In terms of appearance, I have a pretty good idea of how the army of monsters in my fantasy series is going to look. In terms of biology and behavioral patterns, I have been taking inspiration from other creatures other creatures that use a caste system. In all these cases, monsters with a caste system act as a virtually unstoppable force against mankind. Imagine what beasts such as this would fare against medieval armies with magic and dragons. Such a conflict would be terrifying to behold. In terms of presence, my army of monsters will have an ominous and mysterious presence as they slowly encroach on human territory. This is similar to how the White Walkers gradually made their way to the Wall in Game of Thrones, attacking and killing everything in their path. Overall, I am rather intrigued with tinkering with this concept.
Tag Archives: BEAST
THE GRAEGA
In Numen the Slayer, there is a colossal monstrous bear called the Graega. I named it the Graega because “Graega” is one of the Anglo-Saxon words for “gray”. Due to its status as a monster, I decided to give the Graega the same feel as Grendel in Beowulf. When standing at full height, the Graega is over ten feet tall and weighs over three tons. Its fur is ash-gray mixed with bone white. Its jowls are large and enclose powerful jaws filled with crooked and crushing teeth. One of its eyes is dead and its broad back has the scars and broken spears and arrows it acquired from countless battles with every warrior and hunter who was bold enough to face it. Its arms and legs are as thick as tree trunks while its paws are tipped with curved claws as big as meat hooks. The Graega’s roar is deep and guttural like a damned soul screaming for salvation. For a decade, the Graega was the scourge of the northern borders of Umbran, terrorizing every village and Welt settlement and killing every creature in sight like a demon of death. At some point, Numen and his companions encounter the Graega on their journey and have to deal with it.
PRIMORDIAL BEINGS
I had an interesting thought about the Kaiju in my story. Since I am an avid fan of Greek mythology, I thought of making this Kaiju a primordial being like the Titans. This would be fitting since the Titans were the original Kaiju. For example, the Titan Gaia (depicted in the picture above) was the primordial mother of all life. My Kaiju will be based on the same concept as new mutated lifeforms and organisms are born from its very presence and flesh. Due to this, my Kaiju will have the power to not only destroy whole cities but also transform the biosphere and environment around it.
A KAIJU’S SIZE
As I write my Kaiju story, I contemplate on how big my Kaiju should be. Throughout the genre, Kaiju’s ranged in size between 50 to 300 meters tall. What do you think? How big do you want my Kaiju to be?
ANIME GODZILLA
I saw the first Godzilla anime film, Planet of the Monsters, and I was VERY pleased with what I saw. This version of Godzilla is easily the largest incarnation of the King of the Monsters of all time! He is 300 meters tall, which is less than 1,000 feet high! This Godzilla is the size of a mountain instead of a skyscraper and he is even bigger than either Shin Godzilla, which is 118 meters, and Legendary‘s Godzilla, which is 108 meters. The one thing I find weird about this Godzilla is that he appears to be a plant instead of a reptile like he traditionally is. However, plant or no plant, this Godzilla is not only the largest of them all, but he also wields unimaginably frightening power! With one swing of his tail, Godzilla can unleash shockwaves that obliterate everything in their path and his atomic breath takes the form of a transparent beam of energy that causes a path of death and destruction that stretches for miles and miles! Also, Godzilla’s invulnerability and regenerative capabilities are further augmented by a personal force field that is generated by an organ under his dorsal fins. Overall, this Godzilla is not only the biggest and mightiest version of Godzilla in terms of offense and defense, but he is truly worthy of his crown as King of the Monsters! GOJIRA!!!
TYLOSAURUS
I have been shaking the cobwebs off my knowledge of prehistory and I remembered a beast that would make an ideal sea serpent for my fantasy series: Tylosaurus! If you want to draw inspiration for sea monsters in your stories, the prehistoric oceans were overflowing with all kinds of sea monsters both big and small. Tylosaurus was one of the largest carnivorous marine reptiles that ever lived, reaching up to 50 to 60 feet in length! They were the undisputed kings of the late Cretaceous seas, eating anything and everything they could sink their teeth into including other mosasaurs. I thought it would be fitting for these beasts to be sea serpents in my fantasy series because they are not just large, carnivorous, marine reptiles. They are also direct ancestors of snakes and lizards. If you think sharks are the most terrifying monsters the seven seas have ever seen, wait until you see this leviathan swimming past your boat! In a fantasy world, slaying one of these monstrosities would automatically make you a legend and a Monster Slayer like Numen Magnus.
CREATURE: ENTELODONT
I am thinking of including some prehistoric wildlife in my fantasy world as I continue to write. Here is an example: the Entelodont, ancestor of the pig. This was the biggest pig who ever lived and was about four feet tall at the shoulder. If you think wild boars are dangerous and aggressive wait until you come face-to-face with this beast! Like modern pigs, Entelodonts were omnivores and ate everything in sight. If you go spear hunting for this creature, you are going to need two to three times as many teammates, weapons, and hounds than you would a normal hog. On the upside, imagine how much pork and bacon you would get from this hogzilla and how much BBQ sauce you would need. It is a fun thought to toy with as I write the next volume of my fantasy series.
TROLLS
Once again I combine legend and science as I look to human evolution for inspiration in regards to the other races in my fantasy world. On this post, I will address how I will invent the trolls. Because trolls are more heavy-set than humans, I looked at the bones of the Neanderthals, which are thicker, broader, and denser than those of modern humans. Normally, trolls are often depicted as large creatures while Neanderthals were just four feet tall. Therefore, I will supersize a Neanderthal’s skeleton to a being that is around ten feet in height. As an added bonus, these trolls will have a primate-like appearance that consists of shaggy coats like orangutans, prehensile tails like monkeys, and long canines like baboons. Like other myths regarding trolls, these trolls will have large noses and have the intelligence of wild animals. Overall, I am envisioning a race of creatures that are a force to be reckoned with.
THE KRAKEN
I had an interesting idea for my second volume of my fantasy series. One of the most famous sea monsters of all time is the Kraken. According to legend, the Kraken was large enough to drag ships into the sea and had tentacles so long that they reached to the top of a galley’s mast. Some say the Kraken resembled an octopus while others say it resembled a squid. I will be doing my own interpretation of this legendary beast in my second volume. According to my calculations, the distance between the sea and the top of the mast is around one hundred feet, which would mean that most of the Kraken’s tentacles would be one hundred feet in length. Therefore, the Kraken’s body would need to be just as long. So far, that would make the Kraken around two hundred feet in length. To make it even longer and larger, the Kraken would also have the two feeding tentacles that are longer than the rest. Because legends cannot decide between squid or octopus for the Kraken’s appearance, I will be combining features from both squid and octopus when depicting the Kraken and give it the super-aggressive behavior of the Humboldt squid, which some people call the Red Devil. Imagine something this large and aggressive battling another type of sea monster while two large fleets battle around them during a violent storm.
OWNING A DRAGON
What would you do if you could own a dragon? How would you take care of it? Where would you keep it? Personally, I would keep a dragon on a cattle farm in Australia. It may sound strange at first, but there is a reason to my madness. First of all, like snakes, dragons keep growing for the rest of their lives so they would need a lot of wide open spaces for them to roam. In Australia, there are cattle farms that are millions of acres and can house thousands of cows. All that land would give the dragon enough room to maneuver and it will be filled with enough beef to last until the end of its days. Also, there would be rivers that would provide plenty of water as well as crocodiles for extra sustenance. The Australian Outback used to be home to thirty-foot long monitor lizards in the Ice Age so it would make sense that it would be suited for a dragon. How about you?
Grady P Brown - Author 