Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Monsters of the Realms
Howdy folks! It's Joe Dyer again here, and for this Lore outing we're going to be talking about some of the more iconic Monsters of the Forgotten Realms! Each of these monsters are generally fairly common to many D&D adventures and many players know them well.
There are a lot of really cool iconic Monsters to talk about, so let's get right to it!
Beholders
Immensely powerful and extremely paranoid aberrations, Beholders are also sometimes often known as Eye Tyrants. These floating creatures are marked by a singular eye in the center and a large maw of teeth. Stalks of smaller eyes grow from the creature's body, enabling the Beholder to have near perfect vision all around them. Capable of flight and powerful magic that emanates from their eye stalks, Beholders are fearsome creatures typically found in the Underdark.
Beholders only reproduce generally once in their lifetime, spawning a new clutch of the creatures from inside itself, however, there are occasions where a Beholder dreaming can spontaneously spawn a fully grown Beholder as well. This Beholder could be unique or it could be a complete copy of the original, depending on the Beholder's dreams.
Beholders are so paranoid and xenophobic in nature that they don't even trust their own minds (in fact their minds are actually divided into two separate entities and neither half trusts the other) let alone even other Beholders. Beholders are also violent and greedy, seeking power and fortune wherever they might find it.
One of the more well known set of Beholders in Faerun is that of The Xanathar, a title claimed by any Beholder in charge of the Xanathar Thieves' Guild in Skullport below Waterdeep.
Bulettes
Bulettes are large magical beasts that are capable of burrowing underground and attacking by bursting out near their prey. They are often referred to as "landsharks" for that reason. Their bodies are covered in thick, armored plates, making them difficult to kill.
Devils and Demons
Two sides of a coin represents the dichotomy of these two evil aligned races. On one end, the Devils represent Order and Law. The other, the Demons, represent Chaos and Anarchy. Both races have been engaged in a feuding battle known as the Blood War, a long ongoing conflict between the evil forces of Law and Chaos.
Devils hail from the Nine Hells of Baator, a plane that is rigid in construction with different layers, representing raw order. Baator was ruled via a caste system that separated each layer being led by a specific Archdevil, with the Devil God Asmodeus ruling over all from his bottom-most layer of Nessus. Devils are cruel creatures, tempting mortals into forbidden contracts so that their actions remain within the letter of the law. One of the more common legends about Devil origins is that the Devils were originally Angels created to fight against the Demons, but became corrupted over time. There are many different varieties of devils, the mightiest of which were the Archdevils that ruled the Nine Hells. Some of the most famous Archdevils are Mephistopheles and Baalzebul.
Demons on the other hand are native to the Abyss, a chaotic and ever-changing plane filled with numerous layers that have yet to be truly explored or even calculated. The primary and most numerous race of demons are the Tanar'ri, cruel beasts that are destructive and petty to the very last. While not having any sort of formal structure, some Demons became the greatest of their kind and rose above the other Tanar'ri to rule. Some of the most famous of these are the Demon Prince Demogorgon and the Lord of the Undead, Orcus. The most frightening soldier of the Tanar'ri is the Balor.
Briefly the Blood War stalled for a period of time after Asmodeus absorbed the divine power of the God Azuth by pushing the Abyss to a different space within the Cosmology. However, the War reignited in 1487 DR.
Displacer Beasts
Displacer Beasts are fearsome creatures, resembling large puma or panthers with six legs and a pair of tentacles sprouting from their shoulders. The scariest thing about the Displacer Beast is the fact that it has an innate ability to bend light, making it appear to be a foot or two from its actual position. This ability makes them fierce hunters and hard to kill. Despite not being very intelligent, most Displacer Beasts could speak Common. The origins of these creatures appear to have been based in the Feywild, where the Unseelie Court bred and trained the beasts for hunting. When the beasts broke free, the Court used Blink Dogs to drive the beasts out of the Feywild and into the material plane.
Displacer Beast hide is a fairly valuable item, as it can be used to craft magical and otherwise enchanted items that bestow the natural properties of the Displacer Beast upon the wearer.
