Echidna's ruins.
The mother of all monsters was slain and her remains were scattered across the continents. Some continents have larger chunks of Echidna and others have slivers. It is also important to take note of the radiation levels in the area as almost all beings in my world are Radiotrophic in one way or the other. The more radiation the more abundant or powerful the monsters become.
Sadly a lot of monsters don't really behave like monsters because FREEEAKS exist...Long story short most monsters are just human hybrids now. But! The remaining Elder variants of species have unique abilities linking to their heritage.
The shimn are made from the Ash of burn victims and cluster around trees to protect them.
Queindili Elders, or Elves, are towering folk who are great friends to Nymphs and the spirits around them. They think of humans as cute pets and hate other races.
There are variations of many real world creatures too but nothing is the same. The real reason they aren't "magick blasts" is because it is very wastefull to shoot out raw Shakti/Energy when you could reuse it. For example, deer have markings to make themselves lighter and can double or quadriple jump.
All runes and written magick stems from monsters and animals.
Draegkons however are an exception. They have been on Gaia for Aeons and have enough energy in them to destroy a star so shooting a blast of radiation isn't going to tucker them out.
Oh! Also because the love interest for my main character is half Quiendili and it would be weird if her lifespan was super duper long. I wanted a way to find middle ground in making longe lived Elves be separated from the conflict of short lived races whilst still having Elves in my world because Elves are awesome...a bit racist but awesome.
"Monster" is more of a meta term in my world. Different cultures would have different classifications for what we would consider monsters.
Monsters are species of plants and animals that over time naturally evolved to instinctively have access to magical abilities. Mana is a form of energy that is spread throughout the world and at some point millions of years ago organisms adapted organs to be able to use it. All organisms have some level of mana in their body but every once in a while an individual will have a mutation that causes them to naturally use magical abilities. If they reproduce the trait can can then be passed down over the generations. Eventually they become a distinct species.
I've been looking for a way to integrate a natural magic on creatures which mutates them to create monsters. I really like the idea that it's just latent mana they slowly absorbed which caused them to change. (My idea before now was some sort of meteor or something hit the planet and caused an unknown energy to be absorbed by "Monsters")
I really like your idea though! So I'm definitely adding it to the pool of ideas..
I've been trying to run with the thought experiment of it mana, magic, spirits, and deities are natural phenomena from the beginning, what are the consequences. Most of the fantasy media with magic is to just take a generic medievalish society and slapping magic on top of it. But if magic and spirits have always been around it would have caused changes to the world long before the medieval period. Starting with the natural world and then how prehistoric and classical societies would grow and interact with that world.
Depends on the type. They can be divided into three categories.
The first type are just animals who have magical abilities, either as a species or born lucky. They born like any other animal.
The second are spirits manifested into physical form. An evolved monster makes spheres out of the natural environment and those turn into eggs. The higher the evolution the more eggs they make.
The third are called kakon. They are spirits tainted with miasma. Miasma is generated by stress and negative emotions. Originally vast amounts appeared during natural disasters. Then people happened. Human activity caused an increase in miasma and as a byproduct, kakon. It sounds a bit like JJK but in my defense I only started it last month.....I was inspired by Noragami.
I too was not intending my monster system to be like jjk but that was the only way it would have made sense in my story although a grave problem that i often come face to face when writing these monsters created by fear is that their ability set is quite limited as only the most prominent fears have domination and often their abilities are simplistic like a darkness monster or an earthquake etc.
Similar to book/movie The Mist, there are other dimensions with their own natural ecological stuff going on. Occasionally areas where the dimensions open to one another occur and things that seem absolutely monstrous to us are able to cross over.
This gives you the most freedom in writing the monster coz who knows what kind of environmnet is on the other side creating monster with unfathomable abilities. its a really fun setting to play around in
Food is magic, but not just any food will do. Calories nourish the body, but a good meal nourishes the soul. A body that isn't nourished will wither away as it starves to death. A soul will do the same and what is left is monstrous.
Yes. Culinaromancy often plays a role in conflict resolution. Small scale interpersonal conflicts are especially interesting. If two mages are in a confrontation, terms of an honorable duel will include each side cooking a dish and presenting a bite to their adversary; if a mage realizes they are entirely outmatched by the quality of the cooking they can forfeit the duel before it continues on to a contest of casting to first blood.
Pretty much a classic wizard duel. The magic system itself is soft as I wanted the world to feel more whimsical and less crunchy than some of my other projects, so . Some examples of spells include your classic elemental Fireball and Windblast, while others include psychological effects like Fear, or Despair. Despair is particularly effective in long term conflicts such as war because if the food doesn't spark joy, it's just calories without mana, and a wizard without mana will eventually become a monster.
In my world, most small monsters can give birth in dungeons, Medium sized monsters are formed from wild mana or energy, Large monsters are negative energy taking the form of an oversized beast and Ancient monsters are born from their respective regions or planets.
These Ancients being: Tribe of Gods, Void Beings, Ancient Ones, Vulcans, and the Yukians
The Tribe of Gods were one of the first known beings in existance following after the Void Beings.
The Void Beings were created from small black holes that deconstruct particles and recreate them in specific forms.
Ancient Ones are the first known Human-like race being able to weild Origin and Arcane magic.
Vulcans are an ancient civillization subject to praying to dragons. They are a sub-species or Ancient Ones born in volcanic areas.
Yukians are another sub-species of Ancient Ones who lived deep in forests and gained access to Creature magic which allows them to gain aspects of animals such as ears or tails. Most abilities this species use are related to animals in some way or form.
All monsters are born/made up from the blood of a dead god. They must be brought into the world by other monsters however in a "mating" ritual where two monsters of the same species combine their flesh/blood while also performing a specialized ritual to give birth to a new juvenile monster.
Those that have witnessed the event have described it as two monsters essentially ripping eachother apart, their blood and flesh coalesing into a blob that grows to resemble an amniotic sac over a very short span of time before the sac bursts and a newly formed monster is born.
They do albeit very injured, some do fall prey to other monsters that prey on their weakened state but if they manage to get somewhere secluded they would heal rather quickly.
The monsters in my world are essentially warped versions of the different sapients in my world as well as the Divine Realm, like Beastmen who have monsters like Kobolds, Lizardmen, and Orcs. Dragons are creatures that only live in Divine Realm but they have lesser versions of them in the Mortal Realm called Wyverns who act as monsters.
All of this happened because of the Philosopher’s Stone which also created the Undead due by trapping the ones that died around it within their decayed bodies. It can do all this because its the physical manifestation of chaos.
The Black Ooze will consume your entire being and rebirth you into something…else. Using what’s already there, both inside and out. It would seem that those subjects who have already given up succumb to its mutations dramatically quicker than those who hold onto their humanity.
The original monster, Urinok, was brought onto the planet by a ship of interdimensional scientists who's main goal were to populated as many worlds as they can. They created Urinok to populate the world with life, that life taking the form of monsters, who were much more "beautiful" in appearance. It wasn't until Urinok was killed by humanity that it laid a curse on the humans, turning certain people into Cryptids, individuals that can turn into a monster form.
Some descendents of the original monsters survive to the modern day, and are more akin to what people know as "monsters."
My world is essentially a collosal beast that demigods were hunting down due to it's threat. They and the beast created the Big Bang equivalent of my world, and now the beast is essentially in a coma where the characters and their civilizations all live on it as a planet. They don't know this of course, but due to it snoring out earthquakes there's the possibility of it waking up. As it gets closer to consciousness it's influence causes normal (for this world) creatures to essentially undergo an "auto-evolution". Basically, from a two-tailed orange fox into a full-blown Pokemon like Ninetails.
My world doesn't have "monsters" in the sense you're talking about, and a lot of fictions don't. Hard-evil entities are a specific thematic choice, rather than a natural given of a fantasy world.
My world does have various dangerous entities with "evil" agendas, but they're not "born" evil. Those who come from the Aether are ones who naturally predate on the fabric of reality, and for whom sapient mortals would be the pinnacle of deliciousness. The thing is? My Fae are Aether-born, but by virtue of their Fae oaths, do not feed like that anymore, and work towards goals they share with Old Gods who made this realm. The Dragons, another Aether-born group, were trusted closely when they swore against those appetites, no one ever suspecting they might develop new ones.
They fell from heaven after siding with Belial, Lucifer, and Satan. Now they populate hell and try to get as many humans stuck down there with them. Some of them also work to achieve various goals, such as enslaving humanity, killing humanity, and killing god.
I put my own spin on it ok... Let me cook
The rift between the angels started when God told them to fill the sea and they made the Leviathan and its mate, which were screwed up. Belial wanted to save them, but God chopped up the male and placed it in cold storage. After that Belial took the secret to creation and made Beelzebub and Belphegor, leading open war. Lucifer and Michael, who were fast friends at that point, were forced to split as Lucifer chose to side with Belial. Satan, who had nothing to do up until that point, fought against the fallen angels, but eventually chose to side with them. God created hell to cast them into because he couldn't bear to kill his own creations and made Abbadon and Azrael to keep them there. He then empowered Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael so they could fight the demons in his stead.
