History Literature / BookOfImaginaryBeings

* CarbuncleCreature: The TropeMaker; Borges made the carbuncle up more or less from whole cloth. The carbuncle is described as a small animal reported by conquistadors in South America. They were never seen clearly, so nobody actually knows if they are birds or mammals. They have small red stones or mirrors in their foreheads, similar to opals or to actual carbuncles, a name used for rubies or garnets, which are reputed to bring luck if obtained. Many hunted for the creature and its gem, but no-one succeeded. Borges further compares the carbuncle to the dragon and the toad, which were reputed to also bear precious stones in, respectively, their brains and their foreheads.

* OurMinotaursAreDifferent: Borges discusses the Greek Minotaur, opining that, although a house designed to make visitors lose their way is more fantastical than a man with the head of a bull, the two things go well together and it makes sense that a monstrous building would be home to a monstrous creature. He also notes that bull-headed figures feature prominently in Minoan art[[note]]which is untrue -- Minoan arc frequently depicted bulls, but there are no known Minoan depictions of bull-men[[/note]], and speculates that the Greek myth is likely just a faded retelling of much more horrifying tales.

* FantasticFoxes: Chinese foxes can live for a thousand years, start fires by striking the ground with their tails, see into the future and take human shape. They are sometimes born from the souls of the dead taking on a new form, and will cause no end of mischief to those who cross them.

* TzadikimNistarim: The Lamed Wufniks are thirty-six people who, without any knowledge of what they are or do, support the universe and affirm God. If one should ever realize their true nature, they die on the sport and their role is taken by another unsuspecting person.

** The first variant has the Earth upheld by an angel, which stands on a crag of ruby, which rests upon Kujata, a bull with [[AnimalisticAbomination four thousand eyes, ears, nostrils, mouths, tongues and feet]], which stands on the great fish Bahamut, which floats on a great water, which rests on darkness, and whatever is below is darkness God alone knows.

* ALoadOfBull: Borges discusses the Greek Minotaur, opining that, although a house designed to make visitors lose their way is more fantastical than a man with the head of a bull, the two things go well together and it makes sense that a monstrous building would be home to a monstrous creature. He also notes that bull-headed figures feature prominently in Minoan art[[note]]which is untrue -- Minoan arc frequently depicted bulls, but there are no known Minoan depictions of bull-men[[/note]], and speculates that the Greek myth is likely just a faded retelling of much more horrifying tales.

* OurBansheesAreLouder: As no one has ever actually laid eyes on one, they don't seem to be tangible creatures so much as a dismoded keening that comes to houses in the Scottish Highlands to foretell the imminent death of a resident.

* ALoadOfBull: Borges discusses the Greek Minotaur, opining that, although a house designed to make visitors lose their way is more fantastical than a man with the head of a bull, the two things go well together and it makes sense that a monstrous building would be home to a monstrous creature. He also notes that bull-headed figures feature prominently in Minoan art,[[note]]Which is untrue—Minoan arc frequently depicted bulls, but there are no known Minoan depictions of bull-men[[/note]] and speculates that the Greek myth is likely just a faded retelling of much more horrifying tales.

* ALoadOfBull: Borges discusses the Greek Minotaur, opining that, although a house designed to make visitors lose their way is more fantastical than a man with the head of a bull, the two things go well together and it makes sense that a monstrous building would be home to a monstrous creature. He also notes that bull-headed figures feature prominently in Minoan art, and speculates that the Greek myth is likely just a faded retelling of much more horrifying tales.

* {{Unicorn}}: A creature known since the time of the Greek writer Ctesias, who reported it as wild ass with a white coat, a purple head, blue eyes and a pointed horn that is white at its base, black in the middle and with a red tip. Pliny described it as a horse with the tail of a boar, the feet of an elephant, the head of a stag and black horn three feet long. In modern depictions it is typically white, with legs like an antelope's and a beard like a goat's. It's often described as a fierce creature impossible to capture alive, which can kill an elephant with one strike of its horn and which is a mortal enemy of lions. It can be caught and rendered tame by a virgin maiden, which according to Leonardo da Vinci is due to the unicorn's lust overpowering its fierceness.

* OurElvesAreBetter: The fairytale kind. Elves, or alps, are tiny, mischievous beings and rarely seen by people, and cause a great deal of mischief. They steal cattle and children, lie on sleepers' breasts to cause troubled dreams, tie hair into knots and shoot tiny iron arrows that vanish into the skin without a trace and cause sudden painful stitches.

