There is only one, but it endlessly regenerates. Each cell is a tiny living organism whose only purpose is to reunite with the others. The worm’s blood is a slick green. (p15)

The following is a direct quote from the book explaining what an upir is:

“All upiri are male. The history of their breed is quite old: it’s likely they were an integral part of the fertility cults in early agrarian societies of the Bronze Age. During the rites young women, embodying the Goddess, were brought to the upir so he could play out his role of her son-consort by copulating with them. Of course, often the copulation resulted in the woman’s death, in which case, the upir would complete the rite full circle, devouring her body.

The arrival of the Iron Age with its patriarchal gods-heroes signaled the end of the Goddess cult and the upiri gradually migrated to the remote regions, finding the vast Russian forests particularly suitable. Although they are driven by the urge to procreate, the upiri are interested only in producing a powerful male, another upir. All female children are born dead. Once a son is produced, the upir feeds the mother to the child and casts him out, driving him out of his territory. It must be noted that only a woman of significant magical power is able to sustain enough magic to produce a baby upir. …

The upir will mate with any animal he can anatomically penetrate. The resulting offspring, although viable, is usually sterile. A single upir may have scores of these servant-creatures. Also, since the agrarian cult of fertility centers on regeneration, the upir is likely to have vast recuperative powers. …immune to metal, wood, tooth, and claw. He is virtually impossible to kill.” (p198-199)

Upir can be killed with bone. (p231)

They are snakes with a flare on both sides of their heads that are like the wings of an enormous butterfly. The “wings” are blood-red membrane tinged with purple. They have long triangular teeth, but no poison. (p35-37)

A member of the Formorians. He is tall and slightly stooped and wears a thin white habit with a deep hood. His voice is cold and grating. His face has a narrow fanged muzzle the color of old bruises. His eyes are huge. Mid-forehead he has a pale green bump that palpitates and leaks gray ichor. Instead of arms, he has green tentacles. He controls the Reeves. (p81-82)

These are the enemies of the goddess Morrigan. They are sea-demons. (p98)

A Celtic god whose name means “Great Crow.” He has bulging muscles, scar tissue, and warts. His face is pale, with a too long, too flat nose with a horn-tipped point. Massive jaws contain over-sized teeth, and one of the incizors is like that of a boar. His eyes are small and white with a ridge between them. Finally, he has long black hair and thousands of crow feathers like a mantle. (p223-224)

His mother, Ceridwen, felt sorry for him because of his incredible ugliness, so she brewed a potion to give him wisdom. But the servant boy stirring it accidentally sipped from it and stole the gift. Fleeing from Ceridwen, the boy turned into a grain of wheat, but she turned into a chicken, swallowed him, and gave birth to Taliesen, the greatest bard, poet and druid of his time. (p200)

A Celtic goddess. The following is a direct quote from Kate”

There are a few versions of her, so I’ll tell you what I think might be close to the truth. Morrigan is three goddesses rolled into one. She changes depending on what she wants to do. Kind of like putting on different outfits. It’s called having divine aspects. Sometimes she is the goddess of fertility and prosperity and her name is Annan. I’m guessing that’s the aspect your mom worshiped. Annan also guides dead people to their resting place in the Otherworld. That’s the place where the Celtic dead live. The second aspect is Macha. She oversees kingship, governance, and horses. The third aspect is Badb, the great battle crow. …Badb drank the blood of the fallen and reveled in the slaughter…Morrigan doesn’t grant wishes. She makes deals. That means she always wants something in return. (p72-73)

These are Formorian undead which the Shepherd controls. They appear as delicate females with elven faces and heartbreaking bodies. Their eyes are lavender, and their skin glows with a faint silver radiance. They have long, thick, prehensile hair, and their jaws unhinge like a reptile’s with rows of anglerfish teeth in a black mouth. They also have curve claws in their knuckles that drip red slime. (p74 and p79)

Reeves don’t like silver, but it has to be a high concentration. (p190)

With ruby-red eyes, black lips, and a long, spider-web thin filament of a tongue, this creature can produce a spark of energy that explodes into a fireball when it hits air. The fireball produces a sulfur smell. During tech waves, it sleeps, looking like a harmless black lizard. During magic waves, it glows, and its mental presence persuades people to blow something up. It is eager to please. (p4-5)

Tall, storklike birds with orange wings, their feathers are red at the root and tinted with emerald-green at the tips and made of solid metal shaped like a knife and sharp as a scalpel. They are from Greek mythology. (p26-27)

One of twelve challenges, Hercules was ordered by the king he was serving, in atonement for killing his family after being made temporarily insane by his wife, to drive these birds, with feathers like arrows and beaks able to pierce the strongest armor, away from a certain lake. The gods made him “loud clapper things” which he used while wearing the skin of an invulnerable lion to drive the birds away. (p42)

A Formorian, he is the Great Crow’s (Morfran’s) Hammer, an eight-foot tall, hulking figure of a juggernaut with a horned helmet. His skin is green, and he has a long, meaty tail. The tattoo on his forehead is the power word Osanda, “kneel.”