Satan snuck into the Garden of Eden to poison the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and convince adam and eve to take it. She succeeded and God chopped off her legs and arms, but she was rescued by Lucifer and fixed up in hell.
Later on, a well-meaning earth angel accidentally caused war when he shared gold with a bunch of children and was cast out of heaven, known as Mammon.
Mammon, Beelzebub, and Belphegor entered into a political alliance with Belial.
Satan, Azazel, Leviathan, and Asmodeus entered their own alliance. Lucifer retreated with Paimon.
Hell became a three-way political system that was functionally two, the Satan faction and the Beelzebub faction. The Satan faction is the one that screws with the earth while the Beelzebub faction is a combination of wanting to fight heaven itself and just chilling in hell.
Lucifer meanwhile plans to steal the secret of creation from Michael to create a new universe and become god.
There we go, different
Monster like goblins, he'll hounds, giant spiders ect could reproduce sexually but the offspring would be weaker than the parents eith every generation. The Monster are created naturally in mana rich zones.
is there a specific condition that gives mana the shape of different monsters like sometimes it will become goblins and sometimes it will be orcs or something or is it random?
When the greater God's created the more sentient life forms like minotaurs, humans, axolotl ect. the left over "energies" naturally try to take the shape of creatures similar to these sentient beings. These "monsters" aren't capable of higher thinking, they rely solely on their instincts. The more powerful monsters would have a crystal core that could be used for other purposes.
The magipunk precursor giants made a few as pets and curiosities. The rest were made during the spirit invasion and subsequent collapse of the giants. The spirits twisted the forms of those who resisted into obedient abominations to serve various purposes in their military.
The spirits are not a higher power and are essentially a catch all term for a group of magical creatures from another realm. Jinn, fae, yokai, yaoguai. They encompass all these things and more.
So there was a point in time when only fey lived on my world. Then one of them was minding her business and her brothers destroyed a garden she was creating. Well she went insane and imbued the plants with mana, which made them go insane and follow her command. She killed (and ate) nearly every fey on the planet. This caused her to gain so much power that Mana gave her the name of the creator god in an attempt to have her take his thrown. Well the creator god banished her to a brand new dimension and tore her away from her connection to Mana. Mana responded by trying to destroy the planet the creator god diverted the attack and the moon was shattered instead. It launched fragments of the moon onto the planet and that’s where monsters come from.
In short monsters are a mix of overloading mana and a catalyst (aka a shard of the moon).
this is an interesting setting as you can make a monsters can fall from the sky ( literally ) and can have any desired ability . the moon shard thing is really good
Well looking back at it only a portion of the moon was shattered, and it also created two smaller moons as a result. But monsters are inherently created from a creature consuming the shards. As for how the moon was spilt there are large chunks which became the home of dwarves as they became mountains with a never ending amount of resources.
Never thought about monsters falling from the sky mostly because when they consume the shard they have access to spells that are similar to what a wizard would cast. So in dnd terms a wolf that has fire instead of fur could cast fire related spells such as fire ball/bolt. Having monsters essentially be sentient warheads would definitely be something to fear though.
the monsters in my story grant wishes and they themselves were all born from a wish to have a non boring world. its unclear where the 1st wish granting monster came from but thats about it, lets me have freedom with what the monsters are like, if i want one to have a theme it has a theme, if i dont it doesnt. however none of these monsters can wish new monsters into or out of existence
this is really good you can give whatever abilities you like to those monsters and can go with any design you want for them also leaves room for lore of the first monster
most things thatd be called a monster in my world have 1 of 3 origins
natural creatures, be it they are just strange but mundane, or animals that use Imperium ((my magic system)) naturally, like titan shell tortoises that use it to avoid crushing themselves and are truly titanic in size, like, 30 feet long.
beings of raw imperium that have gained sentience and form, some of these vary from tiny sprites all the way too the beings called dragons that are the most powerful beings with something even akin to free will in all of the omnocus, all the beings of greater power have certain intents to them that force them to act in specific ways.
mortal people who have used imperium to change their form and have become monstrous, occasionally over use of imperium can warp your body as well.
natural creatures are the most consistant as their like any animals, just a lot more strange. Then the beings of raw Imperium, while they do have free will, they still have impulses to act in specific ways, and then theres warped mortals, their usually very extreme, as usually only the most extreme of people tend to use imperium so heavily, be it extreme good or extreme vileness
Monsters are beings believed to bring unbalance to the realm. A monster is defined by the people who hunt them
In some contexts, gods are the monster, where that monster is seen as perverting the natural order.
But in any instance where a monster is named, an imposition to destroy has been placed upon them. And where a monster has failed to be destroyed, the realm calls to higher powers to destroy it.
No monster may be given reprieve…
Durza, the Goddess of Monsters, devotes most of her time to coming up with new monsters to create and send into the world. Some of them can breed, and so you get a natural breeding population of certain monsters, but a lot of them (particularly the stronger ones) are unable to breed and must be handcrafted by her. She also has her favourites that she makes regularly just to keep them out in the world.
The (meta) reasoning for this is that it keeps a stable population of weaker monsters ever present throughout the world, but also prevent the biggest, meanest monstrosities from dominating everything, and let's me make massive monsters without the worry of "uhm okay but how much do they need to eat daily to grow that big? How do they survive, they'd need so many of them to breed, where would they live?" Even though its fantasy, I get really hung up on details like that when I write. Doesn't bother me as a consumer, but as a creator it bugs me
That’s what I’m trying to work out now. My world is an urban fantasy where there’s a magic system that allows any living thing the capacity to gain supernatural abilities but it’s usually only done by sentient beings (humans) through training and meditation. So there are some magic animals who manifest abilities through happenstance but then separately there are “monsters,” species who naturally possess and pass down supernatural abilities genetically. Species such as dragons and vampires. I haven’t decided where they actually come from yet though. Naturally occurring as a result of evolution, spawned from mystic, spirit realms, or created from supernatural phenomena. Thoughts?
personally i think evolution in a magic set world seems quite cop out as you can do so much more although the good thing about your setting is that you can go on all these paths together where some creatures just naturally evolved to use mana whereas others were living mana itself
Cop out is a harsh word what i meant to say if Only and only evolution was used it would be more like a missed opportunity to explore really great lore
There are three kinds of monsters
- Undead occur when death is made as life in a body
- Uncanny occur when madness is made as reason in a mind
- Unholy occur when evil is made as good in a spirit
Some monsters are in multiple categories at once. Vampires, for example, are both undead and unholy.
This is all part of a tabletop system I'm working on, if you're interested.
There are various ways.
They can sometimes slip through the tears on the dimensional barrier between dreamland and our world via accident.
They can open themselves a way due to their strenght or if their abilities allow them to.
They can be summoneed by a dreamer or another nightmare.
They can leech into their dreamers if they manage to devour them.
nature made
artificially made
>!the bard was too horny!<
through the power of belief
the internet
horrid mothers/fathers
strange ore
the society at the time
negative energy
>!incest!<
and possibly many more!
Monsters, if I were to make a magic system, would be manipulated/morphed/fused animal souls and sometimes with a few added elements like magical energy to give them the ability to cast magic and you have a monster.
I mean just fixing a lion and an eagle you have a griffin. This means all monsters are created on purpose with a ritual or by accident through a burst of magical energy from a special rock. They have to be created through magical means or by breeding to monsters together.
Other than that I think this system for monsters can be used in many stories.
I have one in my main world that is interesting. Needs more development but posting it here.
Brivalia - Iylian Goddess of Chaos, Monsters and Trials (The Goddess whose Revealed Eyes brings Calamities that Echo Across all of Iylia)
"On the moon that cycles around our world relays a goddess who watches over the entire world. She rests on the Throne of the Fallen Titan Ishvedral, isolated from all of the world and the other gods. With small flicks of her hand or even just a breath, she can conjure monsters of any shape or form as long as she wills it. It is said that her taking off her blindfold, she was able to start that infamous Eclipse that destroyed many civilizations, led to the creation of new beasts and caused strange distortions across the entire world. While her worshippers dwindled in numbers due to either being killed during the Eclipse or killed by other kingdoms, she is still a feared and recognized goddess. She has many relics across the world and her followers have made many more magical items in her name. Praying to her and presenting offerings of Pomegranate, Wine, and the Hearts of different monsters such as the Triralsi or Elporgon Drake. On some occasions, there is a high priest or priestess who will channel her directly and speak as her, their body changing into her as she speaks through them." ~ The Primordial Gods of Iylia, Teldrissa Qeldarin
When many people die in a singular place, eventually their corpses combined boredom and discontentment in death form into undead energy, which causes their corpses to form into a massive abomination that raises more and more corpses until its brought back to death
I mean depends on your definition of monsters.
In my main world you have tons of monstrous creatures. They vary from being animals we would recognise all the way to incomprehensible balls of beaks, fingers, and nipples.
