User:Deckiller/Beastmen (Final Fantasy XI)
The Beastmen are fictional humanoid races from the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI. The beastmen are a group of beastial, intelligent beings that seek to rid the world of Vana'diel of the five humanoid and playable races; the Humes, the Galka, the Elvaan, the Tarutaru, and the Mithra. The majority of them are plotting attacks on the human cities, trying to destroy their rivals or plot revenge. They call humans Smoothskin-born.
The San d'Orian cathedral teaches that they were created by the god Promathia during the Age of Darkness, and that their sole purpose is to destroy the Five Humanoid Races, created by the Goddess Altana.
Races
[edit]Antica
[edit]The Antica have transformed the former Galkan capital of Altepa into the central location of their empire, which spreads across the islands of Kuzotz in Vana'diel. Their militaristic society is built upon advanced personnel management abilities. Upon birth, all individuals are given a number, and a job for which they spend the rest of their lives training. Apart from the information needed to perform their duties, the individual is not allowed any other knowledge. An Antica is only allowed to transfer positions to become a gladiator (used for population control).
The Antica have no concept of personal belongings. All equipment is provided by the Empire, and food rations are based solely on the duties performed by the individual. However, due to their lack of emotion, there is not a single Antica who feels discontent towards this system. This can also be seen on the battlefield. No matter the situation, the lack of fluctuation in morale is the Antica's greatest strength.
Another strength lies in the sheer number of Antica soldiers. In addition to their active legions, an enormous surplus of soldiers lies in stasis within the Antica's stronghold. When revived, the size of their army can increase a hundredfold. However, due to their lack of naval technology, only a few of their troops were able to participate in the Great War campaigns carried out on Quon; their presence had little effect on the outcome of the battles. It is widely believed that had the full Antican army participated in the battles on Quon, the allied forces surely would have been defeated.
While the Antica communicate by fricative sounds made within their necks, they are unable to release loud war cries like the other beastmen. This results in an eerie silence on the battlefield that can send chills down the spine of even the bravest warrior.
Gigas
[edit]Gigas appear in Final Fantasy XI as a race of Beastmen who live in Northern regions of Vana'diel, the fictional world depicted in the game.
Goblins
[edit]
The Goblin race is capable of coexistence with 'civilized races', and several appear in the city of Jeuno. A subdivision of the Goblins is called the "Moblin" race.
Kindred
[edit]The Kindred (also known as Demons) are winged beastmen found mainly in the Valdeaunia Region in Final Fantasy XI. It is said that their damage-absorbing outer shell was once armor that was enhanced by an evil enchantment. In addition to their highly advanced fighting skills, they are also known to possess high levels of intelligence, which they have used to acquire various types of potent magic. Due to their pitch-black color and ominous appearance, the inhabitants of Vana'diel came to call these beastmen "Demons." However, Demons refer to themselves as "the Kindred." This, along with many other questions about their origins, still remain unanswered.
During the Great War, the Demons served as the Shadow Lord's elite guard, ruling over the other beastmen with fear. To ensure the other beastmen were following orders, many of the Demons would act as messengers, traveling to and from Castle Zvahl. When the Great War was over, the Demons vanished. However, with recent rumors of the Shadow Lord's return, there have been Demon sightings in Valdeaunia. While there are many theories about their origin, the most popular one is that the Shadow Lord made a pact with them after traveling deep into hell.
Lamiae
[edit]Lamiae are a form of organic weapon (also known as a chimera), created by alchemists fusing the parts of multiple organisms which appears to have an upper body of a Hume woman and lower body of a venomous serpent. Divided into Lamiae and Merrows (mermaids).
Mamool Ja
[edit]The Mamool Ja rule over the Mamool Ja Savagelands. Their name meaning "brethren of the shining scale," the Mamool Ja are divived into four castes: warriors (Mamool Ja fighters), aquatics (Sahagin who have joined the Mamool Ja Savages), sages (Mamool Ja mages), and knights (Mamool Ja that ride creatures known as wivres). One from each caste is selected to be a member of the four overlords that lead the race.
Orcs
[edit]Orcs are common fantasy creatures originally conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien in his fictional works concerning the world of Middle-earth. Orcs are featured in Final Fantasy XI as a race of Beastmen.
Within the realm of Vana'diel, lust for combat and conquest drives most of the Orcs to join the ranks of their Imperial Army. All Orcs — male and female — are required to participate in years of military training, and even their social structure is based on military ranks.
