Moung

The embittered creature slowly rose its head, its single horn slathered with Jonas's dark blood. It was no bigger than a fawn and its knobbled legs were as thin as splinters. But it met my gaze firmly and with a voice like a mountain said, "You're next."

-- Anonymous

The animal manifestation of the Earthenborn. Moung are less of a species and more of a state of being for the Earthenborn though many find themselves locked in this form having drifted too far into an animal frame of mind.
The Earthenborn were seeded upon the Gods' Arrival and sprouted slowly and with grave caution. The grown things hardened and began to move, no longer plants, but the animal shapes they would keep for life. These were the first Moungs though they were not known by this name.

History

The term ma-uhng came into usage around the year 530 in the settlements of southern Sulghury to describe the strange creatures observed drinking from the Jenai river. The word, meaning "little beast" in the Apurta language, referred to the creatures' general diminutive size. Researchers from the northern towns and cities came to investigate the creatures, but they fled like wild animals sensing a threat.
Stories of the little beasts began to pop up all across the continent and the word moung spread far and wide. Sorcerers, enticed by the great Earth Impel the creatures were known to possess, sought desperately to contain the beasts. Yet even the most skilled trackers could hardly manage to catch more than a glimpse before their prey scampered off. For many years, a Moung was considered an ominous, elusive thing that permanently fixed itself into mythologies of people from Canterlund to Aposfabria.
Around 1500, the Holy Church of Helen reawakened its inquisition against the forces of nature. In rediscovering the automatons created by Anaphrene, they connected the existence of Moungs to the unfinished purges of the Earthenborn millennia ago. Wherever the Church presided, Moungs were openly hunted, along with many other Hekkauthra.
Since then, Moungs have been a rarity in the Mindreland having survived only in the continent's four corners. Those with merely animal intelligence proceeded to lead the same lives as they had for centuries showing a weariness of humans and living ageless in the jungles, pampas, and pinewoods of the earth. Others became embittered and fought back with varying degrees of success. In 1647, stories of a "bitter moung" circulated in Thegrory which turned out to be an Earthenborn disguised as a priest of Helen. Hordes of Moungs and Hekkauthra, allied with a handful of Giants, laid waste to several towns of the Sunnylands in 1789.

The Animal Form

A moung is an Earthenborn spirit in a tangible, animal form. Their appearance and form varies greatly even among close geographic locales. All are characteristically small, the largest being no taller than a medium dog (barring horns or apendages). Most bear horns or antlers of astonishing variety. Their eyes shine red in sunlight and moonlight.

Several varieties of moung. The large image is a subspecies known as "buckdog moung." From top to bottom are mephitous, fawn, and "bullmole" variants.

True and Near Moungs

The "moung state" is a basic shape for an Earthenborn requiring very little energy to maintain. Thus, many Earthenborn reside in this form by default. These "near moungs," as they are sometimes called, maintain their intelligence and abilities of magic and speech and are likely origins for tales of moungs that speak with or otherwise influence unassuming travelers.
But the strength of an Earthenborn's abilities are determined by practice; through neglect, they can be lost forever. True moung, also called "lost ones," have taken the moung shape for so long that they have lost the ability to change back and reverted to a near animal state with degraded intelligence and power. This began to happen prevalently around the year 300 when purges of the Earthenborn began under Anaphrene's instruction. Earthenborn hid in these unassuming forms to escape persecution but slowly lost their minds as a result.