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See also: sapient races and deities and powerful beings.

Bas-Lag is home to myriad creatures and monsters, some of which are based on real creatures and others that are unique to the setting. This page serves as a list of creatures that appear in the novels, provided that they meet certain criteria.

Criteria[]

This page is for any living or conscious inhabitants of Bas-Lag that do not belong to the above pages, using the following criteria: I. Not powerful enough to belong to the "deities and powerful beings" page II. Not suitable for the "sapient races" page, due to one or more of the following reasons:

A. Not sapient, or presumed not to be sapient
B. Not known to have formed a society, or presumed not to due to living alone or in very small groups, or being too few in number
C. Obscure enough that A or B cannot be confirmed

Elementals[]

See also: Elementals

  • Fegkarion - A near-mythical moonlight elemental. It is a potent weapon in combat.
  • Fulmen - Elytrical elementals. They often accompany thunderstorms, although they are present in lesser numbers wherever there is elyctricity.
  • Luftgeist - Air elementals who float on the winds. Alone, they can burst the lungs of their targets - in numbers, they are capable of taking down airships.
  • Proasm - Flesh elementals who grow in mass and power with each body they gut.
  • Salinae - Salt water elementals. Salinae talk in a fluid, ceaseless language that none can understand.
  • Shudner - Presumably earth elementals.
  • Undine - Fresh water elementals popularly used by Vodyanoi for a variety of purposes. They are equally capable of drowning opponents or being used to keep clothing clean.
  • Yag - Fire elementals. The size of a yag is dependent on the size of the fire used to attract them, although elite elementarii are capable of summoning large yags without large fires.

Creatures[]

Found on Rohagi[]

Found in New Crobuzon[]

  • Men o' War - Large, flying jellyfish with neurotoxic tentacles, used as mounts by the militia.
  • Shunn - Bipedal creatures native to central Rohagi, also used as mounts by the militia in New Crobuzon. Shunn are eyeless and rely on echolocation to navigate. They are also notable for having hooks instead of hands.
  • Ghul - Bipedal, eyeless hunters and corpse-eaters. Ghuls are also found in central Rohagi.

Rudewood[]

  • Throng Bear - A spontaneous amalgamation of birds and flying insects in the shape of a bear. The component creatures will scatter and reform into a throng bear when disturbed, such as by a gunshot.
  • Glucliche - A predatory hyena-chiroptera hybrid found in the swamps of the Rudewood.

Southern Rohagi[]

  • Mafadet - A massive predator with the head of a snake and the body of a lion. Native to the dry scrub south of New Crobuzon.

Creatures of the Cacotopic Zone[]

The Cacotopic Zone produces an infinite variety of bizarre creatures. The following is only a list of those who have appeared in Miéville's works.

  • Inchman - A human-inchworm hybrid, notorious for its lack of self-preservation and its insatiable appetite.
  • Shadowphage - An effect of Torque poisoning. Shadowphage is the complete absence of shadow or shading in the afflicted, but otherwise seems to be harmless.
  • Unnamed creatures
    • "Shadows shaped like dogs"
    • Simians with hyena voices and pelts composed of grass and leaves.
    • Spontaneous, massive, and aggressive air-manifestation that attacks a New Crobuzon airship attempting to pursue the Iron Council. Although exists only for a few moments, it was able cause the airship to drop several meters in an instant.
    • Incredibly fast "vermiform predators"

Central Rohagi[]

A variety of named and unnamed creatures inhabit central Rohagi. Some creatures of central Rohagi also inhabit the outer fringes of the Cacotopic Zone. The following is a miniscule sample of the creatures that have been mentioned:

  • Echinoid Rex - Large, land-going sea-urchins.
  • Ghast thing - An undescribed predatory creature that leaves glass footprints encountered by the Iron Council.
  • Magma-horse - An undescribed creature that consumed coal from the Iron Council's train.
  • Motion-demons - Motion-demons are translucent, shimmering, incorporeal creatures that feed harmlessly on motion. Their behavior is much like a porpoise, and they tend to jump through and out of the ground around the entity whose motion they feed on.
  • Unnamed predators
    • "Mouthed things the size of bears that stalked sheer walls on pads or adhesive pulvilli"
    • Flying, "skin-winged tentacular masses on goat legs".
    • Predators that phase between ice and other states
    • Predators that see with their teeth

Galaggi Veldt and environs[]

  • Catoblepas - A large creature that gives its name to the Catoblepas Plains that surround Tesh. Looking at one is reputed to be deadly.
  • Chelona - Massive tortoises that can grow hundreds of meters in size. Occasionally used as living foundations for shelltowns.
  • "Hell-monkey" - A term coined by Pomeroy to describe a strange species of simian native to the rainforest around the veldt. Hell-monkeys are described as "clutches of gibbon limbs exploding from conjoined cores, in varying numbers, that brachiated at insane speed".
  • Nashorn - Large rhinos used as living tanks by the New Crobuzon Militia. It is not known whether Nashorn are native to the veldt or whether they were imported by the militia during the Tesh-New Crobuzon War.
  • Plant-hulk - A large, parasitic predator found in the swamps around the Galaggi Veldt.
  • Pangolin Rex - Presumably a large pangolin-like creature. Pangolin rexes have poison tongues.
  • Unnamed crawling fungus - a mobile, limbed fungus that half-crawl, half-grow up trees in the rainforest around the veldt.
  • Vinhogs - Large boars with symbiotic wine grape vines on their hides.

