You can find it here if you missed my last Smite article on Chiron.

Today’s article is, again, a combination one for a couple of reasons. First, there is little information for one of them, as is the case in many of the gods and heroes found in Smite. Second, these are groups rather than one particular entity. Both are from very different parts of the world, as one is Greek and the other is Japanese, but both are just as interesting as the other. First, we are going to look at the martichoras, and then we will get the bake kujira whales.

Martichoras is not a deity or specific being, they are a group of a kind of beast in mythologies. The word martichoras is their Persian name, which loosely translates to ‘man-eater,’ whereas the Greeks called them manticores. Though in Smite they are in the Greek pantheon with their Persian name, they can also be found in, obviously, Persian, Indian, and Roman mythologies. Manticores can also be found in Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Percy Jackson and the Olympian books by Rick Riordan, as well as the Harry Potter book series. Of course, there is more, but these are some of their recent depictions/writings.

Manticores are mighty, ferocious, and unstoppable. They are overpowered animals, much like the Death Knight in World of Warcraft before they got nerfed. They have the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion, though sometimes the end of the tail is spiny like a porcupine instead of a stinger, and both are venomous. The tail shoots the spines, in either form described, and every hit kills. They have three rows of razor-sharp teeth in their mouth to eat their victims, leaving no bones behind. Pliny the Elder also describes them as having blue eyes and red bodies. There are artistic renderings with their body as blue. Some depictions show them having wings.

Source SMITE

Manticores have been featured in medieval bestiaries and heralds, as well as coats of arms. All three fell out of favor at that time because of their association with evil. I mean, of course, a man hunting and devouring a monster would be classified as evil. I certainly wouldn’t see it as a good being like a unicorn. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how a manticore is made. I don’t know if copulation with a human involved or if it started with a curse like I can with the minotaur of Crete. I am guessing they were something that was made like a lion. They mated with each other.

Next, we are going to look at the bake kujira, translated to ghost whale, of Japanese myth. They are also known as the hone kujira, which translates to bone whale. These are whales that have been killed and have come back to cause misfortune and death to those who killed them. The stories mostly took place in western Japan. Unfortunately, there is significantly less information about the bake kujira than about the manticores.

The bake kujira are depicted as ghostly white with exposed bones. They are often seen with weird fish and birds accompanying them. They are the size of the whales they once were, though a few had the fishtail storytelling going on and claimed they were even bigger. They bring with them plagues and fire to get their justice. In some cases, they don’t just target the fishermen who killed them but anyone who eats the meat. Bake Kujira can still be found in the media today, usually in movies, anime, and manga. There are even toys and figurines of them today.

Unfortunately, that is about it. The information I am finding does a lot of repeating. Have you played Marticoras or Bake Kujira? How is their gameplay? What do you think of the information I have presented? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!