A Bestiary of Caeldon

Natives of the Zones

Here stand the beings that live in the Resonant Zones, the places where another plane presses into the world, or that the zones have made. Some keep their zone: the Hemophages call the Blood River a god and themselves its priests, and the Door-Keepers of the Flux Maze let a traveller through for a toll or a riddle.

Others are what the zone does to life: the Muse’s Studio gives a body to whatever is imagined with enough force, and not all of it works for its maker. The neighbours of a zone usually know where its dangers lie, and what they cost, better than they know why.

Most Named in This Part

The Blood River Resonant ZoneA zone of life without balance, guarded by the Hemophages, who serve it as priests and hunt travellers to feed it.
The Storm Heart Resonant ZoneA perpetual lightning storm in which the order of things is turned over; its Storm-Walkers ride the lightning, and visitors who are struck and survive are drawn back until they become part of it.
The Name Bound Resonant ZoneThe Binding Song narrowed to names, where a being's True Name floats above it and whoever holds a name can move its bearer like a puppet.
The Flux Maze Resonant ZoneA zone of structure that will not hold still, whose Stone-Walkers move through the stone itself, guide and test in equal measure, and speak in riddles.
The Muse's Studio Resonant ZoneA workshop where ideas take bodily form, whose Muses encourage and tempt in equal measure.
The Probability Fog Resonant ZoneA rolling mist in which luck is the only law.
The Silent Gale Resonant ZoneThe Gale's paradox: a wind of hurricane force that makes no sound at all, held sacred by its Mute-Walkers.
The Whispering Winds Resonant ZoneA zone of the Unbound Gale in a high pass, a canyon, or a windy ruin, where the Wind-Listeners live by hearing and the voices of visitors whose bodies are gone have joined the wind.
Changers CreatureBeings transformed by the Probability Fog who can no longer return to their first form and now belong to its ecosystem; the Shape-Shifters and Probability-Beasts are among them.
Frost-Burned CreatureCracked, blue-tinged hermit-guardians of the Cinder Fields who live on the cold blue fire, speak only in whispers, and freeze solid if they leave the zone.
Judges CreatureTall, robed, obsidian-masked figures of the Silent Court who never speak, carry scales that weigh every word said there, and sit as its silent arbiters.
The Cinder Fields Resonant ZoneThe most famous zone of the Crucible: its energy turned inside out, so that fire consumes heat instead of producing it; its hermit-guardians are the Frost-Burned.
The Lingerers CreatureMortals who drank from an Ageless Spring and stayed beside it, unchanged for centuries, wounded forever by any cut taken there, and guarding the water in small communities.
Water-Robed CreatureStone-skinned guardians of the Truthwell in robes of woven water, with eyes like its surface, who hold the well as a sacred trust and speak only when they must.
Hemophages CreaturePale, red-veined, black-eyed humanoids who live on the Blood River's water and the lifeforce of others, worship the river as a god, and hunt travellers to feed it.
The Sky Isles Resonant ZoneA scattered archipelago of floating land, from rocky outcrops to great masses of earth, where the Sky-Walkers rest without ever letting go of their anchor.

Natives of the Zones

Most Named in This Part

In the Writers’ Guide