#Tiddalik

[briefbestiary]

A small frog who acted upon a large and greedy desire. Tiddalik's guzzling of all water was an issue to everyone, and thus everyone had to come together to deal with the result of his unchecked drink.

[thecreaturecodex]

Tiddalik

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[The three themes I'm working with in April are PF2e conversions, wrapping up the World Tour of Oceania, and starting on commissions. This is all three! Commissioned by @vonbaghager. Tiddalik the Greedy Frog is one of the Australian Aboriginal monsters with the highest profile among Westerners, being the subject of children's books, children's plays and an episode of the PBS show Super Why! (sort of a superhero-themed Reading Rainbow analogue). Notably, this behavior is at least thematically consistent with real frogs. The water-storing frog estivates underground during the dry season in a mucus cocoon filled with water, sort of like a lungfish. ]

Tiddalik CR 7 NE Magical Beast This creature is a frog the size of a wagon, its body grossly swollen. You can hear the faint sloshing of water inside it as it moves and speaks.

Tiddaliks are monstrous frogs native to desert climes that survive the long period between rains by absorbing water like a living sponge. Unfortunately, they are peevish and cruel, and move from place to place absorbing as much water as they can, even if they don’t need it, simply for the joy of depriving others. In the desert, tiddaliks are seen as physical embodiments of selfishness and greed, and many tales and legends have sprung up around them. Some of them are even true—the idea that a tiddalik can be tricked into expelling its water with a hearty belly laugh is one of them. Unfortunately, tiddaliks are most easily amused by suffering.

A tiddalik rarely starts fights on their own—although they are carnivorous, they prefer to eat things that can’t fight back, sniping small game with blasts of pressurized water. These jets are also used as a defensive weapon until enemies get close enough that the tiddalik can grab them in its jaws and crush them. Few tiddaliks will bother to chase down fleeing enemies, but likewise they are often too stubborn to flee or surrender themselves.

A tiddalik is about ten feet in diameter. They weigh over twenty tons when waterlogged, and about one ton when empty.

Tiddalik  CR 7 XP 3,200 NE Huge magical beast (amphibious) Init +2; Senses low-light vision, Perception +13 Defense AC 19, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +9 natural) hp 92 (8d10+54) Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +6 Weakness mirthful Offense Speed 10 ft., swim 10 ft. Melee bite +12 (1d10+9 plus grab) Ranged spit +8 (2d6+6 bludgeoning) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks disgorge, expel wave Statistics Str 23, Dex 15, Con 23, Int 6, Wis18, Cha 10 Base Atk +8; CMB +16 (+20 grapple); CMD 28 (32 vs. trip) Feats Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Survival), Vital Strike Skills Acrobatics +7 (-1 when jumping), Climb +10,Perception +13, Survival +9, Swim +18; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics when jumping, +4 Perception Languages Common SQ amphibious, drink abundance Ecology Environment warm deserts Organization solitary or pair Treasure incidental Special Abilities Disgorge (Ex) A tiddalik can release the water in its body willingly as a full round action, and the water is released automatically when the creature is slain. When the tiddalik releases water, it bursts in a 10 foot radius, dealing 8d6 points of bludgeoning damage to all creatures in the area (Ref DC 20 half). This water makes that 10 foot radius difficult terrain. The save DC is Constitution based. Drink Abundance (Ex) By spending 8 hours, a tiddalik can drink 5000 gallons of water. When it does so, it is considered to be waterlogged, which reduces its speed by 20 feet, but it can use its spit attack and disgorge and expel wave abilities. The statistics above assume that the tiddalik is waterlogged. Expel Wave (Ex) As a standard action, a tiddalik can shoot high pressure water in a 60 foot cone. All creatures in the area take 4d6 points of damage and are pushed back 10 feet. A successful DC 20 Reflex save halves the damage and negates the push effect. The save DC is Constitution based. A tiddalik can use this ability once every 1d4 rounds, but only when it is waterlogged. Mirthful (Ex) A tiddalik can be forced to use its disgorge ability with a Perform (comedy) check against a DC of 20 + the tiddalik’s Will save modifier. Spit (Ex) As a standard action, a tiddalik can spit out a jet of water. Treat this as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 30 feet. A creature struck takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage plus the tiddalik’s Strength bonus.

