A is for Acephali, B is for Blemmyes

Acephali are a legendary race of people who were reported by various dead old naturalists as having no head. The Greeks claimed that these people lived in Libya. In some respects they resemble the Blemmyae that Pliny talked about, but there are also some actual specimens of actual acephalic types. The term has also been used in the past to refer to those without any lands, or to those groups that lacked a leader, being in effect 'headless.' It's an interesting term. It brings to mind several intriguing options that we shall explore below, and elsewhere.

Some links regarding Acephali

• Wikipedia on Acephali
• Muses' Realm on the Acephali from Mythology
• The Encyclopedia Mythica at Pantheon on Acephali
• Wiktionary on Acephali -- this one is a little more helpful in sorting out the various sub-types
• Freedictionary on Acephali -- but hey, it's free, right?
• The Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent site: very helpful on the ecclesiastical end of things
• Theoi.com really puts it all together nicely--the Acephali and the Blemmyes--they're essentially the same critter, historically, legendarily, but not necessarily for our nefarious purposes...and they add the Sternopthalmoi to the mix. More monsters are always cool, right?

So the Acephali are also the Blemmyes, at least in terms of the root legends.

Some links regarding Blemmyes

• Wikipedia on Blemmyes
• Freedictionary has a bit more to offer us on Blemmyes
• Wiktionary wants an entry, maybe some other time
• Encyclopedia Mythica on Blemmyes. A whole sentence. Wow.
• We have no Blemmyes at Muses' Realm, but they do have loads of other mythical creatures

There is a nice Monstrous Races or Fantastic Tribes group at Flikr that shows off a bunch of old Acephali and Blemmyes images from a variety of sources. It beats trying to track down medieval manuscript illustrations one at a time. Really.

So looking over these various links, a few books that we have on hand and after a trip to the local library, here is a quick-list of monsters we're going to stat-up for Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, Humanspace Monkeyspace Empires and possibly some other systems:

Acephali

• Acephali for Labyrinth Lord  Two Sub-Types of Acephali at Zalchis
• Acephali for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• Acephali as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Blemmyes

• Blemmyes for Labyrinth Lord
• Blemmyes for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• Blemmyae as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Pseudo-Acephali

• Pseudo-Acephali for Labyrinth Lord
• Pseudo-Acephali for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• 'Removable Head' as a mutation for Mutant Future: ---

Sternopthalmoi

• Sternopthalmoi for Labyrinth Lord
• Sternopthalmoi for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry
• 'Chest Eyes' as a mutation for Mutant Future:  ---

(We'll leave Anthropophagi, Arimaspsians, and those other As for another post. Though you might want to look at There's Dungeons Down Under for another nifty bit of RPG Anthropophagy from The Arid Coast.)

 We'll update the links here as the other posts go live.