As stated in previous sections, there are too many creatures in Heaven’s Realm to count, and the list below is by no means exhaustive. This is simply a list of the major players in the Tri-millennial War according to whom they have allied themselves.

Creatures Allied With Elysia

Unicorns

Unicorns are emotionless, pure beings incapable of selfish actions. They are allies with the cherubians and allow their winged friends to ride on their backs through mornacht infested territory. (Riding is faster than walking, running, or low-hovering, and it keeps the cherubians out of the air where they are more likely to get shot.) Unicorns are ruled by a monarchy separate from the cherubian government, but the cherubians still recognize the royalty of the unicorn king by bowing to him and by refusing to sit next to him. (Unicorn etiquette maintains that only the king of Elysia shall ever sit next to the king of the unicorns.) Likewise, unicorns will bow to their king and the king of Elysia, but they refuse to bow to Elysia’s Prime Minister.

The Unicorns’ Horns:
For centuries when unicorns used to roam Earth, humans wondered what the horn was and what it did, but none ever thought to ask the unicorns themselves. Instead, they trapped and killed them all (except for the few who still live deep in the hearts of the great northern forests where few humans wander) and kept their horns thinking they might possess magical powers. The fools didn’t know that though the horns did possess power, it was not power a human could use. All they ended up with was a trinket powerful enough to stir a pot of stew or give a horse a good jab to make it run faster.

The unicorn’s spiraled horn is composed of special matter that absorbs energy from the sun and stores it for times of need. When a unicorn needs extra speed, its horn will turn red as it accesses the stored energy, helping the unicorn double and sometimes even triple his fastest speed. When placed on another creature’s forehead, the horn can absorb its emotions—a service unicorns often offer cherubians who are dealing with excessive sadness or anger. When a unicorn’s horn glows red, it will do more than absorb emotions; it will absorb a creature’s life. Their horns, when placed on the temple of other creatures, can actually read the creature’s thoughts and memories.

Their horns also give the unicorns self-healing powers so great that only a few things can kill them: crushing (as in under a boulder or in the jaws of a saber), drowning, and excessive burning. It is also possible to kill a unicorn by cutting off its horn, robbing it of its healing power, and then mortally wounding it. A unicorn’s healing power flows through its body even into its sweat and spit. Cherubians who know this will often slather a unicorn’s spit on their wounds or lay an ill cherubian on its back.

The unicorn’s ability to heal itself gives it few mortal enemies. Morvenian wolves and poisonwood arrows are only an annoyance. Only two creatures in Heaven’s Realm pose a mortal threat to the unicorns: sabers, who can crush them in their jaws and who are too big for unicorn to absorb their lives quickly, and dragons, who can crush the unicorns in their jaws, pick them up and drop them, or burn them to death. The dragons, however, are kind at heart, and even though the two species’ opposing personalities often cause inter-species friction, the dragons would never intentionally harm the unicorns.

Unicorns and Nature:
Unicorns have an indescribable bond with nature that cherubians are unable to figure out. They can read the “thoughts of trees” (if that were possible) just with a touch of their horn. Some cherubians swear that the trees and even the air surrounding a dead unicorn feel different.

Language:
Unicorns can speak in “cherubian tongue” as they call it, but they also have their own language, which sounds like a strange combination of neighs and whinnies. Only a few cherubians have ever taken the time to learn it.

History:
After the Great Unicorn Massacre on Earth, a young colt named Azernoth led the surviving unicorns to Heaven’s Realm. Azernoth also convinced the unicorns to join forces with Ezzer in the war against the mornachts. Ezzer rewarded Azernoth by placing a gold medal called the Medallion of Wisdom around his neck. Azernoth has worn the medallion ever since, and the medallion will be passed on to Crown Prince Boronan, who will become king in the unlikely event of Azernoth’s death.

The Seers:
A special breed of unicorn, the seers of the line of Capral now believed to be extinct, could foretell the future. Cherubians still are not sure what powers allowed the seers to prophesy. According to legend, the unicorn seers had more power than other unicorns, but few cherubians know what. Many have stopped wondering since the mornachts assassinated Capral’s line ages ago. Cherubians who still believe the Runes believe that the seeing line of Capral will reemerge, citing a little known prophecy, which indicates that the coming of a future cherubian king will “be preceded by the reemergence of a line thought lost.”

Sprites

Characteristics of Sprites:
Sprites, also known to humans as fairies or pixies, are little humanish beings with wings. They love to chatter and sing, and they hate being ignored. They dress in colors of their favorite flowers, they usually measure four to five inches tall, and their wings resemble those of a bee. This description often shocks humans who have always imagined sprites with glorious butterfly wings.

