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[h1][b]The Great Beast[/b][/h1]
[img]http://orig02.deviantart.net/38a9/f/2016/088/8/b/icon_1_by_argentfatalis-d9wzc7x.png[/img]
[h3][b]Deck of Beasts Royal[/b][/h3]
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[b]Name:[/b]
[i]"The Great Beast"[/i]
The true identity of the legendary noble savage has remained as much a mystery as its origin, for the common tongues of mortals are incapable of even truly uttering it. Among those who speak as and with beasts, it is understood as [i]"He Who is Ferine"[/i] and [i]"The Great Cat"[/i], moreover, it is directly implied that the Great Beast is one of the Lords of the Wild, or those who serve before the deific forces of the supposed Wild Gods; spiritual embodiments of nature's most powerful beasts and the hosts of the plane that is the Beastlands.

[b]Age:[/b]
[i]59[/i]
The exact life of such Great Beasts is unknown, as their existence is shrouded in myth and superstition. They have, in times long since past, been regarded as more common presences; facets of nature that arose to challenge enemies of the wild world. Just as quickly as they came into being, so too did they seem to be no more when the threat passed, fading away from sight and soon thereafter, thought as well. Scholars however, believe them to be merely enchanted beasts with prolonged lives - some supposedly living as long as elves - so as to better elusively fulfill their roles as guardians of the animal kingdom.

[b]Appearance, Description and Gender:[/b]
[i]Magical Beast[/i]
As tall as a man at the shoulder and made up of feral splendor, the Great Beast lives up to its many supposed titles and tales. No less than nearly eighteen hands tall, its frame is that of a tremendous feline with elaborate, elongated fangs and even more tremendous paws, armed with talons that as easily sunder steel as they do flesh. Its strength unnatural, even for its massive scale, it is a thing of thick fur, hide and muscle, distinctive in its portrayal, and seemingly bears golden eyes emerald that simmer with latent power from another world. The tawny coat of the monstrous feline marked only by natural irregular brown rosettes and stripes, it fades away into wilderness environments despite its size.

A male of its kind, if others of it do exist, it speaks with a rumbling voice that carries and penetrates the body just as it does the mind. It is in this quality that it, just as some of the most powerful spellcasters in the realm abroad, speaks magic into reality from nothingness; appointed with the power of wisdom and charisma beyond other animals. A divine force of nature, it seemingly comprehends the myriad of words the people of the world utter, speaking unto them in a manner that all can understand.

[b]Personality and Alignment:[/b]
[i]Lawful Neutral[/i]
Portrayed as both a thing of terrible, beastly, violent power and a noble lord among animals, the Great Beast abides by the laws of its world rather than those of men. Its personal code unswerving, it is rightfully feared and respected, and historically said to be as likely to aid those in need as it is to unleash its wrath upon them, determining its response only upon whatever cosmic force it adheres to. While not unfair, merely impartial to the whims of mortals, it treats them as a curiosity - at worst a thing to be toyed with and at best a precise tool.

Keeping company with few but itself or those alike it, it has with others worked cooperatively when motives align, but so seldom does the animal kingdom and those of men ever agree for such events to transpire. Appropriately, the Great Beast is mostly withdrawn unto itself.

[b]Abilities and Magic:[/b]
[i]Aura of Courage[/i]
As a living weapon of the realm, it has entered a prestigious role and so has been blessed by its wild patrons. Fearless itself, its unearthly courage inspires its allies in the face of terror just as the most noble of mortals who live as paragons of virtue.

[i]Detect Evil[/i]
Imbued with a sense of one's person, the Great Beast is capable of looking into the heart and soul, perceiving whatever evil, if any, might lurk within. While thought and concentration is required, it pierces many disguises mundane and many forms of magical concealment.

[i]Divine Grace[/i]
Warded against magic and other powers by force of personality, the Great Beast is a particularly difficult target to afflict. Using this shroud of supernatural resilience, it forces its foes to contend with its vicious claws and deadly fangs.

[i]Divine Health[/i]
Immune to even the most virulent and vile of illnesses, the Great Beast's very form spurns that which is sickly or ill. Even supernatural afflictions or would-be parasites find no weakness in it.

