I had actually never heard of the Tarasque until this question! I can safely say I’ve never seen a European mythical creature that looks quite like this critter, I really like it!
I had actually never heard of the Tarasque until this question! I can safely say I’ve never seen a European mythical creature that looks quite like this critter, I really like it!
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Is Santa Claus real? How about his reindeer? :-p
Jim tells Michelle in Ridiculous Creatures that flying reindeer aren’t real, and that they were made up for the story Night Before Christmas.
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/ridiculous-creatures-4/
Curiously, the monster’s name is imensely familiar with the tabletop RPG public, due to its namesake being one of the most iconic monsters of Dungeons & Dragons.
I encourage everyone to look up the story of the warrior and his toy Tarasque.
It was a beautiful piece of roleplay.
Your comment resulted in me learning something today, so I thought I’d share.
I always thought that “namesake” meant “the thing for which something is named.” In fact, it is simply “a thing that shares the name,” and I had reversed the meanings of “namesake” and “eponym” (as in “eponymous”) in my mind.
(And of course, this Reader Question also taught me something new, as I thought the Tarrasque was one of the monsters in D&D that weren’t based on any particular real-world myth.)
Note that the mythical creature is the Tarasque (one r) while the D&D monster is the Tarrasque (two r).
The D&D Tarrasque was created by François Marcela-Froideval (FMF), a French comic book writer who worked at TSR during the 1980s and became a close friend of Gary Gygax then.
And it was created by a Frenchman, because the Tarasque is a French mythical creature! There’s even a story about how this beast, undefeatable by normal means, was tamed and led back into town by a Saint… where it was promptly slaughtered by the frightened townspeople despite now being harmless.
as is human custom…. man, that’s depressing.
What a cutie!
You have Jimothy James Finn listed twice in the characters bio. Please, please, fix it?
It’s not a mistake! Jim is a main character in both the Missouri crew and the Liverpool crew. His entries are different.
Love the design of the Tarasque! Hope to see him/her in the Liverpool Avalon…
Question: we’ve seen a lot of underwater cryptids, but are there totems for aquatic mammals?
Could we see a Crocodilian Totem? Maybe any legendary Croc creatures?
What sorts of jobs do Cryptids hold that are unique to their world? (IE: jobs that don’t exist in the “human” world)
I’ve been wanting to see this for a while, but could we see an Irish Otter (according to Irish lore the otter is nearly invincible and only has a single weak point just below its arm)?
What would it be like if a Nemean Lion and an Irish Otter both basically dueled each other?
Why is it, that from your question, I get this mental image of a Nemean Lion and an Irish Otter, carrying out the major roles from the pistol dueling scene from the film Highlander?
“He has / the head of a camel, / the neck of a crocodile / (and the ears of a cow!)”
Oh my gosh, they look amazing in your style!! Thank you so much!!
wow. bowser is real, and he looks happier than expected
Oh the Tarrasque is one my favorite dragons! For my comic world their shell opens up like a ladybug to reveal wings. Still very poor fliers though, incredibly heavy.