Sacred Beasts

Sacred Beasts are ancient animals who can practice the sacred arts. Like humans, they can advance to great power.

How Beasts Become Sacred

Sacred Beasts are ancient animals that have attained sacred status by absorbing enough vital aura from their surroundings to advance in the sacred arts. Their advancement differs from how humans advance, but the specifics on how they differ is not yet well known.

If a fox or a turtle survived their first century, they would absorb enough vital aura from the world around them to ascend into sacred beasts. These animals cycled madra, advanced in power, and left Remnants just as humans did. The oldest of them could even speak, and legends said some could take human forms. (Book 1, Unsouled, page 7)

The Beast King

• The Beast King is a Herald. This old man of the desert defends the Wastelands from invading gold dragons
• The Herald / Beast King is friends with sacred beasts everywhere, but especially at home in the Wasteland, near the Blackflame Empire. He lives among the sacred beasts, like the powerful and immense Vastwood Mammoth.

Known Sacred Beasts

• Elder Whisper: An ancient white five-tailed snow-fox in Sacred Valley. He’s a dream artist, using light aura, advanced at creating illusions. He is associated with the Wei clan, even though they lock him in his tall white tower. (Unsouled).
  For several years, he holds open the void space belonging to the assassinated Sage of the Endless Sword so it won’t crumble away. He trusts Lindon with a secret about the Labyrinth and Dreadgods (see books 9 & 10).

Cold wind, crisp with the scents of a spring night, ruffled his white fur. Five bushy tails lashed behind him, tracing arcane patterns in the air that reminded Lindon of a script. “You have eaten of a wonderful fruit,” said the sacred fox. “Tell me the story.” (Unsouled, book 1)

• Orthos: A huge sacred turtle, Orthos advances to Lord level while he’s in Sacred Valley. He lived for some years in Serpent’s Grave in the Blackflame Empire. He follows the same dragon path as Lindon, the Path of Black Flame, and identifies as a Dragon Turtle.
  
• Vastwood Mammoth, allied with The Beast King. On the crumbling island Ghostwater, the Beast King sent his Vastwood Mammoth with Ziel to rescue some Golds unfairly attacked by a dragon Underlady:

  Another powerful soul was unveiled somewhere on the island. Yerin couldn’t put a name to its advancement level, but it felt impossibly ancient. Then the mammoth rose over the trees and raised its trunk, trumpeting into the sky. She could see it mostly as a pile of fur in the distance; it looked like a mountain’s pet dog.
  The stranger pointed in that direction. “My friend was listening. He’s not happy.” (Ghostwater, chapter 16)