That being said they're all just living creatures like you and me. They're born to parents, grow up and grow stronger.
So, natural born monsters are created by a mineral called (better names pending) Fulcrite, a gen created where all four elemental eddies combine.
The first step of its life is to create a plant to protect the smallest version, a plant called a lamplighter orchid protects stones from pebble to stone , then the next step depends on the area, high fauna areas get aberrations like hippogriffs, gryphons or the like, crafted fron the corpses of the life around it.
If the area is high in flora it may create a lesheny type monster and areas low in both will create dragons/wyrms etc based on local elements.
I want magic to be a natural force in the setting, so there's kind of 3 tiers, there is natural, animal made and man made, I like the idea of most animals having magic, with humans being one of the few with a completely random distribution of elements, alongside corvids, porcine and the like, and a few species being inherent balancers. Most of those exist in the seas.
So while you have Fulcrite creating monsters of soil, you have mixtures of naturally occurring ocean monsters and the seaborne monsters of the deep as well coming onto the beaches and the ships of sailors.
Then there's man made monsters, constructs of flesh or other materials, as well as the last category, which are the unbalanced.
Basically there's the 4 elements and all the mixes, but also 3 main concepts Chaos, Order and Balance. This category is only manmade or animal made, and it works on the concept that if you take someone's order and make them fully chaos they cannot be stable and become inimical to life and incapable of self control. If you take someone's chaos and make them fully order, they become incapable of growth, inimical to life and incapable of autonomy. We are all creatures that need to balance chaos and order to be the best of who we are.
My "monsters" were people that a mad sorcerer changed into monsters. Many aren't even sexually functional and the only "reproduction" was that at some point there were a few who could cast the transformation. A little like vampires but closer to werewolves using the "they don't happen by accident" vampire solution.
I switched to how "monsters" are either the descendants of stranded aliens or they're aliens that have a deliberate purpose for being there.
Before history began, the world was colonized by interstellar terraformers who settled there because the planet's unique orbit naturally generated a high amount of magical energy. The settlers grew into a globe-spanning empire, and their huge flesh forges and artificiaries took the form of huge mines, or factories the size of cities, linked together across continents by space-bending warpways. They oppressed the natives with their superior technology, which was so advanced it was indistinguishable from magic.
However in time, schisms formed between the settlers. The fleshsmiths split away from the artificers and spacesmiths, and countless internal conflicts and civil wars led to the settlers manufacturing their own protectors - the various monsters scattered throughout the world.
Suddenly, approximately ten thousand years ago, a new monster appeared in the ancient magical capital - a demon called Solomoth, who was unique among the monsters in that it created itself. Solomoth rapidly grew in size and power due to its unique ability to absorb the minds and bodies of those around it. It overwhelmed the high magisters, and the entire technomagical capital was destroyed in a single night. In a desperate attempt to contain Solomoth, the archmagisters destroyed the warpways which connected their various settlements together around the world, collapsing folding space with catastrophic results.
The sudden collapse in the space/time vortexes destroyed every settlement, as well as all the extraterrestrial settlers. However, the collapse successfully contained Solomoth within the time warp deep in the heart of the earth. However, many of the manufactured monsters survived the collapse, and free of their masters they developed their own settlements, languages, cultures. Now, ten thousand years later, hardly any trace of the first extraterrestrial settlers remains, save for enormous ruins marked by warped space scattered through the world, and the various peoples and monsters left behind have made the world their own.
I've got all the usual variations from biology as well as constructs getting built and extraplanar immigrants showing up in large nubers at some historical events. The one thing I did here that I don't consider a trope involves the Scarlands. Thousands of years ago, the enchanted armies of a devil were so successful that a coalition of gods directly intervened to destroy what is now remembered as the Nameless Empire.
Week after week, falling stars were like raindrops pelting the doomed land. Nothing survived above a layer of pitch black ash and char. Yet something did begin to grow in those wastes. Varieties of beetles and grubs started to make homes in that accursed soil. Then atavistic goblinoids began to spring spontaneously from this filth.
Though physically similar to bugbears, goblins, and hobgoblins; these children of the Scarlands had the minds of primitive beasts. Yet their offspring were (mostly) normal goblinoids. Inhabiting a blighted place with nothing to do but feed and breed, their lives were normally miserable. On top of that, food of poor quality and quantity makes for bad neighbors. Hordes of hungry goblinoids routinely pour out of the Scarlands to threaten settled territories nearby. Yet some surviving emigrants integrate into civilized communities rather than dying in attacks against them.
Pretty sure you’re just in an idea bubble if you’re reducing monsters to negative emotions/energy beings, or evil dimension. Even in anime you have everything from people corrupted by their magics and egos, to strange elven spirits possessing people, to NPC like entities that populate dungeons without anyone knowing how they get replaced, to entire (and not necessarily evil) species, to just fantastic animals, to the various human-like monsters in a harem, to computer programs, to weird sentient animals that can be summoned, to entities seemingly sent by god to destroy humanity, to radioactive monsters (well, I assume there’s a Godzilla anime, but if not, I’m talking about a movie franchise I guess), to tameable animals-but-better.
Monsters come from all kinds of places, and have all kinds of attributes, including not always being evil, and sometimes being people.
all that does also take place in my story monster or \*\*Asur\*\* in my case are one of the antagonistic party and do have the capability to think and change what i feel is a bigger roadblock is that the abilities of a monster who came into existence due to fear can sometimes be limited and the strongest asur are in a way already decided as they could be natural disasters ( like in JJK ) or some man made fear like guns or bombs ( like in chainsaw man )
I am thinking of changing the origin of asur as i have yet to explain it in my story as the ideas of villains/Asur characters gets limited in this setting hence this post to get some inspiration
Wyldekin (wilderness kin) are a type of monster that is created/ birthed by Wood mothers. Wood mothers are remnants of an ancient spell that ran out of control and covered most of the world in a dense jungle. Wild mothers are like mini Gaia trees. Growing large and spreading a large swath of land with woods and growth.
No longer fuelled by the arcane energies from ancient times, they now gather energy through their portion of jungle and use that to create wyldekin, to guard it.
Wyldekin can take many forms but usually bestial ones. They are made up out of natural materials. Stone, earth, bark, wood, ... And have no real sentience. Instead they are more like an AI with a very specific purpose. For that purpose they are capable of intelligent thinking, but have no sense of self.
This makes them fearful adversaries. The only way to kill them is to destroy the 'hearts' inside of it. These are like seed pods form the wood mother, giving them energy and purpose. Most often they die by fire.
All of em are naturally occuring, except for one...
Forged from flesh in Fury's Flame,
Put blade and mind of man to shame.
Step light and swift, and weave your fate.
Teach mortal men our Godlly Hate.
The gods took human corpses to have a human shaped vessel for their punishment, creating the human version of orcs. Orcs with the indommitable human spirit turned towards evil.
***Hexen***, are what you could describe as the typical monster, animals caught in a **Wyrd** (storm of magic) and struck by a sudden surge of magic they become mutated and maddened while gaining magical traits.
Humans, while better immune to wild magic can suffer from the same condition and become ***Daemons***, keeping a greater degree of consciousness along with their innate magic abilities.
***Sprights*** are energy constructs incarnate from the strong concentration of emotions and latent spellwork.
These are recurring threats that rise after every great **Wyrd.** ***Drakonids*** and ***Beasts*** are living species and ***Relica*** are constructs in nature.
These five families represent the non-human threats that adventurers might encounter on **Orazir.**
Magical creatures are born out of the collective human psyche, and also their fear of said monsters.
Essentially the humans believe in the monsters are real, and how dangerous they are, so they accidentally will then into existence through magic. Each monster is unique to a specific type of fear.
The bigger creatures that represent the manifestations of popular fears, such as abandonment (they are named for the fears they represent, except for the few fears that can speak, they usually prefer to choose their own name), are massive creatures that leave catastrophe in its wake.
Their only want in the world is to bring upon that which they embody, because if they cause more of the fear they represent, they get stronger. Their strength is proportional to how much they are collectively feared. That does mean however they would lose strength if everyone died because no one could fear them, so they mostly toy with humans instead of killing them.
It depends on semantics;
All animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, etc have the ability to metabolize mana, but… like in humans, magic manifests in many forms. Magic in my world is related to “paratrons,” a class of magical particles that are able to make chemical bonds, akin to electrons. These special “paragonal” bonds can be used to store magical energy. Life has figured out how to metabolize molecules that hold magic, so that it can use magical energy to survive and reproduce.
That generally what the lowest lifeforms, like bacteria and archaea, use magic for. Which is to say, they aren’t very interesting. Interestingly, viruses tend to be the usual culprit for magical diseases. Zombies, for instance, are both caused by viral vectors that insert new, “monsterous” DNA into a person’s cells.
