimmer, crackle, smoke, spines, stained, thylacine, opal, smirch, ghost
Flights: Any permitted; ice, plague, shadow preferred
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Kit | she/them
FR +2 coatl connossieur |
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