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Happy New Year!
That's right, we said it!
And so, what we really wanted to do with Atlas Animalia is look at what monsters look like in different ecosystems and ecologies, with 25 different creature types included in the book.
The book begins with an introduction to the Beastmaster and their specific role, which is the understanding and preservation of ALL creatures. And as part of this, they go through various ranks as they pick up experience and understanding in the world of Beastiology.
They start out as a Hatchling, and then move up to a Drake before finally becoming a Dragon, but only after contributing quite significantly to the field
For each of these creatures, the writers created an overview of their biology, behavior, diet, mating, interactions with humanoids and more! But it goes way beyond that, as each creature has four variants which are more accustomed to specific ecosystems and environments (just like with real animals!), and how that changes how they operate.
The Blue Basilisk is the type that most adventurers would come across, preferring to spend its time in ancient structures and caves.
But you also have the Crested Basilisk that is found in rainforests and spends its time next rivers, ponds and small lakes. The Gila Basilisk is a venomous species that resides in desert spaces and uses its venoms to disable its' prey. And the smallest of the basilisks, the Gliding Basilisk, is an airborne species tat is found temperate forests and mainly eats insects.
This continues for all of the 25 creatures in the book, with each of them considering how they best fit, what rumors and legends are associated with each type, and how this changes their interactions with the local humanoid populations of their region.
One of my personal favourites is the Cockatoo Hippogriff, which is inspired by the Black Pearl Cockatoo, a real species that is just gorgeous. I mean, just look at this artwork.
One sorcerer has, so the rumors say, managed to domesticate and tame a wild cockatoo hippogriff to create her own war mount, which raises the souls of the dead wherever they fall on the battlefield, making her and her hippogriff almost unstoppable.
When you take a look art for the species, you'll notice that for many of them you get to see their detailed musculature, which is so very cool! This book was illustrated by a single artist, the wonderfully talented Sarah Dallinger, who is also a science illustrator, allowing us to bring to life a part of fantasy creatures you don't often see in a book like this.
And with Sarah's expertise, it meant we brought in a lot of intentionally thought biology and biology crossovers to the creatures. Even with some of the humanoid creatures we included, there are sub-species included in there too. Who wouldn't want to see an Axolotl or Komodo lizardfolk in their games, showing the ways in these folks have adapted to live and thrive within different ecosystems and environments.
Alongside Sarah, the entire creative team who worked on this book, are all women. Our writers were Annamarie Mickey, BJ Hensley, Carol Darnell, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Elizabeth Sander and Kate Bullock, with editing being done by Carol Darnell.
We made something really fun with Atlas Animalia, and we really should start thinking about a Volume 2, as there is so much more to explore through this style of book in the future.
What do you reckon, we could totally do another 25 creatures with four variants right?
