Beastmen of Varen

Accounts vary, but common descriptions include: horned heads resembling bulls or goats, cloven hooves and furred limbs in place of human feet and hands, masks and helms fashioned from bone, hide or bronze and a distinctive rank stench described as "rot and smoke".   Some witnesses have alleged to have seen beastmen shift forms between man and beast under moonlight.

The Beastmen strike at passing merchant caravans, isolated villages in the region and explorers daring to delve into the ruins of Varenthia. They favour ambushes and overwhelming violence before retreating swiftly into the cover of forests or ruins. Survivors report that they often take captives in their raids, however they are seldom recovered, their fate subject only to grim speculation.

  Travelers and mercenaries report that Beastmen activity increases on nights of the full moon. From the ruins of Varenthia, howls and horn-blasts are heard echoing through the amphitheaters. Some survivors claim to have witnessed gatherings where scores of Beastmen circle fires, raising crude idols made of bone, antler, and broken masonry. Whether true lunar worship or simply the timing of raids, the pattern is consistent enough to be feared by coastal villages.   Every account agrees on the presence of horned masks, some wrought of bronze and cracked glass, others fashioned crudely from bone and hide. Among the dead recovered from skirmishes, masks are sometimes still affixed to the skull, leaving it unclear whether they are adornment or fused to the creature’s flesh. Certain masks resemble the theatrical visages once popular in Varenthia’s civic plays, suggesting continuity between ancient ritual and Beastmen tradition.   The Beastmen strike with sudden ferocity against caravans, villages, and outposts. What becomes of their captives is uncertain. Bodies are rarely found, and those who return speak of being dragged before “the Horned King” or sacrificed in ruined temples. Some whisper of cannibal feasts in vine-choked amphitheaters, though scholars considers such tales unproven.   Though often described as howling or grunting, a few witnesses insist the Beastmen speak a debased form of Old Varenthian, broken into guttural syllables. Others claim to have heard rhythmic chants echoing from the ruins, accompanied by drums fashioned from hide. Whether language or animal mimicry remains contested. Some scholars have remarked on the uncanny similarity of these chants to fragments preserved in forbidden Elven manuscripts, though such parallels are dismissed as coincidence.

Popular tradition holds that the beastmen are what remains of the last inhabitants of Varenthia, twisted into monstrous foms by Elven magic or divine wrath.   The Scholum Argentum holds that they are most likely feral men that don horned masks and hides to inspire terror in their victims.   Other accounts claim they are the result of pacts with ancient dark powers.