Their wail is like the howl of a wolf, the forlorn shriek of a bird, and the heart-wrenching cry of a child. They are only potent during magic waves. Folklore said the wail drove people mad and they could kill children with a look, but they have been officially certified as harmless. (p1-3)

They bear a striking resemblance to stone statues guarding the entrance to Chinese temples. They are thick, powerfully muscled with dark red flanks and a short, curly mane of ruby ringlets. They have bulging eyes brimming with intelligence. Their mouth can open so widely it seems the head splits in two, revealing brilliant white fangs. (p257)

Their lower body is that of a python, but near the abdomen scales become so fine they glitter, stretching tight over a human torso. They are bald with a hood of flesh spread out from the head to resemble that of a king cobra. They have old magic, ancient and ice-cold. (p251-252)

From Greece, they are a meld of human and bull. They have a bovine nose and mouth, but human eyes. They have two pale horns set in a long mane. They are tall, some at seven feet. Their shoulders are vast, and their torsos are thick with muscle. They have a coal black hide, and short fur on their chest, stomach, thighs, and arms. Their hands are thick with blunt fingers, only two fingers and one thumb per hand, while their feet are actually hooves. (p79-80)

A Japanese ogre, it can weigh in at 400 pounds and be eight feet tall. Arms are like tree trunks, but the gut is big and round. Two horns and a mane of dark hair are on its head. Two sabertooth-like teeth protrude from its lower jaw. It has a brutish, thick featured face and blue skin. (p257 and p260)

The following is a quote from the book:

At first there was Vishnu, except at that point he was Narayana, the embodiment of Supreme Divinity. …Narayana floated in endless waters, wrapped in a great albino serpent and having a marvelous time, until a lotus grew from his navel. Within the lotus, god Brahma, the creator of worlds, was reborn. Brahma looked around, saw Narayana being content to float, and for no apparent reason became obsessed that his water would be stolen. So he made four guardians, two couples. The first couple promised to worship the water, and they were yakshasas. The second couple promised to protect the water, and they were rakshasas.
…Rakshasas are born warriors. They were created for this purpose. According to legend, they are conceived and carried to term in a single day, and upon birth, they instantly grow to the age of their mother. They are carnivores and have no qualms about consuming human meat. They come in a vast variety of shapes and sizes. They’re excellent illusionists and magicians. (p182-183)

They can be ugly or beautiful in appearance and can appear take on other forms due to their illusions. They consume a human in some way — physically, mentally, spiritually, or all three — and then assume the human’s form. They can also fly, a gift from Shiva. (p183-184)

They are arrogant, cunning, and flashy, but not too bright. (p184)

Their mythical king, Ravana, had tens heads, but every century he sacrificed one. When he only had one left, the gods asked him what he wanted in return for stopping. He asked for immunity from every race except men and animals, whom he held in contempt and didn’t believe could harm him. (p184-186)

At nine feet tall, it has thick, tree-trunk legs and flat, round stumps of elephantine feet. The thick midsection has a round, hard stomach and a thick chest. Broad shoulders with thick muscles leads to a thick neck and a thick, round head with a flat face. Eyes are sunk deep into dark sockets, and the nose is like that of a Persian cat. Two tusks extend from the lower jaw. The skin is a dark brown, uneven, and gnarled. (p270)

The three-headed dog who belongs to Hades and guards the front entrance to the Greek underworld where souls spend their afterlives. He is occasionally sent out on errands. (p194)

Cerberus is twenty feet tall with blood-red fur, ruby eyes, and fangs longer than a forearm. His drool ignites in midair, and his tongue is forked and serpentine. His long tail is whip-like with a barb on the end shaped like a snake’s head. He is deep-chested and built like an Italian mastiff. (p184, p192, and p203)

He remanifests with each magic wave when out on an errand, so he can’t be killed. (p205)

God of the Greek underworld, ancient Greeks feared him, averting their faces when sacrificing to him and refusing to say his name. They called him Rich One, the Notorious One, the Ruler of Many, and so on. He was considered just. (p194 and p197)

