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| Painting by Pamela Poole |
Dragons
The magical world of Phantasm is
home to many of the creatures we on Earth believe to be hoaxes and myths. The
greatest of these is without a doubt the dragon. Dragons’ scales are similar to
a snake’s, but much larger and thicker. They have long, thick, serpentine
necks, and they possess pointing snouts full of savage, sharp teeth, a crest of
horns around their heads, and a flexible tail with a pointed barb at the end.
These winged behemoths bear greatness not out of fear and coerciveness, but
borne out of respect. They are typically reclusive, which makes their
infrequent appearances in the lives of the other Phantasmians all the more
prominent. Typically, dragons, with their keen senses (they can sense emotions)
and longevity (meaning they live through several generations of the other
creatures) contributing to their understanding of the ways of other creatures,
serve as harbingers of war or world-changing news. When one is visited by a
dragon, you can be sure that being will play an important role in an impending
event. The single greatest gift bestowed by a Dragon is Dragon-Voice. Only
non-dragons can receive Dragon-Voice (obviously) and to receive it, the being
must perform a task or make a decision that deems it worthy of a Name from the
Dragon-Namer (usually the Clan-leader’s offspring or mate) and become a member
of the Dragon-Clan.
Names are a very serious concept
among dragons; before this “proving” (which even a young dragon must
experience), a dragon is merely given the generic name “dragon,” which is their
equivalent of our name “baby” or “newbie.” Once a dragon has proved itself,
though, the Dragon-Namer gives it a name that often has special meaning based
on the role that dragon (or non-dragon) will have in a future event or
conflict. Once a name is given, the being (whether dragon or non-dragon) is a
Brother or Sister in the Dragon-Clan. With Dragon-Voice, a non-dragon can speak
to and understand Dragon. In situations of dire need, a dragon (or a non-dragon
with Dragon-Voice) may call the name of the clan (usually also the name of the
Clan-leader) and according to Dragon-Law, every dragon who hears it must come
or risk being branded with the name “Worm” for the rest of its life. The worm
is the lowest life-form to a dragon. To be named as such is the worst
degradation known to dragon. Very frequently, a dragon wounded in battle will
suffer infection of the untreated wound, and soon it is infested with the vile
“worm.” A dragon infected with the worms is either cast out of his clan,
regardless of his rank, or he is willingly slain by a dragon enemy, for no
dragon will kill another dragon.
Unicorns
Second
only to the dragon is the majestic unicorn. Pure, glistening white, the unicorn
is a valiant, noble creature, often chosen as a guardian or protector. A
newborn unicorn does not have a horn; it begins growing shortly after birth. As
it grows, the horn is milky-white in color. Once a unicorn reaches maturity and
the horn reaches its full length, the milky-white coating sloughs off and the
unicorn’s assignment of protection is decided by the color of the horn beneath.
A unicorn’s horn is transparent, like a diamond; its conical surface is
completely smooth, and tapers from its head like a long sword. Typically the
color is clear, (protecting the creatures in the mountains), blue (protecting
the Lake-creatures), green (protecting the little folk: elves and fairies and
such), or amber (protecting the towns). Very rarely, a unicorn has a red horn.
A red-horned unicorn has the especial privilege of protecting the
Phantasmagyth.
A Word On The Phantasmagyth
The Phantasmagyth serves as the
protection of Phantasm. Its appearance is like that of a large, clear jewel set
in gold, with an ornate gold chain attached to it. The Phantasmagyth remains
around the neck of the red-horned unicorn, and as long as that is the case, no
outsider can enter Phantasm. If an outsider does enter, by contrived artificial
or mechanical means, this is a threat to the red-horned unicorn, and all of the
other guardian-unicorns will seek to monitor the intruder and keep the
Phantasmagyth safe at all costs. If an intruder either kills the red-horned
unicorn or by trickery, flattery, or other false means obtains the
Phantasmagyth, that intruder—whomever he may be—has complete control over all
the beings in Phantasm except the dragons. They must obey his order, no matter
what. It may be that the intruder is a human from Earth, and perhaps he has
managed to bring the Phantasmagyth back with him, and he activates the
Phantasmagyth (by placing the chain on the setting of the Phantasmagyth; in the
event of an emergency, the red-horned unicorn can separate the two parts, the
Chain and the gyth, which becomes nothing more than a large, sparkling gem; the
real power of the Phantasmagyth is in the Chain) on Earth. If this were to
happen, he would have dominion over all the beings on Earth, and the capacity
to force them to do whatever he wants. This is why it is so vastly important to
every creature in Phantasm to protect the Phantasmagyth, and why it is such a
high honor for the red-horned unicorn, of which there can only be one at a
time.
Unicorns can speak, though you need
fairy dust to understand them. (In fact, a human needs fairy dust to understand
most of the creatures in Phantasm except the dragons, who communicate only to
those with Dragon-Voice, the gryphons, whom no one can understand, the trolls,
and the dwarves.)
