Category Archives: Bestiarum Vocabulum

Floating Island in the Clockpunk Wizard World

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Mink

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Mink

Mink

mink [mĭngk] noun, c.1425; ME mink; also magic kit/kitten.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A small land creature the size of a fox, with a luxurious coat ranging from silver white to black. This sentient magical creature is capable of vocalized speech enabled with a wizard’s (or sorceress’s) magic, and also uses mind voice. It enjoys cold weather and aquatic environments. Its enchantments include spells for warmth, agility, and skill with fishing.
  3. Personages: Vixen-shay, the Winter Wizard’s mink familiar in Glitter Ponies.
  4. See “Bestiarum Vocabulum: Familiar”

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Familiar

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Sorceress's Familiar

Sorceress’s Familiar

familiar [fə milyər] noun, c.1325; ME < L familiāris; replacing ME  famulier < MF < L; also totem, animal spirit, mage’s critter

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A sentient magical animal that bonds to a human wizard or sorceress. Human mages can acquire many familiars, although one is the normal number. Depending on the quality of the magician, a familiar’s magical ability ranges from a few simple spells, to using mind voice and other advanced magic. Only the most talented mages acquire a familiar that is a magical hybrid, such as a cynanthrope, werecat, or faun.
  3. Personages: Furgo, Wizard Kadmeion’s magical hybrid familiar in Forever Boy and Old Bony Blue Eyes. Also Vixen-shay, the Winter Wizard’s mink familiar in Glitter Ponies.
  4. See “Dramatis Personæ: Furgo” and “Go Fer and Furgo”
Airships and a Dragon

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Rig Monkey

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Rig Monkey

Rig Monkey

rig monkey [rig muhng kee] noun, c.1520; < LowGer moneke, equivalent mone- (obsolete Fr monne she-ape) + -ke diminutive suffix; also airship rigger

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A type of small homunculus inhabited by a minor demon, shaped like a miniature fur-covered human, that attends the sails, lines, and superstructure of an airship.
  3. A human or magical hybrid (e.g. a harpy, or the half-human and half-elf narfleet), that performs the heavier tasks of airship rigging that cannot be done by the homunculus rig monkey.
  4. Personages: Sir Bright worked at the Agatha Island zeppelin yard as a Rig Monkey before becoming Wizard Kadmeion’s assistant.
  5. See “Dramatis Personæ: Bright,” “Twice-Seventh Son Elf Magic” and “Monkey Business About Old Bony Blue Eyes”
Veldt Island

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Wee Wildebeest

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Wee Wildebeest

Wee Wildebeest

wee wildebeest [wē wildə bēst ] noun,  c.1835; < Afrikaans  wildebees < Dutch  wildebeest, means “wild”  wild + beest  “beast”; also gnu.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A herbivore herd animal that eats grasses containing trace levels of ambient magic. Mature females stand six hands high (24 inches) at the withers; males reach nine hands high (36 inches). Males weigh 4-6 stone (55-75 pounds), and females are 3-5 stone (44-64 pounds). Because wee wildebeest are not sentient magical creatures, they cannot cast spells. Predators hunt them for the traces of residual magic in their flesh. Wild wee wildebeest thrive in the sere interior grasslands on large floating islands. Heat demons and wild wee wildebeest congregate for protection from predators. Grassland satyrs were the first to domesticate wild wee wildebeest.
  3. Personages: The wild herds on Veldt Island in Ephraim’s Curious Device, and the domesticated herds on the Raeburn Island ranchland in Old Bony Blue Eyes.
  4. See “Bestiarum Vocabulum: Grassland Satyr”
Wager Island Highlands

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Ice Devil

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Ice Devil

Ice Devil

ice devil [īs devəl] noun, c.900; ON īss < Ger eis < OE īs < ME; c.1100; Sanskrit gurate; dia- + ballein to throw < Gr diabolos < LL diabolus < OE dēofol < ME devel; also ice hate

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A non-sentient magical creature composed of strong, negative emotions encased in ambulatory frozen water. An ice devil stands almost four feet tall, and bristles with icicles. The creature has a head, but no eyes. Ice devils immobilize their prey with a spell that numbs the limbs, and then stabs with the icicles. They feed on the victim’s blood and magic.
  3. Personages: Ice Devil pack in the Wager Island highlands in Old Bony Blue Eyes
  4. See: “Ice Devils”
Water Nymph