Dragons
Dragons are of course, very important to Dungeons & Dragons. On the world of Faerun there are many different kinds of dragons that exist, but the two primary sets are the Chromatic Dragons (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green) and the Metallic Dragons (Copper, Silver, Bronze, Brass, Gold). In general most Chromatic dragons answer the call of the Dragon Queen Tiamat and are generally considered evil by nature. Metallic dragons often serve the Dragon God Bahamut, and are often considered champions of justice and good in the world.
Whatever their alignment, one thing is fervently clear about these creatures. Many of them are ancient and powerful, and view the lesser races as more of an annoyance than anything else. They are fickle by their very nature, and fiercely protective of their hoards.
Dragon Turtles
Dragon Turtles are massive aquatic beasts with relations to dragons. They looked like giant turtle-like creatures with draconic features. They could grow to an average length of 20-30ft long with a shell that ranged 15-25ft in diameter. They are aggressive and solitary creatures that would attack ships that entered their territory. Like all Draconic relations, they were obsessed with gold and treasure. They could speak Aquan, Draconic, and even sometimes Common.
Some of the most notable Dragon Turtles in existence are Aremag of the Sea of Swords and Parnak of the Golden Gulf.
Driders
Driders are not naturally occurring creatures. They're aberrations created whenever a Drow fails Lolth, the Spider Queen. The process of creating a Drider required the presence of one of the Spider Queen's handmaidens, a demon known as Yochlol. Driders were regarded as outcasts of the Drow society in the Underdark, since their very presence meant that they were failures to the Spider Queen's will. However, some Drow Houses of Menzoberranzen tolerated them and even employed them as guards and foot soldiers in their armies.
Driders are generally unstable creatures, their minds broken by the touch of the Spider Queen's punishment. Combined with their magical abilities and their violent hunter nature, they are the perfect Underdark predator.
The Fey
The Fey are the fair folk from the Feywild, a parallel plane to the Prime Material Plane. The Fey are the stuff of legends and urban myths, capricious and friendly but also mischievous and devious all at the same time. There are many different species of the Fey, from creatures such as Pixies to even Dryads and Nymphs. How the Fey are perceived on the Prime Material Plane is all based in stories generally, as the Fey tend to keep oft to themselves with the occasional jaunt into the material world, thus many stories painted the Fey as tricksters or as mischief-makers, bringers of bad luck, and devourers of infant children.
The Feywild hosts two major presences, one of which is the Seelie Court, the pantheon of deities within the Feywild. Their leader is the Queen of the Summer Court, Titania. The other presence is the Unseelie Court, an evil-aligned organization led by the Queen of Air and Darkness, an evil fey creature.
Flumphs
One of the more rather unique races of the Underdark, the Flumphs are a mysteriously benevolent race that drifts through the lightless tunnels. They are psionic in nature, gathering thoughts and feeding on psionic energy as a source of food. Due to the helpful nature and benevolence this race shows to adventurers, it is often theorized that flumphs are not natural to the world and instead arrived somehow via great spelljamming ships (ships that could traverse the multiversal boundaries).
Sometimes when a flumph was exposed to evil thoughts it would spontaneously glow red in anger, a reaction that could be reasonably used to warn adventurers of evil monsters nearby. Because of this sensitivity, flumphs would shed these thoughts off to other good-aligned creatures in order to wash them away.
Gelatinous Cube
Gelatinous Cubes are a mindless predator that often traversed the halls of ancient dungeons. They're predictable creatures, traversing in regular patterns, but they are also capable of absorbing any material in their path. Gelatinous Cubes are very dangerous from the standpoint of being nearly translucent, making them impossible to pinpoint if they have not fed recently. Well-fed cubes can often be spotted by random bits of objects floating inside of them. It is believed that Gelatinous Cubes were originally fragments or the spawn of the demon lord Jubilex, but this has never been confirmed.
Giants
Giants are a varied race of large humanoids, often living amongst their own clans. Many Giants are intelligent in their own right, and have senses that are much keener than typical humanoid races. The Giants formed a great social structure known as the Ordning which defined a class-based system of society in which all Giant tribes lived. The ordning was shattered by Annam All-Father, the creator of giants, in 1485 DR as Annam had felt his children had become complacent in life after a plot was foiled to bring the Dragon Goddess Tiamat into Toril.
There are many different types of true giants, from the massive Hill Giants to the powerful and wise Storm Giants. In addition, there are subraces known as Giantkin like the Firbolg and Verbeeg that are closely related to the true giant races. Ogres are also considered giantkin as well.
