My pet peeve: alseids, cecaelia, alacorns, *taurs, and other misused and invented monster names

So a common pet peeve of mine is when Pathfinder bestiaries get etymology and mythology wrong, because this tends to bleed over into discussions of actual mythology and result in tons of misinformation being spread.

Here are a few examples:

• In Greek myth, the alseides are the dryads of groves, who liked pranking travelers. They were not deer-centaurs, that's WarCraft's dryads.
• The cecaelia, an octopus-mermaid, is not a mythological creature. 
• The alacorn, a winged unicorn, is not a mythological creature either. However, the "Ethiopian Pegasus" was a breed of winged horned horse recounted in the natural histories of Pliny.
• The centaurs are self-explanatory, though the term itself is used more freely in Greek myth to refer to more than just the horse/men hybrids. Weirdly, the word taur (literally "bull" in Latin) is used to describes centaurs with non-equine lower halves, even though the word centaur already served that role in Greek myth. E.g. horse-centaur, fish-centaur, bull-centaur, etc.

I don't know why, but I really don't like it when people invent nonsense names when they could just use regular words like "deer-centaur," "octopus-mermaid," "winged unicorn," etc.

Sorry for the repetitive and probably pointless posting. I'll try to do better next time.

The many names of the sea-dog

While researching heraldry and monsters, I was surprised to learn that creatures like the alphyn, enfield, and sea-dog (or water-dog) were actually variations on the same thing.

The onchú (literally "water-dog," probably from on "water" + cú "hound") appears to be either an otter or a mythologized version thereof. Through assimilation with the heraldic sea-dog and phonetic mutation into the alphyn and enfield, it acquired features like a fishy mane and avian talons.

• The sea-dog is a canine beast with fishy features including scales and fins.
• The alphyn is a vaguely lupine beast with avian talons and a long knotted tail.
• The enfield is a vulpine beast with avian talons.

Research links:

• https://abookofcreatures.com/2017/04/03/onchu/
• http://mistholme.com/dictionary/alphyn/
• http://mistholme.com/dictionary/enfield/
• http://mistholme.com/dictionary/sea-monsters/
• https://www.sacred-texts.com/lcr/fsca/fsca73.htm
• https://www.sarahsawyer.com/2012/03/mythic-creature-the-alphyn/

Adaro: ghost, merman, and sprite of the Pacific islands

The adaro is a malevolent ghost in the folklore of the Melanesian. When a person dies, their better half or aunga passes on whereas their worse half or adaro remains behind. The adaro becomes a malevolent ghost that assumes the form of a shark-like monster. They travel across rainbows and waterspouts, and kill men by throwing fish (often described as flying and venomous).

According to Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore by Theresa Bane, they lived on the sun but visited earth by riding rainbows and waterspouts during sun showers. They could be friendly, visiting people in dreams to teach song and dance. They were often malicious, knocking people unconscious and only waking them if placated with an offering of a flying fox. Their chief was Ngorieru, who haunted the shore of San Cristobal.

Like a lot of folkloric monsters, their traits varied wildly by region. Students of comparative mythology may note superficial similarities to the hún and pò of Chinese folk religion.

In Pathfinder, they became malevolent merfolk with shark features. 3.x statistics emulating the folklore were posted at The Worlds of Mankind.

I find the original Melanesian monster way more interesting than a generic shark-themed merman, mostly because it doesn't pretend to have a pseudo-naturalistic ecology by virtue of being a ghost and its habits of crossing rainbows, riding ocean tornadoes, and throwing venomous flying fish sounds pretty cool. Finding a flying fox to cure an unconscious victim sounds like a pretty quick plot hook.

"Adaro/Anguiliian" by Azel/Atolm

What do you call a mermaid with an octopus half?

Years ago I wrote a post about how the neologism "cecaelia" commonly used for octopus-mermaids on the internet is actually meaningless gibberish. I still believe that, but in this post I wanted to play with folk etymology.

