Bogyn's Nastiness Rating: 36 (Really Very Nasty Indeed)
Creature Families: Bestial, Magimal
A creature originally created by A. E. van Vogt for his novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle. When Vogt wrote a novella set in the Elemenstor universe in 1989, he added a Coeurl as one of the main characters, implying that Battal may have been the planet it originated from in the original short story. Coeurls are large feline creatures with a pair of black tentacles protruding from their backs. They feed on the potassium in the brains of humans, but support this diet with a steady supply of shellfish and other small aquatic creatures they fish out of shallow water with their tentacles. It can breathe in almost any condition including on land and underwater and can sense via electricity, as well as deliver painful electric shocks from it's body. Most Coeurls are orange or yellow with black spots, but a significant minority are colored pure black.
After the Coeurls appeared in The Book of Time and Space, every other fantasy and science fiction franchise added them to the ranks of their bestiaries as well, despite the dubious copyright aspects of doing so. There are rumors they even made an appearance in one of the Harry Potter books. While undeniably cool, the Coeurl is generally a symbol of how speculative fiction authors have no shame at all.