Encyclopaedia Argollica

Manticores

The terrain of Darshan looks rather imposing, consisting of steep cliffs and crags crowned with dense forest. Beasts roam the mountains, snow falls heavy in winter and rockslides and fallen trees often block the roads. Even so it is widely travelled. It lies at the centre of its continent, at the confluence of many different trade routes. This was already the case during the previous age, though the mountains that Echidna raised there have managed to discourage traffic somewhat nowadays. The remnants of old wayhouses can still be found along the roads or out in the wild, some having been rebuilt in recent years to profit from a new influx of traders. Regardless, this infrastructure does not make the dark mountains and forests seem any less foreboding.

The manticores that live in Darshan certainly do not help with this impression. With strong bodies bearing the traits of lions and scorpions both, they are already an intimidating sight, something which is only bolstered by their penchant for mercenary work and highway robbery. But there is also something darker beneath that reputation. Visitors to Darshan invariably note the manticores' penchant for eating anything they can get their hands on, and the large feasts that are regularly held in Darshan. Anyone who has met them knows well the predatory gaze with which they survey the world, making everything think it is a possible prey.

The manticores are plagued by a constant urge to eat. No one quite knows where it came from, perhaps Echidna thought it would be interesting, or they offended her in some way. Whatever the reason for it, the hunger is something that persistently gnaws at the edge of their minds, an ever-present feeling of want. Although not in itself a debilitating issue, it is a deeply uncomfortable feeling, which can drive them mad if they cannot quell it temporarily with food or other distractions, at which point the manticore will fly into a destructive rage and attempt to consume anything nearby. Though certain manticores deliberately provoke this rage to fight as berserkers or in the hope of gaining some sort of revelation, it is something which most of them try to avoid due to the toll such a state takes on both themselves and their environment. Therefore, the manticores as a people have dedicated themselves to finding something which will finally satisfy the hunger inside their mind and put them at ease.

At first they simply combined existing foodstuffs in unorthodox ways or prepared them differently. When these experiments did not produce the desired results, more drastic measures were taken. The manticores became some of the earliest monsters to travel widely beyond their homeland, searching far and wide for exotic ingredients. New forms of cooking were invented, such as internal immolation, whereby an animal's insides are removed and fires lit inside it to gradually cook it from the inside out. Even arcane sciences were employed, and now most manticore cooks know some form of summoning magic to acquire ingredients not usually found on the material plane. Some groups have even made bargains with shadowy entities from beyond Argoll to aid in their search.

This is where I should set right at least one popular misconception regarding the manticores, namely their practice of cannibalism. It is true, certainly, that they attempted this in the past, and they readily admit to it. However, it seems Echidna did not like the idea of her creations eating each other, as the consumption of a monster by another monster introduces violent illness in the eater. It became quite obvious to the manticores that this would not satisfy their hunger, or even work as a way to distract themselves from it, and they ceased all such experimentation long ago. The impression might still be given that they commit cannibalism when they fly into a rage due to their hunger, since they then have a tendency to bite and gnaw on anything within reach, but the foul taste of monster flesh will generally prevent actual consumption in such cases. Angels and demons were tried as well, of course, but thankfully, according to my manticore sources, we taste like "a mouthful of ash" and "mud if you put a lot of acid in it" respectively, and therefore we are likewise left alone.

So far their quest to satisfy their cravings has been in vain and by now the search for the food that will release them has taken on an almost mystical quality. Despite its failure until now, the search has had a large impact on manticore culture. For one, manticore cooks can now draw on the largest store of culinary knowledge currently in existence on Argoll. Entire catalogues of recipes are stored in their memory to be passed down from cook to apprentice or swapped between colleagues. In the process, they have also learned much about the properties of various foods and their knowledge of poisons and medicine is quite large indeed.

Even if they have not yet found the food that will satisfy their urges, manticores have come to value a good meal anyway, especially since eating does keep the hunger at bay for a while. Barely any occasion goes by without a large feast, and they even expect simple meals to be of a good quality when possible. The latter is a point which those who hire manticore mercenaries often have cause to complain about.

Just as their ancestors left Darshan in search of ingredients, so today's manticores remain one of the most widely-travelled groups of monsters. Many become adventurers and mercenaries, prized for their natural strength and fearsome reputation. Others however take on the profession of wandering cooks. Now that larger and larger kingdoms are forming, and more monsters are making their fortune, their culinary knowledge is in ever higher demand. A word of caution is warranted here for those who consider employing them. While their skills are great, manticores will eat anything they can digest. So it is best not to assume your cook shares your specific culinary preferences, lest you find a suspicious black soup with strange tentacles in it served at your next banquet.

Most of these wandering manticores eventually return to Darshan, to bring back foreign ingredients they have collected but also simply to impress those back home with their wealth and the stories of their adventures. The preferred moment for such homecomings is the Midsummer Feast. Every midsummer all manticores gather in the ruins of Iruna, one of the largest cities in the area that is now Darshan during the previous age. There a great banquet is prepared, news and information is swapped and days of raucous celebrations follow. As it is the only time most manticores are gathered in one spot, it is the perfect moment for a returning traveller to make an impression.

Of course, despite all this, one should be careful not to overemphasise the role of cooking in manticore culture. Every manticore will know a simple recipe or two, but the actual profession of cook is something which requires a good deal of specialised knowledge. It would be unfeasible for all manticores to be cooks, nor would all of them want to.

Manticores generally live in prides of six to twenty individuals. Living in some form of fortified dwelling, usually a cave or a ruin, they sustain themselves in a variety of ways: they hunt, keep livestock, cultivate the few plants which grow in Darshan's rocky ground and keep themselves busy with various forms of crafts. Most importantly, they interact with the merchant caravans passing through their mountains. Sometimes they sell supplies or goods to these caravans, other times they exact tolls and in some cases resort to outright banditry. Those last two activities do not particularly endear them to the traders, who would generally be happy to see them gone.

Manticore culture has a strong emphasis on individualism and freedom. They rowdily resist any attempts at leadership by other manticores, even if they can obey commands by others for the right reward. Cooks hold some influence in their society due to their important cultural role, as do manticores who gained fame and wealth abroad. But even the authority of these figures is more in the fact that people are willing to listen to what they have to say, rather than anything formal. As such, manticore prides make decisions together and it is not uncommon for a manticore to leave their pride for a different one if disputes get heated enough.

A last element of note regarding the manticores are the mantygers. These are small apes, covered in shaggy red or orange fur with black stripes and possessing small horns on their forehead. These were brought back long ago by a manticore who'd been adventuring abroad, Mahvash, to use as ingredients. Although they did not prove all that good for eating, she quickly realised that they were docile and could easily be trained. It wasn't long before she had gotten them to perform various tasks for her. Since then the practice has spread and most prides maintain a few of them for various odd jobs, often giving them various humorous nicknames.