Question about Moon Beasts

[Gray Raven]

Although Moon Beasts are mainly encountered in the Dreamlands, the fifth edition of that sourcebook fails to give a detailed description of them.  

"The moonbeasts are an alien racing inhabiting the Dreamlands’ moon. They serve Nyarlathotep for his favor and enslave other races. They ride great black galleys through the Dreamlands skies. Many of their soldiers are members of various slave races. The moonbeasts have particularly strong ties with the cats of Saturn and the men of Leng. See Call of
Cthulhu for a complete description." From Fifth Edition of Dreamlands, 2004, pg. 114.  

It seems a bit odd that these creatures native to Dreamland and Dreamland's moon are not fully described in the Dreamland text. It would seem a simple thing to repeat the section from the C of C text within the Dreamland text.  These creatures are also left out of Malleus Monstrorum: Cthulhu Mythos Beastiary, V. I, Monsters of the Mythos by Mike Mason, Scott David Aniolowski, Loïc Muzy, and Paul Fricker, 2020 edition.  

My S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters: A Field Observer's Handbook of Preternatural Entities, 1988 edition; does describe the Moon Beasts on page 44.

"Typically, this is a large, grayish-white oily being which can contract and expand its body volume.  A Moon-Beast's general shape is toad-like.  Though it lacks visible sense organs other than a quivering cluster of short, usually pinkish tentacles on the tip of the snout, the creature's high intelligence and utter ruthlessness compensate for the handicap."

If I read Prof. Petersen's text correctly, he is stating that these creatures are intelligent, and those curious tentacles are perhaps sense organs.  However, he is not clear that this is what they are.  Now, the Moon Beasts are not only intelligent but capable of great craft and artistic and architectural feats, such as building their cities on the Moon and crafting a huge idol in the Temple of Mnomquah.

"TEMPLE OF MNOMQUAH: Near the Crater of Mnomquah, on a low hill, the moonbeasts have erected a huge idol of their god. Within the hill itself lies their temple."  From Fifth Edition of Dreamlands, pg. 79.

This, to me, at least implies these creatures must indeed have sense organs to enable them to craft and build such structures, as well as presumably the Black Galleon fleet.  Now, of course, Moon Beasts had eventually enslaved the Lengites from Dreamland and do, in fact, not only eat them but use them as slave labor.  But I presume, and here I am asking for input and clarification, that the Moon Beasts built their cities and temples on their own prior to enslaving the Lengites.  Or am I mistaken?

My specific question is: Do Moon Beasts have sense organs?  Are those tentacles coming from their snout, in fact, those sense organs?  What can they sense?  Some part of the electromagnetic spectrum?  Sound waves?  Or????  I think knowing how they sense things will determine the nature of an encounter with them by characters in the games and in stories. Can anyone find sources that offer clues to this question?

 

 

[Gray Raven]

Now, on page 27 of the Fifth Edition of Dreamlands, it states: "Eons ago they came to Earth’s Dreamlands and subjugated the men of Leng. At first they only used these pitiful creatures for food and slave labor in the ruby mines of the moon."

First implication: The so-called Moon Beasts are not native to Dreamland and the Moon?  "Eons ago they came" there.  Presumably on those Black Galleons that can sail the seas and the interstellar oceans, since it does travel from Dreamland to the Moon.

Second Implication: As soon as they arrived there, they subjugated the men of Leng.  

How did the Moon Beasts travel from their point of origin to the Earth's Dreamland?

On page 44 of the Fifth Edition of Dreamlands, it states: "At first the moonbeasts used the men from Leng for nothing more than food, but as man spread across the face of the Dreamlands, they began to find other uses for their slaves."

First implication: This seems to mean that the Lengites were a food source in the beginning.  Does that mean the Moon Beasts built their own cities and temples, and only "as man spread across the face of the Dreamlands" did the Moon Beasts finally get around to enslaving the Lengites for labor?

On page 60 of the Fifth Edition of Dreamlands, it states: "The moonbeasts are skilled in the arts of torture and can keep a victim alive for many months while he or she endures the tender mercies of the captors."

First implication: If they have such skill, does this not mean that they can sense the torment they are inflicting on their victims?

 

On page 148 of the Fifth edition of Dreamlands, it states: "THE BOOK OF BLACK STONES: in Moonbeast, by unknown moonbeast authors. A series of plates of black stone, laced together with thick wire to form a sort of book. The book is inscribed in a series of strange hieroglyph-like symbols which are the language of the moonbeasts."

First Implication: If the Moon Beasts have a written text conveyed in symbols, that means that they must be able to sense them.  Do they have sight, or is it more like a form of braille?

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Gray Raven