There are many sorts of the Hand-beast, but I here is a description of one sort.

The creatures body is always simple: spherical, teardrop, or pear shaped. Their bodies can be as large as a table, and they are hard, except around the mouth, which is similar to a giant's mouth.

Of this kind, every part of the body is covered with hair: hair no thicker than horse hair, and often thinner than human hair, and crowded densely together. The hair can be as long as a tree is tall. At the end of each hair is a small hand, unfolding like a leaf from the tiny stalk, but the knuckles are of ordinary size, and the fingers are too large for the knuckles. On each hand there is a second thumb, low down near where the hand becomes thin and tapers to join the hair.
There are short hairs with hands smaller than ants, and hairs as long as a great hall with hands as large as human hands, and hairs twice that length with hands as large as a giants.

There are many other kinds, but they all have long hairs ending in hands. Some have fewer hairs, but never very few. They have many different hand prints. Some have branching hairs. They are always black or dust brown. The largest hairs can be as thick as a finger, but are at least as long as the mast of a great ship. The strength of these is unbelievable.

They are very beautiful to see, like a flock of strange, black birds, that grow smaller towards the center, where a black spot fades outwards into innumerable, invisible threads to greet them. There is one sort that has all its hairs of equal length, so that the hands are all the same distance from the center. The hands form a shifting bubble, and the center seems suspended in the air in the midst of them.

All of the Hand-beasts walk on their many hands. The hairs, only visible when hundreds are gathered together, are yet as strong as serpents. It is hardly possible to break the hairs, or the body, but the hands themselves can be assailed. The mouth is the only weak spot on the body, but is, of course, difficult to reach. Their bane is fire, though they cannot be burnt, it torments them terribly, and hardly ever does it fail to drive them away.

If a hand is wounded, it shrivels, and a new hand replaces it. If the beast dies, or if one of its hairs is broken from the body, the thin sorts become as easy to snap as a human hair, and the larger sorts become as weak as rotten rope.

It is called Elauyea. What do you think of it?

(15 of July: I have since changed the name to Aleintar, and there is a parallel thread to this in my sub-forum for Iniel)

What is their natural habitat like? Are there very many of them or are they a rare sight in Iniel? Do they normally travel in bands, pairs, or alone? Are they aggressive in nature?

Ok, I'll stop with the questions now. I like them, Tsahraf. Very creative.

I would run if ever caught a glimpse of something like that...

My first mind-picture was a giant pear with hundreds and thousands of thick dreads with human colored hands at the ends. After I kept reading it started walking and waving with a huge grin on its ginormous mouth, then it lifted itself in to the sky, formed a sphere with its hands, always rotating with black hair and hands facing outwards, with hairs of different thicknesses and all black, even the body, with a very serious look on its horrible, giant mouth... Slightly creepy; sounds like something out of one of my nightmares...

Great. Thanks, Griffin. Now I am going to have nightmares.

(Only joking. And besides, nightmares can be interesting. You can get some great story ideas from nightmares. )

Help me! Something is stopping the questions!

They are Epic Beasts, like Dragons or Sea-serpents, if that gives you some idea of their natural habitat and scarcity.

I think they live in precipitous valleys and swampy inlets of the sea. There are many kinds that live in sea trenches.

They are a kind of Wise Beast, but their wisdom must be taught. They will join in a battle if they can be made to understand why it is being fought, but some things they cannot understand, like cities, and great houses.

They are the sort of creature that you are unlikely to defeat if you meet it, but you are almost equally unlikely to meet it in battle.



I would like to have one of your nightmares, Griffin. It sounds exquisite.
Very creepy, especially when you see it dark, rippling, writhing, and swarming as moves along a gray valley wall, or when it runs past you in the in the moonlight, its hands making the sound of a flock of ravens taking flight.

*laughs* Would you like me to continue?

Yes, please!

Here is to forestall some questions:
They have a gizzard rather then teeth, and are born through the mouth.
The matrix is attached to the throat as well as the lungs. They are mute, except what sounds they can make by flapping their lips. They cannot see at all, and they smell with their hands.

You forestalled most of my questions.

Are there any color variations? For example: you said that "they are very beautiful to see, like a flock of strange, black birds..."; so would there be the occasional albino? *is fascinated by this creature* Do they band together, or are they solitary creatures? If fire hurts them, are they averse to warmth in general? Are they mostly nocturnal or not?

With the addition of gray, those are the only variations in color, I think. There would be some rare albinos and some with a dark red color, and some with transparent hands and threads.

