Tashtari Laser Wolves (Stars Beyond)
Laser wolves is just straight up a great sci-fi name for an animal, made all the better by the fact they can actually shoot lasers at you. Tashtari may be beasts, but it's best not to underestimate them - they are smarter than some humanoids and communicate through a unique bioluminescent language. So yeah, one more thing on Castrovel that is smart and will kill you in unexpected ways.
There's no immediate planar connection for tashtari canonically, but there's some easy ones to draw. Nirvana’s petitioners take the forms of animals and beasts. Tashtari are surely found on Elysium, especially in the Amaranthine Forest, since it is the realm of Ketephys. While the Hunter's favoured animal is a hawk, he is also associated with hunting dogs. That canine connection could very well be associated with tashtari on Castrovel instead. Finally, tashtaris are resistant to fire damage, so the Planes of Fire won't be a comfortable location for them, but they can weather its heat better than other mortal beasts.
Wolves are popular symbols for a reason and I wouldn't expect tashtari to be any less widespread on Castrovel. Lean into that to lend recognizable but distinct flavour to the world with laser wolves as heraldic beasts. Don't forget to get weird either. Perhaps a lycanthrope variant on Castrovel turns its victims into tashtari during solar storms or auroras? Tashtari are smart and lashunta are psychic - can laser wolves develop occult powers to compliment their dazzling abilities? Do hound archons associated with Castrovel take on the appearances and abilities of laser wolves? Or do they just specialize in laser-based firearms? There's lots of fun to be had here and I'm sure you can come up with some wild ideas I haven't even considered yet.
When elves isolated themselves after the Gap, some communities took this farther than others, cutting themselves off from everyone including other elves. These reclusive communities have become hotspots for strange new religious movements and corporate research experiments. The hamlet of Tashtari's Howl is one such location, where elves and aiuvarins revere tashtari spirits as their ancestors. While this practice is uncommon on Castrovel, it isn't unheard of, but the citizens of the Howl take it a step further by ritually exposing themselves to wolves' radiation. After centuries of isolation, many of the elves has begun displaying strange phospholuminescent mutations reminiscent of their totemic patrons. Strangely enough, the local tashtari have also changed. Some grow to abnormal size, while others burrow underground, metastasizing into glowing flesh pits that extrude towering capillaries to collect the sun's light.
The CBO of Akasna Tech believes he is being haunted by a gigantic ghostly tashtari. No one else has seen the beast, but he insists that it is real and vindictive. Akasana has had a number of setbacks lately, usually involving property torn to shred by tooth and claw. Is a rival undermining Aksana or is someone within the corporation making clever use of drones to open up space for their promotion? Or worse yet, is the undead beast real, hunting down Akasana executives for their role in Castrovel's ecological and cultural degradation?
Laser wolves are often mistaken for swamp gas at a distance — or will-’o-wisps. Devotees of the Lantern King recruit both into their fey bands, using their lights to distract, prank, and mislead the unwitting. Unfortunately, covens dedicated to Nhimbaloth utilize the same practice to much more malicious ends, which makes meeting a pack of wisps and wolves in the Drift a dicy prospect at best.
