Almas- Mongolian CreatureCreature"Wild Man"
Also known as: Almos, Almast, and Алмас
Description
A stocky, hair-covered humanoid that flees deeper into the Altai and Khentii mountains whenever humans draw near. Mongolian herders spoke of the Almas as they spoke of wolves or bears: a rare, shy creature of the physical world, dangerous when cornered and never fully explained.
Mythology & Lore
The Wild Man of the Mountains
Herders in the Altai and Khentii ranges described the Almas as shorter than a man, covered in reddish-brown hair, with a broad flat face and heavy brow ridges. It spoke no language, only grunts and cries. It built no shelters beyond nests of grass pressed into cave floors and sheltered ravines.
Most encounters followed the same pattern: a herder spotted the creature at a distance, and it fled. It moved on two legs, fast over broken ground, vanishing into valleys where no trail led. But not every meeting ended in retreat. Herders told of Almas raiding food stores at night and confronting shepherds who wandered too deep into remote pastures. Some traditions held that meeting one could cast the evil eye or bring a season of misfortune.
Early Records
The fifteenth-century Bavarian nobleman Hans Schiltberger spent years as a captive in Central Asia. In his account of those years, he recorded what his captors told him: hairy, wild people lived in the mountains, neither human nor animal, avoiding settlements but known to every community near the high passes. Mongolian and Tibetan medical texts listed creatures fitting the Almas among natural animals, not among spirits or demons. Across communities separated by hundreds of miles, from the Altai to the Caucasus, the same creature appeared in the same role: something seen, something never quite explained.