[i]Spellcasting[/i]
Ordained as a living embodiment of divine animal power, the Great Beast wields sacred magic as easily and fiercely as it does its natural weapons. It spurns the unholy and the unliving just as any priestly mortal power, able to turn and destroy undead or inflict injury upon them by mere touch. No less, it shrouds itself and its allies - be them savage or otherwise - in mystic blessings, or calls down righteous fire or lightning to smite its foes. As diverse as any cleric, the Great Beast adapts its spellcasting after resting, being able to one day summon lesser creatures to do its bidding and the next, to heal wounds and revive the dead.

[b]Background and History:[/b]
Sacred animals are no new addition to the world, having existed for millennia beyond mortals and the earliest of beings. While they have always been a presence, their power and numbers have since dwindled as the mortal gods shaped all that existed until they became little more than living myth. Still enemies of corruption and consumption throughout time, they arise in rare circumstance to fight against that which gravely threatens nature, reborn on the Material Plane well in advance of any coming threat. As such, they are omens of ill events and wicked tidings to come, and as such are regarded as harbingers of doom - even wrongly accused as agents of destruction themselves. 

While no friends of mortals, whom they often regard as lesser beings as any predator would its prey, they and their purpose might find themselves aligned. Such pacts of peace are tense, and offenses against Great Beasts are seldom forgotten, often being resolved in the wake of victory and violently if need be. As such, there are few who have love of them, seeing them as little more than epic monsters of their kind.

The Great Cat itself is just one of many who have served the Beastlands, and is the most recent in this line, having been only born into the world of mortals in the past fifty years. While no more unique than any other at the time of its birth, it was ordained after as one of the successors to the natural order and inducted into the service of the Wild Gods, of whom hold absolute domain over the animal realm. Growing to tremendous power and scale as a result, it since has spent its days wandering the world abroad as a roving agent without a cause, until now.

As one of the royals among the Deck of Beasts, an individual set of mythic animals produced upon enchanted tarots, it is more story than truth; a divining tool whose greatest cards are oft mingled with other similar royals from other decks. Many attributes of it, ranging from its divine vengeance against mortals to its ancient line, are collections of the entire story, and not the individual's. In truth, the current Great Cat is young compared to that which it replaced; for the past five hundred years, another Great Beast ruled the land as a Lord of the Wild.

While far from naïve, bearing great wisdom and charisma, tempered by surprising intellect, it is unaware that it has some greater destiny before it, summoned only from its aimless wanders by the playing of its card and the turning of the tide.
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[hider=Mythology of The Beastlands, Legendary Beasts, Lords of the Wild and the Wild Gods]
[b][i]The Plane of the Beastlands[/i][/b]
Whereas some mortal gods hold domain over the beasts of the air, earth and water in life, in death all things of nature return unto itself entirely. It is a unique quality of animals, as simple spirits as they are, to live eternal in a cycle both cosmic and fleshly, dying only to be reborn in the plane known only to scholars of obscure lore as "The Beastlands". Described only vaguely in its few texts, it is a vast, eternal wilderness expanse that borders the celestial realms of Arborea and Elysium, aligned toward a more noble, benevolent side of nature. Filled with innumerable habitats and countless inhabitants, it is said to be the world as intended before the mortal gods laid claim to existence.

Those under its domain, traditionally only beasts, arrive here in their death, reborn into it once more anew and just as they did on the Material Plane, they live, only to return to the world of the living when their role has waned and their afterlife has ended. As such, it is perceived that there is no true end or beginning of it, except in unusual circumstance. For mortals, when they do arrive, they find themselves tainted by the unchecked ambient power of the realm, and become increasingly changed by it the longer they linger. In the span of a mere man's lifetime, such mundane interlopers will have been forcefully enraptured by the cycle, eventually turning into beasts themselves and becoming claimed by the Beastlands' eternal order; such a process is unique and profound, in that those consumed by it become the animal they were within in body as well. 

