22 December 2025

Valheim Player Shows Off Real-Life Bestiary

By newsgame

A talented Valheim fan is currently in the process of hand-crafting a real-life, leather-bound bestiary of the game’s creatures, complete with inked illustrations and some flourishes that demonstrate an astonishing attention to detail. The ambitious project adds to the ever-growing list of arts and crafts that Valheim has inspired over the years.

The bestiary is being created by Reddit user Itchy_Mycologist_848, who—despite their username—chose to make something that focuses on Valheim‘s expansive fauna rather than its relatively limited selection of mushrooms and other fungi. They first posted about the project in late November 2025 and have since offered several updates as to their progress.

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Real-Life Valheim Bestiary Is Coming Together Amazingly Well

A month later, the bestiary is coming together amazingly well, with Itchy_Mycologist_848’s updates continuing to draw steady attention from the Valheim community. One thing that has consistently impressed fans is the fact that the book isn’t a mere collection of art prints, but consists of detailed pen-and-ink illustrations. The lettering is just as intricate, with Itchy_Mycologist_848 revealing they based their script on Valheim‘s Runestones while writing in Ukrainian.

This Valheim Bestiary Was Aged with an Undrinkable Black Tea Bath

Beyond its elaborate illustrations and lettering, the bestiary shows a remarkable level of detail in its physical presentation. According to Itchy_Mycologist_848, the pages were stained with a concentrated black tea bath, using approximately 100 grams of tea and 2.5 liters of water. For context, this tea-to-water ratio is about five times stronger than standard brewing methods, producing a liquid with little aroma that’s extremely bitter to drink but dark enough to create an aged appearance. The result is a weathered book that would not look out of place resting on a table in a Valheim longhouse.

The updates shared so far suggest the author began populating the bestiary following a typical Valheim playthrough progression, starting with creatures from the Meadows and Black Forest. In most cases, entries are grouped by biome, though there are exceptions. For instance, the Serpent page does not appear alongside other Ocean biome creatures but is placed between the Black Forest and Swamp sections. This ordering reflects the likely sequence of player encounters, with the Serpent prioritized due to how likely it is to stumble on it after building a ship in search of a Swamp biome, which is a relatively common scenario. The author has so far illustrated multiple in-game animals—boar, deer, and crow—alongside various mythological mobs, including Necks, Surtlings, Draugrs, and Wraiths. The Meadows boss, a towering stag named Eikthyr, is also featured in one of the shared images, with multiple pages and illustrations dedicated to it.

Valheim Bestiary Creator Doesn’t Plan to Sell It, But Does Have a Patreon

Following inquiries from other Valheim fans, Itchy_Mycologist_848 started the Patreon page Trolaf_sketch, where they promised to share more updates about their progress (though they aren’t stopping with Reddit posts). The first of those articles, published in early December 2025, details some of the pages dedicated to the Meadows biome. It also includes a project status update, with the author stating that they had finished drawing the Swamp biome and were in the process of sketching illustrations for the Mountain fauna at the time. Their Patreon page has half a dozen paying subscribers as of December 21. In a separate update, the creator recently expressed appreciation for the community’s support but said they currently have no plans to sell the book, which began as a personal project that’s still nowhere near completion.

Itchy_Mycologist_848’s Valheim Bestiary Can’t Be Completed Until 2026 at the Earliest

Even if Itchy_Mycologist_848 were already done documenting Valheim’s extensive fauna by hand, their bestiary would remain incomplete. Developer Iron Gate Studios has yet to finish the game, with one more biome—the Deep North—still in development. The upcoming content drop will introduce several new beasts in need of documentation, including animals like seals and enemy mobs, such as the rather unfriendly-looking bipedal horned creatures called Elakings. According to the studio’s latest comments, the Deep North biome is scheduled to be added in Valheim‘s 1.0 update, expected sometime in 2026. Next year is also when the hit Viking survival game is planned to finally launch on the PlayStation 5, with porting support from German developer Fishlabs, which previously handled the Xbox version.