The girl's name Celia is a short form of both Caelia ("heavenly") and Cecilia ("blind, dim-sighted"). The otherwise gibberish name "cecaelia" sounds like it might be a play on these names.

Caelius ("heavenly") and Caecilius ("blind; invisible") were both Roman family names. Perhaps the name of the species is actually something like cilophyte (see my old post for an etymology analysis), but some families of cilophytes have surnames like Caelius or Caecilius. After some confusion while talking with fishermen, the surnames end up being mangled and mistakenly refer to the entire species.

Or perhaps the name derives from a phrase like "Ecce Caelia!" meaning "Look Caelia!" (where Caelia is the person being addressed) or "Here is Caelia."

Or it might be derived from caelo ("I carve") + -ia (abstract suffix), meaning something like "carvery."

Merrow

The mythological merrow are Irish versions of the common merfolk. Their only noteworthy features are that the males are hideous, provoking females to woo human sailors instead, and always wear a magic hood that works similarly to a selkie's skin. If you steal their hood, they cannot return to the waves and you can extort them to marry you or something. Since the tales are limited to men stealing the hoods of merrow maids, it is unclear if merrow men have hoods as well.

3e merrow are simply aquatic ogres. This portrayal was carried into Pathfinder, which introduced freshwater and saltwater variations.

5e merrow are evil counterparts of standard merfolk, similar to the merrow (aka murdhuacha) in Changeling: The Dreaming. Or the deep merfolk in Pathfinder.

Speaking of which, Changeling: The Dreaming distinguishes between merfolk and merrow on the basis that the former are part vertebrate and the latter part invertebrate. I burrowed this idea in order to condense the merfolk races, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

Anyway, I think there is room for both versions of merrow and more. They might need renaming, such as to "aquatic ogre" and "dark merfolk" or something along those lines.

Links

• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Merrow
• http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Murdhuacha
• http://dailybestiary.blogspot.com/2012/12/merrow.html

Condensing the merfolk

D&D and derivatives have a lot of merfolk races: merfolk, merrow, adaro, ceratioidi, Cecilia, deep merfolk, etc. Do we really need all these different races? So I got an idea inspired by reading about the merfolk in another game Changeling: The Dreaming.

Instead of all these races being different, they are actually the same. Bear with me for a moment. Merfolk children would start out as having legs, like the tritons or aquatic elves. When they reach young adulthood or whatever, they undergo a right of passage ceremony. They find some mystical creche or something, and enter it where they will merge with another sea creature that becomes their lower half. Merging with a bony fish would result in the standard merfolk, a shark in adaro, an octopus in Cecilia, etc.

Since there are stereotypes associated with the animal aspect, this results in the merfolk being segregated a la high school cliques. Since land lubbers wouldn't know how merfolk come to be, they would mistakenly think all these different lower halves were different races. Thus providing the fluff you read in the bestiaries.

Fishmen, those with permanent legs, are a whole other deal. Even so, I wouldn't mind letting merfolk temporarily replace their tail with legs for forays on land a la Splash or The Little Mermaid.

Tritons are merfolk

Although D&D depicts tritons as fish people who emigrated from the plane of water, in mythology they were merfolk. Triton was a sea god, with the tritons as his followers. They were the satyrs of the sea. In later medieval bestiaries, tritons were described as monstrous mermen.

©1998 Jonathan Hunt, Bestiary

“Tritons were half-human, half-fish creatures with scales covering their torsos, fish-like tails, and sharp teeth and claws. They spent much of their time carousing, riding the wave tops, and blowing their conch shell trumpets. Tritons often changed their tails into legs so they could spend part of their long lives among humans.” 