Found in unspecified habitats[]

  • Drud - A large, dangerous flying creature mentioned by Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin when he discusses potential flying specimens with Lemuel Pigeon.
  • Githwing - An undescribed flying predator. Several githwings "rinse [the Transcontinental Railroad Trust workers] with blood" as they construct the TRT's railway through eastern Rohagi.
  • Pterabird - An undescribed bird-like creature, possibly similar to a flightless pterodactyl. It is used in New Crobuzon as a beast of burden, for pulling taxis, and in unspecified areas of Rohagi for carrying passengers. Silas Fennec mentioned riding one during his journey to High Cromlech.
  • Unhorse - A creature in the shape of a horse, ridden by an Abnatural bounty hunter in eastern Rohagi. Despite its resemblance, it is distinctly not a true horse, but described as a "horse burr under the skin of the real". When the bounty hunter is killed, the unhorse runs into a rock, leaving "an animal-shaped bruise of lichen".
  • Wind-polyp - A floating polyp-like creature that thaumaturgically propels itself through the air with the help of flightglands. Their flying motion resembles a flower that opens and closes, releasing small jets of discoloured air.
  • Wind-rhino - Another large, dangerous flying creature mentioned by Isaac.

Found in the Fractured Land[]

  • Slake Moth - A highly intelligent predatory creature that feeds on sentience. It exists in several planes simultaneously, making it difficult to kill.
  • Dreadcur - Mentioned by Uther Doul as being rumored to inhabit the Fractured Land. It is not described in any detail, but is likely predatory.
  • Lightfungus - Mentioned by Doul as being found in the Fractured Land, although it also is not described in any detail.

Sea life[]

  • Dinichthys - Armored, predatory bonefish that inhabit the depths of the Swollen Ocean.
  • Frost-crabs - Crabs with shells of living ice. Frost-crabs are possibly sapient, being described as "philosophers".
  • Goblin shark - A species of deep sea shark, at least some of which are ruled over by a goblin shark king.
  • Manatee - Dwells in the Meagre Sea. Manatees are also called "river pigs".
  • Piasa - Living, predatory whirlpools that inhabit the Hidden Ocean.
  • Plesiaur - Long-necked marine animals that inhabit the Swollen Ocean.
  • Trilobite - Identical to their extinct real-world counterparts. Found in the warm shallows of the Swollen Ocean.
  • Seawyrm - Long, serpentine creatures often used as beasts of burden to pull chariotships.
  • Semisentient bladderweed - Found in the Hidden Ocean, this semisentient bladderweed is capable of moving under its own power and does not appear to be predatory. Often found in bunches.
  • Leviathan - One of the largest sea creatures in Bas-Lag. Mentioned as a target of Tintinnabulum's hunter group.
  • Lahamu - Also referred to as a "cuttlegod". Presumably a species of massive cuttlefish, it is another target of Tintinnabulum's hunter group.

Mundane[]

  • Chicken - Both normal and giant chickens live in New Crobuzon and the surrouding Rude Wood. Giant chickens are used by tribal Hotchi as mounts.
  • Badger - Often kept as familiars by the thaumaturges and scientists working in Brock Marsh, New Crobuzon. Badgers are believed to protect their owners from the "dangerous harmonics of hidden sciences", and thus make popular pets and message-carriers.
  • Dog - Both mundane and Remade dogs are found in New Crobuzon. The militia are known to use Remade dogs with thaumaturgicaly-enlarged noses and craniums and mechanically-enhanced senses to track targets across extremely long distances.
  • Horse - Used extensively in and by New Crobuzon as both normal mounts and Remade mounts.
  • Jack rabbit
  • Polar bear - Found in the northern steppe of Rohagi, where they are ridden by nomadic tribes as mounts.
  • Sable antelope - Used as riding animals, their horns sawn off.
  • Rock rabbit

Notes[]

  • Many, many others exist. Some may be unique creatures, such as a plant-hulk that feed endlessly through the controlled corpses of its prey. Others such as the frost-crabs exist in numbers and may even be sapient, but are hidden away in obscure and difficult to reach places.
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