The Bestiary

See also: Lore and Enemies

Renowned Sixth Astral Era naturalist and theologian, Frandelont Raimdelle, once opined that for man to know himself, he must first know of that which he hunts. To assist in that spiritual endeavor, the self-made scholar spent the better part of his fifty-seven summers traveling about Eorzea, cataloging each and every plant, mineral, and animal he encountered. With his seminal Raimdelle Codex, Frandelont sought not only to educate the peoples of Eorzea, but remind them just how rich and diverse their realm truly is.

Classification

Sharlayan scholars of natural history have since taken Raimdelle’s magnum opus and expanded upon its writings, categorizing its thousands of entries in an effort to better understand the physiology, behavior, relationships, and evolution of the myriad flora and fauna found in Eorzea. The Sharlayans began by first classifying all creatures living or exhibiting properties that resemble or mimic life into three kingdoms (also known as regnum)—the Bloodborn, or those living beings through which lifeblood courses, the Bloodless, or those beings which are void of life-bearing humours, but still function nonetheless, and the Transcendents, or beings which spiritually and physically toe the line between the corporeal and the aetherial realms. These three classifications can be further divided into twelve smaller groups known as classes, or kindred. Creatures may also be assigned a sub-class if they possess traits that extend beyond that exhibited by their main class. For example, a winged scalekin puk would belong to the sub-class cloudkin. Classes are further divided into genera, and finally genera into species.

Blooborn

• Beastkin
• Seedkin
• Vilekin
• Wavekin
• Cloudkin
• Scalekin
• Spoken

Bloodless

• Forgekin
• Ashkin
• Soulkin

Trascendents

• Voidsent
• Elementals (Fae)

The Discovery of Chimerical Creations

From lions with the hooves of a goat, to serpents with the heads of hounds, there exist in Eorzea certain living (and unliving) creatures that possess the physical and biological traits of multiple beings from multiple classes or even kingdoms. These creatures are known by naturalists as “chimeras” and have long proven the source of debate as to how they should be classified. The recent rediscovery of the floating, Allagan research facility Azys Lla has added fuel to this debate by revealing that the chimeras are, in fact, beings created in laboratories using complex techniques now forgotten. Unable to reach a conclusion regarding the true nature of the man-made aberrations, chimeras have temporarily been deemed “unclassifiable” and placed outside the three existing kingdoms.