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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Robert Ranting" data-source="post: 3945009" data-attributes="member: 28906">Hyudra's harpies remind me of the ones in WoW, who are descended from female elven nobles who were warped by demonic forces.  While they also practice the abduction of male elves and humans to propogate their race and keep it vital, they are capable of reproducing asexually as well, their offspring being exact clones of their mother, complete with the race-memory of their lives as nobles and the circumstances which lead to their curse.That said, it really is difficult to come up with a new twist on these creatures, and I admire everyone's work in this thread.  Spartan dwarves, dragon-bred trolls, noble bastard ogres, drow as anti-human terrorists, and devilish harpies are all ideas I might have to make use of in my own setting(s) at some point.Speaking of which, I may as well toss in a few goodies from my own setting.HagsIn my "Volkheim" setting, hags are humanoid or giant women who have given themselves over to the powers of entropy and darkness.  Hags believe themselves to be the consorts of the elder god of evil and despite, and revel in behavior that promotes destruction and suffering.  To this end, they see it as their duty to pervert their own potential for procreation and motherhood to evil ends.  Mothers of monsters, hags have spawned many of the creatures which terrorize the world, either from their festering wombs or through horrific rituals and experimentation.OgresOgres are the spawn of hags mated with hill giants, their uniquely twisted genes making them capable of breeding with almost anything in turn. They are hulking creatures covered with thick, matted hair and infected sores, like a leprous upright ape.  They will gladly follow the orders of any hag they encounter, adopting her as their mother even if they have no genetic relation.  Without a hag to guide them, they will defer to either a female ogre who has some magical potential, or else to the meanest and strongest of their kind. While ogres are known for being relatively stupid and reckless, with all the subtlety of a fireball in a privy, orcish tales tell of lone ogres, known as "sasquatch"who master the arts of woodcraft and manage to elude even the greatest hunters.  TrollsTrolls owe their existence to a terrible ritual in which a hag taints the elemental essence of the wild.  Often performed in peat bogs, where water and earth mix with the decaying remains of plants and animals, the ritual requires the hag to spill a substantial amount of her own blood into a pool of standing water, and thereafter sing a ritual incantation which conjures a storm of freezing winds, lightning, and thunder.  At the climax of the ritual, a lightning bolt strikes the pool, and the thundercap drowns out the hag's chanting.  As the storm ebbs away, a fully grown troll emerges from the pool, born of hag's blood and the elemental forces of cold, electricity, and sound.  A troll's flesh is made up of the elements of the land (earth, water, and the flesh of plants and animals), and is infused with the vigor and growth of nature, making it capable of regenerating even the most terrible of wounds. However, since fire and acid play little part in the ritual of their creation, these two forces are still capable of destroying the troll's body.  Sadistic and obsessed with pain, trolls often mutilate themselves and one another, pushing bits of rock or plant matter through their flesh.  It is not uncommon for a troll to rend another into pieces and then dump the bits into a thornbush or on opposite sides of a fence or tree, the troll then heals around the obstacle, sometimes pinning them in place or resulting in grimly comedic deformities (such as a troll with a living rose bush blooming across his back).  During the spring, when other creatures of the wild are engaged in mating, Trolls will gather in groups of a dozen or more and engage in "pulling" contests, in which they lock their hands around each other's wrists and pull until one of the arms comes off.  A group of trolls will repeat this process until only one troll remains with at least one  arm attached.  This final troll will then rip the limbless trolls apart and scatter their remains across the forest, where  each piece will grow into a new troll if given enough time.Robert "Probably some other stuff to come" Ranting</blockquote>

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