Creatures of Shaxal
From the field journals of the Cathedral of Lairut — every order of being recorded across the Known World.
Catalogued Orders
Each entry below represents an order of being encountered in Shaxal. Specific creatures, named bosses, and rare variants will be added to each category as the bestiary expands during development.
Order I
Winged hunters of the open skies. From storm-tossed coastal raptors to the spectral carrion flocks of the Ashen Empire — fast, vocal, and rarely encountered alone.
Order II
Built things. Bound things. Animated armor, clockwork sentinels, and the half-living forge-children of older eras still walking out their forgotten orders.
Order III
Raw expressions of the eleven elements given form. Tied to ley-rich locations and the breath of greater spells — easy to provoke, dangerous to contain.
Order IV
Lesser servants of the Hierarchies. Bound to the will of an Imperator or Apex — many are weapon, scout, and torturer in a single shape.
Order V
Lesser luminous beings. Aligned to old covenants, often radiant and rigid in purpose. Encountered most often near consecrated ground.
Order VI
Eight-legged predators of the deep places. Webs that hold magic. Venoms with named effects. The Shrouded Kingdom's caves teem with them.
Order VII
Bandits, cultists, deserters, and the shaped people of the wilds. The most varied order — every kingdom contributes its own.
Order VIII
Natural predators and prey. Wolves, great cats, horned grazers turned defensive — and the dire variants that grow far past any natural size.
Order IX
Apex flying predators. Some intelligent, some not. Each known dragon is associated with a specific element — and a specific cathedral cautionary tale.
Order X
Imperators and named entities of the Children of Krystania. Each one is a fixed encounter — a story, a strategy, and usually a crater.
Order XI
Named hosts of the upper choirs. Rare, slow to appear, and decisive when they do. Their presence reshapes the rules of an encounter.
Order XII
Things of the Sundering Sea, the Pale Mere, and the Gulf of Ashfall. Some are fish in name only — older shapes still surface where the water runs deepest.
Order XIII
Ambush stalks, root-binders, sporeclouds, and the slow-walking groves of the Verdant Realm. Easy to underestimate. Rarely a second time.
Order XIV
Beings of the higher firmament — older than the angelic choirs and rarely bound to mortal concerns. When one descends, the air around it changes weight.
Order XV
The reanimated, the unwilling-to-rest, and the bound corpses of older wars. Some retain memory; most retain only hunger. Common around forgotten battlefields.
Order XVI
Lesser malice given form — neither demon nor undead, but something older that watches the seams between. Often summoned, occasionally arriving uninvited.
Order XVII
Bodiless presences tied to a place, a relic, or an unfinished oath. Some help. Some lead the unwary off cliffs. Most simply remember.
Catalogue last revised in the current cycle. Specimens, behaviors, and weakness tables continue to be added.