The Holy Empire, Part 6: Monsters and Their Origins

I couldn't really work up the energy to write up a full paragraphed style post about monsters, but I had enough ideas to write a decently long bullet point list on the origins and mythology of some monsters.

(The Wolf Man from Van Helsing)

Monster Origins

• Goblins were essentially foot soldiers in the war between faeries and humans, created by the faeries to reproduce fast (all goblins are capable of producing young without needing sexual intercourse) and survive in most environments. However, after the war they escaped the servitude and infested the land. Over time, mutations have created specific strains of goblins, such as kobolds, hobgoblins, and bugbears.
• Orcs were created by a demon worshiping wizard long ago, fused together from the corpses of humans and beasts using a dark ritual. However, his slaves killed him, and learned from his notes how to create more of their kind. Orcs wander the land, burning and killing, and then use the corpses of livestock and their foes to create more orcs.
• Ogres and trolls are mutated descendants of giants. Though giants still exist, they are much rarer in the world now, though in prehistoric times they held a great empire, particularly on the Northern continent.
• Dragons are the ancient reptilian monsters from the dawn of time. Though thought of to be rare, in reality many dragons are in the world, simply resting in hard cocoons of stone beneath the earth, hibernating. When a dragon wakes up, death follows in its wake.
• Demons are beings that cross the walls between realities, creatures from Hellish alternate universes. Though some resemble traditional Faithite depictions of fiends, many more are bizarre and utterly alien.
• Giant versions of otherwise normal animals are often mutations caused by magical radiation, or escaped experiments of wizards and sorcerers. They are often used by the empire as evidence that magic is evil; few commoners feel very kindly about magic after being shown a 6 foot long scorpion.
• Vampires are humans and demi-humans who have been infected with a demonic curse that requires them to drink the blood of the living to survive. However, in exchange for this curse, vampires are blessed with immortality, superhuman strength and agility, as well as magical powers in some cases. The older a vampire becomes, the more inhuman they become, with ancient specimens often taking on traits of mosquitoes, fleas, leeches, or blood sucking bats.
• Werewolves are humans who are possessed by an incorporeal demon which can only manifest under the full moon. When the full moon rises, the demon casts off the skin of its host body, revealing a hideous, semi-humanoid lupine form beneath. When the sun rises, the skin regenerates and the host takes control again, losing all memory of the previous night. There are other varieties of these demons that take on different forms when manifesting, such as wererats, werespiders, and werebears. These creatures may have different requirements to manifest themselves.
• Zombies and animated skeletons are simply corpses animated by magic, oftentimes controlled by a minor demonic spirit. Usually these creatures are created intentionally by a wizard of some sort, but sometimes they can spontaneously arise where the boundaries between realities are thin.
• Ghouls are strange humanoids that are very mysterious. In many ways they resemble the undead, simply animated corpses that hunger for flesh, but some specimens have hoofed feet and dog-like faces. The most common belief regarding their origins is that ghouls are the result of a human partaking in cannibalism. After death, the body of the cannibal is believed to be corrupted by demons, and brought back to life with an insatiable hunger for flesh. Others believe that ghouls are not undead at all, but merely victims of a disease that is spread through eating human flesh.
• Ghosts are the psychic imprints of the dead, the personalities and consciousnesses of creatures the deceased given an incorporeal form and magical abilities. Some believe that only certain people possess the psychic capability become ghosts after death, while others believe that anyone who dies with enough emotional energy can come back as a spirit. Still others believe that ghosts are not human at all, and are simply demons hijacking the psychic energies of a deceased person to manifest themselves on earth.