The Bestiary

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Whether it be for negotiating trade of pelts for a fair price to understanding the dangers of hostile creatures, documenting and categorizing the beasts that inhabit our world has been a fruitful and necessary endeavor since time immemorial. With the rising hostile climate and fear in the air, it has never become more necessary than our current day. With the publication of the Raimdelle Codex, came the foundation for a greater understanding of Eorzea's beasts as a whole, his work being built upon by Sharlayan scholars into our current understanding of Etheirys' fauna today. [1]

Classification

The Classification of the fauna as outlined in the Raimdelle codex follows a philosophy of three main kingdoms of beasts (also known as regnum), this being the Bloodborn, Bloodless and Trancendents. From there, he further divided these kingdoms into kindred (also known as classes), divided the kindred into genus, then genus into species.[1] This system of classification is not perfect within it's structure, and many beasts within it can hold qualities of many groups, however it is regarded that the most applicable classification will be applied as it's primary classification and other denominations fall under sub-classes of that nature.

Bloodborn

Bloodborn are primarily characterised as living beings in-which lifeblood courses through [1] and function within the natural world, although some exceptions may apply, such as the chimera.

Name Description
Beastkin Beastkin are warm-bodied fur-covered beings that give birth to a fully-formed offspring using a womb. Some can be used for domestication and animal husbandry.
Seedkin To be classified as seedkin, flora must exhibit the capacity for controlled mobility with the purpose of hunting, defense, or reproduction. Said reproduction is most commonly carried out with seeds or spores, those seeds requiring a medium or host within which to grow until mobility (most commonly seen in a seedkin's developed root systems) is achieved.
Vilekin As is suggested by the name, vilekin consist of all manner of worms and pests, be they terrestrial or winged. One unqiue characteristic of creatures falling into this class is a multistage lifespan that sees them develop from grub-like larvae into beings that belie their original shape-- a process known as metamorphosis.
Wavekin The defining characteristic of a member of the wavekin is its uncanny ability to breathe while underwater, be it for a limited duration,such is the case with amphibious toads and efts, or for the entirety of its lifespan, such is the case with most fish and cephalopods. While most wavekin are extremley timid creatures, some are known to exhibit little fear towards man and will oft turn the aggressor should they feel threatened.
Cloudkin The one feature shared by all cloudkin is the capacity for flight, be it wing-, aether, or gas-assisted. There do exist several rare species that, for one reason or other in their long line of evolution, have forsaken the skies and instead taken to lives upon land or even in the sea. The apkallu is one such example.
Scalekin All members of this class bear tough, scaly hides that serve as armour to protect their bodies from the claws and jaws of hungry predators. That said, most all scalekin are, in fact, better defined by their subclasses, the most popular being cloudkin and wavekin. Scalekin are also speculated to have distant relations with dragons as can be attested by the ease at which the spoken can manipulate their lesser cousins' minds, driving them to servitude.
Spoken The sole requirements for being classified as a spoken are that the intelligent creature not only posesses an independent language, but the language be capable of interpretation by another spoken of a differing genus.
Chimera Chimeras are beings created by the conjoining the flesh from two or more different beings in a complicated process that was once perfected during the Allagan Empire, but remains unknown to scholars of the present day.
Dragon Dragons are beings that came to Hydaelyn from another distant star, their lineage can be traced back to Midgardsormr with their appearance supposedly occurring at the beginning of time.

Bloodless

Name Description
Forgekin When the field of modern archaeology was still in its youth, many of the self-propelled mechanical creations of the ancients were thought to be animated using powerful magicks similar to those which breathe life into stone golems. It is not until recently with advancements in automaton construction that scholars have come to realise that the lifeforce within man-made (or beast-made) forgekin is born of a complex array of smoke-belching engines and metallic gears.
Ashkin Ashkin represent beings which, at one time, were full to bursting with vigor, but, for some reason (commonly death), have that life energy drained of them leaving naught but a shell -- a shell that is then reanimated by some outside means, denying the creature's thoroughgoing return, be it physical or spiritual, to the lifestream.
Soulkin Soulkin are inorganic beings that have been granted temporary life via outside magicks or a magicked medium. This ensorcellment allows for the pooling of aether within the creature which enables ambulation, simple cognitive reasoning, and in extreme cases, limited linguistic capacity. Modern naturalists argue that many of the creatures historically classified as soulkin only earned that classification as the result of outdated folklore and long-standing superstition.


Transcendents

Name Description
Voidsent Voidsent are classified as the beings that come from the Void to feast upon the life-giving aether of the beings of our realm. They are considered to be beings that have been corrupted by primordial darkness.
Elemental Elementals are observed to be naturally occuring beings that are almost entirely constructed of pure aether.
Auspice Auspices are believed to be beings, primarily of Bloodborn that have acended into a higher state of being. They show traits of a dual personality, with periods of calm and other periods of primordial rage.
Primal Primals are beings summoned into existence by a confluence of both large amounts of aether and faith in one spot. They are usually are summoned by a tribe and they commonly take the personality of the tribe that summoned them.
Sin-Eater Sin-Eaters are predominantly beings that were once of Bloodkin (with some edge cases), but have been transformed by primordial light into beings that only have the instinct to hunt or convert other beings.
Blasphemy Blasphemies are beings that once held aether, but became entirely consumed by dynamis warping into disfigured forms and loosing reason in the process.

Citations & References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Oda, B., Koji Fox, M.-C., & Ishikawa, N. (2022). Encyclopaedia Eorzea ~The World of Final Fantasy XIV~ (Vol. 1) [Hardback]. Square Enix Books. (Original work published 2016)