They live alone and leave each other after they mate. They can be called together by men to be taught, but otherwise they are very territorial.

They are actually very resistant to heat or cold, it is only fire that they fear.

Like dolphins, they do not sleep or hibernate. They rest one half of their brain at a time.

Another question...

Just kidding. I'll stop pestering you now. I love them, Tsahraf. They are amazing.

So when they walk on the ground (do they?) it's like grinding their noses in the dirt?

How does fire torment them if it does not hurt them?

The threads have the strength, especially in great numbers, to lift the body up from the ground. With some sorts a single thread which cannot be seen by itself has the strength to lift a man up and hold him in the air, but there are not many hand-beasts with this power.

Also they have no noses, they smell with their hands.




Pain is not always in proportion to damage. Here is a quote about the tarantula hawk from Wikipedia:

"The tarantula hawk is relatively docile and rarely stings without provocation. However the sting, particularly of Pepsis formosa, is among the most painful of any insect, though the intense pain only lasts for about 3 minutes. Commenting on his own experience, one researcher described the pain as "…immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations." In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, second only to that of the bullet ant and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric"."

But the sting obviously does not kill. The asp bite, however, kills almost painlessly.


But suffering pain alone can still harm you, even kill you, just as some one may die from fright. I see it as an attack directly on the mind, rather than on the body as well.

That is a good elaboration.

Hmm...sounds interesting. But I have a few questions;
1) Does it have eyes?

2) Can it hear?

3) And, if it doesn't have eyes or a sense of hearing, can it smell and sense objects in front of or surrounding it?.

4) Sorry, but...can it fly?... (*laughs* when you said 'like a flock of birds' I pictured it flying...)

5) Does it hop on its main hand? If not, how does it get around?.

in front*

?

1
No. But it can sense light and dark with its hands.

2
Very clearly, but like a bird its ears are not external.

3
I suppose this question has been answered.

4
No. But many swim, and live at the bottom of the sea.

5
It has no main hand, and it walks on thousands of its hands at once. Its prints would look like a large group of light footed animals had passed, only the prints would all be hand prints. Sometimes it rocks to one side, or forwards or backwards, so that it uses all of its hands more equally. Sometimes it looks like a black wave or a swarm of creatures moving as one.

But I could describe the way it moves for a long time. I hope I answered your questions!

Yep! You totally answered my questions

When I said "in front*" I was correcting my typo from earlier.

Quite simply: your world hurts my brain. All my questions have been answered. You know, most writers think of something for an animal as a bear mixed with a horse and wolf-like head that climbs trees or something like that. Yet you have a massive creature with long hair coming from it with hands on the end. This is my mind; this is my mind blown. How do you come up with this stuff?

Thank you, Aeleknight!

I have hybrid creatures as well. I think they are interesting.

Well, I came up with the Hand-beast because I saw it in a valley in Iniel. I also saw it aiding in the storm of a city. I only constructed the name "Elauyea," and I will probably change it.

In fact, their name is changed to Alentar.



Here is another beast:

The Karkonog (singular is Karkon) live in great caves with wide mouths. They come to many lands. They have tough, dark, brown hair, and in form are like great bears. Their eyes are like dragons' eyes, their heads are long and angular, and their neck is long like a polar bear's neck, and is thicker than the head. Their paws are more like massive hands than a bear's paw, and are more skillful. They steal and hoard treasure in their caves.

They mate and separate, and the Onoi, the Karkoness, rears a single whelp, and drives it away when it reaches maturity. They prey on livestock, but only venture among men when there is rumor of treasure to be gotten. They hate the Mandar, and attempt to rob their mines, but rarely do they succeed.

Their roar can be extremely prolonged, and it can stun and confuse cattle so that they prance from side to side rather then flee. They smell strongly like heavy earth.

You said "if it hears a rumor of treasure"; is this creature intellegent enough to understand speech or communicate with other species?

Very. Think of Smaug.

Thanks, cool.

Your complexity amazes me, Tsahraf, as always.

15 of July: I have changed this thread from "The Beasts and Creeping Things of Iniel" to "The Aleintar." I have started another thread about "The Karkon."

Okay, I saw that and was wondering when I posted on something called the Aleintar.

I was getting confused, and was probably confusing several people along the way. I am sorry. The reason everything was changed was because I decided to post my creatures in separate threads instead of in one gigantic thread. I am trying to follow Eruheran's good example. And this thread had practically become a thread about the Aleintar already.

I hope this change does not cause any more confusion.

No, its fine. I understood I just was a little disoriented by the name change. Thanks for letting us know, Sir Tsahraf.