He bride-napped his wife, Persephone who was the daughter of Demeter who was the goddess of youth, fertility, and harvest. He is faithful to her. But afterward Demeter refused to let the plants grow. A compromise was reached so that Persephone spends half the year with her mother and half with Hades. (p196)

Sure-fire way to piss him off is to either steal a shade, a soul, or to avoid death. Sisyphus avoided death, and Hades punished him by assigning him the task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, but every time he reaches the top the bould rolls back down, and he must begin again. (p197)

The hydra has an enormous reptilian body and initially three dragon heads with wicked teeth. The problem is that if you cut off a head, two new ones sprout in its place. Its eyes are cold, green, and devoid of humanity or feeling. (p260)

A flower with five white petals. Thin green veins lead to a ring of fuzzy stalks with yellow dots on the tips. If a person infected with disease breathes on it, and the proper incantation is used, it will turn brown and withered. (p13)

Once hatched, they rise like an ancient rocket into the sky, with a large explosion at the point of lift-off. (p298)

A Belorussian creature that looks like a middle-aged woman with droopy breasts. It has grimy, tangle hair and the stumps of rotted teeth. It incites people to vagrancy by its very presence. (p30-32)

Naturally peaceful creatures whose magic nourishes the forest, they have a thick, slightly bitter herbal scent. In appearance they have green eyes, a long conical head, long black claws, shaggy hunter green fur that’s actually moss growing from their skin, six legs, and a large mouth with a tongue lined by hundreds of serrated teeth. Their shriek is like a circular saw biting into wood. Their blood is green. When they are killed, their bodies melt into puddles of green from which moss, ferns, and herbs grow. They are preternaturally fast and have an outstanding sense of smell.

Endars live under old oaks in hibernation, absorbing nutrients from the oak. They make rare visits to the surface to lick bark and feed on lichen. When blood is poured under the oak, the endar will absorb it and go mad. Given a target, it won’t stop until the target is dead, and there is no going back from the madness. (p18-25)

It looks like a gaunt old man with a long white beard and twelve stalks on its neck with bulbs at their tips. The bulbs open to produce blinding white light and maybe an explosion of some kind. (p39-40)

They are hyena-sized with badger-like jaws and sharp teeth. Apparently they dig-up graves for some reason. Their blood stinks, and the smell gets stronger during magic. (p1-3)

The scientific name is Nymphaea odorata. It is also called pond lilly and mermaid flower. The Russians call it odolen-trava. It is an all-purpose pestilence against unclean things. The petals are the most potent part of the flower. (p32)

As tall as Champion Heights, at least fifteen stories, the tree has leaves as big as human heads and a length of iron chain large enough to recline on wrapped around its trunk. Its home is on Booyan Island. The oak is a symbol of nature. Creatures of the earth are at its roots: the serpent, the frog, and so on. A raven with a prophetic gift is in the branches. And a black cat possessing infinite knowledge walks along the chain telling stories and fables.

Every seven years the tree produces and acorn. Seven months, seven days and seven hours after the acorn falls, it cracks and the oak manifests at the acorn’s location for seven minutes. Whoever possesses the acorn last before it cracks must ask the cat one question. (p22-23 and p42)

The cat is as big as a horse with long black fur, a beard, the head of a lynx with tufted ears, sharp claws and teeth, and eyes that glow. It possesses infinite knowledge and during the seven minutes in which the World Oak manifests, it will answer one question from the one who possessed the acorn. If no question is asked, it will kill everyone. Nonetheless there is a price to be paid for the answer. (p23 and p42)

A benevolent Slavic god. He is Chernobog’s brother, and they are diametrically opposed. (p246)

It is extremely difficult to kill and has regeneration abilities. It wandered out of Sibley Forest in 2038 and onto the Johnson Ferry Bridge. Mages lured it under the bridge and cast a sleep spell. The troll hibernates during tech, and the spell keeps it asleep during magic. (p50 and p52)

It looks like a medium-sized dog with gray fur and large, feathery wings. (p247)

A malevolent Slavic god, brother to Chernobog, he is the embodiment of everything evil. He is depicted as a man with a black, silver-frosted mustache in black armor, clenching a bloody spear while standing on a pile of bodies with black ants on them and black crows flying overhead. (p91)

Six feet tall at the shoulder, they have sharp bristles rising in a crest along their necks that cut like razor blades. They have humped backs; yellow, twin sets of tusks; and weigh around 2.5 tons. Strong and aggressive, pain only angers them. (p291-292)