[cyallowitz]

Monster Month: Tiddalik

Google Image Search The Tiddalik comes from Australian mythology and is connected to a popular creation myth.  Specifically, this creature comes from the Australian Indigenous Dreaming Stories, which some people call ‘Dreamtime’.  To be honest, I couldn’t figure out if some of these terms were correct or born from brutal colonization.  That’s not what this post is about, so let’s get to the…

[bayofwolves]

i have to say, the fact that spirit animals borrowed multiple real-life dreamtime stories to use in stetriol's mythology but never once showed an aboriginal stetriolan character is just disrespectful.

[secretswiftymarvelfan]

My mum has been sorting through all her files and it turns out I’ve been writing for much much longer than I realised 😂

[godsofhumanity]

100% real experiences that i have definitely experienced 😎

theseus | horus | loki | gilgamesh | quetzalcoatl | izanagi | veles | momotaro* | tiddalik | anansi

*stupid tumblr won’t let me link the story. but luckily google exists for everyone 🤩

[isitfurbait]

Tiddalik the Frog

Posts that make you perform actual research for your furrybait blog where you're expected to say yes or no.

Though not expressly a trickster god, being neither, this classification of anthropomorphized animal creates a sense of wonder in the realm of storytelling in general. For those who won't follow me to wikipedia, Tiddalick is known in Aboriginal Australian culture as a frog that became so thirsty, he drinks all the water of the land, leading other creatures to death. When he returns it, in some cases, the water replenishes the earth, and in others, he causes terrible flooding. How this pertains to furrybait, I do not know outside of its anthropomorphization of an animal. Intellectually, I'm fascinated in this route of considering any animal as a stand-in for real-world issues that affect humans as furry, but in this case, I'll have to respectfully decline this characterization. If I were to disrespect the concepts of the everynow, I would say "oh yeah, because of the water inflation thing," but I'm not that insensitive. I'm just a guy making furry posts, though, so what do I know?

[db618]

My amazing friend @chelledoggo has graciously made me my very own “Figmentsona”!

I call him Wanbi (pronounced “one-bee”)! Read more about him under the cut!

(yes, i will colour this in later)

In a time before time was a concept, before electricity or even paper, there was The Dreaming. Aboriginal Australians believed that the creatures and beings from the Dreaming, or Dreamtime, were what shaped the earth they lived on, and provided its resources, natural gifts and even states of mind. Even after the British colonisation of Australia, Dreamtime stories such as those of the Rainbow Serpent and Tiddalik the Frog were passed down through word of mouth by the Aboriginal people, later gaining traction through written word and more modern forms of communication. However, among the many well-known ones in modern Australian society, one is more obscure. The tale of Wanbi (pronounced “one-bee”), a hybrid of a waruga (a water dragon) and a warrigal (dingo), with the wings of a banguu (bat), and floppy, buru (kangaroo)-like ears. Just as the aforementioned Rainbow Serpent gave the earth life, Wanbi gave the earth the gift of imagination, and became the guardian spirit of the Eora and Dharawal nations (what is now commonly known as Sydney and its surrounding areas). An optimistic, kindhearted and happy creature, the spirit of Wanbi has guided the indigenous people of Australia through challenges and troubles, with the power of both his and their imaginations providing the people with ideas and enriching their culture. In recent years, Wanbi has become close friends with Figment, and his creator Blairion “Blair” Mercurial, the Dreamfinder, sharing tales of their many experiences across history, and with Wanbi enlightening both Blair and Figment to tales of imagination that both had never heard of before.

[birchshutter]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

I got tagged by @omishu

Were you named after anyone?

My great-great-grandfather, my middle names comes from family-members as well. An aount of mine told me that if one of har kids would've been born a boy, she'd would've been given the name. She was instead given another family name.

When was the last time you cried?

Last week

Do you have kids?

Nah.

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not really.

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Maybe their demeanour?

What’s your eye color?

greyish-blueish-greeenish

Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings

Any special talents?