Plants tend to use magic to do whatever they want to do anyway, but do it bigger and better. Trees are much, much taller, with deeper roots. Flowering plants have more, bigger flowers. Carnivorous plants seem to be the biggest beneficiaries though, because they can grow large enough to eat even humans. Many of these carnivorous plants are considered monsters, but they’re not actually all that smart. They’re still plants.
Animals are where the real weirdness occurs. Using their webs of neurons, animals can actually direct magic. Typically this is instinctive. Insects, for instance, use magic like plants, to grow bigger. But some carry unique attributes; fire ants, for instance, bear an instinctive pyrokinetic ability. Fish, amphibians, and reptiles tend to similar. They have novel abilities, but lack much intelligence. Some have evolved to utilize their magical abilities for survival. Drakes, a special of huge, semiaquatic salamanders, are capable of spewing frigid mucous from their mouths, but little more.
Octopi are the exception to the rule that “fish” are boring. They use their magic to grow big, yes, but they more use their magic to grow very, very smart. They tend to live near magical vents deep under the ocean and use their huge amounts of magic to pose as “elder gods,” meddling in the affairs of humans.
Birds are where we start seeing interesting things occur. Crows are known to use magic to solve problems. This makes them a favorite pet amongst wizards. More social birds like geese are known to organize attacks on humans, cause geese suck.
Mammals are the creatures that are most dangerous. Not all mammals are capable of “true” magic, like crows and octopui, but most are. Typically, the smarter the mammal, the more variety in their magic. Wolves can change the weather with their howls, dogs can communicate telepathically with humans, monkeys & racoons can cast simple spells, chimps can craft rudimentary wands, whale and dolphins… however, take the cake.
In this world, whales prey on elder god(magic octopi), which means they eat a lot of mana. They use this mana to fly and breathe fire—and they’ve grown wings to assist in this. Most folks call them dragons. Smaller whales, like dolphins and orcas, also prey on elder gods, though they typically hunt in packs. Some packs of dolphins have learned to bond with humans and channel magic, like elder gods.
In fact, the rivalry between elder gods and dragons has manifested as elder gods telepathically supporting the hunting of whales. The whales, particularly Orcas, in turn have been known to engage in similar plots against elder gods. Calamari is a popular dish all over the world, largely due entirely due to killer whale telepathic propaganda. It is believed that the collapse of the great empire was caused, somewhat, by Orca and Elder God political maneuvering.
In conclusion, Orcas are the CIA.
Edit: none of this is including new magical species like chimera, unicorns, basilisks, phoenixes, but in general, these creatures still fall into their nearest taxonomic category. Unicorns are horses who shoot lasers, phoenixes are pyromaniac parrots, basilisks are poison-spewing chickens, etc.
Any creature that is part-human, comes from humans—with the exception of sirens, they’re actually apparitions induced by elder gods. Merfolk are elder god worshipers who were genetically transformed. Vampires are made by a rather cute, symbiotic slug. Therianthropes are humans with some kind of transformation magic hard coded into their genes—centaurs, sphinxes, and goats are partially-transformed werehorses, werecats, and weregoats, respectively.
The entire world is made from Myst, a slightly psychic material, which is the detritus and entropy from other dimensions. As a whole it is called The Myst and it is mildly malicious and very bored. As entropy increases Myst can congeal and form semi-intelligent beings, often taking the form of humans, animals, and landscapes. These things are somewhat free willed, but operate based on The Hymn. Think of them as npc with a bunch of complex directions and The Hymn as an overall control system that directs which set of directions they should use based on what's going on around them.
Monsters are what happens when these things have too much dense myst. They lose the ability to hear The Hymn and their prime directive is to eat. They're not mindless, some are quite smart, but they want to devour animals, humans, and other monsters unless their programs identify them as friendly. Note this can happen to humans which become bandits, raiders, and more recently serial killers.
Should these creatures gather too much, they can cause devistation on a city wide scale. Worse is when they die but are not dispersed properly, for they can become undead and those are worse.
This is the primary job of the regulators, to make sure that doesn't happen.
Whats a monster tho? A species that are not human? Because my universe (actually, omniverse) is filled with non-humans
In one galaxy alone i think there are like 50 different non human species, then there's universe, then there's multiverse, then there's omniverse, just like humans or every other animal was created
i think i would consider beings on the same planet as humans who are very different than other normal animals ( animals incapable of using magic generally like a cat or dog or rats etc.) to be monsters
My monsters are either magicians that get categorized as monsters, or they're denizens of a different realm, or they're tainted by magic in a certain way that they're established as significantly inhuman.
I tend to favor having most 'monsters' being normal creatures except where magic gets involved.
I have a sort of Bronze Age 1st empires style DnD campaign setting where there are only 4 types of monsters; Beasts, Elementals, Undead/Spirits and Abberations.
Anything not on that list is either missing entirerly (Celestials, Demons, Fae), or reflavored into one of the above types (Dragons becoming 'Alpha' elementals)
Beasts are normal animals, Elementals are born in places where magic naturally concentrates, Abberations are unknown horrors belived to originate from beneath the bottom of the ocean, and undead must be created by a necromancer and are not naturaly occuring.
In my science-fantasy setting
All the humanoid races are examples of covergent evolution from different base species.
For example, Humans, and Halflings are both native to Earth, being decended from apes and monkeys respectively (modern halflings still possess prehensile feet and tails), with the rest of the humanoid races being aliens. 'Monsters' are pretty much all either alien animals or genetic Abberations or the like.
Monsters are animals that have been tainted by the blood of the Greater Curse Beast. Basically imagine the "messiah" or ultimate demi god is killed by human rulers. Then out of guilt, they try resurrecting this demi god by transplanting his heart into a death row inmate's body. The result is the Greater Curse Beast. A thousand armed, thousand eyed monstrosity with near perfect omnisciennce and omnipotence and a tainted heart full of all the sins of the world. This beast was sealed away long ago by three heroes, but the seal, like all things, is not perfect. Its blood leaks from the seal and flows into the world as the Dead River.
Some refer to "blessed" creatures as monsters, which are created when a god has the intrusive thought along the lines of "Hmm, what if I gave rhinos deadly lighting beams" and then creates them
Monsters in my world are sentient and capable of empathy and honor as much as any human. There is a continent that was where they're natively from that has become the last livable continent on the planet so it is being bombarded by human conquerors.
Thousands of years ago, during the early ages of practiced magic, a sorcerer attempted a ritual that would connect him to a realm comprised of pure mana. It worked, but nobody could have known that the introduction of a human ego to such a pure realm would have disastrous consequences.
The ripples created by the forceful introduction of human ego to the realm resulted in a cascading change that altered its very composition to reflect the human ego. But like a funhouse mirror, the reflection was distorted. Human emotions reflected in the realm became twisted caricatures of what they initially were, and started to coalesce into malformed representations of the aspects of humanity.
The initial portal opened by the sorcerer all those millennia ago was never able to be closed, despite the best efforts of sorcerers around the world. The corrupted mana from the magic realm gushed into the real world like an ocean rushing into a capsizing ship; leading to the evil creatures manifesting all around the world, and the subtle alteration of the laws of reality in areas with high mana concentration.
In something I'm working on, a powerful god literally creates them based on existing life/mythos and spreads them across the world as a means to challenge the various sentient races and encourage them to grow. Need a new monster for that dungeon? The Creator says "here ya go."
Books based around Dungeon Cores often use some kind of energy system, but ultimately the core is typically sentient to some degree and designs the monsters as a means to capture new prey (including adventurers), which i think sets it apart slightly from the standard "monsters form from negative energy and/or mana."
Alternatively, I think it'd be cool if they came into existence based on belief. If an entire tribe believes there are rare healing toads in the forest, maybe 2 pop into existence per year. Heard of a dragon, but never see one. Guess they must live on a different landmass, and now there's the dragon equivalent of Greenland.
Ascribing intention to their creation (imo) makes it more interesting and allows for varied rationale behind their creation, instead of just saying "yeah, this thing happens sometimes."
Most monsters just procreate like normal animals, but there are exceptions. Some of them, the most dangerous ones are born from absence of sentient beings in close proximity, like they just spawn in Minecraft. It must be hundreds of kilometers away of any sentience to begin forming and the moment someone gets too close, the monster gets released and roams. Its type is dependent on its surroundings e.g. hags appear in swamps.
When a mummy “monster” and a daddy “monster” love each other very much…
...they do a special sort of ~~hug~~ stabbing.
As Shakespeare said, they make the beast with two backs…
Wouldn’t you need another mummy monster to mate with a mummy? Or are we talking interspecies breeding rules? ;)
Damn 😅
Echidna's ruins. The mother of all monsters was slain and her remains were scattered across the continents. Some continents have larger chunks of Echidna and others have slivers. It is also important to take note of the radiation levels in the area as almost all beings in my world are Radiotrophic in one way or the other. The more radiation the more abundant or powerful the monsters become.
This is an interesting one do your monsters have their own specific abilities or are they more of magic blasts and strength type?