Gnolls
Gnolls are human/hyena hybrids and are vicious combatants and hunters. It is believed that the origins of Gnolls trace back to demonic bloodlines, which is often evidenced by unusual features that individual Gnolls may have. Gnolls hold a pack mentality and are nomadic in nature. The demonic traces often harken to the fact that many Gnolls worship the demon lord Yeenoghu, who some scholars claim created the hybrid race. Occasionally Yeenoghu rewarded his most devoted servants, transforming them via demonic possession into Fangs of Yeenoghu.
Goblinoids
Goblinoids of the realm vary in shapes and sizes, from the small and lithe Goblins to the hulking Bugbears of the realm. It is believed that many of the various goblinoid races are not actually native to the world of Toril, but instead migrated through portals as they opened from other planes of existence. Goblinoids rarely get along well with each other let alone other races. It is not uncommon to see Hobgoblins however commander armies of smaller Goblins, as Hobgoblins have a much keener eye for tactics and are fearsome warriors. Bugbears are often used as muscle, due to their raw brute strength.
Illithid
Illithids, also known as Mind Flayers, are a race of sadistic psionic aberrations feared across Faerun's multiverse. These creatures not only dominate lesser species into serving as their unwilling thralls, but they also subsist by feasting on the brains of the lesser species. Their motives and thought processes are utterly alien in nature, and Illithids all generally share a hive mind with an Elder Brain. Illithids are self-important, megalomaniacal, and driven by intense ambition to dominate all within their purvey.
They are cold and calculated and some of the most dangerous creatures in the Underdark. Despite their lack of physical abilities, Illithids are feared because of their powerful psionic powers.
There are many theories about the origins of the Illithids, but it is well known that they are planar travelers and have traversed across Faerun's cosmology, leaving fear and shattered civilizations in their very wake. At some point their vast empire was brought down by the combined might of the Githzerai and Githyanki, both races the Mind Flayers had subjugated as slave races.
Liches / Demiliches
Liches are mortal spellcasters who transcended death in the most foul of fashions, becoming undead magic users of great power. Liches store their life essences inside an object known as a phylactery, which allows the lich's body to bascially become immortal as long as their phylactery is unharmed. Because of their long lives, their schemes often took decades, possibly even centuries to form and develop.
Sometimes, a Lich transcends even undeath and sheds its need for a body and becomes a Demilich, tying all of its power to its skull.
Some of the most famous Liches in Faerunian history are the Witch King Zhengyi of Damara and the Bloodstone Lands, and Valindra Shadowmantle, former Overwizard of the Host Tower of the Arcane in Luskan.
Lizardfolk
Lizardfolk are a race of reptilian humanoids native to the world of Toril. They are covered in scales and powerfully built creatures with prehensile tails. They had a tribal social structure that was patriarchal in nature. Their primary habitats were marshes and swamps in the temperate and warm regions of Faerun.
It is often thought that the Lizardfolk are an offshoot of the ancient Creator Race known as the Sarukh and thus were one of the first humanoid races on Toril, but the lizardfolk themselves have no written history that proves this.
Manticores
Manticores had the body of a lion, dragon-like wings, and a humanoid-like head. They had very strong bodies and rows of razor-sharp teeth, which they could use in conjunction with their claws to rake foes. They had tail spikes on their tails that carried a venom of sorts that was paralytic in nature. They were known to be savage man-eaters but were also intelligent enough to speak Common.
Owlbears
Owlbears are monstrous beasts with the body of a bear but heads shaped like that of an owl, complete with serrated beaks. The origin of these creatures is contentious, with many scholars claiming that the first owlbear was the product of a demented mage crossing owls and bears together, but the Elves and people of the Feywild claim that the owlbear had existed for millenia before that. In truth, owlbears were created by the creator races, more than likely the aearee.
Owlbears are fiercely territorial creatures and incredibly aggressive.
Purple Worms
Purple Worms are a very bizarre creature, resembling a giant earthworm with armored plating and a large toothed mouth at one end. Their average length was 80 ft and their average weight was 40,000 lbs. Even more dangerous about these creatures is their tail, which contains a paralytic stinger on it.