I have no idea... Finding information?

Where were you born?

Somewhere.

What are your hobbies?

Video games.

Have any pets?

A cat that lives with my parents.

What sports do you play/have you played?

Football, judo and badminton in that order.

How tall are you?

About 180.

Favorite subject in school?

History

Dream job?

I have never before had one, but I think research librarian.

I’m gonna tag some peeps just for fun, but you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Go check these out.

@beka-tiddalik, @amaltheametalweld, @quietnaturesworld, @notsureifyoureablogoragirl, @apptowonder, @belawyn, @wvnjo, @la7eralus

[aicollider]

Deities of Australian Aboriginal Mythology discuss The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas)

The Book Club of Australian Aboriginal Deities Characters: 1. Rainbow Serpent – The creator of the world and the source of life. 2. Baiame – The sky father and the guardian of laws and traditions. 3. Dreamtime – The embodiment of the Aboriginal creation mythology. 4. Yhi – The goddess of light and the bringer of warmth. 5. Wandjina – The rain and cloud spirits. 6. Tiddalik – The mischievous water…

[vtgbooks]

Barbara Ker Wilson TIDDALIK The Frog Book 1986 Vintage Aboriginal Book A4

[bayofwolves]

Rereading Against the Tide

After two months... we're so back.

Apologies once again for the impromptu hiatus! I'm excited to get back to these rereads. It's been a while, so I'll explain the purpose of these posts again: This is not a full analysis, but rather a compilation of details I find interesting or missed when I was a younger reader. I'm rereading the whole series to gather information for A Revised History of Erdas, so there may be some commentary from time to time on how I plan to change or expand on certain plot points.

Let's find out what horrors are in store for our heroes this time!

Finally, Abeke gets her own cover! My girl!! They change how Uraza looks on every cover, but I like how she looks here. I especially love the purple wisps coming from her; how cool would it be if that happened every time your spirit animal appeared out of passive state?

Erdas has the Fahrenheit scale, apparently. Well, that's gotta go. The top of Muttering Rock is about 200 degrees, or 93 degrees Celsius -- leagues hotter than anything ever recorded on Earth.

I forgot how horrifying this opening chapter was. Gerathon pushing a little boy's body past its limits just to deliver a message to Kovo... awful.

Abeke seems to have scar tissue pain, possibly due to nerve damage, from the stab wound Tahlia dealt her in Fire and Ice. She mentions that even though it has mostly healed, she still experiences pain there, particularly in colder weather. If only this hadn't been forgotten by the next book -- it would have been super interesting, in my opinion, to see one of our protagonists deal with lasting effects from an injury they received.

Meilin referring to Shane as Abeke's "Conqueror boyfriend" has been occupying space in my head since 2015. We should have had more of this energy. (I need to have one of the Conquerors or Redcloaks call Abeke Shane's Greencloak girlfriend in return. Drina most definitely would.)

Kalani and her people share similarities with the Māori of Earth. They have the same tattoos and concept of tapu.

Tangaroa is the name of the Māori atua (god) of the sea. I love finding little references to the Earth culture a region of Erdas was inspired by. They did the same with Tiddalik, Tahlia's water-holding frog, who shares a name with the real-life Australian legend he is based on.

I wish Abeke had gotten the chance to see Leopard, the baby orangutan, again. They were so sweet. Also, the authors should have kept this habit she has of rescuing baby animals going for longer. Picture this: She encounters something a little more deadly this time. Dotes on it for a bit and nurses it back to health or helps it find its way back to its family. It remembers how Abeke helped it, and in her hour of need comes to her rescue.

At least there's a cleansing ceremony (this presumably refers to noa) to rid someone of tapu. Now why didn't the authors have Kalani do this for Rollan in The Evertree instead of having her go against her beliefs for his sake? Man... I should have been in the writers' room.

"This quest is leaving a lot of burned bridges in our wake. I fear we, and perhaps all Greencloaks by extension, will no longer be so welcome afterward in places like this." YES! Finally, someone considers the consequences of their actions. It's back to "the ends justify the means" in the next paragraph, but at least there was this fleeting moment of realization.

