Chinese mythology merely fantastic types of the bestiary sort. Sometimes the dragon is considered part of this category, related to it, or the ruler of all the swimming and crawling folk. This may include the giant marine turtle or tortoise Ao, the Bashe snake reputed to swallow elephants, a nine-headed snake monster reminiscent of the hydra known as Xiangliu, and the White Serpent from the novel "Legend of the White Snake". Various birds are found in Chinese mythology, some of them obviously based on real birds, other ones obviously not, and some in-between. The Crane is an example of a real type
Monster Mythology in length (half page), though some take up two columns (full page). Each entry includes one or more paragraphs of descriptive text to indicate what sort of deity it is, followed by a brief statistics line (describing the deity's alignment, the most common alignment of its worshippers, the god's area of control, and a description of the god's symbol). Each section also describes the god's avatar and priesthood, as noted in the Introduction. The following beings are detailed in "Monster Mythology": Gods of the Elves Gods of the Dwarves Gods of the Gnomes Gods of the Halflings Gods of the