Wednesday, November 13Playing God? Playing is for children.

Monsters

List of Five New but Terrible and Unnecessary Kaiju
Content Lists, Kaiju, Monsters, Worldbuilding Exercise

List of Five New but Terrible and Unnecessary Kaiju

Today I present to you a list of several Kaiju who are just awful. Just really bad. Like... if you were creating a story about kaiju, why would you pick these? Only a weirdo would come up with these awful kaiju. 1: The Carpe Deus "It began with the lashing. A pair of gigantic sucker-less tentacles rose up out of the ocean near the port city beach. They flopped down, flailed, crushing properties, sending people fleeing. Sometimes they would find something particularly heavy, a tower, or a large vehicle, on one case, a waterfront Ferris-wheel... and wrap around them, wrenching them into the ocean. Experts assumed at first that they were dealing with some kind of giant cephalopod or mollusk. Yet when the lashing arms finally found solid purchase, they strained, the water heaved and...
How to Make a Monster Part 5: Divine Enforcers
Monsters, Storytelling, Worldbuilding Process, Worldbuilding Topic

How to Make a Monster Part 5: Divine Enforcers

The foruth and final monstrous archetype is the Divine Enforcer. They are the punishers of transgressions and the keepers of sacred and forbidden places. Sometimes they are the twisted results of previous transgressors, ones the gods have already punished through a monstrous transformation, or they the creation, even the children of those who have transgressed. More than any of the other monster archetypes, Divine Enforcers are often tragic figures. Divine Enforcer Examples: Godzilla, Sekhmet, Bloody Mary, Medusa, Asterion (The Minotaur), Frankenstein's Monster, The Krampus, The Mummy, Lucifer Common Features OriginPunished: A human or being who was perfect/unblemished and was transformed into a monster. Created: Made in a lab or through magical experimentation, then...
How to Make a Monster Part 3: Twisted Reflections
Monsters, Worldbuilding Process, Worldbuilding Topic

How to Make a Monster Part 3: Twisted Reflections

This week we discuss the second Monstrous Archetype: the Twisted Reflection. As I talked about in Part 1, the Twisted Reflection represents a familiar evil, a sin committed by ones own society such as pollution or fascism, amped up to an extreme degree and thrown back at us. This very often takes the form of an alien invader or intruder, because the purpose of such a monster is to teach a moral lesson... to place us as the victims of our own societies mistakes. I think for this reason it appeals to science fiction more than fantasy, because it is helped by a certain amount of feasibility. It is easier to believe in aliens intruding upon our real lives than in centaurs showing up at our local tavern. Twisted Reflection Examples: The Martians from War of the Worlds, The Visitors from ...
How to Make a Monster Part 2: The Primal Predator
Monsters, Species/Race, Worldbuilding Exercise, Worldbuilding Process, Worldbuilding Topic

How to Make a Monster Part 2: The Primal Predator

Last week I talked about the 4 Monster Archetypes I am using the Primal Predator, the Twisted Reflections, the Corrupted Humanity, and the Divine Enforcers. This week I want to break down the Primal predator and see if we can build some of our own. Primal Predator Examples: Xenomorph, Jason Vorhees, Jaws, Demogorgon, Graboids Common features: Physically Superior either by natural ability, supernatural benefit, or mastery of it's environment (an environment where we are disadvantaged.)Natural Advantages: Hypermetabolism, Great Strength, Natural Carapace (usually bulletproof of course), Dense Bones, Acidic Blood/Spit, Regeneration, Thermal Vision, Claws and Teeth, Voice Mimicry, Heightened Senses, Tentacles, Venom, Quills, SymbiosisSupernatural Powers: Immortal, Undead, Pyrokin...
How to Make a Monster Part 1: Starting from Scratch
Monsters, Worldbuilding Topic

How to Make a Monster Part 1: Starting from Scratch

Monsters. When you create an original setting, you may often need a monster to terrify your characters and our audience. Or a plethora of them to fill out a wider world. It can be perfectly fine to draw something from mythology, traditional monsters, and adjust them for your needs. The multitude of worlds writers have created are filled with ten thousand different interpretations of the classics... the vampires, and the werewolves. You cna also just make up something weird and made of a multitude of strange parts that no one could ever have thought up before. But what actually makes a monster? What is the difference between a monster and, say, an animal, or a tormented soul, or just another form of life that we don't understand? Examining this question, as we are about to do, can do...