A Taizzan mirage (pronounced tie-ZAHN) is a creature, or a type of creature, found in the remotest parts of the Taizzan Expanse. There is no agreement as to their number - some believe there is only one mirage, and others hold that there are many of them. Regardless, they appear only rarely, revealing themselves to desperate travelers lost on their way through the desert, most often those accompanying merchant caravans along the Golden Path that lost their way. The offer extended by a Taizzan mirage is always the same - to best it in a competition of poetry. Wealth and safe passage out of the desert is the reward should the other party win, and a curse to never find their way out of the Taizzan if they lose.
Descriptions of the Taizzan mirage are consistent. In all accounts, it is an immense creature, perhaps twice the height of a typical human. Though humanoid in form, it possesses nine heads, each of which sits atop a neck long enough that it can lower its heads to the height of a person while remaining upright. It wears clothing of simple pale linen, upon which is written lines of poetry.
The challenges issued by a mirage are devoid of tricks. Should it determine it has been bested in its own competition, it always rewards the participant as promised, and it never coerces any into accepting its offer - all are free to walk away.
Most Amshani consider Taizzan mirages to be a form of demon, though a rare few scholars have proposed that the Taizzan mirage, singular, is amongst the One Hundred Forty Four Hands.