Nightshade Island was wiped from the world maps after the First Devourer War, along with Stetriol. I wonder if there were other places associated with the Conquerors and/or Kovo and Gerathon that were deemed "tainted" and erased from the history books. This also prompts a nitpick from me -- I wish the maps shown at the beginning of each book were more tailored to the book/arc. They added the Evertree and the Petral Mountain range in the second arc, which is great, but I want a whole lot more of that detail. In the first arc, the map could have had Stetriol missing from it. We could have had its first appearance on Immortal Guardians's map, once the Greencloaks could deny their existence no longer. Other important locations deserved to be on there too, maybe being added book by book. Glengavin. The Lake of the Elephant. Samis (perhaps disappearing without further comment after Fire and Ice). Cabaro's oasis. Muttering Rock. Zourtzi. The Place of Desolation. The list goes on. They all deserved to be put on the maps! I rest my case!

Meilin casually saying "I can still control Jhi" sent a shiver down my spine. It's so out of place. Like, how can she have spent so much time with the Greencloaks and still be so fundamentally wrong about the spirit animal bond?

So Timote was the heir to the Hundred Isles before the Conquerors captured him. And knowing how male-dominated monarchies work, the other brother, Piri, would likely have taken the throne before Kalani even if he is younger than her. The Conquerors knew what they were doing by killing the previous rulers and taking their two male children hostage. They wanted to leave the Hundred Islanders leaderless. To totally incapacitate them. I bet they were in for a shock when Kalani proved her capability as queen.

Feliandor is wearing a red cloak in Rollan's vision. Most certainly a throwaway detail, but it didn't stop me from sitting up and pointing at the page when I read it.

Rollan sees something vaguely familiar in Feliandor's face, and we have to wait an entire book before learning that he must have been reminded of Shane, his descendant. Seriously, the foreshadowing for multiple big events in the first arc is really well done. I love discovering all the little hints pointing towards Shane being the true Devourer, or Meilin being the mole. This is one thing the many authors successfully worked together on.

While the vision on Nightshade Island is one of my favourite parts of the book, something bugs me about it. Why did only Rollan have this vision? Despite Tarik and Meilin being right beside him as it happened, neither of them saw what he did. It would have been a lot better if they all had the same vision at once. If the echoes of what happened on that island centuries earlier still linger, shouldn't they appear to anyone who visits? Why would it only be one person out of three?

Peleke, the Komodo dragon, poses a brief threat to Abeke, Conor and Kalani on Sunlight Island. Except... his species should go by a different name in this world. Komodo dragons were named as such because they originate from Komodo Island on planet Earth. This is such an easy fix. Just name any one of the Hundred Isles and have the species come from there.

Abeke instinctively knows how to ride Uraza, despite it being her first time doing so. Was she Tembo in another life? Kidding. She is his direct descendant in ARHoE, though.

God, the scene with Tarik saying goodbye to the Four and begging them to come back to him haunts me. Tarik will never see Abeke or Meilin again, and he will die not knowing if they are alive or dead. He will die believing that he failed them.

I'm really glad to see some development of Tarik here. For all his appearances and importance to our protagonists, he is quite a flat character. But here, we get a good look into his headspace. He loves the Four deeply, like a father should love his children. He doesn't want them to go where he can't protect them. He wonders if the Greencloaks are doing the right thing by sending such young people into battles they might not return from, still thinking about what Barlow said all the way back in Wild Born. I need to see more of this Tarik.

"[Rollan] wondered if he and his friends would survive long enough to see a day when they could just enjoy a place like this -- the sunshine, swimming with seals, the warm water." As soon as the war was over, the Four definitely came back to Oceanus and had a beach day. They deserve a vacation after all of this, and I'm positive they took many of them. It'll be fun to figure out what they all got up to in the year between arcs for ARHoE.

I've talked about this before, but I love all the moments that suggest the Four Fallen will one day return to their old forms. I don't believe this would happen in their human partners' lifetimes, but in any case, it would be cool to see it come to pass.

Despite both Mulop and Briggan being visionary Great Beasts, neither of them foresaw Kovo using Feliandor to start a war. How convenient for him.

