Aren Bestiary Appendix: Oulurse Folklore

Due to lack of direct observations from encounters with living or even dead oulurses, Arenian naturalists have had to seek information through less direct means. Mostly this has meant gathering local legends and accounts from supposed eyewitnesses from areas where the oulurse is supposed to still live, in order to build a more complete image of the mysterious beast that still avoids capture. While its existence continues to be a subject of debate, the information available thusfar seems to support the existence of one or more species of oulurse in Erdasia.

 

According to some tribes living in the Great Middle Erdasian Rainforest or Dardjagul the bear-owl or jugumarutuqua is a very large animal that can be up to 8 feet tall when it stands fully upright. Usually it walks in a horizontal pose with its long arms almost touching the forest floor, and it never uses them to walk. The feathered arms end in three large curved claws that are dull ivory in colour, as is the beak of the animal. Its face resembles that of an owl with round forward-facing orange eyes rimmed with dark red skin, and a hooked beak that is much larger in proportion than that of an owl. In some legends it is said to have a second face on its chest, but many accounts state that it instead has white markings resembling eyes and a mouth on its chest or belly, visible only when it rears itself. The plumage of the bear-owl is mostly hairlike and varies from dark brown and black to reddish brown or rust-coloured.

Eyewitness accounts usually mention that the animal has a fetid odor to it, which can be used to avoid it as well as identify its droppings. Bear-owl droppings can be used to repel most rainforest predators because they carry its smell. Most animals avoid bear-owls because it very aggressive and a lethal opponent, but deathlords (simurghs) are said to kill them occasionally. The bear-owl is immune to spears and arrows as well as the claws and teeth of most predators. This is said to be because underneath the feathers its skin is covered in bony armor like a crocodile. The bear-owl rarely vocalizes, but when it does it lets out a piercing shriek that is said to resemble a high-pitched human scream. In many accounts it said to be drawn to the screams of a woman, which suggest the shrieks are a form of inter-specific communication.

While the bear-owl is usually described as carnivorous, quite often it is said to only eat some soft tissues such as the internal organs, and sometimes it kills without any intention to eat. This has earned it the name 'squanderer', which is often used to avoid speaking its true name. On the other hand it is sometimes said to eat the bones from carcasses already picked clean. According to legend, when a bear-owl only intends to kill it uses powerful swipes from its clawed arms, but when it seeks prey, it grabs on with its arms and deals the killing blow with a bite from its powerful beak instead. Contradicting this are accounts of a bear-owl grasping a man and ripping his throat open with its beak, and then abandoning the body completely uneaten. Most accounts agree that bear-owls never eat human flesh, only other animals, which is why it is sometimes believed to be a human changed into its current form by a curse.

Interestingly enough, the young of the bear-owl seem to never feature in any accounts. It seems common knowledge that it lays eggs, and that these reside in the nest in two arched rows, but there are no descriptions of the hatchlings or youngsters. What is known is that the bear-owl is very fierce when it's guarding its nest and it is believed that if someone steals its egg, it does not rest until it has hunted down and killed the thief. Whether it abandons its nest or if another one takes its place guarding the eggs is never mentioned. Since the rainforest natives actively avoid the animals, it is possible that few if indeed any nests have ever been found by humans. The description of the bear-owl's nest and nesting behavior so closely resembles that of a simurgh that it may not even be based on actual eyewitness accounts of nesting oulurses.

In the myths of the Atal of South Erdasia the bear-owl kohitloncul, appears as more of a primordial beast. After the Atal defeated the Pistzocol, a race of tall black demons in human form that ruled Erdasia before the arrival of the Atal, their spirits took the form of the evil kohitloncul, which were then hunted to extinction. These beasts fit the description of the Middle-Erdasian bear-owls, but are universally described as black. They appear in some murals as large black vaguely owl-like creatures or simurghs with owl heads and red eyes, sometimes ridden by the Pistzocol.

In some of the more remote areas of Nar Atal stories of encounters with living kohitloncul are still being told. The description remains much the same as in Middle Erdasia, but the animals are always described as red-eyed and fully black or dark brown except for grey or ivory beak and claws. They are said to live only high in the mountain forests and avoid human contact, but described as highly aggressive and deadly if ambushed or provoked. These accounts suggest that there may be more than one species of oulurse still alive in Erdasia, though in the south it seems to have been forced to the edges of its natural habitat. Long ago, before the advent of the Atal, they may have filled the same role as bears on the northern continents. The South Erdasian oulurse may already be so rare that the desire of Ordosians to kill or capture specimens for study may end up pushing them off the edge.