| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Asharak |
Posted - 03 Feb 2014 : 20:32:22
I find this in "Netheril: Empire of Magic" p.8:
" ... owl bears, creatures given existence by the Creator Races
thousands of years ago."
Any mention anywhere else ? |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Markustay |
Posted - 09 Feb 2014 : 22:54:34
In the Cormyr series there is mention of a (now presumably extinct) 'giant owlbear'. I would assume you'd simply attach the Dire template to the normal one. They looked pretty-much like the regular ones, but were around 12' tall. The humans expanding into the area caused them to disappear (although in the novel, it was a group of elves fighting one).
There were also small 'forest roth' at that time, which also vanished. My assumption with those is that they still survive, but as an off-shot - those are the small underdark variants, taken in the Night below long ago. It may have even been a massive raiding pogrom by Drow that wiped the populations out.
When you do maps, you also get a feel for the flora and fauna that were part of Realms history.  |
| Barastir |
Posted - 07 Feb 2014 : 10:02:00
quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
Or only the winged variant was their idea, (...) and derived/repeated with the simplified common version.
Or the commoner version was an earlier experiment that worked very well, or that escaped and for some reason did better than the winged version (maybe the winged ones were heavily eliminated by dragons, afterwards). But I don't remember the aearee being widely known as the ones that made experiments mixing animals. Not that they couldn't make one or two of their own experiments, of course!
EDIT: typos |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 06 Feb 2014 : 16:28:05
quote:
Originally posted by Newt
Maybe they were created by the Aearee, the other creator race. If you wanted to create a powerful guard you would start with something like a bear as your base chassis. Those teeth were probably off-putting so they gave it a beak to give it a less hostile face.
Or only the winged variant was their idea, and then someone said - "hey, those things are awfully overweight to fly far anyway, but low-light vision and somewhat better brains alone are useful traits for a guardian monster", and derived/repeated with the simplified common version. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 06 Feb 2014 : 14:30:43
I'd imagine maybe Gray Richardson would have some thoughts on this... |
| Newt |
Posted - 06 Feb 2014 : 06:42:04
Maybe they were created by the Aearee, the other creator race. If you wanted to create a powerful guard you would start with something like a bear as your base chassis. Those teeth were probably off-putting so they gave it a beak to give it a less hostile face. |
| Barastir |
Posted - 04 Feb 2014 : 17:41:58
As the sage Tony diTerlizzi reveals:
http://diterlizzi.com/home/owlbears-rust-monsters-and-bulettes-oh-my/
So owlbears were created by a wu jen from Kara-Tur (Hong Kong) who wanted to have dinosaurs that looked like beaked bears, or who wanted to develop bears with nightvision abilities!
On a more serious note, I think I read somewhere that one of the creator races - the batrach or the sarrukh, but I think the later - experimented with mixing animals, and were the creator of creatures like owlbears or pegasus. Is that right, fellow sages? I'm not sure if this information is canonized (in Serpent Kingdoms, maybe?) or not (in one of the Candlekeep tomes?).  |
| BEAST |
Posted - 04 Feb 2014 : 16:28:17
Back before Dr. Heiter's fascination with humans and centipedes, he looked into other lifeforms . . . |
| _Jarlaxle_ |
Posted - 04 Feb 2014 : 13:06:30
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0322.html |
| hashimashadoo |
Posted - 04 Feb 2014 : 12:10:27
Old Owl Well was named in honour of the Caravan War where scouts working for the Terraseer killed the local population of Owlbears.
I always thought that owlbears were the creations of mortal wizards...guess that's not the case in the FR. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 03 Feb 2014 : 22:26:00
there was this really really horny bear.... and this poor owl... and a spool of duct tape. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 03 Feb 2014 : 21:16:35
I think they are mentioned in Serpent Kingdoms or Lost Empires of Faerun. Anything about the Old Owl Well or the enclave of Quesseer.
However with creatures that are magical in origin it is likely that they were created by many different people in different geographic regions at various times in history |