—Jonathan Hunt, Bestiary (1998)

Links

• https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Triton.html
• https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Tritones.html
• https://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Tritones.html
• https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Triton

Fantastical sea creatures

Medieval bestiaries often recount tales of fabulous sea creatures like sea-goats, sea-horses, sea-knights, sea-lions, and sea-monks. Back then it was believed everything on land had an equivalent in the sea. Such creatures were depicted in heraldry, too. The Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore by Theresa Bane lists the sea-dog, sea goat, sea-gryphon, sea hog, sea monk, sea-satyr, sea serpent, sea-stag, sea wolf, and sea-wyvern, among others.

D&D also has a history of weird sea monsters, like the sea cat and seawolf. Sometimes these are accused of being excessively silly or stupid. I don't really care if they're considered silly. If D&D already has merfolk, a bazillion other marine monsters and a plane of water, then sea clergy are no big stretch.

In future posts I would like to explore the fantastical sea creatures in more detail, in both mythological and fantasy gaming contexts.

Ecology of the siren

In Greek mythology the sirens were three nymphs granted the power of flight by Demeter to find her daughter Persephone after Hades “abducted” her. They had beautiful voices that lured sailors to their deaths. Odysseus was the only man to survive hearing their song, which provoked them into committing suicide.

In fantasy gaming they’re fuckable. Despite being human-headed birds. I find it all a bit silly, but what are you gonna do?

Tribes of the centaurs, part 3: the other centaurs

Although commonly depicted with equine halves, centaurs have since been expanded to cover a variety of animal halves. Some of these have precedent in mythology, while others are wholly modern inventions. These include the bull-centaur, fish-centaur, winged centaur and leonine-centaur, the subjects of this post. More below the break...

Harpies versus sirens versus mermaids

Originally the harpies, sirens and mermaids were all clearly distinct. Sirens and mermaids were conflated in medieval bestiaries and fiction, with sirens acquiring fishy features and mermaids acquiring enchanting songs. Harpies and sirens remain distinct in popular culture, except in Dungeons & Dragons where harpies have gained the enchanting voices of sirens for no apparent reason.

"Cecaelia" isn't a word and you should stop using it

Pathfinder labels the octopus mermaid as a "cecaelia." This isn't a real word, so you can be forgiven for thinking Paizo made it up. In fact, it originates from a wikipedia article posted in 2008 which has since been deleted for being a meaningless neologism. In all likelihood, "cecaelia" is a misspelling of the feminine given name Cecilia or the amphibian order of Caecilians. Both words are derived from the Latin word for "blind" and have nothing to do with octopuses, mermaids, or octopus mermaids. UPDATED 12/4/2018 8/17/2023 4/25/2025

Fantastical humanoids

Much like the distinction between beasts and monstrosities, the distinction between humanoids and monstrosities is arbitrary. I suspect this may be due to poor editing but I cannot be sure.

Merfolk are labeled humanoids despite having a tail in place of legs, when the description for the humanoid type specifies humanoids are bipedal. Centaurs are labeled monstrosities rather than humanoids because they are quadrupedal and/or large size, despite being neither unnatural nor malevolent. Yetis are labeled monstrosities rather than giants because... I cannot think of any logic behind that.

Maybe we should have a tag like "Honorary Humanoid: As a PC, you are susceptible to magics and effects that are stipulated for "humanoids" even though, as a species, you are not." Maybe?

Nymphomaniacs: centaurs, satyrs and tritons

A little house rule I am introducing is in regard to single gender monsters: there are no monsters which consist solely of one gender and especially not ones which must reproduce by non-consensual relations with humans. That is supremely creepy and has no place in a group activity like tabletop roleplaying games.

My go to example are centaurs, satyrs and tritons in their original sense as wild male nature spirits in Greek mythology. These three dudes are now fey (see 13th Age Monthly Vol 2) and are the male counterparts of nymphs, hags and other female fey. They are all the same species which display great physical differences based on their gender and other factors.

I will be adopting this sort of model for all my monster ecology. That said, the human superpower is still that they can have kids with lots of weird creatures. I just prefer not to dwell on creepy or fetish material. Call me a social justice warrior if you like, but I will not budge.