Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - MONSTERS

Monsters are another common trait of the fantasy but the word is used for various type of enemies that we can found in other genre like the horror and the sci-fi ones.

About monster, the first thing we need to decide is their "origin":


 * Artificial,	mean that they are something created by someone, for example some	monsters can "born" thanks to the idiocy of someone or as	side effect of some type of experiment.
 * Natural	– Native, this type is composed by all the monsters that are	native of that world, mean that they are naturally born there and	were not transported from another place, and that evolved in the	world of the story.
 * Natural	– Alien, they are beings that evolved naturally but then come from	another world, an example of this are monsters that come from	another dimension.

NOTE: monsters born in another dimensions/worlds, moved into another and then mutated for adapt the new world are to be considered as something that is of alien origin BUT natural to for their evolution in the new environment.

Despite all you'll see here and in other works I want to point something important that is that not all the monsters are evil beings... and I'm not the only one that think this since various authors used this concept in various ways too... if you don't believe me than do your own research, given the danger of copyright infringment I can't give name and titles of works.

Putting aside the origin, the monsters are divide into different types that are


 * jelly
 * spirits
 * undead
 * plant
 * animal
 * material
 * demon

GENERAL TRAITS

Monsters usually act like animals making their own terriories, fight for it and eventually they run away from powerfull predators but despite this way of act we have to remember 2 factors:


 * Despite	they act as animals don't mean that they are not smart enough for	use magic but this don't apply to all since is possible that some of	them are able to use it only by instinct and not because their mind	work good enough for cast a spell. All of this don't take under	consideration eventual environment where a game like system is used	and so both monsters and races have skills
 * If	they attack settlements or different type work together is possible	that a smart monster is ruling or manipulating the group (like a	monster with telepathic abilities), kill that monster can result	into the monsters that disperd or go out of control.

During the birth methods for spirits and golems I talked about "energy in the environment" that condensate and form souls and so on... since I'm sure that some people will not understand what I mean here, I need to make some basis but keep in mind that all of this are my opinions, if someone already said something about it is possible that I don't know so don't start saying things like that I stole the concept of other people and so on, if I use something of someone else I ALWAYS say the source of it or say that I saw it somewhere else.

The basis for my explanation are:


 * Sometimes	monsters are just dangerous animals.
 * Animals	have souls, a "proof" of this are certain cultures and the	fact that is possible found animal's ghosts and spirits around, if	they hadn't a soul the existence of that type of ghost and spirit it	will be impossible so this fact is "confirmed" by various	fantasy stories and real cultures.
 * Who	have a soul have aura too, one of the definitions of aura is "an	energy field that is held to emanate from a living being" but	let me explain it with a simple comparison between a flame and a	soul: "while the soul (fire) stay in the body, the aura	(irradiated heat from the flame) is spread around".
 * There	is energy in the environment, in fantasy stories there are things	called "dragon veins" that are flows of magical energy	that move underground, thanks to this flows there are places that	are rich of this energy but the energy don't simply stay there but	is dispersed in the environment too, a confirm of this is the fact	that in various novel is possible absorb magic from the environment	and use it as one wish.

Now, with this basis I can explain how, in my opinion, monsters originate.

We start with the evolution of normal animals, while some of them continue their normal evolution others are influenced by the energy in the environment and mutate into other variations, this way we have monsters and animals with variations.

In the time the monster release their aura in the environment that mix itself with the environmental energy causing the birth of other type of monsters and so on.

My "base" of this way of think is the principle that matter can interfere with energy and viceversa, and just in case I want to say that this principle is not something invented by me but is a scientific one.

After said how I belive monsters originate in a natural way, putting aside eventual fantasy myth like "the gods created them as punishment for the arrogance of the races" and similar thing, I think is the moment of talk about their "spawn".

As said before monsters are, in a certain way, animals and act like them but how they appears in the places? Well this depend by various factors:


 * Monsters	have high reproduction ability, so for "clean" a zone is	need to kill all of them, if a couple of monsters are left then	they'll reproduce and increase the population again but despite this	they need time for it.
 * Monsters	migrate so if an area is "clean", migrant monsters will	repopulate that place.
 * Monsters	can be summoned by magicians or other monsters.
 * In	some novels and mangas are present some kind of artifact, black hole	thing or flying mass of energy that generate monsters, once	destroyed this "source" is possible that the monsters	disappear or at least they stop to contiune to appear... I already	saw this used in a manga where lizardmen where summoned from a black	orb in a cave.
 * Inside	dungeons the monsters are continuously created by the "systems"	of the dungeon but I'll talk more about it in the Dungeon section.

Since this is a guide about both games and novels so now I'll explain how monsters appears in games.

In games there are mainly 3 methods for monsters to appear:


 * Trigger,	they are "situation" where the monster appear and this	"situation" are:
 * Location		Point, the monster is generated when a character reach a		cerrtain point in the map, for example the character walk in a		mountain track and once reaching a certain point on the map start		an "ambush". Usually this type of spawn is one time		only.
 * Action,		the monster is generated when the character do a certain action		like interact with a switch or open a chest and the monster come		out.
 * Walking,	with this I refer with the games where monsters roam the maps, in	this cases when there is a contact between the character and the	monster, a fight will start, the type of battle depend from the	designer of the project (real time, arena, etc.).
 * Random	Encounter, in this cases on the map there are no monsters and	the fights with them happen randomly, when doing this is better	think the combination of enemies that will appear, for make an	example let's use 3 common monsters that are a slime, a giant wasp	and a giant spider, using them I have the following combination: 3	of a kind, pairs and 1 of a different type, only a pair of the same	kind, 2 different, only 1,  3 different... all of them make a total	of 19 different combination of monster and the randomization simply	take one of this troops and make the player fight them... this at	least happen in a program for make rpg that I own, if this work for	other games too I personally not aware of that.
 * Story,	this spawn basically happen with event connected to the story, they	can seems similar to the Trigger Location Point but in this case is	a little different because while the TLP take a random point of the	maps that are not crucial, the Story ones are strictly connected to	specific points, an example of this are the boss battle of any main	story.

As last note about monster I want to talk about the "behemots".

This name originated from the "Book of Job" that is part of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), in the document is described as a land creature that is big, eat grass, have a tail and have a massive and strong body.

In the time the name started to be used for indicate extremely large or powerful entity and most of the times they were monsters.

In various works the term Behemot were used for indicate mutated monsters that increased their size and power to the point of being a serious danger for anything