A Bestiary of the Courts of Chaos

The creature you see before you, inhabiting a not unattractive human form, is a ty'iga" he explained.

I stared. The ty'iga were a normally bodiless race of demons that dwelled in the blackness beyond the Rim. I recalled being told that they were very powerful and very difficult to control.

Mandor and Merlin, discussing Nayda, in Sign of Chaos
The Courts of Chaos, unlike their Amber counterpart, are not only a broad spectrum of power, but of creatures as well. Whereas Amber merely has humans, and possibly Rebmans, the Courts have a lot more beings in the day to day running of the Courts besides Chaosians. Demons, servant creatures and more can be found in and around the Courts. This page will detail some of the beings to be found and interacted with...

Demons

Demons are a very broad term. Demons seen in the Chronicles vary from Nayda the Ty'iga to Gryll to the almost imcomprehensible Kergma. In general, Demons are intelligent shapeshifting magical creatures, by far the most numerous intelligent beings in the Courts of Chaos.

The variety, too, of demons are astounding. The bodiless spirits known as the Ty'iga, the automaton-like Vaheru, with their blank eyes and hideous strength, the Erinyes, flying demon packhunters and the Succubi and Incubi, demons with the ability to wield potent sexual charm. Some scholars of the Courts devoted to such matters claim that the number of demon species is precisely 6 cubed.

So, too is varied the services demons provide. Many are free, living beyond the confines of the Courts themselves. Others are bound to the service of a House, almost honorary members. They can be servants, cannon fodder, assassins, bodyguards, messengers, and even ornamentation.

Telling Chaosians from demons can be embarassingly difficult sometimes, since many demons have shapeshifting abilities. Demons, however, as a general rule, rarely take a completely human form. There is usually a telltale of some kind.

While some demons may exhibit some chaos-related abilities, no demon is known to have successfully navigated the Logrus. Few independent demons have even entertained the notion of doing so. As far as the bound demons, well, no House is likely to let one of its servants access to so much power. It would be far too dangerous. And thus, some Houses use other creatures than Demons to do their bidding...

Vampires and Lesser Habitants

"I understand," I said, "They thought me demon or vampire."
Merlin, speaking to Rhanda, in Prince of Chaos
Besides the Demons, other races exist in and around the Courts of Chaos. Some of them even evoke memories and intimations of myths that stretch straight to Amber themselves.

Vampires, for example. There are whole night-dominated shadows of the undead, with these dark princes and princesses of the night wielding power and suzerainity over fiefs, sometimes even as Vassals to Lords of Chaos. Some of the lesser of these creatures come to the Courts, to serve certain Houses. It's interesting to note that Vampires in the Courts do need to rest, but they have no fears of death by solar radiation there. Thus, one can see Vampires openly walk the Boulevard...a quite disconcerting sight indeed. And without a sun to fear, Vampires are much much harder to kill...which make them especially useful as assassins. bodyguards and even soldiers.

Other creatures we call undead also can be found in and around the Courts. Sometimes some weak bodiless demons will inhabit corpses or bones, and thus produce animated skeletons, and zombies, and even stranger creatures, given a clever enough necromancer.

Genies and Elementals

Besides the undead, however, there are many other types of creatures in and around the black zone that have interaction with the courts. Another example are the Djinn, or Genies. These powerful magic wielding creatures can often be found in and near elemental shadows. They are especially notable in having minor shadowshifting abilities and thus can walk worlds. They also do not have a weakness to the realms of Order that many demons have, thus making them useful on missions beyond Ygg.

Elementals are another type of lesser creature common around the Courts. Often, whole shadows, like Helias' Charrae, will be dominated by elemental-like beings. They are spirits of the elements, magical creatures through and through. They are incredibly powerful in their domain...and incredibly vulnerable outside of it. Thus, they are not very useful far away from the Courts themselves, where the Shadows are more regular and less likely to contain environments suitable for their needs...even Air Elementals prefer near-gale force winds in which to roam all the time. They would be very unhappy on Earth, outside of a noreaster or hurricane...and A Fire Elemental would not find many homes outside of an active volcano.

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