Abeke is able to spot Shane in the mass of Conquerors by his blond hair, which makes me wonder: What if blond people were considered a rarity in Erdas? What if golden hair was a trait exclusive to Stetriol, and most of the world had never seen it before? That would be kind of fun. (Yes, I know there's Conor, but he's more of a redhead in ARHoE.)

"Not far below her, Uraza was grappling with a huge doglike creature that Abeke thought might be a dingo." I know it's mentioned a few paragraphs later that Tarik used books to teach her about animals that were foreign to her (which is really cute), but dingoes are native to Stetriol, which the Greencloaks effectively erased from existence. There are probably no encyclopedias still in circulation that include Stetriolan flora or fauna. My headcanon is that Shane told Abeke about the animals that are native to his homeland, and that's how she knows about dingoes.

"She drew her bow back and aimed, trying to ignore her thudding heart. The man stood on an outcropping, shouting orders at the fighters scrambling up behind him. Her sharp arrow tip was pointed directly down at Zerif's heart." The way this scene directly parallels Abeke's attempt to shoot infected Zerif in The Burning Tide... wow. Ignoring canon and thinking of ARHoE where she does kill him in the end, this was written in the stars. It is her destiny.

"Stabbing, scratching pain seared through her, but she gained control of one hand --" So resisting Gerathon's mind control can cause physical pain. Interesting.

I know Rollan was kind of forced to leave Meilin, but couldn't he have swooped in on Great Essix and carried Abeke out of there AT LEAST? Not even Meilin can fight a giant gyrfalcon.

Gerathon is not any good at controlling people, damn. Maybe she's rusty after so many years.

This was a great read, as they all are. It was a nice refresher after Fire and Ice, with all the callbacks to what our heroes had faced in the previous books. Seriously, Fire and Ice was a mess in terms of continuity. But Tui understood the assignment. My favourite parts of this one were the beautiful butch lesbian that is Kalani, Abeke becoming mom to another baby animal and riding Great Uraza Tembo-style, the Feliandor vision and Mulop, ever a delight to read. I really enjoyed the people and culture of Oceanus; so excited for Kalani to reappear in the coming books. And, of course, the reveal of Meilin being the mole all along was utterly perfect. The amount of thought and planning that went into this decision, the layers of foreshadowing building up to this horrible truth... it deserves all the praise.

We're at the lowest point we've ever been, and it's about to get even lower.

This is part of an ongoing series.

Wild Born | Hunted | Blood Ties | Fire and Ice | Against the Tide | Rise and Fall | The Evertree

Immortal Guardians | Broken Ground | The Return | The Burning Tide

Heart of the Land | The Wildcat's Claw | Stormspeaker | The Dragon's Eye

Tales of the Great Beasts | The Book of Shane | Tales of the Fallen Beasts

[vagevurig]

ART FIGHT 2020

Venti for memyflaps Lily for KylakittycatOwO Sophia for Just_Peachy Surrih Gemsci for @rainflowdraws Adriel for ArchBallist Valorie for Post_M0rdem Elo Tiddalik for @xmooncanary Dusk for HopesSilverLight

I am taking commissions! Check my pinned post.

[lpbestiary]

Tiddalik is a monstrous frog from Australian Aboriginal legend. A famous tale tells of how Tiddalik awoke one morning with a great thirst, and proceeded to drink up all of the fresh water nearby. The other animals, dying of thirst, conspired against the frog, and made him laugh until the water spilled back out of him, replenishing the lakes, rivers and swamps.

Tiddalik is an important figure in Dreamtime legend. There is a statue of him in Warwick, Queensland, and several stories about him have been published.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[cryptids-of-the-world]

The Tiddalik is described as a large frog found in Aboriginal mythology in Australia. The Tiddalik is described as a large frog usually green in color with a large belly from drinking a lot of water. The legend of the Tiddalik is that a frog named Tiddalik drank all of the water from the lakes and all the wildlife and plants started to die so an owl came up with a plan to get the water back. An eel  named Nabunum twisted himself into different shapes which caused Tiddalik to laugh and release all the water it drank.