An easily missed and overlooked plant monster. A Mandragora is content to spend it's existence with nothing but it's stalk, leafs and flowers sticking out from the ground, hiding the large vaguely humanoid roots underground, being no different from any other plants.

It is only when they are uprooted that their dangerous nature is made apparent, where they'll let out a loud scream that can kill even a grown man, before they run off to find a new place to bury themselves into.

Delicious even if Deadly: Mandragora are sought out, despite the danger they present for the delicious taste that makes them a highly desired ingredients, even if the tastiest ones require risking it's scream. A Mandragora's quality drops sharply mere days after it have been harvested with a bitter aftertaste, if it hadn't let out a wail before it is killed.

For this reason, few farmers bothers cultivating them in any large number and instead a chef in a nobles court would often hire others to find one to harvest on the day it's going to be used. Usually by tying a rope to it's top and then using an animal to pull it free.

A Living Trap: Mandragora are often employed as living traps by creatures living in areas where they grow, using a simple system of rope and counterweight. Tripping the trap causing a heavy rock or a trunk to fall down, sometime toward the person tripping the trap while simultaneously pulling up the Mandragora to let out it's wail.

Wonderous Property: Mandragora are valued not only as trap and for their taste, but for the way they can enhance the mind. The very property that allows a mandragora to survive it's own scream, passed on to anyone who eats a dish made of them, making them highly desirable even to those who doesn't like the taste.

Art by Ekaterina Tarasova

A much less dangerous member of the Mandragora family. An Onionne resembles an onion when hidden in the ground, spending years no differently from any other plants until pulled up by someone seeking to sate their hunger.

At that point, the annoyed face of the Onionne's root is made apparent, before it expels a thin mist of it's own fluids that stings the eyes, often allowing it to escape to a new place to bury themselves into.

Large Growth: The Onionne can consistently grow to a large size, partly due to it's ability to uproot itself and search for more nutritious soil if needed, with Onionne the size of a honey melon not being uncommon.

Such growth normally requirer a space for them to roam around in though, making them an inefficient use of farmland and the cultivation of them more closely resembling the herding of animals. That makes them a luxury along the line of meat, often raised in the same forest where wild games are raised for hunting.

Natural Deterrent: Farmers living in region that often have to deal with burrowing animals such as hogs or land-sharks sometime plant Onionne along the perimeter of their farmland to scare away anything that might dig through the soil before they reach their fields.

This is not always without problems though. More than one neighbour war have started after an Onionne wandered into another farmers field, leading to a nasty surprise come harvest time.

Onionne from Odin Sphere by Vanillaware

The only member of the Mandragora family that won't kill you, blind you, poison you or do anything nasty, except damaging your ego, when it leads you on a merry chase.

A Caroteer resembles an carrot when hidden in the ground, until pulled up at which point it will suddenly spring to life to zoom off, sometime escaping straight out of the mouth of a creature.

Safe but difficult: A Caroteer are often attempted raised as crop, being the far safest of all of the Mandragora to cultivate, if one are willing to deal with the fact that the field can move over night.

The cultivation of Caroteer requiring not only specialized tools to make it harder for them to escape when harvested but a way to secure the farmland against birds and beast that might fail at eating the crops, but surely will succeed in making it run away, sometime creating a cascading effect that migrates the whole field, where a regular field might lose no more than 1 or 2 carrots.

Popular plaything: A Caroteer can make for a fun way to pass the time for children, who'll take turns pulling one up and compete on how long they can hold on to one, before it escapes for them to chase and pull up once more.

Mothers will warn their children though that a Caroteer that have escaped a seventh time must be left to run, less it leads you to a monster. Not that a Caroteer is smart enough to do that, but chasing one for long enough will lead a person somewhere.

Caroteer from Odin Sphere by Vanillaware

The Cubsbane grows in damp marshy area, with a strikingly beautiful flower that sometime leads to disaster when someone tries to pick one, only to pull up a very angry root, proceeding to spray a face full of poisonous pollen at everybody in the vicinity before it walks off to find another place to be left alone.

Long Lasting Flower: The Flower of a Cubsbane is known for looking fresh when in bloom for days after it's been picked with a minimal of care, making them a populare decoration, if they can be acquired, for temples during important holy days, or as prestigious decorations at a nobles party. The amount of Cubsbane flowers being shown off, subtle informing all guest of the host's power and influence.

Natural Hunting ground: Carnevorous beast and monsters will sometime lounge around in areas where they know that Cubsbane grows waiting for some poor herbivore, or a careless flowerpicker to disturb a Cubsbane, only to be paralyzed and an easy target for a hungry beast to pounce.

