When I saw the book cover and the wings on that cat-thingy, my thought was 'That could be a tressym.' And that's what I'm going with. A 5E meld of a tressym and a displacer beast. If you Google 'tressym' you'll see many images with owl/bird wings, but also some with butterfly wings. Anything could happen in the Feywild at the whim of the Raven Queen.
While anything could happen, I encourage you to look closer at the image. Not just for this reason – there's a few bits of hidden nuance that suggest the themes involved.
This came up in another chat, so maybe people are viewing on their phones or just aren't seeing what I'm seeing. It's definitely a displacer beast with giant butterfly wings attached with straps. I've included a zoomed in & brightened view of just the cat, with notes about what I'm seeing...
For references, here's art of the
5e displacer beast.
1 – The "wingtips" flare in a way very reminiscent of a displacer beast's tentacles.
2 – There are straps binding the butterfly wings to the tentacles, and furthermore the brightened image reveals hint of straps binding smaller wings to the tail. While it might be easy to assume those are shadows – the painting's light source (ahead and to the right, as evident by the gnome/child) would not produce a linear shadow in that location.
3 – Articulation of third shoulder joint confirms this is a six-legged critter. Additionally, you can see three legs on the critter's left side, albeit blurred out.
Why would someone do this?
Could be a product of a gnome's inventiveness and love for animals, with a unique displacer beast NPC or animal companion, maybe one that isn't evil.
My theory is that it's a wicked ploy. A butterfly winged giant cat is less terrifying than a tentacled murder cat to kids hearing carnival sounds in the woods. Just the sort of trick Unseelie might use to lure children to the carnival for delivery to the waiting arms of
loving fey parents in Prismeer.
www.enworld.org