* EatDirtCheap: One variant of the Alicanto bird feeds on gold, while the other feeds on silver. This heavy diet has the side-effect of making it incapable of flight, and it cannot even run with a full belly.

%%* OurNymphsArePrettier: Nymphs are minor goddesses of nature, although no temples were built for them. They haunt wild places and are given different names depending on their homes: dryads (or hamadryads) are bonded to trees and live and die alongside them; oceanids and nereids live in the sea; naiads in rivers and lakes; oreads in mountains and caves; napaeae in glens; alseids in groves. Seeing one will strike a man blind, and seeing one naked will strike him dead.%%Temporarily unlaunched.

* OurNymphsArePrettier: Nymphs are minor goddesses of nature, although no temples were built for them. They haunt wild places and are given different names depending on their homes: dryads (or hamadryads) are bonded to trees and live and die alongside them; oceanids and nereids live in the sea; naiads in rivers and lakes; oreads in mountains and caves; napaeae in glens; alseids in groves. Seeing one will strike a man blind, and seeing one naked will strike him dead.

* WalkingWasteland: At a basilisk's passage, plants wilt and birds fall dead from the sky; any stream the creature drinks from becomes poisoned, and its gaze kills withers plants and splits rocks. Basilisk always live in deserts, because any land they settle will quickly become a barren waste.

** Chinese dragons symbolize yang, wisdom, the Emperor (deceased Emperors were said to have ascended to heaven on the back of a dragon), rain and rivers, and are one of the four magic animals alongside phoenixes, unicorns and tortoises. Borges describes them as essentially angels that are also lions. They are horned and with backbones bristling with spines, and carry pearls that are the seat of their power -- if their pearls are taken, they become powerless and easily tamed. The painter Chang Seng-yu once made a wall painting depicting four dragons, but left out the eyes. When people complained about this, the annoyed Chang completed two of the figures, which turned into real dragons with a thunderclap and ascended to Heaven, while the two eyeless ones remained paintings.

** Chinese dragons symbolize yang, wisdom, the Emperor (deceased Emperors were said to have ascended to heaven on the back of a dragon), rain and rivers, and are one of the four magic animals alongside phoenixes, unicorns and tortoises. Borges describes them as essentially angels that are also lions. They are horned and with backbones bristling with spines, and carry pearls that are the seat of their power -- if their pearls are taken, they become powerless and easily tamed. The painter Chang Seng-yu once made a wall painting depicting four dragons, but left out the eyes. When people complained about this, the annoyed Chang completed two of figures, which turned into real dragons with a thunderclap and ascended to Heaven, while the two eyeless ones remained paintings.

* {{Unicorn}}: A creature known since the time of the Greek writer Ctesias, who reported it as wild ass with a white coat, purple head, blue eyes and a pointed horn that was white at its base, black in the middle and with a red tip. Pliny described it as a horse with the tail of a boar, the feet of an elephant, the head of a stag and black horn three feet long. In modern depictions it is typically white, with legs like an antelope's and a beard like a goat's. It's often described as a fierce creature impossible to capture alive, which can kill an elephant with one strike of its horn and which is a mortal enemy of lions. It can be caught and rendered tame by a virgin maiden, which according to Leonardo da Vinci is due to the unicorn's lust overpowering its fierceness.

* SegmentedSerpent: If an amphisbaena is chopped in half, its pieces can reunite with one another.

** Several are described under "Fauna of the United States", including the axehandle hound, which is shaped like a hatched and eats the handles of the same; the gillygaloo, a bird whose square eggs lumberjacks hard-boil to use as dice; the goofang, a fish that swims backwards to keep the water out of its eyes; the goofus bird, which flies backwards and makes upside-down nests; the hidebehind, which is always hiding behind something and is impossible to escape; the pinnacle grouse, whose single wing forces it to fly in circles around a single mountain peak; the flightless roperite bird, which uses its lasso-like beak to ensnare rabbits; the teakettler, a dog with feline ears that makes noises like boiling kettles, issues smoke from its mouth and walks backwards; and the winged upland trout, which nests in trees and fears water. Borges notes that, in all likelihood, nobody ever believed that these things really existed.

* FaunsAndSatyrs: They're the same thing; the Greeks called the, satyrs, the Romans called them fauns, pans or sylvans. They have the legs of goats, short horns, pointed ears and hooked noses. They are fond of wine, dancing, chasing nymphs and playing the flute, and are attendants of Bacchus.