Valued in Medicine: Cubsbane extract can make for an effective anesthetic, medicine against involuntary movement and sleeping aid amount other things. For this reason, it's not unsual that some noble might attempt to set aside an area in a private garden for Cubsbane, so that they may be harvested for medicine.

Preferable without making anybody sick in the progress.

Cubsbane From Odin Sphere by Vanillaware

A mandragora that can be found in areas with heavy rainfall, with both tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest variant existing and thank the divine for that, or else they would be an endless source of forest fire.

The Habaneristo's chili fruits can carefully be harvested, but if a stem is pulled to roughly, then the chili-resembling root might just get pulled up far enough for the plant to release a burst of fire. Something that often is more than enough to scare off anyone, before it returns to it's hiding place.

A fiery Harvest: The Habaneristo disposition for staying in one place, unless it absolutely have to move, and the fact that it's fruits can be harvested, means that they can be cultivated as a crop with the right precaution. Farmers working with them often wearing protective gear, though accident is not uncommon.

The greatest dangers they pose however, is if one escapes into the wild in a region not adapted to their presence and the knocking on the door one would get, when it inevitable sets fire to something.

Invasive Species: The Habaneristo fiery way to defend itself, is perhaps surprisingly, not that big a problem in it's natural habitat. The swift flash of flame hot and searing, but doesn't last long enough to start any fire in the humid area where it lives and even then, rainfall happens often enough to doze the flames.

It is when they are introduced to dryer climate that they becomes a problem, making it merely a question of time before they start a forest fire, and it is a small comfort that it's a self correcting problem, when the Habaneristo can't escape the flames it created.

Habaneristo From Odin Sphere by Vanillaware

The Turnip like Turney grows in a cold climate, and of all the mandragora is the one most actively moving around, crawling up through the snow after it's been covered until it's flower sticks up above surface, and then burrow down into the ground again when the snow melts and exposes the ground.

A Valuable source of nutrition in the cold, for those who can catch one without falling and breaking their leg, when a disturbed Turney turns the surrounding into a slippery surface that it can skirt along.

Migrating Plant: The Turney can be found migrating based on season and wind and weather, moving north during the summers to drink from the light of the midnight sun, before migrating south, when the winter dark approaches. It is during this time that the Turney is most vulnereable, and entire herds of herbivore will try to snatch up a meal, and where there's herbivore, there'll also be carnivores.

Chock full of Nutrition: The Turney is densely packed with calories, vitamines and other nutritions, while lasting well in the cold, making it a valuable crop, where it not for it's migrating tendencies. It can however be a stable food for people who do not stay settle in one place, whose migration pattern follows the Turney and even settled people will sometime go hunting during a great Turney March.

Turney From Odin Sphere by Vanillaware

These statistics are for ewes, For rams, use the statistics for goats, keeping the Vegetable Lamb and Rooted in Place ability.

The Vegetable Lamb is a curious plant beast, whose lambs grows from the stalks of the central plant, kept safe in the center of the herd, until they are old enough to graze and rarely moving from where they have settled down, though it does happen. In those cases, a Barometz will chew through the vine connecting it to the central plant and migrate, until it find a place where the end of the vine can be stomped into the ground and take root. The are often found in harsh regions with a lack of surface water, drawing nutrition from grazing and sun alike and water from deep roots, surviving in places where others herbivores can not.

Hard to Herd: Temperamental and stubborn by nature, those that keep Barometz have not so much domesticated a herd, as they have forcefully dragged the Barometz to an enclosure, plant and all, and then leave them be until it's time to butcher one. They also have a tendency to become unwell if kept in regions that differ from the environment they naturally live in, even if it's a region that otherwise would be much more mild. This all contribute to make them difficult to keep for a herder, though there are those who finds the meat and wool worth it.

Succulent Meat and Soft Wool: The meat of a Barometz is said to be tender, sweet and succulent, worthy of a regent. It's wool soft and warm, rivalling silk. As unsuitable the Barometz might be to herd for sustenance compared to regular sheep, as suitable is it to make a fortune from those willing to pay for luxury.

Art by Deimos-Remus

The Fleece of this beast carries a metallic shine from the iron within the hair that protects the sheep against not only weather, but the claws and fangs of predator. Metal that could be extracted from the wool, but it would be the equivalent of melting down a well crafted gold ring, to receive the equivalent of a few coins in volume.

The sheep can be found in cold climate, risking overheating during a long summer and have an uncaring if not feisty attitude to predators, many finding the wool too much trouble to try to break through.

