South African Cryptids

The Fantasy Genre has long been dominated by the religions and customs of countries touched on by the Crusades. While this makes sense, with the familiar image of a knight wandering foreign lands being key to the genre itself, there has been stagnation in recent times. As such, I’ve taken it upon myself to look into the cultures of the world and find fascinating details about other mythologies often overlooked by the genre we so love, going on a bit of a tour of world mythologies.

According to legend, the people who came to South Africa did so in pursuit of a fleeing god. Annoying the deity with their mimicry, destructive ways, and inability to take a hint – the first human left his creator with little alternative but to escape into the heavens. Unable to follow, the first man in South Africa stayed and laid the foundations of civilization and culture in those reaches.

But what exactly was he left with? The region was not without its peculiar creatures which dwell both in the sky and under the waters of its great rivers and waterfalls. This was a place of surprising danger where they had been left to remain, where creatures of unusual origin roamed and threatened to kill the people of this fledgling civilization. And, while spoken of and depicted in legend as far back as possible, several of these creatures are sometimes thought to still wander those lands to this very day…

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