Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1) (eBook)

Chapter 5 - Defining Monster
We all know what a monster is, but since we might be creating species and animals, too, let’s be clear. The term im-plies something harmful, unnatural, and morally objection-able, whether there’s a physical deformity or psychological one. Monsters aren’t real, of course, and are created by storytellers, usually to depict or highlight some of the above, sometimes as a warning. They are often a freak of nature and can result from birth defects, in which case it was something else, like a human, before being regarded as a monster by horrified onlookers. Their existence has often been thought to foreshadow something evil happening, which is one reason they are cast out.

In science fiction and fantasy, the word “sentient” is used to describe creatures that are human-like in their mental capabilities, even though that’s not what the word really means. Due to this convention, this usage will be retained herein anyway. The real definition of sentient only includes the ability to sense, feel, and experience, which means an animal is technically sentient.

As a side note, with space traveling characters visiting new planets, what they might term a monster at first might turn out to be an indigenous animal. Either that, or it’s a member of a species that might’ve been stranded, for ex-ample, and terrifies those near through no fault of its own except appearance, and it’s assumed to be a monster.

Monsters vs. Species

The difference between a monster and an intelligent species is arguably their minds. A humanoid species is typi-cally sophisticated in having what humans have: society, culture, philosophy, and other aspects that distinguish us from animals. This is a generalization, but monsters don’t typically have these things, or at least, not in a way beyond that of animals. We can argue, rightly, that animals like dolphins and apes have a certain social structure, but these are communicated as much with body language as verbal-ly. Any language is fairly limited compared to mankind. They don’t read and write or pass down long histories. A generation today likely has no idea what was happening one hundred years ago, though this is admittedly conjec-ture.

None of this means we can’t have an intelligent mon-ster, but once we start giving a monster these things, it starts moving in the direction of humanity. We may find ourselves deciding that our monster is very cool and could be more useful, so we turn it into a species. No harm in that. Dracula is a good example of a smarter monster, but while he is a vampire now, he was once human. This is also true of zombies, who are typically portrayed as relatively stupid. We can use a similar approach (the monster was once human) to explain our monster’s sophistication.

Does monster automatically mean unsophisticated like an animal? In fantasy, SF, and gaming, yes. They’re typical-ly portrayed as things that can’t be reasoned with when one corners us for dinner or we wander into its territory. In this sense, they’re just like animals. We likely can’t communicate verbally with it, either, but that’s not a rule either. We can teach pets to understand what words mean, but that involves frequent time together, a reality that would make someone no longer think of the monster as such, most likely. This raises the idea of most people think-ing it’s a monster but one person having befriended it, which has been done with children’s stories.

Monsters vs. Animals
A major difference between monsters and animals is numbers. Just about every monster we’ve heard of was a “one off,” meaning only one existed. The reason is the aforementioned purpose in a story—to teach a specific lesson that didn’t require more of them—and because they are abnormal, which by definition means uncommon.

Introduction

1. Introduction
2. Where to Start
3. About Me
4. Free Book
5. Disclaimers
6. The Chapters
7. Templates and Newsletter

Chapter 1 - Why Build a World?

1. Why Build a World?
2. Using Analogues
3. How Many Worlds?
4. A Caveat
5. A Question of Depth
6. The Problem of Exposition
7. The Value of Influences

Chapter 2 - Creating Gods

1. Creating Gods
2. In Science Fiction
3. In Fantasy
4. Pantheons
5. Mythology
6. Characteristics
7. Behavior
8. Where to Start

Chapter 3 - Creating a Species

1. Creating a Species
2. Species or Race?
3. Should You Create Your Own Species?
4. Habitat
5. Disposition
6. Appearance
7. Gods
8. Characteristics
9. Worldview
10. Relationships
11. Supernatural
12. Technology
13. Combat
14. The Value of Influences
15. Where to Start

Chapter 4 - Creating World Figures

1. Types
2. Fame
3. Dead or Alive
4. Possessions
5. Steeds and Ships
6. Relationships
7. History
8. Where to Start

Chapter 5 - Creating Monsters

1. Creating Monsters
2. Defining Monster
3. Origins
4. Habitat
5. Motivation
6. Characteristics
7. Where to Start

Chapter 6 - Creating Plants and Animals

1. Should You Create Plants and Animals?
2. Plants
3. Animals
4. Purpose
5. Where to Start

Chapter 7 - Creating Undead

1. Creating Undead
2. Should You Create Undead?
3. The Mind
4. Classification
5. Numbers
6. Prerequisites and Prevention
7. Time Dead
8. Origins
9. Goals
10. Appearance
11. Traits
12. Death
13. Where to Start

Appendices - The Templates

1. God
2. Species
3. World Figures
4. Monster
5. Plants
6. Animals
7. Undead

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