Monsters

While some might question the label of "monster" for sentient, speaking creatures, Faeries are definitely wary of a number of creatures in nature, many of whom are prefectly willing to predate them if given the chance.

This page covers the ones that hunt, sting, parasitize, or simply cannot be reasoned with. For the creatures the Kingdom has yoked, herded, milked, and listed in its ledgers as equipment, see Beasts of Burden.

The Scale

A Faerie stands three inches tall and is Medium. Everything else follows from that. The world runs at roughly 24×: one in-world foot is about half a real inch, and a real-world inch is a bit over two in-world feet.

Size In-world Real-world Space
Fine up to 6 in up to ¼ in (6 mm) ½ ft
Diminutive 6 in – 1 ft ¼ – ½ in (6 – 12 mm) 1 ft
Tiny 1 – 2 ft ½ – 1 in (12 – 25 mm) 2½ ft
Small 2 – 4 ft 1 – 2 in (25 – 50 mm) 5 ft
Medium 4 – 8 ft 2 – 4 in (50 – 100 mm) 5 ft
Large 8 – 16 ft 4 – 8 in (10 – 20 cm) 10 ft
Huge 16 – 32 ft 8 – 16 in (20 – 40 cm) 15 ft
Gargantuan 32 – 64 ft 16 – 32 in (40 – 80 cm) 20 ft
Colossal 64 ft and up 32 in and up (80 cm+) 30 ft

Measure long creatures — centipedes, worms, snakes — by length, not height. Measure fliers by the greater of body length and wingspan; a dragonfly is Small on the ground and something worse in the air.

"Colossal" is not the top of the ladder. It is only the top of the ladder we bothered to build. A human is a hundred and forty feet tall and there is no entry for that. {.flavor}

Predators and the Untameable

Sorted small to large. Where a creature spans a boundary, it is listed at the size it fights at.

