Some sentient races so rarely interact with human beings as to be known only to true scholars -- or visitors to Night Harbor, where impossible-seeming encounters occur nightly. Legends persist as well, in some societies, about sentient beings of types completely unknown to Black Steel. Some unique cases may indeed exist of individuals bearing no resemblance to any known sentient species, presumably brought into being by sorcery, but fiction and fancy certainly include entities -- sentient and otherwise -- that never have existed, and even that never could. Sometimes, as well, descriptions fail so utterly to convey the thing described that they are worse than useless: Describing merfolk as "half man, half fish" is merely misleading, but this type of description grows ridiculous in (too-numerous) extreme cases. A traveler from the north who sees a horned viper in the Shalasa desert might return and exaggerate it in the telling to "the body of a serpent, the strength of a lion, and the horns of a goat," and it might come in time to be depicted as the most chimerical of mythical beasts, mingling the features of all three of these animals in whatever fashion strikes the artist's fancy, so that the description passed down to future generations bears no relation whatever to the desert snake itself. For this reason, sentient creatures never yet encountered by Black Steel personnel will not be included here unless described with sufficient precision and consistency by reliable witnesses that their existence can be attempted to be believed.
It nevertheless remains possible that sentient species may exist -- perhaps even many of them -- of which Black Steel personnel as yet have no knowledge at all. Though far-reaching, Black Steel's explorations have certainly not taken its people everywhere, nor have they been exhaustive even in those regions -- such as the tangled Grat'han jungles -- into which they have made forays repeatedly. Indeed, there are some sentients with whom Black Steel personnel have communicated personally, particularly in Night Harbor, while learning almost nothing about the true nature of their species:
One wine dealer in Night Harbor, from whom the Rat Pack made a number of purchases, appeared to be one of the legendary beasts known as "Spell Drinkers" -- a many-limbed beast that reputedly sucks in sorcerous power the way humans suck in breath, and uses that power to weave sorceries of its own with its long, gangly three-fingered limbs. The Rat Pack, none of whose members have any sorcerous vision, could neither confirm nor deny the creatures' reputation, but a number of Black Steel members witnessed one apparently making use of its power in performances -- and later, a deadly duel -- with the Shalasian wizard "Magnifico" Mandello, who managed to overcome it and destroy it entirely.
Another denizen of Night Harbor, known to the Rat Pack as Arrow, appeared entirely human, but proved able to change her shape at an instant's notice, even to forms that were not human-like at all. The extent and origins of this ability, her true form, and the nature of such other capabilities as she might possess, were not discovered before she and the Rat Pack parted company.
Berlokh used to have a quiet friendship with a creature he called "Eyes," a small, nocturnal being with large green eyes that seemed to glow, who lived in Shalaton and called himself a Sheltzin. "Eyes" implied that he was part of a community of some size in the city, and that most were highly adept at hiding. He also implied, but did not demonstrate, that at least some Sheltzin -- such as himself -- were capable of wielding sorcery. Berlokh has since lost touch with "Eyes," but Grynne believes at least one Sheltzin now resides in the Scabbard.
Grim, a some-time resident of Night Harbor, has described still stranger creatures who walk its streets, often with gory details about the fates of those who put themselves at such creatures' mercy. Some of these stories might even be true, though even these are no doubt, as Jarvis puts it, "strongly flavored with exaggeration and invention." Anyone who may wish to identify the kernels of truth in these stories -- or indeed which of Grim's stories even harbor a kernel of truth -- is certainly welcome to ask him and try.
