CTU: Cryptids
Crowley never intended to become a cataloguer of the uncanny. His early field notes show a man simply trying to make sense of the stories he encountered while traveling across the Cycles - tales traded around firesides, whispered in mining towns, or recorded in fading local scriptoria. As the accounts accumulated, he realized that the creatures described were not as chaotic or contradictory as they first appeared. Patterns emerged: similarities in behavior, habitat, origin, and cultural function, even among cryptids from distant regions with no shared history. The historian in him took over. If these beings were to be documented responsibly, he needed a system, not a scrapbook.
His eventual solution was a classification method built less from zoology and more from comparative folklore and field observation. Rather than forcing cryptids into biological categories, Crowley searched for underlying commonalities - how a being interacted with humans, what spaces it claimed, whether it behaved with malice, indifference, or intention. It wasn’t taxonomy in the scientific sense; it was a framework for understanding the recurring shapes of fear, reverence, and imagination across societies. By sorting these creatures into broad domains and behavioral classes, he could speak about them with clarity instead of sensationalism, a goal that became increasingly important once he began writing The Immigrant’s Guide to Earth and other popular works.
Later scholars found the method unexpectedly useful. Writers borrowed it to give structure to regional bestiaries; folklorists used it to compare traditions; and field operatives in the Appalachian and Dominion Cycles leaned on it to keep reports consistent. What began as Crowley’s personal attempt to organize a lifetime of strange encounters became a widely adopted reference system - not because it claimed to reveal the truth of these beings, but because it respected their diversity while acknowledging their shared patterns. The following sections outline the core domains of his framework, preserved here in their original form for researchers, travelers, and curious readers alike.
Below are links to the regional cryptid lists, each offering images and detailed information on local sightings and lore. A condensed, full cryptid index appears below these links for quick reference.
So cool! Wonderful work!
Thanks..