Jellyfish
Jellyfish1 are translucent, aquatic creatures consisting of a wide, gelatinous bell trailing several long, poisonous tentacles. They are carnivores, although most types of jellyfish are too small to threaten humanoids.
However, they can potentially become very dangerous when they gather in large swarms, something that is known to occur in spring or as a response to conditions such as increasing ocean temperatures. These jellyfish swarms do not actively seek out larger creatures as prey, but will strike opportunistically when potential targets enter into the nearly invisible swarm. Despite their name, jellyfish are not true fish.2[citation needed]
Giant jellyfish
While most jellyfish only reach small sizes, several varieties are known to reach considerable sizes. Giant jellyfish, unlike their smaller relatives, are often active hunters of humanoid-sized prey. Multiple distinct varieties of giant jellyfish exist, often varying in size and possessing different abilities from one another.3
- Death's head jellyfish are distinguished by their relatively small size compared to other giant jellyfish species, the skull-like pattern on their bells from which their name is derived, and their ability to produce a toxin that causes the facial muscles of those stung by these creatures to tense in a wide-eyed grimace. They are roughly four feet in diameter.4[citation needed]
- Crimson jellyfish2[citation needed]
- Sapphire jellyfish store powerful electrical charges transmitted through their tentacles. Their bells are usually 16 feet in diameter, and their sensory tentacles can trail 32 feet behind these creatures.4[citation needed]
- Vampire jellyfish are blood drinkers who target sailors.3
- Whaler jellyfish are colossal beings who hunt whales and krakens.3
Similar creatures
Multiple creatures similar to jellyfish exist throughout Golarion and the Great Beyond. The components of swimming eye swarms are bizarre, deep-ocean entities resembling jellyfish with an eyeball suspended in their mesoglea, which serves both to generate poison and as a sensory organ.5 Whyrlishes are creatures resembling enormous jellyfish native to the Astral Plane, where they feed on the metaphysical energies of the River of Souls.6 Merlucents are a species of half-human, half-jellyfish aberrations.78
Jellyfish lamp
Certain species of bioluminescent jellyfish are used as light sources when underwater and are generally known as jellyfish lamps.9
On Golarion
Whaler jellyfish are among the predators drawn to the Antarkos Ocean by the abundant fish and krill found there.10
Tiny inch-wide jellyfish live within the Obari Ice Forest at the bottom of the Obari Ocean.11
In the Great Beyond
The Plane of Water is home to diminutive bathysphere jellyfish, which can produce breathable air within their bells and are occasionally used as naturally-occurring breathing devices by air-breathing visitors to the plane.12 Additionally, a kelp forest within the plane is home to the Lion's Mouth, a sapient jellyfish-like entity composed of billions of perceptive organs.13
References
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ Singular and plural are the same.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 . “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary 2, 170. Paizo Inc., 2010
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 . “Monsters A-Z” in Bestiary 2, 152. Paizo Inc., 2020
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 . “Monsters A to Z” in Bestiary 3, 155. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ . “Bestiary” in In Search of Sanity, 87. Paizo Inc., 2016
- ↑ . “Chapter 4: Bestiary” in Planar Adventures, 248. Paizo Inc., 2018
- ↑ . “Bestiary” in Wrath of Thrune, 90–91. Paizo Inc., 2016
- ↑ . “Okaiyo Ocean” in Aquatic Adventures, 22. Paizo Inc., 2017
- ↑ . “High Seas” in World Guide, 68. Paizo Inc., 2019
- ↑ . “Antarkos Ocean” in Aquatic Adventures, 4–7. Paizo Inc., 2017
- ↑ . “Obari Ocean” in Aquatic Adventures, 18. Paizo Inc., 2017
- ↑ . “Bestiary” in Planes of Power, 58. Paizo Inc., 2016
- ↑ . “Plane of Water” in Planes of Power, 45. Paizo Inc., 2016
External links
- Jellyfish (real-world animal) on Wikipedia