Moonster
Names: Moonsters, Chowmera, Killitwithfire
Appearance: Moonsters are large, shambling monstrosities created by House Nin in Emburn with one goal in mind: total agricultural efficiency. Their bodies are a Frankensteinian patchwork of livestock parts, warped by magic and stitched by sorcery.
They have the bulk of a cow, the cloven hooves of a goat (on their front legs) and the webbed feet of a duck (on the back). Their tails resemble that of an irritable yak, and they flick constantly in agitation. Tufts of wool sprout from their neck and belly like a confused sheep, while their faces are an unsettling blend of pig, llama, and horse, with one side often smiling and the other drooping in a permanent drool covered sneer.
Some have chicken combs atop their heads, others grow single, spiraled horn that resemble an angry narwhal tusk. One in ten grow rabbit-like ears that twitch independent of mood or reason. Their eyes often mismatch wildly with a goat eye in one socket, soulful cow eye in the other.
They moo, oink, cluck, and neigh simultaneously, and many emit a wheezing honk when surprised.
Ecology: Moonsters were the product of a deranged livestock breeding program spearheaded by House Nin, whose motto seems to be: "If it walks, squawks, or lactates, we’ll breed it."
Each Moonster provides multiple outputs: milk, hide, meat, wool, bones, alchemical glands, and occasionally feathers. But maintaining them requires constant magical sedation, specialized feed, and frequent therapy sessions for their handlers.
And yes, they lay eggs. All of them. Even the bulls. Irregular, leathery things that hatch into slimy, bleating young. The hatchlings imprint on the first living thing they see, even if it’s a shoe, another Moonster, or a Serf contemplating whether to end it or themselves. Some Moonsters never stop laying, even after death.
Cultural impact: To the Nobles, Moonsters are either the pinnacle of livestock innovation or an abomination best kept in locked barns. Their eggs are a delicacy in eccentric kitchens (served boiled in a milk-butter reduction). Their milk produces an elusive cheese known as Wretchess, whose flavor reportedly changes depending on the weather, mood of the herd and phase of the moon.
Among Serfs and Commoners, Moonsters are feared and pitied. Tales circulate of Moonster calves imprinting on children and following them home, refusing to leave and mooing mournfully through the windows until death.
In puppet shows, Moonsters are used to satirize noble corruption. Bloated creatures that produce everything and understands nothing, laying eggs they’ll never hatch. Though this usually results in neither the puppeter or the audience ever being found again.
One bard’s ballad says it best:
"Moonster in the barn, lay your eggs and scream,
Wool in your nostrils, hooves making cream.
Made by a madman with milk in his brain,
Now you moo in four tongues and whisper in pain."
Comments