Aspies For Freedom

Or, in less latinesque terms, a bestiary of creatures I made up.



The Rat-Wolf (or Wolf-Rat, if you prefer) is a rare curiosity found in certain forests. Its omnivorous and in fact, short of cellulose there seems to be very little that it can't digest. Rat-Wolves are slightly smaller than foxes but extremely dangerous for their size. Several of their dietary staples are poisonous, and as a result minor bites are often fatal.

The colouration shown here is fairly universal, though no two Rat-Wolves have exactly the same pattern of coloured fur. This Rat-Wolf is shown in a defensive position; normally the Rat-Wolf's fur is smooth and regular. The puffing up effect is most noticeable on the tail, which increases tenfold in apparent size when the Rat-Wolf is disturbed.

This is a female Rat-Wolf. There is no way to tell this from looking short of picking one up and examining it closely, but since doing that involves mortal peril there is no real need.

Rat-Wolves which mate stay together until their children reach adulthood, after which point they can't stand being within fifty feet of their former mate. This aversion lasts for a lifetime which caps at about 10 years but in the wild lasts more like 6 years.




This little cave dragon (about the size of a large dog) feeds mainly on bats and other echolocating fliers. It's horns are actually hollow, although very tough, and can mimic almost any sound; it also has very sensitive hearing. It uses its horns mainly to counter echolocation signals, creating illusory obstacles to trick its prey. It can't fly; its wings let it glide and also help control its body temperature. Its kite-like tail is used for control as it glides and its strong front gripping claws allow it to land on some fairly unlikely ledges, where it can perch to trick bats into flying into its mouth.

The Cave Siren's name comes from its mating call, a long, low, eerie, complicated dirge that has a hypnotic effect on humans and other large mammals. This is a male Siren; in females the forehead horn (which produces the lowest notes and is used almost exclusively for mating calls) is much smaller. Female Cave Sirens also have slightly lighter scales. As well as green, Cave Sirens are found in shades of grey, navy blue, and (rarely) glossy black, but green is the most frequent phenotype. Just under half of them have dark streaks on the flaps of their wings.

The Cave Siren is closer than any non-chimerical to human-level intelligence.  They learn the basics of language with exceptional speed (even from only fleeting and occasional contact with humans) though they never seem to exceed a vocabulary of about a hundred words.  Interestingly they can learn a second language at the same level with the same speed, and as long as they continue to use the first occasionally they will keep at the same level in each.  In non-linguistic areas their intelligence lags significantly behind, or so we believe.  Cave Sirens are peaceful and pleasant to humans unless we either interfere with their habitat or try to probe into their society, if they really have one, at which point they become very violent in the first instance (often using misdirected bats as weapons) or incredibly uncooperative in the second.  For example, every Cave Siren ever tested has failed to identify its reflection as itself.  This is so discontiguous with the species' highly advanced social behavior that our scientists suspect they are all just messing with us.

Oh I sure hope that you've got many many more species to show here because those two are sooo cute I must say. Cool descriptions!

Well, here's another.  I wouldn't call her cute, though.  Particularly not in earshot; she'd eat you.  If you're gonna get eaten you might as well go for the mustache joke.



The Raptor Dragon is a flying predator about the size of a large horse (which is about as far as I'll strain the believability of these things flying.)  It hunts large grazing animals.  Though you can't see them here, it has more normal hind-claws and walks on its hind legs on the ground.

Raptor Dragons have an extremely interesting adaptation in the bones of their fingers and wings.  Both are made not of solid bone but of interlinking segments held rigid by thick tendons.  By setting and unsetting the tendons it can alter the number and position of the joints in its claws and wings.  This allows it to grip pretty much anything and to fold it's wings up really tightly, as well as to alter the nature of its wings and the way it flies.

To kill its prey, the Raptor turns one digit on each claw into a long, lethal spear and rams them both deep into its victim in a swooping dive designed to sever the target's neck.  Then it latches its other claws into the victim, sets them in place and begins to carry it away (it can lift up to 1.5 times its weight for short distances when coming out of a killing dive) if the victim is dead the Raptor carries it about a hundred feet away, deposits it carefully then messily and rapidly devours it.  Then it flies back to its home grounds to sleep off its meal.

This is a female Raptor Dragon.  The mustache spikes on the males are curves dramatically downward.  Raptors come in many shades but they are all blue-grey like a clear sky.

Raptor Dragons are not clever.  A general rule is that a flying dragon is about half as intelligent as a non-flying dragon of the same size, though of course this rule only applies to average intelligence (Raptors are rather below average, being a top predator.)  Also, Raptors have virtually no social behavior outside of mating, and their mating behavior is very unremarkable (they do not form any attachments with their mates.)

Raptor Dragon eyes are unusual in that they are mostly matte black; at night they have decent vision and can't be detected by the glow of their eyes.

Lookit!  A birdy!



The Flameborn is a remarkable fireproof bird (the plural of Flameborn is Flameborn.) It inhabits a fictional environment; a forest growing around an active and ceaselessly erupting volcano. Much of the energy in said forest comes from lava heat. Naturally, there is a great deal of heat and fire; the Flameborn specializes in catching the burst of glowing gases from a flame geyser and using it to rocket hundreds of feet in the air. It descends from that height in a tightly controlled spiral dive, tucking it's wings back to achieve incredible speeds (they've been clocked at over 120 klicks (that's kilometers per hour.) At that speed, with their wing-surfaces still superheated, it aims for a body of deep water, sights with it's specially adapted eyes, enters the water like an Olympic diver and grabs onto a particular kind of fish. The Flameborn is the only predator that can catch this particular fish.