Size Creature Real size The threat
Fine Chigger, mite 1 mm Not a fight. A condition. Burrows in and stays.
Fine Biting midge 2 mm Never one. Clouds of them; bleeds a sentry white in a night.
Fine Flea 2½ mm Armored past reason, jumps a hundred feet, nearly unkillable.
Fine Fire ant (worker) 3 mm Never alone, never retreats, fights with chemistry.
Fine Braconid wasp 3 mm Lays its eggs inside you. The Kingdom does not discuss this.
Fine Tick 3 mm Waits on a grass blade for a year with its arms out.
Diminutive Mosquito 6 mm Drinks, and leaves behind worse than it took.
Diminutive Housefly 7 mm Carrion-follower and ill omen. Finds the dead before the mourners do.
Diminutive Ladybird beetle 7 mm Charming, red, and the reason aphid-herds need guards.
Diminutive Jumping spider 10 mm Eight eyes, no web, and it has already worked out the angle.
Diminutive Antlion larva 10 mm A cone of dry sand that is a mouth. You see it once.
Diminutive Rove beetle 10 mm Carrion, chemical burns, and a raised tail meaning don't.
Diminutive Earwig 12 mm Pincers. Sleeps in your bedding. Deserves most of its reputation.
Diminutive Tiger beetle 12 mm The fastest thing at this scale — so fast it runs blind and stops to look.
Tiny Black widow 12 mm body Small, shy, and carrying venom out of all proportion to her size.
Tiny Water strider 15 mm Owns the surface of every still pond. Charges you across it.
Tiny Backswimmer 15 mm Hangs upside down beneath the film and stabs upward.
Tiny Yellowjacket 15 mm A wasp with none of a paper wasp's discipline.
Tiny Ground beetle 20 mm Night, jaws, and in some strains a boiling chemical spray.
Tiny Paper wasp 20 mm Not a monster — a soldier, with a nest, orders, and reinforcements.
Tiny Robber fly 20 mm Takes couriers out of the air and eats them on the way down.
Tiny Wolf spider 20 mm No web. It simply runs you down, carrying its young on its back.
Tiny Cockroach 25 mm Eats anything, survives anything, outlasts every siege ever laid.
Tiny House centipede 25 mm Too many legs, far too fast, and it comes from the ceiling.
Small Bullet ant 25 mm One sting. Twelve hours. Faeries measure pain against it.
Small Assassin bug, wheel bug 35 mm A stabbing beak that liquefies the inside and drinks it out.
Small Hornet 35 mm The standard against which all other sting-terror is compared.
Small Diving beetle 35 mm The shark of the shallow pool, and it flies between pools at night.
Small Camel spider 40 mm No venom. Jaws and speed, which turn out to be enough.
Small Cicada-killer wasp 40 mm Carries prey twice its weight away alive, paralyzed, and awake.
Small Praying mantis (nymph) 40 mm Already lethal. Not yet arrogant about it.
Small Centipede, lesser 40 mm Venom delivered through modified legs. Twenty-odd of them.
Small Bark scorpion 45 mm Venom, patience, and it fluoresces beautifully under fey-light.
Small Dragonfly 45 mm body, 75 mm span Apex of the air. Misses one hunt in twenty.
Small Vinegaroon 50 mm Sprays acid with pinpoint accuracy from a whip on its back.
Medium Robber fly, greater 50 mm A duelist's build and no interest in the duel.
Medium Tarantula 50–70 mm body Body Medium, reach Large. Flicks barbed hairs into your eyes.
Medium Anole, small lizard 60 mm snout-vent Motionless in the sun for an hour, then a tongue and nothing.
Medium Camel spider, greater 60 mm Runs down a mounted courier over open ground.
Medium Shrew 60–80 mm Must eat constantly or die, so it never, ever stops. Venomous bite.
Medium Giant water bug 65–100 mm Ambushes from under the waterline. The bite dissolves.
Medium Praying mantis 70–90 mm Courteous, patient, and will finish the conversation while eating you.
Medium Newt 80 mm Slow, unbothered, and poisonous to the touch.
Medium Deathstalker scorpion 80 mm The Emberwaste's argument against travel.
Medium Hummingbird 85 mm A needle on wings, hovering, and territorial past all sense.
Large Centipede, greater 10–15 cm Hunts bats in full dark by touch alone. Fears nothing at this scale.
Large Chinese mantis 10 cm A mantis grown into a siege weapon.
Large Frog 8–11 cm The tongue arrives noticeably before the frog does.
Large Bat 9 cm body, 30 cm span Hunts by sound. Darkness is not cover; it is the ambush.
Large Emperor scorpion (young) 12 cm Armored, pincered, and slow enough to be survivable. Slow enough.
Large Crayfish 12 cm Armored, aquatic, claws, and unshakably certain of its rights.
Large Mole 12–16 cm Blind, tireless, eats its own weight daily, comes up through the floor.
Large Sparrow, songbird 14–16 cm The reason no Faerie flies in open daylight without a lookout.
Large Huntsman, fishing spider 15 cm span Runs on walls. Runs on water. Runs, mostly.
Large Fence lizard 18 cm A sunlit rock is never just a sunlit rock.
Huge Bullfrog 15–20 cm Swallows a Faerie whole and looks around for the second one.
Huge Woodpecker 20–25 cm Opens the wall of your home like a nutshell, methodically.
Huge Kingfisher 20 cm Takes you off the water's surface without slowing down.
Huge Cane toad 20 cm Poisonous, indiscriminate, and eats whatever moves in front of it.
Huge Emperor scorpion 20 cm Full grown. Not slow enough.
Huge Weasel, stoat 20–25 cm Kills far past hunger. Enters any hole a Faerie can.
Huge Hedgehog 20–25 cm A walking siege engine whose entire diet is people your size.
Huge Rat 20–25 cm body Clever, organized, and will negotiate in good faith right up until it doesn't.
Huge Jay, thrush, mockingbird 20–30 cm Nest-robbers and mimics. A jay will call you in using a voice you love.
Huge Centipede, gigantean 30 cm The Deep Hollows' apex. Twenty-three pairs of legs and no natural enemy.
Huge Snake, lesser 30–38 cm No legs, no sound, no warning, no negotiation.
Gargantuan Hawk 30–45 cm Threads the Hedges at full speed without touching a twig.
Gargantuan Barn owl 35–40 cm, 1 m span Silent in flight. Hears a heartbeat under snow.
Gargantuan Chicken, hen 40–50 cm Human-kept, human-fed, and the single most efficient people-killer in the Waking World.
Gargantuan Opossum 45 cm Eats anything, plays dead convincingly, and is very hard to finish.
Gargantuan Magpie, jackdaw 45 cm Thief and hoarder. Will trade with you, and will cheat.
Gargantuan Raccoon (young) 45 cm Already has the hands.
Gargantuan Ferret, mink 50 cm The weasel's larger cousin, with all the same habits and more reach.
Gargantuan Skunk 50–60 cm Carries a chemical weapon rated for battlefield use.
Gargantuan Garter snake 50–70 cm Hunts the Manywaters shallows and the Hollow Marches banks.
Colossal Great horned owl 55 cm, 1.4 m span The landlord of the night woods. Everything else pays rent.
Colossal Dog 60 cm – 1.5 m Scent. There is no glamour that beats a nose.
Colossal Cat 70–90 cm nose to tail Sees through glamour, hunts without hunger, cannot be reasoned with, and is beloved. The dread of the Waking World has a name and it purrs.
Colossal Raccoon 75–95 cm Hands. It has hands. It opens things.
Colossal Badger 75–90 cm Digs out any burrow ever dug. Nothing you build stops it.
Colossal Goose 80 cm – 1 m Territorial to a degree that has no explanation and needs none.
Colossal Fox 90–110 cm Cunning enough to be a person, hungry enough not to bother.
Colossal Heron 1 m, 1.8 m span Stands in the fen for an hour without moving. Then doesn't.
Colossal Snake, greater 1.2–1.8 m A hundred and forty feet of it. Ask the Corpselight Fens.
Colossal Human 1.5–1.9 m ~140 ft tall. Off every scale on this page. Not an encounter — a weather event.

Beyond this the categories stop meaning anything. A deer, a cow, a horse, a car: these are not monsters, they are terrain that moves.

Running Them

See Also