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Animal Lords of the Past—A Roundup
Dodo Lord
Seyhrain Raphus. Planar animal lord [he/him] / N ‡
CHARACTER: The Dodo Lord is guileless and trusting, taking everything at face value with the wide-eyed openness of a berk who never learned to fear the world. His philosophy is shaped by island simplicity and the gentle rhythms of a safe, predatorless home—he believes in the kindness of strangers, and if he’s ever skeptical about anyone, he simply forgets why by the next sunrise.
DESCRIPTION: The Dodo Lord is one of a kind—he truly is the last of his species. He appears as a plump old man, with a long beak-like nose, a walking cane, and a warm shawl of dull brown feathers. While he might look stern, he’s naive in the extreme, believing anything he’s told and never quite noticing if he’s in danger. His aim, if you can call it that, is to experience the simple pleasures of safety and community—sharing stories, snacks, and silly notions with friends on the atoll—while fervently hoping that nobody asks him to fly, because he’s quite certain he’s forgotten how.
REALM: The Dodo Lord does not have his own realm; he has made his home on the Moa Lord’s Atoll, a sunny, lush island ringed by gentle waves and dotted with fruiting trees and curious birds. Here flocks of moa, passenger pigeons, and other friendly exiles gather on sandy beaches and beneath leafy branches, gossiping about which fruit is best and debating whether the sea is “too deep for feet” or “just right for a nice wade.” Where the Moa Lord traded flight for speed, the poor old Dodo Lord never even noticed it was missing.
Glyptodon Lord
Seyhrain Cingulata. Planar animal lord [she/her] / N ‡
CHARACTER: She’s the model of unyielding defence—a matron who believes survival is earned through setting firm boundaries, extreme patience, and letting no catastrophe, predator, or planar event pierce either her calm, or her carapace. Her philosophy is one of defensive adaptability: Any threat can be neutralised by the right kind of shelter, every loss resisted by hunkering down, and every challenge survived if you are stubborn and shielded enough to wait things out.
DESCRIPTION: The Glyptodon Lord takes the shape of a towering, heavy-limbed mammal encased in a domed shell of bony plates, with a broad head and a clubbed tail which bristles with scarred ridges and defensive spikes. While she’s an imposing figure, she has gentle eyes and a kindly manner. Her only goals are to keep her kin safe, and teach interlopers that the patience and preparation of her herd means they aren’t worth the effort to hunt.
REALM: Pangaea / The Rolling Bastion. The Glyptodon Lord’s territory, the Rolling Bastion, sprawls across salt flats and rugged scrub where the domes of glyptodon shells glide along like moving knolls, blending into the landscape whenever danger nears. Her realm is ringed with keratin chimneys that sing in the wind, with midden mounds that mark the edge of the territory, and communal nesting sites dug down into the sands and fortified by cast-off armour plates. The place is honeycombed with burrows that can be sealed tight to keep out dangers. The air is thick with the smell of earth and old rain, and visitors soon learn that nothing breaks through without her permission.
Ichthyosaurus Lord
Seyhrain Ichthys. Planar animal lord [he/him] / N ‡
CHARACTER: He is the patient conductor of the alien deep—a sovereign who thinks in three dimensions, mastering the silent geometry of pressure, angle, and stealth in the perpetual darkness. He embodies fluid grace and predatory instinct: In an environment where light and sound bend and shift, perception is king—seeing without being seen, waiting without rest, and thriving where others are lost to the void.
DESCRIPTION: In his prehistoric form, the Ichthyosaurus Lord is a vast, torpedo-shaped marine reptile with a shark-like tail, endless flippers, silvery-black skin, and enormous reflective eyes that can pick out the faintest trace of light or movement far below the waves. His aim is to rule the watery abyss by considering every rival as prey, to outswim all competitors, and to master three-dimensional hunting across a sea that keeps no secrets from his gaze.