Sprites are nectar gatherers and refiners. Their wings move faster than the human eye can see, which creates a buzzing sound similar to that of bees. Their hips also move from side to side like bees’ hips (or butts, depending). Cherubians used to think the hip movements were a secret form of sprite communication. A couple of them spent over two hundred years trying to decipher it until they realized that sprites shook their hips to let out pent-up excitement. Sprites have a nasty bite when they are provoked, and they fly away so quickly that even the quickest cherubian can’t whack them. Sprites never take anything seriously. A couple of cherubians (the same stubborn fools who tried to decipher the hip-shakes) took the time to learn their language, only to find that most sprite-talk is filled with utter nonsense.

Sprites & Honeywine:
The sprites’ most precious craft, and the reason cherubians tolerate them, is honeywine making. Honeywine, once called ambrosia or the food of the gods by the ancient Greeks, is a delicacy that few humans have ever had the fortune to taste. It’s sweeter than honey, almost as light as a fine morning mist, and it goes down with a smooth, tingle. It also provides quite a kick (especially when compared to the humans’ laughable excuses for distilled and fermented drink) and the cherubians can’t get enough of it.

The sprites tried to teach the craft to the bees, but the bees, who have attention spans shorter than sprites, never fully learned and could only produce the gummy, waxy, sticky, sweet goo humans call honey. The sprites also tried to teach the humans, but the humans never acquired the finesse needed to make decent honeywine. They did learn to replicate the process with grapes and grains, and that’s when the cherubians discovered that humans didn’t have as much self-control as they originally assumed.

Sprite History:
Before the sprites were banished from Earth, they spent most of their time hanging out with the flowers, bees, and butterflies, until they learned how to turn nectar into honeywine. Unlike the cherubians, who exercise extreme amounts of self-control, the sprites never stopped drinking the stuff. Whatever society they had broke down as they drank themselves into a permanent drunken stupor.

The sprites’ banishment from Earth is another story in itself, but it begs to be told if simply to explain the relationship between the sprites and the cherubians. One day, one of the little troublemakers flew too close to a poppy flower, inhaled too much of the pollen, and discovered opium’s less-than-medicinal qualities. (This discovery led to the myth that sprites had magical powers. The only magic a sprite has, however, is in its snuff sack.) Sprites, who aren’t nearly as affected by the drug as the humans, often enjoyed playing with the humans, laughing at the humans’ reactions to their “magic dust” and, well the rest is recorded in fairy tales.

Most cherubian guards began to despise the sprites toying around with their charges, and arguments between sprites and guards often ended with two hundred sprites attacking one cherubian, biting away at him or her until they got bored and went on to play somewhere else. Mornachts often took advantage of such attacks, and countless humans suffered and sometimes died while their poor guard swatted away at the pests. Cherubian guards began to beg the Elysian government to banish the sprites from Earth. Unfortunately, Ezzer had died, and those in power were too scared to make a decision that might anger the sprites without proof.

Then, one sprite convinced a little English boy that her magic dust would keep him from growing up and give him the ability to fly. That little boy spread the joy to other young children. The children thought they had kept what they imagined to be midnight journeys to a place they called Never Never Land a secret, not knowing that a gentleman listened to them giggle and tell their stories from their bedroom window. He recorded their stories, which gave Elysia the written proof it needed to banish the sprites from Earth.

Unfortunately, the mornachts noticed how the “magic dust” affected humans, and they took over the drug and alcohol industries once the sprites left. Unlike sprites, mornachts don’t get humans addicted to drugs just to watch them make fools of themselves. They do it to cause pain, to torment families, to destroy lives and careers, and hopefully to cause humans to harden. The number of hardened humans more than tripled once the mornachts took over the drug industry.

The sprites now live in Heaven’s Realm where they can laugh all they want with the flowers, bees, and butterflies and where they are encouraged to hone their honeywine craft by a species that not only /appreciates it, but also has the self-control to enjoy it without excess.

Hawks

Unlike nymphs and fauns, the hawks have elected to donate their services to Elysia even though they are only the size of a typical cherubian chest. Like vultures, hawks are bi-dimensional, meaning they can function in either Heaven’s Realm or the earthian dimension without having to morph into something else. They are governed by a king, and at the time A Prophecy Forgotten was written, King Arias sat upon the throne (metaphorically speaking). The hawks run messages for the cherubians in Heaven’s Realm and to and from Earth. They also spy for the cherubians. Unfortunately, the hawks lack the ability to speak; they can only caw, and only a few cherubians understand them.

