Violent in the extreme, Ash Devils are the most common of The Roots forces. Throwing axes are their go-to weapon, but they're not above taking a chunk out of any human that gets too close. Instinct: Attack Humans

• Throw Axes

These giant creatures are covered in fluffy fur that appears to be gray when seen in light, but it changes to fit the lighting of the souroundings, making it nearly impossible to see if it's within a shadowy place. It's body resembles this of a bear, even though it's claws are bigger and sharp enough to pierce metal. The head seems to be a fluffy disk that is connected directly to the body, and the mouth forms an evil grin all the time, showing its big teeth. Shadowlurkers love to stalk on pray, following them in the shadows and scare them before they actually start hunting. Their walk ist heavy enough to be felt in the ground vibrating and one can hear it breath from fifty metres away Instinct: to attack from the shadows to eat

• Appear from the shadows

Once it was a pet, happy living with it's human companion, but after the humen abused or abadoned it it died. The poor pets soul never found closoure and now roam the realms of the limbo, longing for revenge against all humans. Instinct: to take revenge

• Bother the soul
• bring unnatural cold to a limb that was touched

When the Kaorti see it necessary to guard themselves more directly than merely secure prisoners for their own means, they are known to more carefully pick their thralls, drilling and shaping them using more advanced magics in order to make a more suitable fighting force. They then outfit them with mystically-enhanced weapons - since these guards are usually sequestered in the Kaortis cysts, they take advantage of the peculiar energies and geometries held therein to cut corners and grant them weapons that only function inside the cyst, but when used there they can be very effective - stunning or withering their foes to great effect. If the Kaorti were more interested in more straightforward tactics, these thralls show what they could be capable of, thankfully they hide in the shadows and plot in the depths, for now. Instinct: To protect

• Mystically subdue an opponent
• Mutate to gain a supernatural ability
• Ring a bell to summon reinforcements

Animate stone titans can be grandiose to behold that much is true. But how they are made can differ. Suppose that a stone statue exists of perhaps a hero or a villain, and for one reason or another it becomes cursed, it weeps blood or is heard to scream to itself in the night and suchlike. People would tend to throw such a statue away rather than deal with it or even cleanse it - unless it is of such paramount importance and even then they are more than likely to just commission another. But what becomes of such cursed detritus? If the curse is amplified or multiplied, twisted and woven around the statue like a mesh, and its power driven and focused to grant it animation, a great and terrible thing can be created indeed. Especially if whoever does this not only grants it power but enhances it in other ways, granting it greater size and etching runes of power upon it. Cults live in curses, and these colossi make prime candidates for guarding their lairs, and squashing any unfortunates who would stumble into such places. Instinct: To obey/corrupt

• Vomit forth cursed blood
• Activate the runes upon its surface through touch
• Crumble and shatter its surroundings

A flock of undead crows, they fly with magic as their fleshy wings have long since rotted away. They attack anyone who strays to close to the nest they protected in life. Instinct: Protect its nest

• Swoop and claw
• Make a noise
• Distract with boney wings

The insidious Kaorti are a cancerous growth upon the world, for they seek to taint it with their presence and their resin, corrupting life into eldritch mockeries. When a cyst (that is the rather flattering name scholars refer to their lairs as) grows large enough, inevitably the Kaorti and their servants require more and more focused direction Instinct: To corrupt and rule

• Secrete and mould unearthly resin
• Wield frighteningly powerful alien magic
• Beckon forth unnatural horrors from beyond with ease
• Corrupt into another Kaorti, or a Thrall over a matter of hours

A blood fiend is to demons what a vampire is to humans; even to other fiends they are terrifying, twisted abominations. They hunt other demons for their blood, tearing open even resilient demon-hide with vicious claws to get at the fresh, burning-hot blood within. They stink of days-old blood and their skin is red, raw and flayed. You'll want a strong stomach as well as a strong heart if you have to fight one. Beware, even if you shed much of its blood rather than the reverse, you're not out of the woods yet--a puddle of its blood can trip you up, or even strike you. Unless you have good reason, best to run, or try some kind of magic to stop them. Instinct: To drink deep the living wine.

• Slices flesh to feast on blood.
• Blood it takes grants it strength.
• Blood it sheds remains dangerous.

Poisonous orange blood. Instinct: To consume

Skum are the remains of an artificially created, amphibious warrior caste, now long abandoned by the creators. Kept all male as a way to keep their numbers in check, skum rely upon human females to propagate their species. Their society and race as a whole tethers on the brink of collapse, to the point that skum have forgotten their original name and adopted the hateful terminology of their enemies. Instinct: To preserve their race

• Train fish