DEATH'S MESSENGER

DEATH'S MESSENGER

"In size and shape, it resembled an elephant with tusks like curved ivory spears. But Imaro had never known and elephant to have a hide scarlet as fresh-spilled blood; or grasping, hook-like fingers at the ends of its columnar limbs; or ears ribbed like giant fans; or two pairs of gauzy, insect-like wings sprouting from its back, wings that scarcely disturbed the damp swamp air as they supported the massive bulk of Death's Messenger...."

Charles R. Saunders, Death's Friend

PERSON OF THE PLACE OF STONE

PERSON OF THE PLACE OF STONE

"The builders of the Place of Stones were short, squat, manlike in shape...and thoroughly nightmarish. Narrow, elongated eyes glittered balefully in the green light suffusing the ruin. Bestial fangs fille dthei gaping mouths. Colorless hair sprouted in thin patches across scabrous, unclothed skin. Cat-like claws curved from the fingers of hands otherwise human in form. These were the people of the Place of Stones, whose very name had long since been forgotten."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro

GUNKWU

GUNKWU

"The soldiers, encased in steel and bearing long lances, rode gunkwu: beasts that were relics of the time before human feet trod Nyumbani. Although the gunkwu bore a superficial resemblance to the rhinoceros, they were larger and bulkier, rivaling the mass of a small elephant. From their foreheads, pairs of thick, conical, parallel horns projected to a point beyond the beasts' nostrils."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

IMANDWA

IMANDWA

"The wide-spanning horns shrank back into the sides of a head that was reshaping itself: snout collapsing into a smaller nose; forehead rising, hair receding until it covered only a head that became round rather than flat. And the hoofs of the apparition metamorphosed into hands and feet. When the shape-shifting was complete, a naked giant of a man stood before Dossouye."

"Once before, she had known a bovine that could be come human..."

Charles R. Saunders, Kpendu

NANDI

NANDI

"From behind the thick tree trunk a gigantic, shaggy bulk emerged. Imaro's dark eyes went wide in disbelief."

"What swayed before Imaro was no legend. The beast's snarling canine face was framed by flopping, houndlike ears. Its bulky, bearlike form was larger than a lion's, and its mighty paws were armed with long, lethal talons that were fitting counterparts to its dripping fangs."

Charles R. Saunders, Mai-Kulala

MWANGA

MWANGA

"She crouched like a skulking beast at the edge of the clearing, distorted body outlined by a ghostly nimbus of moonlight. Demon-fires smouldered in her crimson eyes. Her lips pulled back in a snarl that revealed sharp, carnivorous teeth. Shaggy beast-hair blurred the lines of her lean, powerful frame. Despite  the hideous misshaping of feature and form, Imaro knew that the feral thing that was even now beginning to creep forward was Mai-Kulala...."

"She transformed into a mwanga, a were-thing that drinks the blood of humans."

Charles R. Saunders, Mai-Kulala

ZAGIWE

ZAGIWE

"The animals upon which the Dancers were mounted were even more singular than Gbo. Although they resembled horses the likeness was superficial. These beasts were slightly larger than equines, but built along leaner lines. Cat-like, tufted tails whipped back and forth as the animals' taloned paws scratched at the ground. Their heads, narrower than those of horses, surmounted long, mane-less necks. From each of the animals' foreheads, a single, short horn protruded."

"Dark-brown spots like those of a leopard speckled their light-brown hides."

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye II

GETIET

GETIET

"Great doglike jaws ripped voraciously into the flesh of the buffalo, while apelike paws pulled heavy bones from their sockets. The body of the beast sloped downward from the shoulders, much like that of a hyena. but there was also a strong suggestion of the baboon in its form, almost as if it were the result of some unholy amalgam of the two species."

Charles R. Saunders, Death In Jukun

KISUJINI

KISUJINI

"It was a great cat, leanly built, halfway between a leopard and a lion in size. Its fur was scarlet in hue, spotted like that of a leopard with rosettes of a deeper blood-colored shade. Its claws were fearsome weapons, but more dangerous still were the dagger-like fangs that curved an inch below the cat's tufted chin."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro II

SHENDI

SHENDI

"Along with the inguluku, the other major carnivore of the Lowlands was a skulker the size of a large leopard. Its jaws were not nearly as long as the inguluku's, and its body was shorter in proportion to its legs. Its teeth were more feline than reptilian. But the bright-green scales of its hide and its thick, lashing tail were lizard-like. Shendi was the name the Naglopa gave the lesser predator."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

N'KAA

N'KAA

"A moment after the last skull was broken, the corpse of Vorstos collapsed into a pile of dust, as the soul-forces that had preserved it even after his death now departed. Now, eight flame-eyed, filmy wraiths hovered over the shards of their black-painted prisons. These were the n'kaa, the enslaved souls, freed at last from their loathsome servitude."
Charles R. Saunders, Imaro II

EYELESS LIZARD

EYELESS LIZARD

"A long sword was belted to his side and across his shoulders he carried a pale, squamous creature that more than anything else resembled a gigantic eyeless lizard."

