A few ideas for Howes Bestiary.

Re: A few ideas for Howes Bestiary.

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:12:40 +0000

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going to start on my small dragons.
I probably won't end up doing anything with the others though.

Re: A few ideas for Howes Bestiary.

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:04:29 +0000

I agree with Bunton for the most part. There are good ways to go over old myths, though. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to be adding something to the myth. You could do what I did for the genii loci, and add more scholarly information. You could also make changes to the myths, making something new from them. You've basically already talked about doing just that with the dragons (changing them to make them small, and then going into scholarly detail on life cycle, diet, and biology). You just need to apply that to your ideas on the Yowie and the Bunyip.

I'd go with the opposite tack on the quadraped, honestly. While it is indeed quite big at over fifty feet long, it's still not much more than a cryptid. Go for a more personal approach. Write up someone's encounter with it, or maybe talk about the myths in the area that surround it.

Essentially, the ones that are already mythical creatures, or are plainly magical/extraordinary, think about pulling them one step into the world of the known. Things like your steppe-beast are mostly plausible, so push them one step further into the world of the unknown. Am I making any sense?

Re: A few ideas for Howes Bestiary.

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:33:08 +0000

The first sounds good, but dragons are well-trodden ground and the anatomical explanation of fire-breathing is a very common one.

For the second, I'd advise making this more than just a write up of the myth. We are a creative writing site, and we do encourage people to write about novel things, not just a rehashing the same old legend, unchanged from popular versions.

The third is kind of… eh. It calls for something more interesting, or very good writing. The fourth is just too vague to comment on at the moment.

To criticise these in more detail, I would have to see a draft or finished article. The first is probably the most interesting-sounding, so I'd go with that.

A few ideas for Howes Bestiary.

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:44:30 +0000

I'm new to the site, but I have had some ideas. All for entries into Howes bestiary.
1.)- An entry about a species of very small (17cm long) dragons that eat insects and mate for life. They could also live semi-communally, like the different species of tamarins do in South America. They would be insectivorious, and very light, with fire breathing capabilities.
The way they could breath fire would be with an unidentified organ in their chest. Or something about hydrogen.

2)- Entries about two Australian cryptids. The Yowie, A kind of Australian bigfoot. It has red eyes tusks, crow talons for hands, and very long arms.
The Bunyip, an aquatic monster of sorts, which was greatly feared by the Aboriginals.It was often described to have a dog-like face, tusks, flippers and a horselike tail.

3)- A quadrupedal predatory mammal. It would be large (16 m in length) and with long black fur.
It would live in Siberia, and would not be any type of dog, cat, bear or weasel.
Its appearance would be to have a build similar to that of a spotted hyena, but more elongated and broad across the shoulders. It would have a long tail for balance, and would have long claws.
Its head could similar to a monitor lizard, but furry.

4)- more strange fauna living in Siberia