Little Folk
To
explain fairy dust, I must first describe fairies. The Little Folk of Phantasm
are divided into two genders: Elves and Fairies. I say “genders” because all
girls are fairies, and all boys are elves. The Little Folk of Phantasm are not
miniscule, and they do not look like flowers; they look more like people, only
they are six inches high on average. So you see, compared with the common conception
of fairies, real fairies are much
taller.
Fairies have hands and feet just
like we do, (no curly-toed shoes), and are generally pale (not a glass-like
skin tone, but more fair-skinned), but it is really their faces that set them
apart from us in the matter of appearance. A fairy’s eyes are shaped like large
almonds, and her eyebrows are shaped like a wide V. Fairies’ ears are pointed,
but not just at the top. The earlobes are pointed, too, giving the organ an
elliptical shape. Fairies have wings; elves don’t. Fairies’ wings are not at
all like butterfly wings; they’re more like a swallow’s wings, unfolding from
behind their backs when they fly and tucking in when they are still. The wings
are typically white, with a pearly sheen to them. Fairies do not glow either,
at least not all the time. The movement of their wings causes them to
illuminate.
A word about fairy dust: it doesn’t
make you fly. It almost looks like mustard powder with a very faint sheen to
it; the fairy dust serves as a translator. Putting it in your ears helps you
understand the fairy (who speaks in little bell-noises, like Tinker Bell in Peter
Pan). The fairy dust will also “translate”
the speech of any other creature, such as unicorns or the merfolk. If you’re
daring (or desperate) you can also put a little bit on your tongue to help you
speak to the creatures who don’t understand human-speech (or even other humans
who don’t speak English). Be careful though: fairy dust tastes like a
tongue-scorching combination of hot mustard and red pepper!
Some other varieties of Little Folk
are: Biitals, small, furry, eyeless creatures that live among the grass in the
Meadow, and “see” through extremely sensitive tentacles; gnomes, three-inch
tall grey creatures with small hands and big yellow eyes; and dryads, small
pixies around four inches tall, whose duty it is to release the blossoms and
leaves from the trees to make room for the new ones to grow. (This is so
because the sun is in a fixed place in the outer membrane, and therefore no seasons
in Phantasm.)
Gryphons
High up in the trees of the Glades
(and in caves around the Sayhoun Mountains) live the gryphons. They have the
head of a golden eagle, gigantic wings, and the strong, sinewy body of a lion.
Their paws are shaped like lion’s paws, but since they are both eagle and lion,
the claws are large and long like an eagle’s talons. Gryphons are carnivores,
feasting on the wild lamb-like creature, the resia, who do not bother anyone,
but graze constantly on the grass in the Meadow and around the trees. Resia
look very much like fat lambs, only their “wool” is actually very short, curly
white hair on their hide. Gryphons aren’t the only ones who eat them; resia are
the chief (if not the only) meat source in Phantasm.
The last creature worth describing
(because all the rest look relatively like we expect them to: trolls are squat,
pig-like creatures with triangular ears, dwarves are short and hairy, and
giants look like normal people, only they average from fifty-five to seventy
feet tall) is the mermaid.
Mer-Folk
For starters, the Mer-folk of
Phantasm are not half-fish-half-human, but rather a combination of human and
fish. The only thing relating to humans is the general shape of the body (head,
neck, torso, two arms, two legs), and the arrangement of the face (mer-person
ears are sort of like frogs’ “ears”: hollow, drum-like organs called tympani;
in lieu of ear-lobes they have small fins on the sides of their heads; two eyes
on the front of the head, below them the gill-slits instead of a human nose,
and a fish-like mouth below that). Adult Merfolk can be anywhere from ten feet
to twenty feet tall. Skin tone ranges from bright blue to dark grey. Eyes are
bulbous and fish-like, but their color ranges between merpeople as much as
human eye color does: brown, blue, green, hazel, violet, aqua, or amber. Hair
color, also, can be any color (such as bright green or purple), and it does not
change with age, as a human’s does. Both mermen and mermaids have long hair
that does not stop growing throughout their lives; mermaids generally tend to
tie their hair back as it grows, or pile it on their heads and tie it securely
with seaweed. The more impatient mermen generally cut their hair short with
bone-knives when it gets in the way of swimming.
Having separate legs instead of a
single fishtail, the merfolk’s method of swimming is similar to the “butterfly
stroke” used by humans. Their feet, instead of toes, have long fins, sort of
like natural flippers in that a slow, easy kicking motion propels the merperson
forward. Spanning the underarms from the wrist to the hip are wide, flexible,
iridescent fins. To swim, a merperson extends its arms out to the side and
sweeps forward with webbed hands, in the motion of the butterfly stroke
mentioned before. Water gets caught in the fins and is released with the
backward sweep of the hands, thrusting the merperson through the water at twice
the speed of the fastest human swimmer over the water. Also contributing to the fluidity of a mer-person’s
movements is the fact that their bodies are streamlined, in the manner of a
fish. The front of their torsos are very flat compared to a human’s, and their
backs are smooth like a dolphin’s, from the neck to the heel. They glide
through the water much like manta rays.
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