Charles R. Saunders, Drum Magic

OTIBIS

OTIBIS

"Their mtekwas eyed the swift-moving, two-legged mounts of the Naaman cavalry. The Reptiles were dark-brown in hue, with lighter-colored horizontal stripes that stretched from head to tail. Their long jaws were filled with needle-sharp teeth, and hooked talons sprouted from forelimbs that ended in curved paws. They held their long tails stiffly behind them when they rain. The Naglopa called the beasts otibis."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

WALKINGDEAD

WALKINGDEAD

"They should have been food for the sharks, these waterlogged husks that had once been men and women. But their bodies betrayed no sign of attention from the scavengers of the deep. The only alteration, other than decay, that the corpses showed was the tips of their fingers. There, the flesh had been torn - or bitten -away, leaving only bare, claw-like bone, capable of ripping into skin...or clinging to wood."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro III

IMBONA

IMBONA

"The most common grass-easter was a swift-running reptile slightly larger than an ostrich. Save for its long, tapering tail and a pair of forelegs that dangled above the ground, the long-legged creatures closely resembled the huge, flightless birds that raced across other parts of Nyumbani. Imbona was the Naglopa name for the runners."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

OMULUDU

OMULUDU

"The being that now stood before Imaro bore the semblance of an emaciated ape, with sinewy arms and legs that were longer and straighter than those of a gorilla or chimpanzee. Its torso was thin but muscular, like the body of a snake. hair the color of river-mud covered all of the creature's body except its face, which was only vaguely anthropoidal."

"Instead of a nose and a mouth, a hooked beak like that of an eagle jutted form the middle of the creature's face. In place of hands and feet, its limbs ended in curving talons resembling those of a gigantic bird of prey. Unlike those of beast or bird, however, the being's slit-pupilled eyes blazed with malevolent intelligence."

Charles R. Saunders, Amudu's Bargain

INGULUKU

INGULUKU

"If a lion could have been mated with a crocodile, the offspring might have resembled the inguluku. Spiky teeth lined its long jaws. Eyes set in deep sockets glared in a sloping, reptilian skull."

"Legs that were slightly bowed held a sinuously muscular body high from the ground. All four of the inguluku's paws were equipped with hook-like talons. Its body was cat-like, but its tail was a long, tapering cone of sinew, like that of a lizard. Dull, green scales covered the beast's body. Spiky black hair grew in tufts across its head and along its spine."

The fresh wounds seared Imaro like fire, for the inguluku's talons were sharply serrated."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

IRIMU

IRIMU

"Among all the components of the Naaman army, the irimu were the most menacing in appearance -and fact. They were shape-changers who could alternate between human guise and their true appearance: tawny, powerful creatures with human hands and feet, but the faces, claws and strength of a lion."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV: The Naama War

UNTHLATU

UNTHLATU

"The unthlatu were a race of serpent-men who dwelled in a wasteland south of the Abamba Hightlands."

"But it was the faces of the unthlatu that most unnerved their adversaires. Devoid of hair and veneered with scales, the features of the serpent-men were fully human - save for the vertical, slitted pupils of their eyes an the needle-sharp fangs  that showed when they opened their mouths. Venom dripped form the tips of those fangs...the bite of the unthlatu was as poisonous as that of a cobra."

"Like a tide of scales and steel, the unthlatu attacked. Moving with boneless grace, they plied their weapons with blurring speed."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV: The Naama War

IZINGOGO

IZINGOGO

"Or, worst of all, the izingogo - creatures that go on all fours like baboons, but have human faces! These things did most of the fighting for the Naamans. They tore, and rendered, and killed, and we could do nothing!"

"For the isingogo were, as Majnun had said, human quadrupeds. Their size approximated that of a full-grown man, but the proportions of their limbs were different. Their arms were longer, ending in broad, spatulate hands. Legs bent like those of a hare propelled the creatures in bounds of terrifying speed. Their backs were hunched like bows, and their bodies, lean as a cheetah's, were covered with short, wooly hair."

"But it was the faces of the izingogo that were their most frightening feature. Save for a slight protrusion of the jaw, those visages were fully human. But when they opened their mouths, the izingogos' jaws revealed the teeth of a carnivore. Those teeth, and the strength in their splayed hands, were the only weapons the izingogo needed, other than their numbers."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro III: The Trail Of Bohu