Excerpts and Images from the Bestiary of Archive Expeditionary Icharook Pelwas

The following are images and excerpts from the Bestiary of the Archive's Expeditionary Icharook Pelwas, one of the Archive's chief zoologists.

Longcrawlers - Universe J-4882R, Planet Yaren

“...the cities atop them develop in extreme isolation, only interacting once every hundred cycles when the Crawlers gather to lay their eggs on the shores of their world’s only sea. Such occasions are marked by great festivals, bazaars, and ‘intimate exchanges’ between citizens of the different cities. These festivities last for up to five cycles while the crawlers lay their clutches and drink their fill from the freshwater sea, ending only when the first crawler begins to 'groan', a sound made by the rubbing of its legs against its exoskeleton as it slowly begins to stand after lying beside the shore. Once that occurs, it's a mad rush for all city denizens to return to their crawler-top cities before they're left behind...."

Ozagian Pit Sloths - Universe L-1419C, The Pits of Ulgamos

“...the crystals on their heads grow larger and brighter as they age, only shedding when the Sloth’s life is at its end. The crystals then take root where they fall and grow to enormous sizes before fracturing into multiple shards, each of which eventually hatches into an infant sloth. After the sloths hatch, the resident tribes of the pits collect the brittle remains of the crystal, grind it into a fine powder, and boil it into a tea that produces a hallucinatory effect when imbibed. This tea is used exclusively by each tribe's guideman or guidewoman to divine the future and help their tribe navigate whatever change is yet to come..."

Gearminds L-7843G, The Factory

“...they have no memory of what they once were, or any concept of what they wish to become. The only thing they know is that they must continue to maintain the machine that surrounds them, a task that consumes their every waking moment. Despite thorough exploration of the megastructure they inhabit, I have found no evidence that the sentient brains that pilot the clockwork bodies are being grown especially for the task, which leads me to a single conclusion - the Gearminds are being created from the extracted brains of those explorers unfortunate enough to caught by one of the many larger clockwork automatons that roam the corridors and causeways of the Factory...”

The Visitor - Universe B-0020V, Planet Earth

“...they say it arrived nearly fifty years ago, accompanied by incredible auroras, and never left. It does nothing, says nothing, just floats overhead, silently observing the world and its people from orbit. Since then, the space agencies of multiple countries have attempted unmanned orbital investigations of the Visitor, but none have yet been able to get close enough to land. The Visitor emanates an electromagnetic field that short-circuits any electronic device that gets too close to it, making it not only impossible to study up close, but a massive obstacle to Earth's network of satellites and orbiters...”

Stone-Faced Philosopher Trolls - Universe G-1436J, The Peaks of Garracas

“...they spend the entire last half of their lives seated atop the highest peak they can find, unbothered by the comings and goings of the world, and interested only in the subtle motes of wisdom to be found in the silence amidst the clouds. They will sometimes dispense said wisdom to those who climb and meet them, but only if they deem the climber worthy of receiving their wisdom. It is said that they have been far choosier in whom they dispense their knowledge to ever since a young Carn the Conqueror used the advice she received from them to brutally subjugate over half the known world...”

Mosswalkers - Universe K-8323R, The Meldwood

“...their relationship with the gnomes of the wood is symbiotic - they give the gnomes transportation and safety from the tiny gremlins of the undergrowth, and in return the gnomes feed them, tend to their wellbeing with their magic, comb their fur, and exfoliate their beaks. It isn't known how the mosswalkers arrived in the Meldwood - their closest relative is a very similar species endemic to the Valley of Roots, an isolated locale that is 2 continents and an ocean away...”

Cloudsippers - Universe D-3390N, The Valley of Many Mounds

“They roam in herds of ten to twenty, shaking the earth whenever they choose to migrate.” “Their mouths are in their feet, which devour the plants and dirt they stand upon, while their heads reach into the clouds and suck the moisture straight from the sky. In ancient days, they were worshipped as gods by the many tribes of the Valley of Many Mounds, not just because of their size and strength, but because of how many times they had saved he people of the Valley from impending superstorms by simply drinking rain before it could ever fall and flood the villages...”