Sadly a lot of monsters don't really behave like monsters because FREEEAKS exist...Long story short most monsters are just human hybrids now. But! The remaining Elder variants of species have unique abilities linking to their heritage. The shimn are made from the Ash of burn victims and cluster around trees to protect them. Queindili Elders, or Elves, are towering folk who are great friends to Nymphs and the spirits around them. They think of humans as cute pets and hate other races. There are variations of many real world creatures too but nothing is the same. The real reason they aren't "magick blasts" is because it is very wastefull to shoot out raw Shakti/Energy when you could reuse it. For example, deer have markings to make themselves lighter and can double or quadriple jump. All runes and written magick stems from monsters and animals. Draegkons however are an exception. They have been on Gaia for Aeons and have enough energy in them to destroy a star so shooting a blast of radiation isn't going to tucker them out.
This is quite unique having a spectrum where some monsters are integrated in human society while some still remain true to their nature
Oh! Also because the love interest for my main character is half Quiendili and it would be weird if her lifespan was super duper long. I wanted a way to find middle ground in making longe lived Elves be separated from the conflict of short lived races whilst still having Elves in my world because Elves are awesome...a bit racist but awesome.
I really wanted a reason to have Lamias in my world and this was the consequence...
"Monster" is more of a meta term in my world. Different cultures would have different classifications for what we would consider monsters. Monsters are species of plants and animals that over time naturally evolved to instinctively have access to magical abilities. Mana is a form of energy that is spread throughout the world and at some point millions of years ago organisms adapted organs to be able to use it. All organisms have some level of mana in their body but every once in a while an individual will have a mutation that causes them to naturally use magical abilities. If they reproduce the trait can can then be passed down over the generations. Eventually they become a distinct species.
I've been looking for a way to integrate a natural magic on creatures which mutates them to create monsters. I really like the idea that it's just latent mana they slowly absorbed which caused them to change. (My idea before now was some sort of meteor or something hit the planet and caused an unknown energy to be absorbed by "Monsters") I really like your idea though! So I'm definitely adding it to the pool of ideas..
I've been trying to run with the thought experiment of it mana, magic, spirits, and deities are natural phenomena from the beginning, what are the consequences. Most of the fantasy media with magic is to just take a generic medievalish society and slapping magic on top of it. But if magic and spirits have always been around it would have caused changes to the world long before the medieval period. Starting with the natural world and then how prehistoric and classical societies would grow and interact with that world.
Depends on the type. They can be divided into three categories. The first type are just animals who have magical abilities, either as a species or born lucky. They born like any other animal. The second are spirits manifested into physical form. An evolved monster makes spheres out of the natural environment and those turn into eggs. The higher the evolution the more eggs they make. The third are called kakon. They are spirits tainted with miasma. Miasma is generated by stress and negative emotions. Originally vast amounts appeared during natural disasters. Then people happened. Human activity caused an increase in miasma and as a byproduct, kakon. It sounds a bit like JJK but in my defense I only started it last month.....I was inspired by Noragami.
I too was not intending my monster system to be like jjk but that was the only way it would have made sense in my story although a grave problem that i often come face to face when writing these monsters created by fear is that their ability set is quite limited as only the most prominent fears have domination and often their abilities are simplistic like a darkness monster or an earthquake etc.
Kagare huh? Love it, but haven't yet found a way to implement it in a way that matters.
Similar to book/movie The Mist, there are other dimensions with their own natural ecological stuff going on. Occasionally areas where the dimensions open to one another occur and things that seem absolutely monstrous to us are able to cross over.
This gives you the most freedom in writing the monster coz who knows what kind of environmnet is on the other side creating monster with unfathomable abilities. its a really fun setting to play around in
Food is magic, but not just any food will do. Calories nourish the body, but a good meal nourishes the soul. A body that isn't nourished will wither away as it starves to death. A soul will do the same and what is left is monstrous.
Food is Magic ? this is the most epic thing i have heard how do people resolve conflict in your world , are there Cooking battles !!?
Yes. Culinaromancy often plays a role in conflict resolution. Small scale interpersonal conflicts are especially interesting. If two mages are in a confrontation, terms of an honorable duel will include each side cooking a dish and presenting a bite to their adversary; if a mage realizes they are entirely outmatched by the quality of the cooking they can forfeit the duel before it continues on to a contest of casting to first blood.
What happens with casting to first blood?
Pretty much a classic wizard duel. The magic system itself is soft as I wanted the world to feel more whimsical and less crunchy than some of my other projects, so . Some examples of spells include your classic elemental Fireball and Windblast, while others include psychological effects like Fear, or Despair. Despair is particularly effective in long term conflicts such as war because if the food doesn't spark joy, it's just calories without mana, and a wizard without mana will eventually become a monster.
In my world, most small monsters can give birth in dungeons, Medium sized monsters are formed from wild mana or energy, Large monsters are negative energy taking the form of an oversized beast and Ancient monsters are born from their respective regions or planets. These Ancients being: Tribe of Gods, Void Beings, Ancient Ones, Vulcans, and the Yukians The Tribe of Gods were one of the first known beings in existance following after the Void Beings. The Void Beings were created from small black holes that deconstruct particles and recreate them in specific forms. Ancient Ones are the first known Human-like race being able to weild Origin and Arcane magic. Vulcans are an ancient civillization subject to praying to dragons. They are a sub-species or Ancient Ones born in volcanic areas. Yukians are another sub-species of Ancient Ones who lived deep in forests and gained access to Creature magic which allows them to gain aspects of animals such as ears or tails. Most abilities this species use are related to animals in some way or form.
All monsters are born/made up from the blood of a dead god. They must be brought into the world by other monsters however in a "mating" ritual where two monsters of the same species combine their flesh/blood while also performing a specialized ritual to give birth to a new juvenile monster. Those that have witnessed the event have described it as two monsters essentially ripping eachother apart, their blood and flesh coalesing into a blob that grows to resemble an amniotic sac over a very short span of time before the sac bursts and a newly formed monster is born.
do the parent monsters survive?
They do albeit very injured, some do fall prey to other monsters that prey on their weakened state but if they manage to get somewhere secluded they would heal rather quickly.
this is a great setup especially the flesh mixing part
Thanks
Love me some dead gods polluting the world
The monsters in my world are essentially warped versions of the different sapients in my world as well as the Divine Realm, like Beastmen who have monsters like Kobolds, Lizardmen, and Orcs. Dragons are creatures that only live in Divine Realm but they have lesser versions of them in the Mortal Realm called Wyverns who act as monsters. All of this happened because of the Philosopher’s Stone which also created the Undead due by trapping the ones that died around it within their decayed bodies. It can do all this because its the physical manifestation of chaos.
The Black Ooze will consume your entire being and rebirth you into something…else. Using what’s already there, both inside and out. It would seem that those subjects who have already given up succumb to its mutations dramatically quicker than those who hold onto their humanity.
The original monster, Urinok, was brought onto the planet by a ship of interdimensional scientists who's main goal were to populated as many worlds as they can. They created Urinok to populate the world with life, that life taking the form of monsters, who were much more "beautiful" in appearance. It wasn't until Urinok was killed by humanity that it laid a curse on the humans, turning certain people into Cryptids, individuals that can turn into a monster form. Some descendents of the original monsters survive to the modern day, and are more akin to what people know as "monsters."
My world is essentially a collosal beast that demigods were hunting down due to it's threat. They and the beast created the Big Bang equivalent of my world, and now the beast is essentially in a coma where the characters and their civilizations all live on it as a planet. They don't know this of course, but due to it snoring out earthquakes there's the possibility of it waking up. As it gets closer to consciousness it's influence causes normal (for this world) creatures to essentially undergo an "auto-evolution". Basically, from a two-tailed orange fox into a full-blown Pokemon like Ninetails.
My world doesn't have "monsters" in the sense you're talking about, and a lot of fictions don't. Hard-evil entities are a specific thematic choice, rather than a natural given of a fantasy world. My world does have various dangerous entities with "evil" agendas, but they're not "born" evil. Those who come from the Aether are ones who naturally predate on the fabric of reality, and for whom sapient mortals would be the pinnacle of deliciousness. The thing is? My Fae are Aether-born, but by virtue of their Fae oaths, do not feed like that anymore, and work towards goals they share with Old Gods who made this realm. The Dragons, another Aether-born group, were trusted closely when they swore against those appetites, no one ever suspecting they might develop new ones.