REALM: Pangaea / The Obsidian Tide. The Ichthyosaurus Lord commands the Obsidian Tide, a territory of endless black water beneath starless skies, where not even bioluminescence travels far before dissolving in shadow. Here, ancient ammonite reefs pulse with faint light, marking spiraling migration trails, while thermal vents burble sulfurous songs that only the denizens of the deep will ever hear. The sheer cliffs and slopes of this aquatic trench are carved with drowned caves like eye-sockets, from where old Ichthyosaurus and his kin can watch and wait, tracking the movements of every potential threat, or meal.
Hexamorph Lord
Seyhrain Kreen. Planar animal lord [they/them] / N ‡
CHARACTER: As the ancestral sovereign of the modern thri-kreen, the Hexamorph Lord embodies the perfection of instinct—embracing the balance between patience, stillness, and the abrupt, deadly strike. Their philosophy is that survival and success in a dangerous plane come not from physical might alone, but from flawless coordination, adaptive camouflage, and constantly evolving tactics communicated through subtle signals and pheromones.
DESCRIPTION: In their animal form, the Hexamorph Lord appears as a formidable six-limbed insectoid, far taller than a human, with a mottled exoskeleton, compound eyes which miss nothing, and powerful mantid arms tucked and ready for ambush. Their aim is to ensure that every offspring and ally not only survives but thrives—by crafting the tools, tunnels, and pack-bonds that will make them masters of both surface and subterranean wilderness. In their humanoid form, the Hexamorph Lord looks like a serene monk, known for holding meditative positions for hours without the slightest movement.
REALM: Pangaea / Sixfold Steppe. The Hexamorph Lord rules the Sixfold Steppe, a vast, shimmering expanse of copper-hued grasses broken by towering termite spires and the crisscrossing trails of game. Here, the hexamorph hunting packs operate in seamless coordination, moving from open hunting grounds to hidden molting grounds, then to communal dens where tools are shaped and strategies click-clacked out in the dark. The earth beneath is laced with deep tunnel networks—safe havens for larvae and clever traps for intruders—making the land above and below equally shaped by the Lord’s genius for both patient planning and focused action.
Thylacine Lord
Seyhrain Thylacinus. Planar animal lord [she/her] / N ‡
CHARACTER: The Thylacine Lord embodies patient persistence and precise tracking, her life a cycle of stealthy stalking in the shadows in of dense, misty scrublands. She understands survival is a long game of endurance—knowing when to wait, when to pursue, and how to navigate vast, untamed territories with meticulous knowledge that turns elusive prey into the next meal.
DESCRIPTION: In her animal form, she appears as a sleek, tawny marsupial with distinct dark stripes across her back and tail, eyes keen and calculating, mouth capable of a wide, threatening gape. Thylacine are agile ambush predators perfectly suited to the dappled light and the thick undergrowth of her realm. She seeks to preserve the balance of her vast hunting grounds, defending her turf, and teaching her pups the secret arts of silent approach and strategic patience essential to enduring the hunt longer than your prey can.
REALM: Pangaea / The Striped Silence. Thylacine’s domain, the Striped Silence, stretches across dense eucalypt scrubland and misty heath. Natural dens in gnarled hollow logs provide refuge and lairs, while rocky vantage points which overlook the broad hunting grounds are carefully patrolled and marked by the pheromones which signify ancient territorial boundaries. Planewalkers will quickly notice the territory’s eerie quietude—an ambient tension where echoes fade unpredictably, and footsteps are swallowed by the mist.
Other Prehistoric Animal Lords in Full
Source: Margarita, SGreen and Jon Winter-Holt, based on an idea by Greg Jensen. Canonwatch: Everything here is homebrew (in the context of Planescape at least, all of these prehistoric/extinct creatures roamed the world once upon a time! Except the hexamorph, perhaps 😉
I see my hexamorph became a lord, I didn’t expect that, I created it because I thought “clearly there should be more pre-historic animals in Pangea who aren’t from earth”
Aha, I was wondering about the origin of that idea! I couldn’t find anything about thri-kreen history or evolution so thought it should fit pretty well. I like the idea of some less familiar critters! I’m almost done with the main page itself, just editing up the factions now…