Ropers
Ropers are Underdark predators, content to lie in wait appearing as a stalagmite until a living creature would come near, then it would spring into attack with its tentacles in order to bind their prey and then consume them.
Strangely enough, Ropers were highly intelligent creatures. In between feedings, the beasts would listen and learn about the world around them. It is even said that religious pilgrims would brave the lair of a Roper for the mere chance of learning the creature's insights.
Rust Monsters
Rust Monsters are the bane of adventurers everywhere, especially lower level adventurers. They are creatures that feed on metal by converting the metals to rust via a touch by their antennae. They look very nearly like large tick-like creatures with four insectlike legs and two long antennae. Their touch is capable of converting even magical items to mere rust.
Rest assured if you ever come across a rust monster in an adventure, be wary of your swords!
The Tarrasque
A force of the most pure destruction known to the Prime Material Plane, the Tarrasque was a legendary abomination that quite often spelled doom whenever it awoke. The power of this beast was incredible and legendary, and the legends spoke of there only ever existing one such beast that slumbered within the Prime Material Plane's core. When awake, the Tarrasque is a fearsome creature that eats anything in its path, instills fear in the hearts of those who witness its awesome power, and supposedly the only way of dealing with it is to hopefully put the creature back to sleep.
Supposedly a more permanent way of dealing with the beast exists, by luring it to a different plane of existence and then sealing it there, but that isn't truly very permanent.
There are many theories about the Tarrasque's origins, such as that the creature was created by the primordials during the Dawn War, a conflict between the ancient primordials and the gods of Abeir-Toril, but only managed to ever create a singular Tarrasque. That being said, there have been events throughout Faerun's history involving the creature.
Undead
Undead come in many forms, from the lowly Zombie and Skeletons to the more advanced creatures such as Wights, Ghouls, and Mummies. They are as varied as any other set of creatures in the world, often taking on distinct appearances or the appearances of whatever race they were in life. Some undead are corporeal beings, while others such as Ghosts and Wraiths are incorporeal making them hard to fight in combat.
Regardless of their origin, undead are resilient creatures and are immune to a number of effects including poison, sleep effects, and even paralysis.
Not all undead are inherently evil. In fact, many Gods such as Dumathoin have employed undead Spirits in the service of their God and good-aligned pursuits.
Unicorns
Unicorns are magical beasts resembling horses with horns protruding from their heads. Unicorns are highly intelligent creatures and are the symbol of the Goddess Mielikki, the Goddess of Rangers. They were often sent as signs of good fortune to those favored by good-aligned Goddesses.
During his early days on the surface world, the rogue drow Drizzt Do'Urden had an encounter with a unicorn that he saw as a sign that the Goddess Mielikki had accepted him for who he was in the grove of the Old Blind Ranger Montolio.
Yuan-Ti
Yuan-Ti are a race of snake-like creatures ranging from looking almost identical to a normal human to a full snake-bodied creature. They prefer to make their homes in jungle environments. Originally the Yuan-Ti were human, but were created via breeding experiments by a Creator Race known as the Sarrukh. The first Yuan-Ti were created in these magical experiments until the Sarrukh fell from power.
Yuan-Ti often seek to infiltrate human society for various plots involving grabs at power or ancient rituals devoted to their deity Sseth, and Yuan-Ti purebloods (those that look closest to human) are often the agents of those infiltrations.
Xorn
Xorn are alien-looking creatures that hail from the Elemental Plane of Earth. They have three arms and three legs, with three eyes around their radially symmetrical body. Their mouths are on the top of their heads, and their skin is stonelike in nature. Xorns are scavengers, and eat only rocks, minerals, and gems as a primary source of food. A common saying is "Keep a few gems in your pocket. A hungry xorn is a helpful xorn."
Xorns are neutral creatures by nature and would only attack if provoked or if they were hungry and knew the provoker had food for them. They would often send intermediaries to negotiate for food first before attacking however.
Another variant of Xorns exists known as the Xarens, which are slightly smaller Xorns with a more metallic-like skin. Their diets mainly consisted of more metallic ore and they especially loved enchanted metals.
Wrapping Up
Whew! That's a lot of Monsters! I hope you enjoyed this little lore dive into some of the more iconic monster races of the Forgotten Realms! I know I had a lot of fun writing it! Now get out there and delve some Dungeons!
As always you can reach me at Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server!
Until next time!