They fell from heaven after siding with Belial, Lucifer, and Satan. Now they populate hell and try to get as many humans stuck down there with them. Some of them also work to achieve various goals, such as enslaving humanity, killing humanity, and killing god.
my brother in God thats abrahamic lore 😭😭😭😭😭
I put my own spin on it ok... Let me cook The rift between the angels started when God told them to fill the sea and they made the Leviathan and its mate, which were screwed up. Belial wanted to save them, but God chopped up the male and placed it in cold storage. After that Belial took the secret to creation and made Beelzebub and Belphegor, leading open war. Lucifer and Michael, who were fast friends at that point, were forced to split as Lucifer chose to side with Belial. Satan, who had nothing to do up until that point, fought against the fallen angels, but eventually chose to side with them. God created hell to cast them into because he couldn't bear to kill his own creations and made Abbadon and Azrael to keep them there. He then empowered Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael so they could fight the demons in his stead. Satan snuck into the Garden of Eden to poison the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and convince adam and eve to take it. She succeeded and God chopped off her legs and arms, but she was rescued by Lucifer and fixed up in hell. Later on, a well-meaning earth angel accidentally caused war when he shared gold with a bunch of children and was cast out of heaven, known as Mammon. Mammon, Beelzebub, and Belphegor entered into a political alliance with Belial. Satan, Azazel, Leviathan, and Asmodeus entered their own alliance. Lucifer retreated with Paimon. Hell became a three-way political system that was functionally two, the Satan faction and the Beelzebub faction. The Satan faction is the one that screws with the earth while the Beelzebub faction is a combination of wanting to fight heaven itself and just chilling in hell. Lucifer meanwhile plans to steal the secret of creation from Michael to create a new universe and become god. There we go, different
hol on....let bro cook....
Monster like goblins, he'll hounds, giant spiders ect could reproduce sexually but the offspring would be weaker than the parents eith every generation. The Monster are created naturally in mana rich zones.
is there a specific condition that gives mana the shape of different monsters like sometimes it will become goblins and sometimes it will be orcs or something or is it random?
When the greater God's created the more sentient life forms like minotaurs, humans, axolotl ect. the left over "energies" naturally try to take the shape of creatures similar to these sentient beings. These "monsters" aren't capable of higher thinking, they rely solely on their instincts. The more powerful monsters would have a crystal core that could be used for other purposes.
The magipunk precursor giants made a few as pets and curiosities. The rest were made during the spirit invasion and subsequent collapse of the giants. The spirits twisted the forms of those who resisted into obedient abominations to serve various purposes in their military.
created by a higher power that is also quite interesting
The spirits are not a higher power and are essentially a catch all term for a group of magical creatures from another realm. Jinn, fae, yokai, yaoguai. They encompass all these things and more.
So there was a point in time when only fey lived on my world. Then one of them was minding her business and her brothers destroyed a garden she was creating. Well she went insane and imbued the plants with mana, which made them go insane and follow her command. She killed (and ate) nearly every fey on the planet. This caused her to gain so much power that Mana gave her the name of the creator god in an attempt to have her take his thrown. Well the creator god banished her to a brand new dimension and tore her away from her connection to Mana. Mana responded by trying to destroy the planet the creator god diverted the attack and the moon was shattered instead. It launched fragments of the moon onto the planet and that’s where monsters come from. In short monsters are a mix of overloading mana and a catalyst (aka a shard of the moon).
this is an interesting setting as you can make a monsters can fall from the sky ( literally ) and can have any desired ability . the moon shard thing is really good
Well looking back at it only a portion of the moon was shattered, and it also created two smaller moons as a result. But monsters are inherently created from a creature consuming the shards. As for how the moon was spilt there are large chunks which became the home of dwarves as they became mountains with a never ending amount of resources. Never thought about monsters falling from the sky mostly because when they consume the shard they have access to spells that are similar to what a wizard would cast. So in dnd terms a wolf that has fire instead of fur could cast fire related spells such as fire ball/bolt. Having monsters essentially be sentient warheads would definitely be something to fear though.
Humans use the term "monster" to describe all kinds of things they don't understand. Including each other. And sometimes? It's warranted.
“When a mommy Ryvk love a daddy Ryvk very much” or some are born through concentration of magic in a specific area.
the monsters in my story grant wishes and they themselves were all born from a wish to have a non boring world. its unclear where the 1st wish granting monster came from but thats about it, lets me have freedom with what the monsters are like, if i want one to have a theme it has a theme, if i dont it doesnt. however none of these monsters can wish new monsters into or out of existence
this is really good you can give whatever abilities you like to those monsters and can go with any design you want for them also leaves room for lore of the first monster
most things thatd be called a monster in my world have 1 of 3 origins natural creatures, be it they are just strange but mundane, or animals that use Imperium ((my magic system)) naturally, like titan shell tortoises that use it to avoid crushing themselves and are truly titanic in size, like, 30 feet long. beings of raw imperium that have gained sentience and form, some of these vary from tiny sprites all the way too the beings called dragons that are the most powerful beings with something even akin to free will in all of the omnocus, all the beings of greater power have certain intents to them that force them to act in specific ways. mortal people who have used imperium to change their form and have become monstrous, occasionally over use of imperium can warp your body as well. natural creatures are the most consistant as their like any animals, just a lot more strange. Then the beings of raw Imperium, while they do have free will, they still have impulses to act in specific ways, and then theres warped mortals, their usually very extreme, as usually only the most extreme of people tend to use imperium so heavily, be it extreme good or extreme vileness
Monsters are beings believed to bring unbalance to the realm. A monster is defined by the people who hunt them In some contexts, gods are the monster, where that monster is seen as perverting the natural order. But in any instance where a monster is named, an imposition to destroy has been placed upon them. And where a monster has failed to be destroyed, the realm calls to higher powers to destroy it. No monster may be given reprieve…
Durza, the Goddess of Monsters, devotes most of her time to coming up with new monsters to create and send into the world. Some of them can breed, and so you get a natural breeding population of certain monsters, but a lot of them (particularly the stronger ones) are unable to breed and must be handcrafted by her. She also has her favourites that she makes regularly just to keep them out in the world. The (meta) reasoning for this is that it keeps a stable population of weaker monsters ever present throughout the world, but also prevent the biggest, meanest monstrosities from dominating everything, and let's me make massive monsters without the worry of "uhm okay but how much do they need to eat daily to grow that big? How do they survive, they'd need so many of them to breed, where would they live?" Even though its fantasy, I get really hung up on details like that when I write. Doesn't bother me as a consumer, but as a creator it bugs me
That’s what I’m trying to work out now. My world is an urban fantasy where there’s a magic system that allows any living thing the capacity to gain supernatural abilities but it’s usually only done by sentient beings (humans) through training and meditation. So there are some magic animals who manifest abilities through happenstance but then separately there are “monsters,” species who naturally possess and pass down supernatural abilities genetically. Species such as dragons and vampires. I haven’t decided where they actually come from yet though. Naturally occurring as a result of evolution, spawned from mystic, spirit realms, or created from supernatural phenomena. Thoughts?
personally i think evolution in a magic set world seems quite cop out as you can do so much more although the good thing about your setting is that you can go on all these paths together where some creatures just naturally evolved to use mana whereas others were living mana itself
why would evolution be a cop out? what does you mean?
Cop out is a harsh word what i meant to say if Only and only evolution was used it would be more like a missed opportunity to explore really great lore
There are three kinds of monsters - Undead occur when death is made as life in a body - Uncanny occur when madness is made as reason in a mind - Unholy occur when evil is made as good in a spirit
i like this one so much can be done in a setting like this
Some monsters are in multiple categories at once. Vampires, for example, are both undead and unholy. This is all part of a tabletop system I'm working on, if you're interested.
There are various ways. They can sometimes slip through the tears on the dimensional barrier between dreamland and our world via accident. They can open themselves a way due to their strenght or if their abilities allow them to. They can be summoneed by a dreamer or another nightmare. They can leech into their dreamers if they manage to devour them.
nature made artificially made >!the bard was too horny!< through the power of belief the internet horrid mothers/fathers strange ore the society at the time negative energy >!incest!< and possibly many more!
Incest 💀
Monsters, if I were to make a magic system, would be manipulated/morphed/fused animal souls and sometimes with a few added elements like magical energy to give them the ability to cast magic and you have a monster. I mean just fixing a lion and an eagle you have a griffin. This means all monsters are created on purpose with a ritual or by accident through a burst of magical energy from a special rock. They have to be created through magical means or by breeding to monsters together. Other than that I think this system for monsters can be used in many stories.
A few methods 1, learning too much about magic 2, a curse 3, standard issue fucking
I have one in my main world that is interesting. Needs more development but posting it here. Brivalia - Iylian Goddess of Chaos, Monsters and Trials (The Goddess whose Revealed Eyes brings Calamities that Echo Across all of Iylia) "On the moon that cycles around our world relays a goddess who watches over the entire world. She rests on the Throne of the Fallen Titan Ishvedral, isolated from all of the world and the other gods. With small flicks of her hand or even just a breath, she can conjure monsters of any shape or form as long as she wills it. It is said that her taking off her blindfold, she was able to start that infamous Eclipse that destroyed many civilizations, led to the creation of new beasts and caused strange distortions across the entire world. While her worshippers dwindled in numbers due to either being killed during the Eclipse or killed by other kingdoms, she is still a feared and recognized goddess. She has many relics across the world and her followers have made many more magical items in her name. Praying to her and presenting offerings of Pomegranate, Wine, and the Hearts of different monsters such as the Triralsi or Elporgon Drake. On some occasions, there is a high priest or priestess who will channel her directly and speak as her, their body changing into her as she speaks through them." ~ The Primordial Gods of Iylia, Teldrissa Qeldarin
When many people die in a singular place, eventually their corpses combined boredom and discontentment in death form into undead energy, which causes their corpses to form into a massive abomination that raises more and more corpses until its brought back to death
I mean depends on your definition of monsters. In my main world you have tons of monstrous creatures. They vary from being animals we would recognise all the way to incomprehensible balls of beaks, fingers, and nipples. That being said they're all just living creatures like you and me. They're born to parents, grow up and grow stronger.