Creatures Who Have Remained Neutral

Gnomes

About gnomes: Since the dawn of creation, the gnomes (also called dwarves or brownies in human tales) have been miners, refiners, and creators of interesting tools, trinkets, and other unique, beautiful things. Many accuse them of using magic to make their creations, but most gnomes deny it, saying that they simply do what they do and that’s that.

Gnomes tend to be more hoity-toity than the human tales say, mainly because the humans always thought that since miners were rough and gruff, the gnomes, who also lived and mined in the mountains, must be the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. A good gnome can spend a day in the mines and emerge looking as though he hadn’t done any work. (Cherubians have yet to figure out how they do this.) A typical gnome will usually wear knickers, a white dress shirt, a vest, a long tasseled hat, and shoes with silver (or gold) buckles. They always wear jewelry that they themselves have fashioned. They keep their mustaches curled on the ends and their beards neatly trimmed just below their chins. They have large, dark eyes (from tunneling underground for so long) and rounded noses.

A gnome’s greatest weakness is his birth-name. Any non-gnome can control a gnome just by repeating his birth-name. Most humans may recall the time when a gnome named Rumpelstiltskin befriended a certain miller’s daughter who eventually became queen (largely due to the gnome’s ability to turn straw into gold). Rumpelstiltskin demanded her first born child as compensation for his services. She refused. After many evil occurrences, which the human tales do not recount, one of the queen’s soldiers learned Rumpelstiltskin’s name and commanded him to commit suicide. Gnome and human relations soured after that, which led to the gnomes’ banishment from Earth.

Dragons

Unlike the unicorns, Elysia’s dragons are emotional beings (which explains why the two species don’t get along). Their three loves, and therefore three weaknesses, are: gold, poetry, and song. They live north of the Elysian borders, and they have refused to help the cherubians fight the mornachts since Ezzer banished them from Earth.

The kind, passive dragons were originally created to protect humans from both the mornachts and the sabers. Unfortunately the humans always mistrusted the dragons, and they lusted after the gold the dragons hoarded. They began hunting the gold, and relations between the two species soon broke down. One unfortunate day, a dragon with a dreadful cold sneezed while he was flying over a large city. The blast from the sneeze ended up destroying the entire city and the surrounding villages. After that, the humans began hunting the dragons—until the dragons reluctantly defended themselves. Ezzer finally banned them from Earth to preserve the human race. The dragons never forgave him or the cherubians for it, which was why they remained neutral in the war—and the cherubians never forgave them for that.

Fauns

Fauns reside far west of Elysia, along with the nymphs. As stated in earthian mythology, they have the bodies of humans and the legs of goats. They migrated to Elysia quite some time ago. They are known for their love of jokes and music, and they rarely participate in a serious conversation without saying something funny or outlandish. The current record for such a feat is five minutes, thirty-two seconds. They have chosen to remain neutral because war isn’t fun (although they would never admit it). Because of this, cherubians use the term “faun” as an insult, implying that he or she who is called a faun is flaky, flighty, and stupid.

Nymphs

The beautiful and delicate nymphs reside with the fauns to Elysia’s far west, and cherubians rarely see them. They have chosen to remain neutral, not necessarily because of their hatred of cherubians but because they fear battle. As a result, cherubians use the word “nymph” as an extreme insult with far greater inferences than simply “coward.” The nymphs have volunteered to run messages for the cherubians, but it is little help since they refuse to travel east of their own borders.

Creatures Allied With the Mornachts

Morvenian Wolves

Not to be confused with the neutral Elysian wolves, Morvenian wolves are black and stand over four feet tall on all fours. They take orders directly from the mornachts, and they fight with them in most of their battles and raids. They can carry some of the smaller mornachts on their backs, and they attack quickly. One must kill a wolf almost immediately or suffer the wrath of its teeth.

Sabers

Sabers (or saber-tooth tigers, to humans) are just that: saber toothed tigers who migrated to Heaven’s Realm toward the end of the ice age. Their jaws and feet can crush the tallest unicorns, making them one of the unicorns’ few mortal enemies. They often let mornachts ride on their backs during battle against the cherubians. A normal crystal-tipped cherubian arrow or crossbow bolt does not generate enough energy to kill a saber directly. It takes at least three arrows to do the job and more if the arrows lack crystal tips. Cherubians consider sabers highly dangerous, and many would rather meat up with a horde of mornachts than one of the huge tusked-tigers.

Vultures

Vultures fly messages for the mornachts–especially to and from Earth. (Birds are bi-dimensional creatures and do not need to morph to fully exist in either dimension.) The hawks and members of the Elysian military often call vultures “scroungers.” Many RSO’s would prefer to shoot any vulture they see, but they can’t because some vultures have officially remained neutral.