To those who celebrate it, I hope that you had a good Halloween. As a lot of authors and bloggers are currently posting about spooky stuff, I decided to share some information the monsters that exist in the Gragiyan Empire.
The first monsters mentioned in my short stories anthology are the shadow creatures known as Morkrai. Their origins are explained in the ‘Prologue’ of my book ‘The Stories They Told Their Children’ so I won’t go into that here save that they were created by Lord Makar, the god of death. The name Morkrai was inspired by the Norwegian word “mørk” meaning dark. A couple of my Twitter followers have asked what a Morkrai looks like as the descriptions in my stories are rather vague. They are ghastly looking wraith like monsters made of shadow. So if you imagine a cross between a grim reaper and a Nazgûl, then you will have a pretty good idea of what a Morkrai looks like. Similar to their master, Lord Makar, the Morkrai, despite their appearance and association of darkness, they are not evil beings. They just perform a function, escorting dead souls to their final judgement in the Halls of Makar and guarding the gates of the realm. Unlike the Enai clans, these creatures have no will of their own and obey Lord Makar and his queen Lady Morae’s orders without question.
Another group of monsters mentioned in my stories are the wild beasts the forest god Lord Silyan, the woodland Enai and Lord Fiehri’s servants, the fire Enai like to hunt. There are many varieties of wild beast, including cave trolls. These live in the mountain region of Lavinium. They are large and ugly creatures with grey skin and sharp teeth. Unlike the Enai or Morkrai, cave trolls aren’t immortal and can be killed either using fire or shot down with arrows made by the woodland Enai. They are not particularly smart creatures and have an obsession with shiny things. Some of these trolls live near the mines where the fire Enai work and often try to steal things from them. This is why the fire Enai hunt them.
As cave trolls mainly inhabit the higher parts of the region, humans rarely encounter them when traveling through the tunnels leading from Lavinium to the desert province of Niralis. The mountain folk are aware of their existence though and maintain caution during their travels across the mountains.
Then there’s a very rare creature known to humans as a Raelhir, a large flying monster with really sharp teeth, the head of a lizard and the wings of a bat. The Enai refer to them as Yushki Gulger, based on a noise the monsters make when they fly. Like trolls these are mortal, but very difficult to kill. They were once thought to have been wiped out completely by the woodland Enai hunters.
Iza Forestspirit Stories 