ECOLOGY

Environment any coasts
Organization solitary
Treasure none

A lorelei resembles an enormous, stony sea anemone with a humanlike face covering much of its body. Noted for its ability to produce magical murmurs that entrance sailors navigating close to its lair, a lorelei is a magnet for destruction. The creatures lurk near rocky outcroppings and protuberances, barely concealed by crashing waves or rushing rivers, eager to lure humanoids to their deaths.

Also known as a “murmuring stone” for its rock-like natural camouflage, a lorelei is a solitary creature that shuns peaceful contact with other living things. It broods in the shadows of seaside cliffs and ocean trenches, emerging only to torment the living. When not pursuing more complicated schemes, a lorelei is fond of wrecking ships on nearby rocks and luring sailors beneath the surface to drown.

Some claim these creature were once a species of beautiful fey cursed by foul forces. This claim is backed by the fact that they behave much like nereids, nixies, and sirens. A lorelei stands 9 feet tall, not counting the tentacles atop its body, and weighs around 2,000 pounds.

Ecology

A lorelei's body is barrel-shaped, with a foot known as a basal disk at the bottom. A lorelei's basal disk is less adhesive than that of a sea anemone but more flexible, allowing the lorelei to climb at a reasonable pace, and to swim by undulating its underside. At the top end of the lorelei's body, dozens of tentacles surround a toothless maw that it uses to ingest food.

In addition to these strange features, the lorelei has a humanlike face that covers much of its body on one side.

The mouth on the lorelei's face cannot consume food—it exists only to produce speech and other sounds. In contrast, a lorelei's eyes are fully functional. The lorelei has no ears, but can sense sound with its entire body, having a range of hearing comparable to that of an average human.

A lorelei's brain is located behind its face, protected by a plate of cartilage. That hard plate is the only part of a lorelei's body that isn't yielding and rubbery. A lorelei's hide is difficult to crush and cut, serving as surprisingly effective natural armor. This skin is also camouflaged with a rock-like appearance. A lorelei can retract its tentacles to take on the appearance of a boulder, allowing it to remain hidden until its prey is too close to escape.

True to their rarity and solitary nature, loreleis reproduce asexually. Every few decades, a lorelei can produce another of its kind by splitting off a single piece of its body, which then grows into a young lorelei. Offspring produced in this manner inherit portions of their parent's memories, giving them fully functioning adult minds without any need for instruction or socialization.

Habitat & Society

A lorelei prefers a lonesome and solitary existence, shunning its own kind as readily as it shuns all living things. Brooding and morose, loreleis enjoy only one thing: making other, happier creatures suffer. Loreleis regularly orchestrate conflicts, shipwrecks, and other disasters to celebrate the cruel hand of fate that rules the nihilistic world they see everywhere they look.

Since it rarely wanders far from its rocky lair, a lorelei sits in wait, sometimes for weeks, hoping for a victim to come within range of its murmured song. Though it will fight to keep its lair, a lorelei dislikes prolonged conflict and abandons its rocky outcroppings or underwater caves if the location receives too much visitation or attention.

Sometimes a lorelei maintains two or three lairs in order to move between them regularly, thus attracting less attention to each location.

Lorelei from Folklore

The story of the lorelei comes from a rocky outcropping along the Rhine River in Germany near St. Goarshausen.

Legends tell of dwarves who once lived in caves within the rock, and the name of the outcropping, Lorelei, means “murmuring rock” (though some translate it as “lurking rock”). The original tale of the lorelei describes how a young woman fell deeply in love but was cruelly spurned by her lover. She was then accused of bewitching men to their deaths and sent to a nunnery. On the way, she passed the rock and asked to climb it to view the Rhine once more.

While atop the rock she fell (some stories say jumped) to her death, swept away by the fast-moving water. Most tales describe the beautiful maiden transformed into a mermaid, water nymph, or siren, still leading rivermen to their deaths along the rocky outcropping with her murmuring song.