From The Mana World
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Animals are mortal creatures carrying a role in nature. Many of these creatures were originally created by the Gods. Many more of them evolved from those first creations. Only a few have been created by Man.


Amorph

Goos, mucks, slimes and jellies

Insects

You think the bugs in your area are huge? Try living in this world. Many insects here are nearly man-sized and there are some which would simply dwarf a person. Other than that, these creatures are comparable to the insects of the real world. They usually have plenty of legs, lay eggs, are commonly poisonous, often have wings and occasionally wear exoskeletons, etc.


Mana Bug

Appearance Mana Bugs are large insects sized between 10cm and 30cm. They are strict "manavores" meaning that they feed solely on mana energy and require no food or water. This ability makes them the base of ecosystems in areas where life would be impossible otherwise. They look similar to scarabs. Their most distinctive feature is a crystaline structure on their back that stores mana energy. When the bug is well-fed this crystaline structure usually glows colorful. Its color can vary depending on the type of the mana energy the bug was feeding on.

Occurence They can usually be found in areas with a high concentration of mana energy. A large population of them can be found in the regions surrounding the mana crystals (but usually not in their direct proximity because of the aggressive Elementals that form there). Spotting a single swarm of them in the wild usually means that some kind of magic phenomenon is nearby.

Behavior Mana Bugs are usually harmless as long as they don't feel in danger. But they suddenly become very aggressive when someone depletes their only food source by using magic near them. Their pincers are very painful and when they are well-fed they sometimes release their stored mana energy in form of lesser magic attacks. A single Mana Bug is not really a threat for even an inexperienced adventurer. But unfortunately they tend to attack in swarms. A large swarm of erratic Mana Bugs can mean death to even the strongest warriors.

Variants Due to the usually supernatural conditions in which they live they are quite freqently subjects to strange mutations. There have been reports about Mana Bugs that are highly poisonous, are huge in body size, are capable of frequently casting even sophisticated spells or show signs of high intelligence. But such stories should be taken with a grain of salt as they are usually told by adventurers who don't want to admit that they fled from a bunch of insects.