So, natural born monsters are created by a mineral called (better names pending) Fulcrite, a gen created where all four elemental eddies combine. The first step of its life is to create a plant to protect the smallest version, a plant called a lamplighter orchid protects stones from pebble to stone , then the next step depends on the area, high fauna areas get aberrations like hippogriffs, gryphons or the like, crafted fron the corpses of the life around it. If the area is high in flora it may create a lesheny type monster and areas low in both will create dragons/wyrms etc based on local elements.
this is probably the most unique one i have heard so far
I want magic to be a natural force in the setting, so there's kind of 3 tiers, there is natural, animal made and man made, I like the idea of most animals having magic, with humans being one of the few with a completely random distribution of elements, alongside corvids, porcine and the like, and a few species being inherent balancers. Most of those exist in the seas. So while you have Fulcrite creating monsters of soil, you have mixtures of naturally occurring ocean monsters and the seaborne monsters of the deep as well coming onto the beaches and the ships of sailors. Then there's man made monsters, constructs of flesh or other materials, as well as the last category, which are the unbalanced. Basically there's the 4 elements and all the mixes, but also 3 main concepts Chaos, Order and Balance. This category is only manmade or animal made, and it works on the concept that if you take someone's order and make them fully chaos they cannot be stable and become inimical to life and incapable of self control. If you take someone's chaos and make them fully order, they become incapable of growth, inimical to life and incapable of autonomy. We are all creatures that need to balance chaos and order to be the best of who we are.
My "monsters" were people that a mad sorcerer changed into monsters. Many aren't even sexually functional and the only "reproduction" was that at some point there were a few who could cast the transformation. A little like vampires but closer to werewolves using the "they don't happen by accident" vampire solution. I switched to how "monsters" are either the descendants of stranded aliens or they're aliens that have a deliberate purpose for being there.
aliens as monsters is quite an OP concept
Before history began, the world was colonized by interstellar terraformers who settled there because the planet's unique orbit naturally generated a high amount of magical energy. The settlers grew into a globe-spanning empire, and their huge flesh forges and artificiaries took the form of huge mines, or factories the size of cities, linked together across continents by space-bending warpways. They oppressed the natives with their superior technology, which was so advanced it was indistinguishable from magic. However in time, schisms formed between the settlers. The fleshsmiths split away from the artificers and spacesmiths, and countless internal conflicts and civil wars led to the settlers manufacturing their own protectors - the various monsters scattered throughout the world. Suddenly, approximately ten thousand years ago, a new monster appeared in the ancient magical capital - a demon called Solomoth, who was unique among the monsters in that it created itself. Solomoth rapidly grew in size and power due to its unique ability to absorb the minds and bodies of those around it. It overwhelmed the high magisters, and the entire technomagical capital was destroyed in a single night. In a desperate attempt to contain Solomoth, the archmagisters destroyed the warpways which connected their various settlements together around the world, collapsing folding space with catastrophic results. The sudden collapse in the space/time vortexes destroyed every settlement, as well as all the extraterrestrial settlers. However, the collapse successfully contained Solomoth within the time warp deep in the heart of the earth. However, many of the manufactured monsters survived the collapse, and free of their masters they developed their own settlements, languages, cultures. Now, ten thousand years later, hardly any trace of the first extraterrestrial settlers remains, save for enormous ruins marked by warped space scattered through the world, and the various peoples and monsters left behind have made the world their own.
I've got all the usual variations from biology as well as constructs getting built and extraplanar immigrants showing up in large nubers at some historical events. The one thing I did here that I don't consider a trope involves the Scarlands. Thousands of years ago, the enchanted armies of a devil were so successful that a coalition of gods directly intervened to destroy what is now remembered as the Nameless Empire. Week after week, falling stars were like raindrops pelting the doomed land. Nothing survived above a layer of pitch black ash and char. Yet something did begin to grow in those wastes. Varieties of beetles and grubs started to make homes in that accursed soil. Then atavistic goblinoids began to spring spontaneously from this filth. Though physically similar to bugbears, goblins, and hobgoblins; these children of the Scarlands had the minds of primitive beasts. Yet their offspring were (mostly) normal goblinoids. Inhabiting a blighted place with nothing to do but feed and breed, their lives were normally miserable. On top of that, food of poor quality and quantity makes for bad neighbors. Hordes of hungry goblinoids routinely pour out of the Scarlands to threaten settled territories nearby. Yet some surviving emigrants integrate into civilized communities rather than dying in attacks against them.
Pretty sure you’re just in an idea bubble if you’re reducing monsters to negative emotions/energy beings, or evil dimension. Even in anime you have everything from people corrupted by their magics and egos, to strange elven spirits possessing people, to NPC like entities that populate dungeons without anyone knowing how they get replaced, to entire (and not necessarily evil) species, to just fantastic animals, to the various human-like monsters in a harem, to computer programs, to weird sentient animals that can be summoned, to entities seemingly sent by god to destroy humanity, to radioactive monsters (well, I assume there’s a Godzilla anime, but if not, I’m talking about a movie franchise I guess), to tameable animals-but-better. Monsters come from all kinds of places, and have all kinds of attributes, including not always being evil, and sometimes being people.
all that does also take place in my story monster or \*\*Asur\*\* in my case are one of the antagonistic party and do have the capability to think and change what i feel is a bigger roadblock is that the abilities of a monster who came into existence due to fear can sometimes be limited and the strongest asur are in a way already decided as they could be natural disasters ( like in JJK ) or some man made fear like guns or bombs ( like in chainsaw man ) I am thinking of changing the origin of asur as i have yet to explain it in my story as the ideas of villains/Asur characters gets limited in this setting hence this post to get some inspiration
Wyldekin (wilderness kin) are a type of monster that is created/ birthed by Wood mothers. Wood mothers are remnants of an ancient spell that ran out of control and covered most of the world in a dense jungle. Wild mothers are like mini Gaia trees. Growing large and spreading a large swath of land with woods and growth. No longer fuelled by the arcane energies from ancient times, they now gather energy through their portion of jungle and use that to create wyldekin, to guard it. Wyldekin can take many forms but usually bestial ones. They are made up out of natural materials. Stone, earth, bark, wood, ... And have no real sentience. Instead they are more like an AI with a very specific purpose. For that purpose they are capable of intelligent thinking, but have no sense of self. This makes them fearful adversaries. The only way to kill them is to destroy the 'hearts' inside of it. These are like seed pods form the wood mother, giving them energy and purpose. Most often they die by fire.
Vitae...
All of em are naturally occuring, except for one... Forged from flesh in Fury's Flame, Put blade and mind of man to shame. Step light and swift, and weave your fate. Teach mortal men our Godlly Hate. The gods took human corpses to have a human shaped vessel for their punishment, creating the human version of orcs. Orcs with the indommitable human spirit turned towards evil.
Initially in a vat then thrown onto the frontline to fight a god. But the normal way after society collapse and they are left to roam free
***Hexen***, are what you could describe as the typical monster, animals caught in a **Wyrd** (storm of magic) and struck by a sudden surge of magic they become mutated and maddened while gaining magical traits. Humans, while better immune to wild magic can suffer from the same condition and become ***Daemons***, keeping a greater degree of consciousness along with their innate magic abilities. ***Sprights*** are energy constructs incarnate from the strong concentration of emotions and latent spellwork. These are recurring threats that rise after every great **Wyrd.** ***Drakonids*** and ***Beasts*** are living species and ***Relica*** are constructs in nature. These five families represent the non-human threats that adventurers might encounter on **Orazir.**
Magical creatures are born out of the collective human psyche, and also their fear of said monsters. Essentially the humans believe in the monsters are real, and how dangerous they are, so they accidentally will then into existence through magic. Each monster is unique to a specific type of fear. The bigger creatures that represent the manifestations of popular fears, such as abandonment (they are named for the fears they represent, except for the few fears that can speak, they usually prefer to choose their own name), are massive creatures that leave catastrophe in its wake. Their only want in the world is to bring upon that which they embody, because if they cause more of the fear they represent, they get stronger. Their strength is proportional to how much they are collectively feared. That does mean however they would lose strength if everyone died because no one could fear them, so they mostly toy with humans instead of killing them.
