WorldbuildingWednesday - Mythical Beasts & Monsters

Welcome to today's #WorldbuildingWednesday post! For those of you new to this series, I'm @oblivioncubed. In this series of posts, I break down what Worldbuilding means to me, how I build a setting, why I choose to build what I do, and hopefully provide you some inspiration to use in your Worldbuilding.

My world - Trothguard - is a setting I've created as a catch-all location for any tabletop RPG games I run, so everything I build is filtered through a lens of 'how will this improve the game for myself and my players?'.

Today we're going to explore creating Mythical Beasts & Monsters.

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What makes a good monster or beast? I've thought about this more in the past weeks than I have in my entire history as a writer and dungeon master. I've always created monsters on instinct in the past, with little thought given to the concepts behind them. For D&D particularly, this works well enough since there are a plethora of monsters built for you through the Monster Manual and the many additional core books and supplements. So, when I sat down to think of what actually makes a good monster I had to branch out of D&D a bit for some good examples to look at.

What I ended up with is a handful of attributes or elements that I think result in a fairly sure-fire way to build a good monster or mythical beast regardless of the setting you're creating. Now, before I dive into what those elements are - I want to mention two of the main inspirations behind the list I compiled. They are the podcasts The Magnus Archives, which features some absolutely fantastic monsters, and leans heavily on the idea of taking a fear (or set of fears) and making a monster out of them. I highly recommend a listen. The second is the podcast Archive 81, which is similar in some ways - but leans more into body-horror, weird beasts, and humans who are monsters themselves.

Now, without further ado, let's dive into Mythical Beasts & Monsters!

Mythical Beasts

I've chosen to separate Mystical Beasts from monsters since I think they serve a different purpose in most narratives. These creatures can easily be antagonists, but they just as easily could be neutral forces of nature or even friends to your protagonists. Monsters, on the other hand, are generally evil and hostile, even if they are intelligent. Also, as the name implies, this category is comprised of animals, and in my opinion, should never include humanoids.

When creating a mythical beast, it can help to determine what role you want it to play in your narrative. Consider the Forest Spirit from 'Princess Mononoke' which serves the narrative as a force of nature, life, and death. This is a mythical beast of the forest, who in many respects resembles a deer. It is set apart from other deer however by having noticeably more antlers, as well as a human-like face.

These changes to its features, abilities, and intelligence make it a perfect example of a mythical beast. It also illustrates the neutral or benevolent options available to this category, as the Forest Spirit at one point in the film saves an important character.

Another example is King Kong - the otherwise-entirely-mundane gorilla that is mythical due to its enormous size. This example also illustrates the fuzzy line between "Mythical Besat" and "Monster" since Kong is generally considered a 'giant monster'. Where you draw the line with what is a "beast" and what is a "monster" ultimately is up to you.

How you build your mythical beasts will depend on your setting, but I find that what I most often consider when creating my own is:

• How is this beast set apart from others of it's kind, or, is it an entirely unique one-of-a-kind creature?
• What kind of abilities does this creature have, or what is it known for?
• What role does this creature play in my story?

Monsters

Unlike Mythical Beasts, I view monsters as being evil, hostile, or both. Now, of course, there are examples in popular media where this is not the case, and I think bucking the trope is perfectly fine and encouraged, but for our purposes here I'm working under the assumption that you're not here to get pointers on how you can subvert tropes. You're here because you're curious about how you'd sit down at a blank screen or piece of paper, and come out with a monster to pit against your players or protagonist.

To that end, I think a good place to start with any monster is to consider things that scare us ('us' being collective humanity). Collectively, there's a lot that makes us scared, and these fears and phobias are a wonderful base to build from. H.P. Lovecraft's fear of the unknown underpins almost every single monster he ever created. The character "Jane Prentiss" on The Magnus Archives takes the fear of parasites and Trypophobia to extremes and creates a truly unsettling monster.

Fear is the scaffold by which we can construct memorable and unique monsters. Once we know why they are worthy of fear, we can give them abilities that work in conjunction with the fear we've built it upon and we can anchor those abilities in rules.

A vampire, for example, is scary because it so closely resembles regular humans while also feeding upon us. They are apex predators, immortal, extremely durable, faster and stronger than us. In some cases, depending on whose interpretation you're reading, they may also possess the ability to transform into mist, squeeze through any space, spread their kind through bites, etc.

Now, depending on your setting you may be saying "But wait, mine is a realistic world and I don't have zombies, vampires, and sphinxes!" - and that's okay! If your setting is more realistic, humans can just as easily be monsters. Maybe for your story, the 'monster' you're fighting off is a rich dictator who has bought up your homeland and is trying to force you off of it ^cough. Or maybe it's a serial killer or a robber or a madman.

So, to sum this up - some of the things you could keep in mind when creating monsters:

• What fear(s) do they represent?
• What powers/abilities do they have?
• Are they bound by or influenced by rules (No walking in sunlight/can only transform on a full moon/etc)

One Last Thing

Before I finish, I want to touch on some things to keep in mind that can be shared between both monsters and mythical beasts.

First off - as with all worldbuilding, keep your setting in mind. A writer creating a horror story might only need a single well thought out monster, while another writer creating a superhero comic might need many monsters that are slightly shallower creations. Both of these are valid. Build what you need to suit the medium, story, and setting of your world.

Second - Decide if your mythical beast or monster requires a lair, headquarters, or secret base. From a castle to a cave, most monsters and beasts will live somewhere. So where does yours live, and why? What advantage does that lair provide them (if any)?

That's it! That's the post. Now go out there and build something!

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Thank you for reading today's #WorldbuildingWednesday! I hope this has provided you with some inspiration!

Next #WorldbuildingWednesday we will look at either Religion or Culture!
VOTE IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

If there's something else you'd like to ask me about, please do so! I will make every effort to answer it next Wednesday.

For previous #WorldbuildingWednesday post you can read them here:
0: Introduction to WorldbuildingWednesday
1: Starting the World
2: Kingdoms, Factions, and Notable People
3: Creation Facts and Creation Myths
4: Shaping History
5: Myths & Legends
5.a: Player Visions (Supplemental)
6: Gods & Lesser Deities