Orcs have tribal hierarchy based on strength; those who prove most formidable in battle are higher in the pecking order; stronger orcs even employ means (such as attaching heavy weights to well-water buckets) to deny those weaker than themselves access to common resources.
From outward appearances, their cultural belief systems seem based in something like shamanism; magic-users, for instance, cover their heads with a hood which prevents the visual senses from being used, presumably in order to heighten their other senses.
While their technology appears rudimentary (most Orcish armor is evidently fashioned from leather, bone, and wood), they do employ metal weapons where available.
Qiqirn
[edit]A race of diminutive rat-like beastmen that reside with the civilized races of Vana'diel. They tend to have an easygoing and cheerful personality, but have difficulty speaking the common language used by the civilized races due to their unusual vocal cords. Even so, it is not uncommon see a Qiqirn working as assistant due to their reliability and surprisingly quick wits. According to their oral tradition, the ancestors of the Qiqirn lived a nomadic life in the northern lands. Remnants of the Qiqirn's ancient lifestyle may be seen in their unique customs, such as their sheep-led wagon homes, their leather clothing, and their habit of carrying their valuables with them at all times.
Quadav
[edit]The Quadav are a race of turtle-like bipeds that inhabit certain swampy regions, as well as subterranean caverns, on the continent of Quon in Vana'diel, the world in which Final Fantasy XI takes place. The Quadav are one of the races of Beastmen depicted in the game.
Apparently closely tied to the earth in which they work and live, the Quadav identify themselves individually and culturally with the materials with which they work. As their shells thicken with age, the titles given to individual Quadav change. Within their strict caste system, those chosen to serve in the Elite Guard are given titles portraying hard and precious metals, while those chosen to be magicians are given titles taken from precious gems.
The Quadav have long possessed an understanding of metallurgical technology, and have adapted their skills in metalworking to even create fire-fueled incubators with pipes to carry warm air into the ground to warm the damp caves where their eggs are kept. The incursion of miners from the Bastok nation have repressed the Quadav and driven them out of territories which they have long occupied, to which they respond with aggressive acts against most foreigners they encounter.
Sahagin
[edit]The Sahagin are one of the four monsters of the original Final Fantasy game to directly originate from the Dungeons and Dragons game, the other three being the Otyugh (called "Ocho"), Mind-Flayer, and Beholder. However, the sahuagins are originally based on old Eastern European legends of hags, also referred to as "sea hags". These were creatures similar to the Greek siren which appeared to sailors as beautiful women. However, as the sailors neared them, they revealed their true form, that of an ugly old woman, and eventually led them to their doom.
But their names and exact shapes are related to Sahuagins from Dungeons and Dragons.
Sahagin's are primarily a water type enemy, usually appearing early in the game as a low-level monster. In Final Fantasy XI they are seen more fish-like. Sometimes a desert-variety appears before the water-variety, and it primarily uses wind-attacks.
Tonberries
[edit]Tonberries possess the ability to deal extreme damage or instant death (usually by a short stab) to one or all members of the player's party, earning them their notorious reputation. In Final Fantasy XI there were a subgroup of Tonberries known as Cryptonberries found mainly in the ruins of Pso'Xja.
Trolls
[edit]The Trolls of the Near East are giant beastmen, although smaller than the Gigas. Their ancestors previously worked for the Gigas of the north and the Mithra of the south. The Troll Mercenaries make their home in the volcanic Halvung Territory. They are currently employed by a faction of Moblins that splintered from Movalpolos in the distant past. They are divided into Troll cannoneers and Troll hoplites.
Yagudo
[edit]The Yagudo are a race of birdlike bipeds inhabiting the continent of Mindartia. Devout and ritualistic, the Yagudo are a race of religious zealots, their society appearing to be based on a strict religious hierarchy. Yagudo show little technological development, living instead in austere constructions of wattle-and-daub, as well as cliffside caves. Their most formidable architectural construct is Castle Oztroja, which may be more appropriately considered a temple than a castle, for it exists as a gateway to the location of the manifestation of their Godhead, known as "the avatar." They use few tools or weapons, except for occasional clubs and swords, and wear no armor, excepting the fact that magic-using classes cover their faces with ceremonial masks.
While apparently unconcerned with efforts of conquest, as the Orcish race is, the Yagudo's primary conflict with outsiders comes as a response to disputes over the right to occupy the land which they consider to be hereditarily and traditionally their own. The Yagudo hold a tentative treaty of non-aggression with the Tarutaru nation of Windurst, representing the only case of such between a Beastman race and a developed nation.