Others, such as the rare zoanthrope or shapeshifter, find themselves within one of several paradises - able to freely choose between man, monster or beast, living a life eternal after as reward for their trials alive. More rarely yet, those who lived in accordance with the noble savagery of the Beastlands are adopted in death, rather than allowing their existence to be left to waste and nothingness. However, only those of more pure and wild hearts are so fortunate, and thus so rare.

While magical beasts among the Beastlands exist, their numbers are few and their power fearsome. Many are chosen guardians of the realm, acting as watchful wardens to quickly remove those who do not belong and using violent or magical means if need be. While such incursions against the plane are rare, those who do not abide by good practices to the land and predation are harshly reprimanded, and evil beings' presences are never ignored for long. In the worst of times, when an affront has been made against the entire Beastlands, the plane itself as a whole responds and turns itself to destroying the invasion. As quickly as such an assault might begin, it ends, and the natural order resumes.

[b][i]The Legendary Beasts[/i][/b]
Among the world of mortals and their creators' shared realm in the Material Plane, one of the greatest and grandest creatures of the Beastlands can occasionally find its way. Often by divine mandate of the wild realm, extraordinarily powerful beasts are brought forth, but their purpose is never so clear to mortals or the divine pantheon. Many seem to arise by chance, with some wrecking great havoc and terror, whereas others live the entirety of their life unseen by the eyes of men and monster alike.

It is typically only under the summons of a powerful spellcaster do such mythic animals respond intentionally, but even then it is so poorly understood as to their role. The consensus being that in a world filled with strange beings and monstrosities, the Wild Gods are not so idle as to allow their existence and their immense power to be forgotten.

[b][i]The Lords of the Wild[/i][/b]
By their very nature a fearsome Lord of the Wild is the purest embodiment of a legendary beast, being not only capable of great power beyond any mundane man or animal of the realm, but also bearing tremendous intellect and fathomless insight. They are living weapons of the Wild Gods' design and oft only appear before times of dire need when the fate of the Material Plane and the cycle eternal is threatened. The vanguard of the Beastlands, their numbers are seldom more than a handful, but their presence is often felt directly. Ordained with immense magical power, they rally those attuned to nature to fight on its behalf for the greater good, even at the expense of those on the Material Plane.

Most often a predatory beast, they manifest as enormous wolves, leviathan cats or bears of behemoth size, often with naturally expressed markings and coloration that seems unusual for their lot. Identified by the faint glow and spark of intellect in their eyes, they are known to speak any language the mortal tongue can utter, and even those it cannot. So influential, lesser beasts willingly fall in line to them, and other legendary beasts or Lords of the Wild congregate as well.

If opportune, they live well beyond their age, appearing only in brief or when called upon for their aid or blessing - acting as living liaisons to the Wild Gods...

[b][i]The Wild Gods[/i][/b]
As primal and timeless as the elemental manifestations of the Planes of Air, Earth, Fire and Water, the Wild Gods are understood to have existed from a time far before the mortal pantheon first exerted its force upon the Material Plane. Granted dominion over all living things - both plant and animal - their true influence over the realm of norm only has "recently" ended. Such knowledge's absence, so rare it is known only to a few of the most wizened wizards and lore keepers, has led many now to believe them to be unfathomed forces to fear; inexplicable and nameless.

This exists not as a truth however, and the most notable of the Wild Gods - Ashkhandar, Ilyu, Vanoir, and Ylra - exist in rare texts, and those same texts portray them as noble animal powers whose wills seem much aligned with those of good spirit and good intent. However, in those same texts, they are just as equally so referred to as beasts with the powers of gods - fierce and impossible to truly understand in the eyes and minds of mere men. Their viciousness and ferocity are vast, as is that of their agents, who they send on matters of great importance from the Beastlands itself. Yet, even among their domain, their appearances are rare and only rarer in the days of old in the Material Plane.

One poorly understood aspect of their existence is their shared power among peers, in that while there are many Wild Gods, with some more prominent and powerful than others, their influence is equal. It is speculation that this, just as with the eternal cycle, implies that they are all in fact simply one manifestation of the same thing. No less, the non-existent influence the divine pantheon has upon their plane and power only leads to further speculation that they are merely a cosmic existence and something that has and always will continue to exist.
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