Witherling - the name given to the walking dead in Gnollish folklore. A gaping maw of huge, gnashing teeth that desires nothing more than to pierce flesh and taste warm blood again... Instinct: To gnaw the flesh off bones

• Grip something in its jaws

The form and structure of a magical construct is intricate and precise. Each component inscribed with delicate runes and channels through which magic will flow and turn lifeless metal into living flesh. The mage desires to improve this structure - the runes more precise, the enchantments more complex, the channels more efficient. When the Patron of Perfection herself brings life to stone - beautifully ugly, infinitely complex, perfectly simple and disturbingly inhuman - she forms the Atronachs. Instinct: To serve Niserie

• Incapacitate them with sound
• Shatter something

The Dune Mimics of Ahmaradis; massive, terrifying creatures that slumber beneath the sand, utterly imperceptible to the mortal eye. Only centuries of oral tradition have kept alive the knowledge of these creatures' whereabouts, such that travelers may avoid falling prey to their endless hunger. Instinct: To lie in wait

• Disguise itself perfectly beneath the sand

Stalking the vast floodplains of Kuorsix are the flocks of the biggest birds you'll ever see - the Tower Cranes. Called so for the way they'll strut right up to a watchtower and pluck soldiers right from it, swallowing them whole like a lesser bird might do with fish or insects. Instinct: To feed on what it can

• Attack with vicious toe claws

The Casni nomads of Kuorsix have long resisted attempts at assimilation by more 'civilized' peoples. Long have they made the steppe their home, roaming its vast expanse and surviving off its wild game. They offer aid to the Houses when they can, but ultimately owe allegiance to no one. Instinct: To roam their ancestral land

• Overwhelm a target
• Move as one across the plains

The Dwarven city of Damaisithymos Pelegon was decimated in the war. Enough blood was spilled there, folk said, that the very land was cursed with evil. Some nights, they say, the spirits of those who fell return to fight their battles anew... Instinct: To haunt a place of battle

• Fight as it did in life

Only the most righteous, the most pious, the most honorable of servants to the Gods may take on the mantle of Paladin. Lord Zyrres has judged you, boy, and found you wanting. Instinct: To serve Zyrres

• Deny mercy to nonbelievers
• Command with divine authority

Another one of Talthageon's tricks - a creature with a shell of stone and flesh like magma, cloaked by its perfect disguise awaiting the slightest tremor to warn it of approaching prey. Long, whipping tendrils of molten stone emerge from its carapace in the blink of an eye, wrapping around all in sight and dragging it to its fiery maw. Instinct: To ambush

• Disarm a foe
• Ensnare the unsuspecting

The magic of Talthageon gives a strange kind of life to the very fires of the mountain. Instinct: To burn

• Melt into stone
• Emerge suddenly from lava

"Helzu House has insulted us for the last time - we cannot stand for this, lest our rivals see us as weak. Break into their tombs, desecrate their graves and raise their dead. Helzu will pay for what they have done to us." Instinct: To take revenge on rivals

• Raise an undead servant
• Perform a dark ritual