The same attitude extended to any who tries to domesticate a herd, but those who succeed, can potentially make a fortune.

Breeds are said to exists, with wool of other metals.

A life time to grow: Unlike the regular domesticated sheep which must be regulary sheared less it's fleece grow so long that they can't even see or move, then the hair of an Iron-Fleeced Sheep grows slowly, (or rather, it grows at a rate and to a length that is natural) and an adult will produce barely enough for a shirt. A shorn Iron-Fleeced Sheep will usually take a whole year to regrow it's fleece, during which time it's vulnerable to weather and beast and it is not unusual that a significant number are lost to a simple cold, or from a lack of fear when it faces a predator it is no longer protected against.

Iron Meat and Iron Thread: The meat and milk of a Iron-Fleeced Sheep have a strong metallic taste and can in large portion even be poisonous (which also makes it an effective remedy for those suffering from iron-deficit) and it is almost always only for it's wool that the sheep is priced. All though commonly associated with protective clothing, the wool can just as often also find use as a decorative thread used in clothing, banner and carpets, elaborated pattern woven that reflects the light.

Art by Jeffrey Hannum Dean

With feathery wings and wool that shines with gold, a Crius Chrysomallus, or Golden-Fleeced Ram as it is better known, is as desired as it is elusive.

It is often gone by the time sighting of it have been reported, though some might make the attempt to catch up to it still, for it is considered good fortune to see one and for the greedy it could be an even greater fortune to claim it's fleece for their own.

Symbol of Kingship: A Crius Chrysomallus is not impossible to bring down, the trick lies in doing it without damaging the prize. It is said to be a sign of wisdom fitting for a king, to be able to capture a Crius Chrysomallus in a state where there is no sign of damage, if it is skinned with fleece, wings, horns and all. Some claim though that true kingship would be to let it fly ever free.

Blessings from Above: A Crius Chrysomallus might appear before the needy sent by some divine providence offering it's back to be climbed so that it might bring them to safety and in times of great need, it might appear before a ruler, as if offering up itself as a sacrificial lamb.

Art by Pandora Box

Slime, Puni, Poring. A beloved child have many names.

The slime is a family of ooze with the distinctive trait of having a significantly more solid membrane, giving them a ball shaped form, along with a muteable nature, where their colour and property reflects the diet available in the environment it finds itself in. Content with being left to it's own device, the slime slides around worry free, absorbing whatever it passes by when it happens to be hungry.

Hard to eradicate: A carefree and harmless creature such as this would perhaps had been hunted to extinction a long time ago, where it not for it's ability to have a new slime regrow from whatever remains over a certain size when one is killed, if salt is not involved. In fact, it seems to be the only way it propagate, making the slime ubiquitous in all but the most hostile of environment, kept down only by constant predation as a source of water.

Popular pets: The mild nature of the slime and the bouncy texture of it's membrane (if not pierced), makes it a popular pet, especially variants brought out of it's natural environment. The blue slime found in temperate climate with plenty of water is slightly cold to the touch, making them popular in warmer climate, while the warm sand coloured desert slime are often imported to colder climate as a source of huggable heat during winter.

Living distillery: The slimes' trait of absorbing the property of their diet into their body in a purified form, along with how the remains of a killed slime that's too small to grow into a a new one, pulls together into a ball-like shape with a rubbery membrane that's easy to pick up, makes them a popular ingredients in alchemical brew. Some even suspect that the slimes ability to regrow, mild nature and convenience as an alchemical reagent is because they in fact is the escaped experiment of an alchemist.

"A round, blue, bouncy thing. It's chilly to the touch. It's cute, but it's still a monster. It's so weak, even a stray cat can kill it."

From the alchemy notes of Rorolina Frixell

Art from Atelier Ryza by Gust

The result of either a slime that by sheer luck manages to avoid predators, or multiple slimes in the same area merging together.

Emboldened by it's size, a Giant Slime goes where it's stomach takes it, the thickness of it's membrane making it too bothersome for all but the most desperate predator to hunt, especially because the Giant Slime is still mostly just liquid.

No upper limit?: It's theorized that a existence of Giant Slime means that there might be no upper limit to how huge they can grow, as long as they are left alone with plenty of food.

Found among it's smaller kind: Where ever a large amount of slime can be found, a Giant one can usually be found too and scholar is still in disagreement if it's the hen of the egg that came first. If a congregation of slime is needed before a Giant Slime is formed from merging, or if Giant Slime is what spawns more slime as part of it's body are scraped off on stones and sticks as it moves around.