Aren Bestiary: Of The Catoblepas

"In Southeast Erdasia lives an animal the size of a cow covered in hard scales, with a head and wide horns disproportionate to it's body. It always walks looking down, but those that meet it's gaze it will kill. Those that dare to hunt it by ambush claim that its spit is a potent poison, for it eats poisonous plants."
-- Deirhestres of Alzarath, The Nature of Beasts

The concise description above appears in the only complete copy of "The Nature of Beasts" that survived both the persecution of Madjasti scholars during the Khadon dynasty and the burning of Dar-Isnar by invading Debarians. Unfortunately the name of the animal was never mentioned, perhaps due to an error made by the scribe, and as Erdasia grew increasingly isolated, the beast became obscure. We know that Azaios knew of it, mentioning it in his "The Classification of Animals" as the Erdasian scaly bull, which he classed within Ktorgaisha or 'scaly beast kin'  (not to be confused with Azaios' reptiles, which were in a different class altogether).

With time what the Madjasti had known became lost to the outside world. As Orodsian scholars became interested in the ancient knowledge lying unused in Ardasian libraries, "The Nature of Beasts" became one of the most used sources for Bestiaries along with "Of Animals" by Sardun of Fahistar, which did not mention the mystery animal Deirhestres described. With no name, the scaly bull gained several names, but eventually katoblepon or catoblepas became the most common. Writers were also confused about it's powers. It appeared to kill everyone that met it's gaze, but it seemed to be poisonous as well. Some writers insisted that catoblepas would breath a cloud of poison which killed its victims, while others maintained that it was the gaze itself that was deadly. Both would support their claims with other beasts that did the same, mainly using the deadly breath of the dragon and the lethal gaze of the basilisk as their proof.

Onderes of Camora, the most noted naturalist of his time, who was much more interested in predators than herbivores, noted that it did not make sense to compare a bull-like herbivore to basilisks or dragons which were both predators that used their power to hunt. He mused that the deadliness of the catoblepas could just be exaggeration. He however died long before his opinion would get any support from facts.

When the Empereor Peleorom visited Fahistar, he received the skins of many strange creatures as a gift from a Madjagistanian vacher. Among them was the skin of an animal the size of a bull, but covered in neat hexagonal scales. Attached to the skin was part of the skull which sported a pair of immense wide horns. Recognizing the skin as belonging to the mysterious catoblepas, he expressed his desire to obtain the whole animal. His advisor tried to discourage him, guessing that the skin could be a forgery. To everyone's great surprise no later than two years after this a scaly bull was shipped into the Imperial Harbor in Thelquam, sent as a gift from the Matriarch Elazhiana of Madjagistan herself.

Scholars were amazed at the sight of the beast, and some could not believe it could be the same creature as the catoblepas of the bestiaries, although a letter from the Matriarch identified it as the scaly bull Deirhestres and Azaios had written about. Their disbelief was understandable: the beast was weak from the long voyage and did not seem to be a danger to anyone or anything. After spending three weeks in the Imperial menagerie the poor catoblepas perished from an unknown disease, having not killed anyone with either its gaze or breath.

Edmar the younger, who studied the animal after its death, wrote thus: "While superficially like the bull, the catoblepas appears more akin to crocodiles, or dragons as Azaios noted. Its legs bear four hooves but are wide, like the foot of the camel, and the structure of the foot is quite unlike seen in any other animal. The ochre scales are largest on the toes and on the back of the animal, and in between its horns, which are remarkable. Unlike the horn of the bull, the horn of the catoblepas is fairly flat and grows from an area starting above the eye to back of the skull. It is hard to estimate how wide the horns may grow, but the ones attached to the skin in the Imperial Treasury, which I have had the privilege to study, are a fathom wide, while the animal seems to have been no larger [than the one from the menagerie]. The muzzle ends in a beak like that of a turtle; otherwise the head is shaped more like that of a bull, but much larger in proportion. While not very long, the tail is very thick and muscular, and tapers towards the tip"

Many scholars had traveled from the United Empire to Madjagistan to study the libraries and archives there, but the catoblepas and the mystery of the tarrasque lured naturalists even further south, into "Dark Erdasia". The natives did not know the name catoblepas but were quick to recognize it from description. Those first to see the catoblepas in it's natural environment were convinced that this was truly the deadly beast of the ancient writings, comparing it's fierceness to that of the rhino. "The catoblepas walks with its muzzle pointing at the ground, but after it lifts its gaze to peer at a trespasser on its land, it will not stop until either one is dead," writes one traveler. The catoblepas was found to be grazer of the wet mosaic savanna living in large herds ruled by a "mighty bull with horns as wide from tip to tip as Velaneic men are tall". The supposed poisonous breath was also explained: when catoblepi ate certain toxic plants, they would produce great amounts of saliva which was rich in plant toxins.

One mystery still remained: there were cattle in Ardasea and even in northern Erdasia, but not where the catoblepas dwelled. Catoblepi or their kin on the other hand were found nowhere else. The answer to this puzzle was uncovered in the ancient ruins found in middle Erdasia with the help of Madjastian knowledge. These incredibly old buildings appeared to be mere hills to the untrained eye, but inside were tunnels lined with bas-reliefs of strangely animalistic humanoids and many beasts that were considered Ktorgaishan in the Azaian classification. It was understood that the long gone builders of the Five Gates had once lived in Erdasia, perhaps even before it united with Ardasea, and left some of their domesticated animals after them when they mysteriously disappeared. The catoblepi were the last survivors of a "reptilian cow" species, kept by the ancient race, that had gone feral millions of years ago.