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Tatzelwurms in The Blood of Dawnwalker
Tatzelwurms are enormous serpentine monsters, roughly the size of a human child, that inhabit Briar Sloughs and Boar’s Back.
Their numbers have continued to increase in recent years, and their habitat has expanded from the marshes into the forests.
They favor tricky fighting tactics, burrowing underground before suddenly leaping at their prey or spitting venom.
Information Revealed Before Release
Official information confirmed that Tatzelwurms would appear in the game and that they were inspired by folklore and legends.
However, neither their visual design nor their in-game ecology had been revealed prior to release.
The Tatzelwurm in Folklore
The Tatzelwurm is a crawling creature found in Alpine folklore.
The first part of its name, Tatzel, is said to derive from the Bavarian and Austrian German word Tatze, meaning an animal’s paw or foreleg. Its name can therefore be understood roughly as “a wurm with legs”—a legged serpent or dragon.
Accounts from Switzerland and other parts of the Alps commonly attribute the following characteristics to the creature:
- A long, serpentine body
- Two forelegs
- A habitat among mountains, ravines, and caves
- Numerous alleged sightings and photographs, but no conclusive evidence of its existence
The legend remained sufficiently well known into modern times that a purported photograph of a Tatzelwurm taken in Switzerland appeared in 1934.
Modern monster encyclopedias occasionally describe the creature as having a catlike face. However, this feature does not appear consistently enough across traditional accounts to be considered universal.
In any case, the Tatzelwurm did not originate in the Slavic-speaking world. It belongs primarily to the folklore of the Alps, southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Related Locations
Briar Sloughs
Sources
Community Bulletin Board #7 – Beasts & Monstrosities, Illustrated | Bandai Namco Europe
Tatzelwurm: Spelling, Meaning, Definition, and Origin | Duden
