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Name: Ancient Ones

Species: Mutated Humans

Average Lifespan: Unknown, presumed immortal

Description: The Ancient Ones can have quite literally any appearance, but virtually everyone that has been encountered has appeared monstrous and demonic. Virtually nothing about their former identities remain, replaced with armored or spiked hides, deadly claws, razor sharp teeth, squirming tentacles, and so on. The most powerful of them can also grow to great sizes, reaching several stories tall.

Culture: The Ancient Ones are all that remains of the once powerful race known as Humans. When magic returned to the world and caused animals to undergo a radical evolution, the humans were similarly effected. The Ancient Ones, as they are now known, possess virtually no intelligence, at least none that beast folk are able to comprehend. They barely even speak beyond simple battle cries, and they have a tendency to attack any beast folk in sight when they are hungry.

With primal intelligence, the Ancient Ones have no recognized culture, they are completely feral. In fact, barely anyone in the world has knowledge as to where these creatures originated from. Ancient Ones are now regarded as simple monsters which adventurers are hired to dispatch for profit. If you have the skills and the bravery to take on an Ancient One, its a good way to make a profit, but taking on a nest of them is regarded as suicidal without proper back up to support you.

Mating Habits: The Ancient Ones have a remarkably high reproduction rate. Even after killing waves of them in battle, the beast folk can not seem to completely wipe them off the earth. This may be some remenant of their former power in being grossly overpopulated when humans ruled the world.

Ancient Ones are a largely male population, with one female for every 5 males. Males often battle each other in bloody fashion to earn dominance over a mate, and upon impregnating her, a female can produce as many as 10 eggs in a single clutch. Unlike the beast folk, the Ancient Ones have no heat cycle, and can mate whenever they choose. Often at times, an especially violent male will pounce a female when he feels in the mood, regardless of the female's.

Thankfully, only the strong males are able to live around a female. Weaker ones are chased off when they become old enough to be seen as a rival mate. Most Ancient Ones who are encountered alone are low class and can be dispatched relatively easy. Running into a nest, however, means facing the elite males who will turn particularly savage in an effort to protect the female

Unfortunately, however, those who don't earn a female tend to get very sexually frustrated. When horny, a banished male has been known to attack even beast folk in a lustful rage, raping them and either leaving them stranded in the wilderness, or worse, becoming hungry and eating them alive after they've satisfied their urges.

Abilities: With the ability to possess nearly any body type, the abilities of an Ancient One are impossible to provide a complete list of. Some possess super strength, speed, endurance, others can fly while some breathe underwater. Some have claws that can slice through solid stone, while others lash out with sticky tentacles. Some have nerve toxins for immobilizing prey, and so on. Its always a gamble as to what you're going to get when facing an Ancient One.

Magical Affinity: Having little to no intelligence, the Ancient Ones do not have the capacity to wield their own magic. However, they are not completely untouched by it. It seems their monstrous evolution has drenched them in magic to such an alarming degree, they are highly resistant to its effects. Indeed, the weaker Ancient Ones are 50% resistant to magic attacks while the elites who can be found within a nest are 75% resistant.

While a mage is usually at the top of their game against their fellow Beast Folk, they are horrendously at a disadvantage when fighting an Ancient One. Mages who insist on battling against one are advised to bring along a crew of meat shields when battling a weaker member of the species. Fighting on a nest is deemed ludicrous, and even mages who have gone mad with power have not been stupid enough to attempt it.

Historical Encounters: Some of the greatest heroes in Anthropia earned their fame by defeating particularly dangerous Ancient Ones. Here are just some reports of those great warriors. The names for the Ancient Ones were given to them by the beast folk, the true Ancient Ones don't seem to take much stock in identities anymore.

Year 7,682: Alkoric vs The Consumer - The legendary wizard king, Alkoric accomplished many feats in his life time, but few were so glorious as his singlehanded victory over the horrifying monster known as The Consumer. This Ancient One stood 4 stories tall, and had 16 tentacles sprouting from its back, which expanded into funnel shaped mouths that could swallow giant sized sized beast folk whole, dragging them into its extremly corossive stomach acids. According to history, The Consumer devoured 30 entire villages before it encountered Alkoric who, despite its high resistance, beat it into submission with his magical arts, before delivering the finishing blow and slashing its stomach open, causing the gluttonous creature to be dissolved by its own stomach acids, as its outer body was not resistant to its corrosive strength.

Year 4,771: Grolg vs Valinx - Grolg was born and raised in a time when carnivores were still savage and uncouth, not like their refined dignity they are today. Born to a clan of mountain lions, he was raised to have such an enormous pain tolerance, that broken bones only caused him to wince, as opposed to yelping and shuffling. When the Ancient One Valinx ambushed his raiding party and slaughtered 10 warriors in the first few seconds, Grolg charged into the fray. Valinx was a monster of comparably human size, yet most of his body was covered in a thick caripace of armored plates that deflected axe and spear. According to tribal records, the beast shattered Grolg's arm with one blow, but in his blood lust, he proceeded to tear one of his own bone shards out of his arm and use it as a makeshift knife to stab the monster through the skull, entering from the unprotected lower jaw, and traveling up to pierce the brain stem. His clan celebrated by feasting on the Ancient One's corpse that night, and Grolg, despite being crippled in one arm for the rest of his life, became one of the strongest chieftains in the clan's history. Although no longer a clan of barbarians, Grolg's descendants live on to this day as a noble family of warriors. They are known as the Bone Blade clan, in honor of Grolg's victory over the monster.

Year 30,466: Dalen vs Gyaaaah - Dalen was a young, cyote huntress who prefered to use the composite long bow for hunting, as opposed to getting up close and dangerous. The nightmarish Ancient One, which had come to be called Gyaaaah because that's all its victims had time to say before it tore them apart, would likely have killed her just as with any other victim, had she not seen it first. While on a hunt one day, Dalen spotted Gyaaaah feasting on its most recent kill, a platoon of militia scouts who were investigating possible Ancient One attacks. Notching an arrow in place, Dalen took the initiative and fired the arrow. With dramatic irony, it was Gyaaaah who was caught by surprise this time, never knowing what hit him as the arrow pierced his heart. Dalen was regarded as a hero, both for slaying Gyaaaah, and for beating him at his own game. The lord who owned the scouts held a reward ceremony, and hired her to train his own archers in the use of composite bows.