Welcome back to the World of Green and Black Bestiary. I wanted to do something special for this one, because it might be the last featured creature for a while. Next year I’m thinking of doing a different monthly thingy. hat doesn’t mean there won’t be anymore feature creatures, but they’ll be saved for special occasions.

With that in mind, let’s get to the last creature of the year, the bear. A creature that may seem familiar at first, but you’ll find that these bears aren’t the bears we’re familiar with.

Name: Bear
World: Green/Sky
Material: Flesh
Thought Type: Tethered
Species Type: Monster
Habitat: Unknown

The bear is a creature so rarely seen that some naturalists claim it does not exist. Indeed, most of the stories told of it defy belief, and no specimens have ever been studied in modern times. However, relics of bears, such as their skins or claws, are known to science.* Unfortunately, these items have become signs of status, and most are the prized possessions of important rulers who have not allowed naturalists to study them.

 References to bears date back to the Time of Myth. The Krestmadas Tower claims that shortly after landing, a bear twice its size+ came down from the stars and fought it. This fight is an integral part of the Kyborg religion, and the Great Krestmadas Temple is adorned with six massive claws said to be from the great bear. Other claws, or structures claimed to be claws, have appeared throughout history. Some have been proven to be fakes, whilst others seem to be legitimate giant claws.

As with all claims made by the Towers of Knowledge, it can be hard to determine how truthful this story is. Two other Towers; The lying Tower of Habile and The Tower on the Plateau, insist that the Krestmadas Tower is lying about the Great Bear Battle. Kyvanna of Eddun, arguably the most trustworthy of the Towers, claims that the battle did take place, but the creature was not a bear. Instead, it was a different giant monster from the stars, which Kyvanna insists has never re-appeared within the Worlds in all the thousands of years since the Time of Myths.

Despite Kyvanna’s insistence that the Great Bear was unique, there have been countless stories of bears throughout history, some in the Modern Age. During the Golden Age of the Vynik Empire, King Karius the Brave and Queen Anganoka the Great led a hunting party containing thirty-three chieftains and the Elsini ambassador to slay a bear described as ‘palace-sized’ that had destroyed the city of Ulin. Thirty-four bearskin capes were made for the chieftains and ambassador from this bear, though only four undisputed capes are accounted for at the time of writing; one belonging to the Paramount Chief of the Eastern Stalax Province, one that has become part of the royal regalia for the Monarch of the New Vynik Kingdom, one currently worn by Chief Mongana of the Langoic Band, and one belonging to the Strongest of the Upper Stalax River Forest.

It is claimed by the New Vynik Kingdom that the bear-skin cape worn as part of the Elsini Death King’s regalia is the cape gifted to the Elsini Ambassador of the Ulin Hunt, however the Elsini Kingdom insists it is from the ‘mountain-sized’ bear that Death King Faringt slayed single-handedly shortly afterwards.

Despite all the controversy surrounding bears, some facts have been agreed upon. Bears are carnivorous, furry creatures with four legs and no telepathy that come from the stars. They resemble teddies – friendly, round mammals kept as pets in cold climates – but are massive in size. Even if stories of them being palace-size or twice the height of a Tower of Knowledge are exaggerated, the smallest bear relics indicate an animal ten times the size of a teddy, suggesting that even a baby bear can pick up a grown Human.

It is accepted by most historians that bears can breathe fire, despite the Krestmadas Tower insisting that the Great Bear it fought did not have this ability. Most naturalists debate this, with some theorizing that they instead manipulate fire from the sky. Stories of bears wielding fire were often denounced as fake, until a Drid Forest too far north to ever have direct contact with Humankind was wiped out by a flaming giant pouncing from the sky. The collective consciousness of the attacked Forest was destroyed before any descriptions of the bear could be shared, and it is said to have been so large that neighbouring Forests were damaged just from the impact of its landing. No trace of the bear has been seen since, besides the slashes it left on the ground, leading the Forests that now grow in the area to believe it is hibernating underground. They seek out information about bears so they can prepare for a future awakening, making stories of bears valuable items in Drid trade.

Other facts about bears are more controversial. Some believe that the giant steel skeleton near the city of Philan was a bear, and that it is proof that bears are ai-eys. However, all other accounts describe bears as bleeding and having internal organs, so most of the scientific community believes the Philan monster is something else.

It is also a common belief that bears are Morally Human, with many stories claiming that they can speak, and some even claiming that they can transform into Humans. Bears are said to take the form of large, strong, charismatic men with thick beards that cannot be cut. The Towers of Knowledge all reject these claims, and the current scientific understanding is that it is unlikely that bears talk, and impossible that they transform into Humans, despite the number of famous men who have been accused of being bears throughout history.

The last question we must ask about bears, is whether they can freely travel between the stars. Some claim that they fall to the worlds and are trapped, hence their fury. Others claim to have seen bears flying up into the sky. Most stories of bears depict them as forces of unfathomable destruction, however there are still those that dream of taming bears and using them to achieve the ultimate dream of returning to the stars.          

* It has been suggested that these relics may have come from unusually large teddies instead.   

+ The Krestmadas Tower, like all Towers of Knowledge, is 424 metres tall.