Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Revisiting the manticore

I think manticores in D&D suffer from two problems.
  1. First is that typical fantasy ecology articles make a point to claim that the manticore is some unnatural abomination probably created by a mad wizard. In reality, medieval and early modern zoologists believed that the manticore was a real and wholly natural animal. That will be the subject of the current post.
  2. Second is that the manticore varies wildly in appearance across historical and modern art, as I explored in my prior post on the manticore's art history. The monster manuals treat them as a race of identical clones, making them predictable and boring in my opinion. So I thought I would change things up a bit by making them diverse. That will be the subject of a following post.
There have already been multiple ecologies written for the manticore, so I will generally restrict myself to the differences I made. More info below the break.

© Rudolf Freund; LIFE Apr 23, 1951
©1998 Jonathan Hunt

Miscellaneous descriptors

Man-eaters. Manticores are famous for their enjoyment of human flesh, to the point that their name supposedly derives from an Old Persian word meaning "man-eater." Folk etymologies have falsely conflated its name with "man-tiger." The manticore is also known as the baricos in Greek, and (according to Hackmaster) a female manticore is called womanticore. The iconic manticore has the face of a human, the body of a lion, a spiked mace tail, and the wings of a bat, but their actual appearance is highly variable.

Exotic animals. Manticores are native to Asia Minor, Africa and India. They hunt both men and beasts, are are infamous for gorging themselves on great numbers of prey. They are hunted and killed by men riding on elephant back with spears and arrows. Entrepreneurs hunt the young and crush their tails before they develop their sting, then sell the beasts as pets to the very wealthy. These pets are famous for their trumpet-like voices.

Indiscriminate diet. Manticores eat their prey in entirety, equipment and all. Like other cats and all civilized folk, they dig latrines a fair distance from their living area. So... adventurers will not find treasure in the manticore's lair, but in the manticore's litter box.

Trumpet voices. Manticores typically have wonderful singing voices and a talent for ventriloquism and impersonations. They employ this talent for social purposes as well as luring humanoid prey.

Deceptive faces. Cunning manticores with attractive appearances may take advantage of this to lure humanoid prey. This typically involves either hiding everything but their face or bewitching victims not to notice.

Opportunistic, not unreasonable. Manticores are bestial in nature, but just smart enough to hold conversations (typically taunting their prey). Even the stupidest manticores won't put more effort into catching prey than they would get out of eating them. Smarter or sophisticated manticores might be bribed with knowledge or treasure.

The fairer sex. Womanticores are typically larger and more aggressive than manticores. Like lionesses and women, they ferociously defend their families.

Diverse organization. Manticores may live solitary like tigers, in prides like lions or in packs like wolves. Their social organization is as variable as their appearance.

Relevant books

  • The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, by Edward Topsell
  • Myth-Land, by F. Edward Hulme
  • Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art, by John Vinycomb
  • Curious Creatures in Zoology, by John Ashton

Relevant links

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