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Nymph

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Nymph

Nymph

nymph [nimf] noun, c.1350; ME nimphe < L nympha < Gr nýmphē bride; also water demon, wood demon, or air demon.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A class of minor demons that inhabit automaton bodies, conceived of as beautiful maidens inhabiting the ocean, rivers, rills, woods, trees, air, mountains, meadows, etc., that attend a rural sorceress. Nymphs are known for their amorous freedom, which separates them from other minor demons. The nymph’s sexual forwardness is especially dangerous for male travelers far away from home.
  3. See “3 Naughty Ladies of Fantasy Fiction” and “Bestiarum Vocabulum: Dryad”
Plate-Shaped Ocean World of Clockpunk Wizard

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Goon

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Goon

Goon

goon [gün] noun, c.1580; < L  gonia < Gr  goneia and gon(e) meaning “that which is borne”; from gony “simpleton” used by sailors for the albatross and similar large birds with clumsy movements; 1921 stupid person; 1938 hired thug; also demon oaf

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. Summoning goon demons is the easiest of the Demon Sciences magical discipline. Goon automatons are loyal, and make practical bodyguards. The cost of hiring a wizard to build a goon body, and call its demon, is prohibitive for all but the wealthy or political elite. There are two types of goons:
    • The classic goon is a homunculus made from animal parts. An unintelligent, but biddable minor demon animates the creature’s body. Because animal heads do not have the physical parts to produce human speech, the summoning wizard must add a durable enchantment that allows the inhabiting demon to talk.
    • Wizards grow modern goon bodies in crockery vats. These large creatures have slow-moving human forms. Although the vat-grown body improves the modern goon’s appearance, the inhabiting demons are the same type as in the classic version.
  3. Personages: Lord Hissalumieon’s goons Martook, Cess, Hoytt, and Messen in Ephraim’s Curious Device.
  4. See “Dramatis Personæ: Kadmeion” for the biography of a university-trained wizard who holds a Doctorate of Wizardry in the Demon Sciences.
Will-o'-the-Wisp

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Will-o’-the-Wisp

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Will-o'-the-wisp

Will-o’-the-wisp

will-o’-the-wisp [wil ə ðə ˈwisp] noun, c.1660; means “Will of the wisp” from the masculine proper name William + wisp, a bundle of straw used as a torch; also will-o-wisp, foolish fire, chir batti, hinkypunk, pixy-light, corpse light.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A malicious sentient magical creature that lives in fens and marshes. It consolidates the rotting magic from decaying plant and animal matter, and burns the fouled magic with a weak light. It craves living flesh, and a group of will-o’-the-wisps can strip a living animal to the bone within minutes. Wizards and sorceresses can counter a will-o’-the-wisp’s appetite by giving it a small metal object soaked with human magic.
  3. Personages: The hungry sisters in the Murphy (“Wrong”) Swamp on Hurt Isle in Ephraim’s Curious Device.
  4. See “Will o’ the Wisp: Swamp Siren (Part 1)” and “Will o’ the Wisp: Swamp Siren (Part 2)”
Bestiarum Vocabulum Hydra Bones

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Hydra

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Hydra

Hydra

hydra [hahy druh] noun, c.1350; L < Gr hýdrā < ME ydre < MFr; also sea snake, water serpent.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A magical sentient creature that lives in freshwater lakes and marshes. It has nine heads atop long sinuous necks, and a barrel-shaped body with front flippers and webbed hind feet. The hydra’s primary magic is the ability to regrow its severed heads. Hydrae are immune to enchantments. Wizards can kill a hydra by burning all nine neck stumps with mundane acid before the replacement heads sprout.
  3. Personages: Sir Death’s ferryman in Old Bony Blue Eyes.
  4. See “Old Bony Blue Eyes Book Trailer”
Glitter Pony Magic

Bestiarum Vocabulum: Glitter Pony

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The Bestiarum Vocabulum is the wizard’s encyclopedia of faerie beasties and mundane crossovers living in the lake and forest near Lita’s castle.

Glitter Pony

Glitter Pony

glitter pony [ɡlidər pōnē] noun, c.1350; ME < Old Nor glitra; OE glitenian, OHG glīzan to shine, glitter; c.1650; powney < ObFr poulenet, < L pullānus; also alicorn-eater, shiny horse.

  1. Denizen of the Clockpunk Wizard world.
  2. A small horse-shaped sentient magical creature that has unicorn parentage; also any bird, rodent, or small mammal that eats alicorn and transforms into a miniature glitter pony. Unlike unicorns, glitter ponies have small gem-like protuberances on their foreheads instead of alicorns. Glitter ponies are more tolerant of non-virginal adults than unicorns.
  3. Personages: Alomar, Lurch, Jigger, Triples, Archie, Krystal, Jingo, Happenstance, and Fearghus in Glitter Ponies.
  4. See “Halfway: Glitter Ponies” and “Finished: Glitter Ponies“