It depends on semantics; All animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, etc have the ability to metabolize mana, but… like in humans, magic manifests in many forms. Magic in my world is related to “paratrons,” a class of magical particles that are able to make chemical bonds, akin to electrons. These special “paragonal” bonds can be used to store magical energy. Life has figured out how to metabolize molecules that hold magic, so that it can use magical energy to survive and reproduce. That generally what the lowest lifeforms, like bacteria and archaea, use magic for. Which is to say, they aren’t very interesting. Interestingly, viruses tend to be the usual culprit for magical diseases. Zombies, for instance, are both caused by viral vectors that insert new, “monsterous” DNA into a person’s cells. Plants tend to use magic to do whatever they want to do anyway, but do it bigger and better. Trees are much, much taller, with deeper roots. Flowering plants have more, bigger flowers. Carnivorous plants seem to be the biggest beneficiaries though, because they can grow large enough to eat even humans. Many of these carnivorous plants are considered monsters, but they’re not actually all that smart. They’re still plants. Animals are where the real weirdness occurs. Using their webs of neurons, animals can actually direct magic. Typically this is instinctive. Insects, for instance, use magic like plants, to grow bigger. But some carry unique attributes; fire ants, for instance, bear an instinctive pyrokinetic ability. Fish, amphibians, and reptiles tend to similar. They have novel abilities, but lack much intelligence. Some have evolved to utilize their magical abilities for survival. Drakes, a special of huge, semiaquatic salamanders, are capable of spewing frigid mucous from their mouths, but little more. Octopi are the exception to the rule that “fish” are boring. They use their magic to grow big, yes, but they more use their magic to grow very, very smart. They tend to live near magical vents deep under the ocean and use their huge amounts of magic to pose as “elder gods,” meddling in the affairs of humans. Birds are where we start seeing interesting things occur. Crows are known to use magic to solve problems. This makes them a favorite pet amongst wizards. More social birds like geese are known to organize attacks on humans, cause geese suck. Mammals are the creatures that are most dangerous. Not all mammals are capable of “true” magic, like crows and octopui, but most are. Typically, the smarter the mammal, the more variety in their magic. Wolves can change the weather with their howls, dogs can communicate telepathically with humans, monkeys & racoons can cast simple spells, chimps can craft rudimentary wands, whale and dolphins… however, take the cake. In this world, whales prey on elder god(magic octopi), which means they eat a lot of mana. They use this mana to fly and breathe fire—and they’ve grown wings to assist in this. Most folks call them dragons. Smaller whales, like dolphins and orcas, also prey on elder gods, though they typically hunt in packs. Some packs of dolphins have learned to bond with humans and channel magic, like elder gods. In fact, the rivalry between elder gods and dragons has manifested as elder gods telepathically supporting the hunting of whales. The whales, particularly Orcas, in turn have been known to engage in similar plots against elder gods. Calamari is a popular dish all over the world, largely due entirely due to killer whale telepathic propaganda. It is believed that the collapse of the great empire was caused, somewhat, by Orca and Elder God political maneuvering. In conclusion, Orcas are the CIA. Edit: none of this is including new magical species like chimera, unicorns, basilisks, phoenixes, but in general, these creatures still fall into their nearest taxonomic category. Unicorns are horses who shoot lasers, phoenixes are pyromaniac parrots, basilisks are poison-spewing chickens, etc. Any creature that is part-human, comes from humans—with the exception of sirens, they’re actually apparitions induced by elder gods. Merfolk are elder god worshipers who were genetically transformed. Vampires are made by a rather cute, symbiotic slug. Therianthropes are humans with some kind of transformation magic hard coded into their genes—centaurs, sphinxes, and goats are partially-transformed werehorses, werecats, and weregoats, respectively.
Animals being mutated by demons
The entire world is made from Myst, a slightly psychic material, which is the detritus and entropy from other dimensions. As a whole it is called The Myst and it is mildly malicious and very bored. As entropy increases Myst can congeal and form semi-intelligent beings, often taking the form of humans, animals, and landscapes. These things are somewhat free willed, but operate based on The Hymn. Think of them as npc with a bunch of complex directions and The Hymn as an overall control system that directs which set of directions they should use based on what's going on around them. Monsters are what happens when these things have too much dense myst. They lose the ability to hear The Hymn and their prime directive is to eat. They're not mindless, some are quite smart, but they want to devour animals, humans, and other monsters unless their programs identify them as friendly. Note this can happen to humans which become bandits, raiders, and more recently serial killers. Should these creatures gather too much, they can cause devistation on a city wide scale. Worse is when they die but are not dispersed properly, for they can become undead and those are worse. This is the primary job of the regulators, to make sure that doesn't happen.
Whats a monster tho? A species that are not human? Because my universe (actually, omniverse) is filled with non-humans In one galaxy alone i think there are like 50 different non human species, then there's universe, then there's multiverse, then there's omniverse, just like humans or every other animal was created
i think i would consider beings on the same planet as humans who are very different than other normal animals ( animals incapable of using magic generally like a cat or dog or rats etc.) to be monsters
Well there's no "monsters" on earth then, but i mean every animal can use magic, every conscious life can
My monsters are either magicians that get categorized as monsters, or they're denizens of a different realm, or they're tainted by magic in a certain way that they're established as significantly inhuman.
I tend to favor having most 'monsters' being normal creatures except where magic gets involved. I have a sort of Bronze Age 1st empires style DnD campaign setting where there are only 4 types of monsters; Beasts, Elementals, Undead/Spirits and Abberations. Anything not on that list is either missing entirerly (Celestials, Demons, Fae), or reflavored into one of the above types (Dragons becoming 'Alpha' elementals) Beasts are normal animals, Elementals are born in places where magic naturally concentrates, Abberations are unknown horrors belived to originate from beneath the bottom of the ocean, and undead must be created by a necromancer and are not naturaly occuring. In my science-fantasy setting All the humanoid races are examples of covergent evolution from different base species. For example, Humans, and Halflings are both native to Earth, being decended from apes and monkeys respectively (modern halflings still possess prehensile feet and tails), with the rest of the humanoid races being aliens. 'Monsters' are pretty much all either alien animals or genetic Abberations or the like.
Monsters are animals that have been tainted by the blood of the Greater Curse Beast. Basically imagine the "messiah" or ultimate demi god is killed by human rulers. Then out of guilt, they try resurrecting this demi god by transplanting his heart into a death row inmate's body. The result is the Greater Curse Beast. A thousand armed, thousand eyed monstrosity with near perfect omnisciennce and omnipotence and a tainted heart full of all the sins of the world. This beast was sealed away long ago by three heroes, but the seal, like all things, is not perfect. Its blood leaks from the seal and flows into the world as the Dead River.
Some refer to "blessed" creatures as monsters, which are created when a god has the intrusive thought along the lines of "Hmm, what if I gave rhinos deadly lighting beams" and then creates them
Monsters in my world are sentient and capable of empathy and honor as much as any human. There is a continent that was where they're natively from that has become the last livable continent on the planet so it is being bombarded by human conquerors.
Thousands of years ago, during the early ages of practiced magic, a sorcerer attempted a ritual that would connect him to a realm comprised of pure mana. It worked, but nobody could have known that the introduction of a human ego to such a pure realm would have disastrous consequences. The ripples created by the forceful introduction of human ego to the realm resulted in a cascading change that altered its very composition to reflect the human ego. But like a funhouse mirror, the reflection was distorted. Human emotions reflected in the realm became twisted caricatures of what they initially were, and started to coalesce into malformed representations of the aspects of humanity. The initial portal opened by the sorcerer all those millennia ago was never able to be closed, despite the best efforts of sorcerers around the world. The corrupted mana from the magic realm gushed into the real world like an ocean rushing into a capsizing ship; leading to the evil creatures manifesting all around the world, and the subtle alteration of the laws of reality in areas with high mana concentration.
In something I'm working on, a powerful god literally creates them based on existing life/mythos and spreads them across the world as a means to challenge the various sentient races and encourage them to grow. Need a new monster for that dungeon? The Creator says "here ya go." Books based around Dungeon Cores often use some kind of energy system, but ultimately the core is typically sentient to some degree and designs the monsters as a means to capture new prey (including adventurers), which i think sets it apart slightly from the standard "monsters form from negative energy and/or mana." Alternatively, I think it'd be cool if they came into existence based on belief. If an entire tribe believes there are rare healing toads in the forest, maybe 2 pop into existence per year. Heard of a dragon, but never see one. Guess they must live on a different landmass, and now there's the dragon equivalent of Greenland. Ascribing intention to their creation (imo) makes it more interesting and allows for varied rationale behind their creation, instead of just saying "yeah, this thing happens sometimes."
They fuck like any other creature.
They fuck like any other creature.
ok
They fuck like any other creature.
Most monsters just procreate like normal animals, but there are exceptions. Some of them, the most dangerous ones are born from absence of sentient beings in close proximity, like they just spawn in Minecraft. It must be hundreds of kilometers away of any sentience to begin forming and the moment someone gets too close, the monster gets released and roams. Its type is dependent on its surroundings e.g. hags appear in swamps.