Tag: Creatures

Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/20/24: Dog Magic

Since I’ve been doing dog breeds for the past two weeks, how about Dog Magic? The first dog magic, of course, was the human domestication of dogs. From what I’ve read, the first dog was a now-extinct subspecies of wolf similar to the present-day Arabian Wolf, which roams the Middle East. In other words, a …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/13/24: Toy Dog Breeds, Part 2

More Toy Dog breeds.   Toy Dog Breeds Mostado-Michu Tricolor dog (white, black, brown – think beagle) with a strongly arched tail. It has drooping ears covered with soft, silky fur and its body fur is also soft to the touch, with no rough undercoat. Gentle and sensitive, they were prized by upper class townsfolk …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/6/24: Toy Dog Breeds, Part 1

Toy Dogs are a show class of the American Kennel Club referencing small, cuddly canines whose chief job is human companionship. They can be of various breeds — spaniels and terriers for example —  or shrunk-down versions of larger dogs like poodles. The one thing they all have in common is their diminutive size, which …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/16/24: Birds of Prey

When the average person thinks of “birds of prey” or “raptors” eagles, hawks, and falcons come to mind. Owls are raptors too, despite their physical differences from these species. But there’s much more to this family — vultures, condors, buzzards, harriers, kites. I was surprised to discover in doing research for this post that there …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/23/23: Centaurides (Narnia XLVIII)

  A centauride is the Greek term for a female centaur. Though only one was named in Greek myth, they were common motifs in ancient Greek and Roman art and have remained so up until the present day. Walt Disney even played a riff on them for Fantasia (1940); they were going to be bare-breasted …

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The Algae Birds of Paradise

Besides algae, birds of paradise are the only other beings whose heads are attached to complex plant like structures. In India, a flower located on the back of their heads was considered to be a personification of the divine. While algae may not seem to be very animalistic, the more birdlike beings that appear throughout …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/3/22: Mythical Lions (Narnia XXXIX)

One thing the world has no shortage of are mythical creatures based on lions, as I showed in this post. This is likely the reason there are no manticores or chimerae in Narnia; they would have stolen Aslan’s thunder! There are even more bizarre lion monsters in the world of heraldry, but that’s for another …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/27/22: Other Mythical Creatures of Narnia (Narnia XXXVIII)

This week’s post is a little different. I’m running out of things in Narnia to name, so I’m going to post a list of possibilities for Narnia fanfic writers: Aside from those mentioned in the books, what other sorts of mythological creatures might have resided in Narnia? Lewis himself had a pretty catholic list of …

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The Lady of the Green Kirtle:
Sisters in Green

Previous parts of this series can be read here (Part I) , here (Part II)  and here (Part III) Now that I’ve established The Lady of the Green Kirtle has Green Fairy lineage, I thought it would be fun to look at some of her cousins, the Green Fairies interpreted by contemporary artists. These images …

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The Lion of Lucerne

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang …

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