This is a male Flameborn. Females have larger head crests and slightly duller colouration. All Flameborn are flame coloured.

Despite being smaller than most raptors, Flameborn are easily trainable, so long as you have fireproof gloves. They are very profitable to train as well, since the fish they hunt is quite a delicacy. They can also be trained to attack, in which case they are extremely deadly since from the moment a Flameborn is launched from an artificial flame geyser to the moment it hits it's target it never slows down enough to be targeted or even clearly seen. In full speed flybys their wings can cut through anything even slightly flammable and badly sear flesh.

They were drawn on a computer using a tablet and a vector drawing program, specifically Adobe Flash.  I could explain the colouring process but it's not much use without the software and equipment.

In the interests of stretching my abilities...




This is a mated pair of Lasters. Lasters are large, highly intelligent catlike predators. They eat most any freshly killed meat they can get and have been reported to use rudimentary food-peservation techniques, most notable smoking their meat. Unlike cat tails, Laster tails are prehensile and used as manipulators.

Lasters have extremely acute hearing particularly in hearing slight variations in musical pitch. As they have a much smaller capacity for making sounds than is normally required for language, their spoken language revolves mainly around pitch. Their normal voices sound like singing to humans. Very few non-Laster creatures can speak their language (Cave Sirens and a few other sound-imitators can) but it can be understood, and the Laster can learn other languages as well, though there are a few concepts that most Laster cannot comprehend (likewise, there are a few Laster concepts humans have great difficulty grasping.

Little is known about Laster society, mainly because the Jungles they inhabit are extremely hostile to humans. Lasters mate for life in the same sense humans and other intelligent species 'mate for life,' though Laster breakups are reportedly much less common than human ones.

The sitting Laster to the left is male, the one to the right is female. Male Lasters are in general slightly larger and more darkly coloured.

These are Silver-Blue Lasters, Lasters also come in Ice-Blue, Aqua-Blue and Green. The colour phenotypes are spread much like human ethnic groups, with one being more dominate depending on the area.

Lasters have a powerful sense of smell and the ability to discern emotion in most creatures based on this; they can also detect falsehoods. Because of this superstitions of Lasters possessing psychic powers have arisen, these superstitions are not correct.

Absolutely beautiful! You're very talented, and I love the descriptions.

Here's a nicely pastoral looking scene.



These creatures are called Gnostons (silent G, pronounced NOS-tons).  They are grazers that greatly resemble very small cows; however they do not travel in herds.  Instead, they stay together in family groups like the one shown here.  Gnostons mate for life, which is necessary because both parents are needed to protect their calves.

Gnostons are very fast and agile for herbivores of their size, and in addition to their obvious armour plating they have a thick glossy epidermal layer that is extremely difficult to bite through; because of this they are ignored by most pack predators.  Their main predators are dragons, particularly the Raptor Dragon, which is adept at bypassing their best defense by picking them up and killing them with a hard impact by dropping them.

The Gnoston that is sleeping is female.  Females are slightly smaller, have udders and lack a nose-plate.  The standing one is male.  The drinking Gnoston is a calve; Gnostons are calves until about 2 years, at which point their plates and skin darken and acquire the glossy layer.

Gnostons are clever than cows, but only by a little.  They can be trained to haul heavy loads, but other animals are more effective for pure strength.  In war situations, however, Gnostons are often used as they are unphased by loud bangs and fire (their skin can sustain direct contact with flame for about a minute before the gloss vaporizes and they catch fire.)

A family group of Gnostons is a pod.  A larger group is a siege.

And, since I can't edit my previous posts...

A group of Lasters is a ken.

A group of Flameborn is a prominence.

A group of Raptor Dragons is a dogfight (they don't get along.)

A group of Rat-Wolves is a vengeance.

A group of Cave-Sirens is a cult.

Alias, this is a great thread- all your creatures are fascinating, and the descriptions are very detailed.
The fingers on those Raptor Dragons are fairly creepy

You're an extremely imaginative artist~  (there will be more? she asked- somewhat selfishly)

The Gnostons just got a favourite in their first ten seconds on DeviantArt.

Thanks.  They are creepy, aren't they?  That was one of the few cases where I came up with the explanation before drawing something.

I'm having a lot of fun here, so barring something really drastic there should be more.  I'm getting some good practice at developing an art style here too.  Hopefully I'll eventually come up with a better trick for grass.

I love this thread, it brings so much... calmness. I used to do things like this as a kid too. You have a terrific imagination A_P

The moment I spotted the Ekoofkn I thought Lovecraft. Why haven't you read his work, YET?

Imagine David Attenborough walking around wildly gesticulating describing your beasts; that'd be a blast!

^ looks like lemurs...

The dark forest is deliciously creepy Alias~

That Voerp is one very strange looking creature.. they are fast, but how big are they?
...just when you think it's safe to go back in the water...

I want a pet dragon too. Great new avatar.