Monsters

The Ruin of Civilization

"... the beasts borne of the Nashya share little similarities with their animalistic counterparts, even the most basic physical structures that all creatures share are defied by such abominations. Every bone is infused with a strange power, every tooth courses with energy that a mage would sacrifice their own body parts for. Mewling babes freshly hatched from monstrous eggs have the strength to fight fully matured humans - and defeat them. Is it any wonder that they naturally invaded the ecosystems that had been carrying on for centuries untouched? This book is an attempt to catalog these monsters for future generations, so that we may turn their power against them and drive them from our once-great Empire ..."

- Bestiarum Vocabulum

Basic Information

Anatomy

It is important to note that all monsters are related in some way despite their vastly different physiologies and behaviors. Some have skeletons while others lack any corporeal form at all. Bizarrely, even rocks and metals have been seen to animate with an unknown force, somehow in tune with the beasts around them, as if they were actually creatures as well. The number of subspecies grows with every passing day as researchers and explorers discover more and more monsters throughout the world. Interestingly enough, none of these copulations have ever been seen to produce a new subspecies. In the past three centuries, many a wanderer has been compensated for bringing in monsters for "study" - sometimes at the cost of their own lives, and their efforts have helped to further knowledge in the most important of fields: Monster slaying.

Monstrous bodies are far more powerful than their now-extinct mundane counterparts, but the underlying systems that presumably enable this power completely defies any understanding of the physical or metaphysical world. A human being can move their Prana into a focus and blend their elemental affinity into it, creating a gout of flame or electricity. It is well understood that the amount of Prana that a person can utilize is tied to how much vital energy they can cycle through their body, and it is easy for all but the most hardened mages to quickly grow tired from manipulating reality. Monsters seem to have no such limitations: Even a monster on the brink of death, or one that has freshly hatched from an egg is capable of mass destruction, drawing on seemingly limitless reserves.

Careful dissection (and vivisection) of numerous monster types has revealed a single unifying factor: Prana does not flow through the form of any monster, even the incorporeal. It is within them all, as with Humanity and Kami, but it does not move. This defies all understanding of energy as mankind knows it - it is as if a placid sea had the same explosive pressure as a raging river. This goes so far that monsters seem to lack Chakras entirely; their energy is completely stagnant. By conventional logic, no monster should be able to release any energy, much less the rending blasts and projectiles that they are feared for. There are rumors that some sages have experimented on monsters whose Prana did flow like a human's, but no hard evidence has ever been produced, only non-replicable "results".

Genetics and Reproduction

The most baffling aspect of many monsters is their reproductive ability - far beyond human capability, two seemingly disparate monsters can join together to produce an egg bearing the mother's subspecies with some of the father's abilities. Biologists theorize that this, more than anything else, is the cause behind the monsters' power, and one of their greatest assets for survival. Oftentimes, the fertilized egg will gestate for less than two weeks before hatching a creature that can single-handedly overpower the average human. Some brave and foolhardy people have taken to trying to raise monsters in captivity from birth, and have paid enterprising adventurers for eggs of various subspecies - while difficult, it is possible to raise them without the hatred of humans, provided one is placed in a Monster Ball shortly after birth so the mind controlling magic takes hold early. Within the past 100 years, the field of Monster Eugenics has erupted as the understanding of monstrous mating habits and biology has advanced. These breeders strive to breed even more powerful monsters than ever before, but on the side of Humanity instead.

Growth Rate & Stages

The most striking feature of the average monster is its incredible growth rate - of those who are not born fully-grown, a bizarre metabolic process takes due to outside stimuli, which varies from creature to creature. This process radically changes the monster, causing immediate and drastic physical transformations. Some theorize that monsters undergo this "evolution" due to excessive amounts of power or energy growing within, in preparation to more readily defend itself from the outside world. However, this process happens too quickly to be well studied, often taking place within the span of under a minute.

Monster biologists frequently conduct field investigation to see how the beasts live and interact with each other in the wild, and one aspect of monster biology was almost immediately clear: The age of a monster does not necessarily correlate to its power, and some monsters die of old age without having ever evolved. Some social monsters have been confirmed to be led by an unevolved monster in the final years of its life, while other subspecies are ruled exclusively by their evolved forms. However, these tenets only seem to apply to Zamzara, not The Nashya - while there is far less research on the subterranean ecosystem, the proportion of evolved monsters is significantly higher than on the surface. Unevolved monsters are almost unseen within the cracks of the earth.

Ecology and Habitats

Monsters can be found in all climes of Zamzara, from the deepest ocean to the most uninhabitable volcanoes, and their adaptive abilities cannot be overstated. It is not unheard of for more powerful monsters to have the ability to completely change the world around them, single-handedly carving canyons and rivers in the span of a few years, or to even defile an area with their strange powers. No place is truly safe from them.

Dietary Needs and Habits

In the wake of The Kalyugi, monsters of all kinds killed humans for food, and those that did not or could not eat them killed for no other reason than that they could. In the present time, many carnivorous monsters will not hesitate to attack people on sight, but few herbivorous or terrevorous monsters hunt as they used to. This increasing docility over time has gone unexplained by the scientists of the post-Empire, but few have high hopes about it.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Varies by monster; some are solitary for their entire lives while others have social systems rivaling human complexity.

Domestication

Only occurs once they have been tamed with magic or after years of hard effort. Owning a monster is seen as a sign of status in human society.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

A few have been domesticated and used in various industries, but these are tightly regulated and watched closely.

Facial characteristics

Varies by monster, but all lay eggs and go through the same strange process known as "evolution".

Average Intelligence

Varies by monster; ranges from near non-sapience to beyond human.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Only the Paras-type subspecies family has been evidenced experiencing a parasitic relationship, and this has never been documented to extend to humans or other subspecies.

Civilization and Culture

History

Nobody knew that monsters truly existed until The Kalyugi, where great holes into the bowels of Zamzara suddenly appeared throughout the continent, monsters spewing out in a frothing rampage, ending the lives of many and destroying centuries of knowledge and culture. Nearly overnight, humanity learned that they were not the true rulers of the earth and were ousted in one fell swoop. All was lost. As the strongest of mankind died, cowered, and fled, the natural ecosystem could not escape their supplanters. Mundane birds, mammals, and other animals were even more helpless, and were systematically exterminated to the very last. They would have no place in the new world.

The monsters never let up, ruthlessly wiping out the greatest cities humanity had ever created in the span of a generation. As they took over Zamzara, fewer and fewer poured from the Nashya until a century ago, where reports of monster sightings slowly died out in areas known to be connected to the underground. The reason behind this development is unknown, but some ecologists suggest that monsters have reached the upper threshold of what can be supported by the ecosystem, naturally balancing out over time.

Most worryingly, recent discoveries have indicated that some monsters possess the ability to create abstract art with meaning and intent, indicating a greater level of intelligence and creativity than previously thought. Scholars debate as to whether this "art" is representative of growing intellect or whether such inclinations were never found to begin with, and that humans once again underestimated the beasts. Some believe that both can be possible - some monsters have the capacity for humanlike intelligence and exploit it while simultaneously growing smarter over time, calling into question how separate monsters really are from people, and if macrocommunication with them is possible

Lifespan

Varies by monster; ranges from ~1 day to 300+ years.

Conservation Status

The dominant "species" on Zamzara, they greatly outnumber all other forms of sentient life on the continent.

Average Height

Varies by monster; ranges from the size of a button to the size of a home.

Average Weight

Varies by monster; ranges from near-weightlessness to over a ton.

Related Myths

• The Kalyugi